Bon Chon: Double the fry, double the fantastic.

Koreans know their meat. Our humble brigade has profited from this knowledge once before, having thoroughly enjoyed pork belly and beef at Honey Pig Gooldaegee Grill in Annandale back in September. This time around, we sampled the deliciousness that is Bon Chon, also in Annandale, which is where the Koreans seem to keep all their best restaurants.

This was a special outing, not only because the food was some of the best we've had, but also because it was one of our biggest outings to date. Due to the vast popularity of the brigade members and this blog, our ranks were up to six this time around. Not only did Mr. Philip Lopez, local motivational speaker to the stars, join in again for this trip--we also had the distinct pleasure of the company of the illustrious Monsieur Jean-Paul Grenouille, the renowned aesthetic consultant. Incidentally, our people are currently in negotiations with his people and, with any luck, he'll be signing on shortly as the Brigade's official stylist. There will definitely be matching scarves involved. (Adam is thrilled about this development.)

All the female Brigade members wore dresses for this outing, which reflected the classiness of the occasion.

Not only did these esteemed guests lend a certain gravitas to the evening, but the outing was delicious in a way that almost defies words. Having been the only member of the Brigade who had not experienced the deliciousness of Bon Chon before, I was probably the most impressed of the group. (There may even have been some appreciative cursing coming from my side of the table at some point.) The repeat visits of the other Brigade members testify, though, to just how much this chicken is worth driving out to Annandale for.

The deliciousness of Korean fried chicken has a mysterious quality about it, in that it is at once both cripsy and saucy, as well as being twice-fried and yet, somehow, not at all greasy. These apparent contradictions befuddled all the Brigade members. (If you're reading this, Anthony Bourdain, please do a special on Korean fried chicken so we can finally solve this culinary mystery.)

Alex and M. Grenouille are quite excited to dig into the mysterious deliciousness that is KFC

Adam, who has been to Bon Chon several times before, knew to order our chicken ahead of time, which saved us the trouble of waiting 45 minutes for our food. He also knew to make our order half ginger soy chicken and half spicy chicken.

Marta, getting serious about her fried chicken.

The spicy chicken, while delicious, definitely lives up to its billing--being able to alternate spicy with ginger soy was a great way to soothe burning lips. (Another good way to soothe the spice was by eating the pickled radishes or taking a swig or two of beer.) All in all, the six of us devoured three large plates of chicken in record time and without a whole lot of conversation. We were, quite rightly, focused on the food.

Such culinary success inspired us to see if our luck could hold long enough to find delicious dessert somewhere. Adam, who regularly flouts our no use of smart phones rule, proved once again that this rule is stupid by searching yelp to find Shilla Bakery, which is just down the road from Bon Chon.

Rebel, rebel.

When we arrived at Shilla, at around 7:30pm on Sunday night, the place was packed. We knew straight away that our culinary luck was going to hold.

The men stake their claim.

The particular Korean dessert specialty available at Shilla is an ice-cream dessert called bing soo, which consists, generally, of some combination of ice cream, red bean, condensed milk, pieces of what seemed to us like mochi, and a generous heaping of shaved ice. We ordered one green tea bing soo and one chocolate bing soo. Both were delicious, though we found the shaved ice to be a strange topping for ice cream.

There was no small size option. Bing soo would be popular in Texas.

After consuming vast amounts of chicken and large quantities of ice cream, all Brigade members (and guests) were quite pleased with the outing. It was, I think it's fair to say, one of our best so far.

The location of our next outing has not yet been determined--does the vast blogosphere have any brilliant suggestions for us?

Toki Underground on H Street NE, DC

Our latest restaurant visit can’t fully qualify as a true Brigade outing: (1) Only 2 of the 4 members (myself and Alex) were present, with Marta watching her beloved Miami Heat implode in the NBA Finals (as a Chicago Bulls fan, I gain immense satisfaction from this turn of events) and Julia in NYC and (2) our dining selection was located in the District on H Street NE, actually not that far from my house on Capitol Hill. However, Toki Underground is cheap AND it’s ethnic, so I feel that it was in the spirit of our guiding principles.

We made the short jaunt over to H Street with a guest, a Mr. Phillip Lopez, local motivational speaker and a fan of our blog whose repeated emails to the site did not go unnoticed; note that random flattery will get you everywhere if you want to accompany the brigade on an outing!

Mr. Lopez is as confused as I am; is this the place?

Toki Underground opened up recently on H and is part of the continuing trend of new bars and restaurants that seem to pop up on the corridor on a regular basis (Julia wrote an excellent entry on a sampling of the neighborhood’s libations here). The restaurant is unique in that it’s the first restaurant in the District serving true Japanese style ramen. Actually, it’s a Taiwanese take on Japanese-style ramen, but obnoxious foodie specificity aside, this food is not “Cup O’Noodles.” The food was delicious, and cheap, by DC standards.

Unfortunately, as any DC resident can tell you, when something new and unique (and good) opens up, it is absolutely mobbed. We showed up around 6:15 on a Sunday evening and were told that there would be a 1.5 hour wait. Although the restaurant is really small and only has about 20 seats, this seemed kind of ridiculous. Thankfully, Toki is located above a bar, and there are multiple bars on H, so we stopped for a drink and a snack before our meal.

A constellation of beer.

We went to The Queen Vic, a new British pub that recently opened up down the block. Irish pubs are a dime a dozen, so it’s good to see an actual British establishment open up. After a couple of beers, some Welsh Rarebit (a cheese spread on top of toast), and an order of chips (which the manager actually supplemented because he was upset the server apparently short changed us), we got the phone call to head back over to Toki.

World-class pointing!

The décor of the place is a cross between Hawaiian beach hut and pachinko parlor, with some hipster flair. I didn’t much care for it. Luckily, neither I nor the rest of the Brigade discriminate based on appearance; the food is what matters.

I wonder what the words for "unnecessarily kitsch" are in Japanese?

And the food at Toki was excellent. We started off with six pan-fried pork and scallion dumplings, which were juicy, fatty, and delicious. Alex and I had the traditional pork flavored ramen that included vegetables and a pork cutlet (I added a skewer of grilled chicken livers), while Mr. Lopez had the chicken curry flavored ramen. Mr. Lopez probably couldn’t give one of his famed motivational speeches the following day, because he dumped an entire serving of homemade sriracha sauce into his already spicy broth. Regardless, nothing was overcooked, and everything was quite flavorful. The servings were quite large, and at only $10 without add-ons, you could get out of Toki without spending that much. I also ordered a serving of sake for $8, and we got at least 5 glasses out of it.

Dumplings.

Although we were stuffed, we got a piece of apple crumb pie from Dangerously Delicious Pies down the block for dessert afterwards.

This young hipster was tweeting about eating her pie. Now, I'm blogging about it. The universe weeps.

I think we may have a new winner on our hands. If you go to Toki, just be ready to wait for a table.