Cho Sun Oak - Chicago, IL

One of the great joys of living with Susan is that we can go eat Korean food at random hours of the day.  One of my favorite places to eat Korean BBQ in Chicago is Cho Sun Oak.  I don't even know what kind of meat they have, all I know is that we always get cha dol bae gi, which is thinly sliced brisket.  As you can see, there's a lot of fat on this, but that is also what makes it very tender.  The plate below shows two orders of cha dol bae gi, so they definitely don't skimp on the meat.  

My favorite part about coming to Cho Sun Oak, besides the beef, is the banchan.  They fill every inch of your table with little plates of vegetables and kimchi.  I could just eat this with a bowl of rice and be a happy camper.  

Usually when we've come in bigger groups, we'll get some mool or bibim naeng myun (cold and spicy buckwheat noodles) to share.  But since fall/winter is upon us now, we ordered some yukaejang, which is spicy shredded beef soup with glass noodles.  I end up ordering yukaejang pretty frequently at Korean restaurants mostly because there's a lot of ingredients that go into this soup so it's a lot of work to make.  If it's done right, it's really good, a perfect thing to have on a cold night.  Cho Sun Oak's did not disappoint.

I was too busy eating that I forgot to take pictures of the actual beef and the kimchi fried rice at the end.  But when you've finished most of the cha dol bae gi, they will come by with a bowl of rice, add some kimchi, sesame seed oil and some red pepper paste and make fried rice for you in the same grill pan.  You can let it sit under the flame and develop a crunchy crust at the bottom or you can dig right in.  One of our friends is notorious for his ability to chip away at all the charred rice that latches unto the grill pan.  He leaves no rice unturned.  The grill pan looks completely brand new by the time he's done with it.  lol.    

I've been back a few more times since this post and it always hits the spot.  I don't know if I'll ever venture to order anything else besides the cha dol bae gi, because it is so good, but if I do, I'll let you know.