In the midst of a bajillion Korean barbecue restaurants in LA, blood sausage is sometimes the forgotten stepchild out here. But one local restaurant has been diligently giving soondae its bloody due for the past 25 years—and they seriously know how to do it right.
Eighth Street Soondae sits in a tiny strip mall just on the outskirts of Koreatown, next to a barbershop and an incognito marijuana dispensary. Look for the number “8” on the all-Korean sign and you’ll know you’re at the right place.
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Once you step inside the stark white and bare-bones restaurant, you’ll find that most of the friendly staff here only speaks Korean, except for the owner’s son, 36-year-old Michael Kang. Fear not, though, as their English-friendly menu has plenty of photos and translations.
Spicy stir-fry soondae with dangmyeon and vegetables. All photos by David Lopez.
The family’s tried-and-true soondae recipe consists of irony cow’s blood mixed with dangmyeon (glass noodles made from sweet potato starch), vegetables, and meat, all stuffed in a hog casing. It comes out purplish-black and is served sliced, boiled, and pan-fried. The result is a dense and springy texture that, unlike your average sausage, is mild in flavor.
Soondae plate with sliced liver, heart, tongue, and stomach, and two dipping sauces.
The dipping sauce for the spicy goat soup has soy sauce, wasabi, chili paste, and perilla seeds.
The soondae is most chameleon-like in that it easily absorbs the flavors of whatever it’s dunked in, whether it be a spicy hot sauce or hearty broth. The most common way to order the sausage here is by diving into the “soondae plate.” This one isn’t for the squeamish, as slices of the blood sausage and unseasoned offal—including liver, heart, tongue, and stomach—are boiled and fanned out on a plate. But hey, if you’re already here for the blood sausage, then you’re ready to go big. The two accompanying dips breathe life into these succulent but plain chunks of protein. One is a salt mixture that’s combined with sesame seeds and chili flakes. The other is a pungent dipping sauce, with dried and ground shrimp, green onions, garlic, and chili.
“Dip it in either one, [but] don’t dip it in both,” Michael says.
Soondae soup, with a beef broth, beef stomach, green onions, chili, and roasted sesame seeds.
A slice of soondae.
The restaurant also celebrates its blood sausage in a piping hot bowl of beef broth soup. You’ll find slices of it accompanied by chewy and perfectly boiled cow stomach, roasted sesame seeds, green onions, and chili paste. It’s a light, comforting soup—and probably a magical hangover cure. It doesn’t have any noodles added to the bowl; after all, the soondae already has cellophane noodles in it.
But perhaps the boldest-flavored blood sausage dish here is the stir-fry that doubles down on the dangmyeon, coated in a vibrant red hot sauce, along with strips of sauteed mushrooms and onions. Expect to break a sweat with this one.
The restaurant is owned by 64-year-old Hyun Soon Kang, who immigrated from Incheon, a city bordering Seoul, in the late 80s. Most of her culinary background derives from practice. As one of the eldest siblings in her large family, she often found herself cooking for them. She also cut her teeth in the business by working at a Korean fast food restaurant.
Banchan spread with kimchi and salad.
Spicy stir-fried soondae.
In 1990, Hyun Soon took over a soondae restaurant just a mile down the street from her shop’s current location. She decided to keep the same format because she noticed that “a lot of people were coming in [just] for the soondae,” Michael says. “She’s like, ‘I’m going to have to do this right.’ And from there, she began experimenting with it to make it perfect.”
They later moved their restaurant to its current digs, and for the last nine years, they’ve been faithfully stationed here. As their space grew, so did the dishes on their menu, like the addition of grilled mackerel and steamed pork hocks.
When Hyun Soon’s husband passed away years ago, she stopped serving their famed spicy goat soup because it was “hard for her to manage” making it, her son says. “But then customers kept on asking for it, so when we moved [to this location] she started to make it again.”
It’s a comfort soup that is especially popular with the “elderly crowd,” because it’s supposedly “good for stamina,” Michael says. There’s tender, shredded goat meat, soaked in a mildly spicy broth with long strings of wilted chives and sesame leaves. A complex sauce goes along with it, one that has a soy sauce base, with a dollop of wasabi and red chili paste, ground garlic, and a a sea of perilla seeds. Give it a good mix and dip the meat and vegetables into the sauce, but never pour the sauce straight into the soup bowl, Hyun Soon says.
Hyun Soon Kang and her son, Michael Kang.
Business is going well for the Kangs, so much so that they’re hoping to expand to a second location in Buena Park to cater to its wide-reach of customers. In the meantime, fervent fans will just have to trek out to LA to get a savory taste of the bloody addictive soondae.
