The Foodie Monster!: Excellent Korean at Hahm Ji Bach in Flushing!

Tucked away off Northern Blvd in a more residential area of Flushing is one of my favorite new restaurants, Hahm Ji Bach. I love Korean food and often prefer it even over Japanese or Chinese food, and Hahm Ji Bach does just a lot of small touches that make their food stand out from the rest of the other Korean eateries.

The best part of any Korean meal is the array of banchan (mini sides) that come with your meal, and this is where Hahm Ji Bach shines! They give you the good stuff, beyond the simple kimchee, bean sprouts, or spinach.

Here's their raw blue crab, served cold and marinated with hot chili paste...this dish was amazing and they gave us a decent serving for just having three in our party. Eating raw crab sounds weird but the mix of the sweet crabmeat and chili paste was just awesome!

Here's one of the more standard side dishes, marinated cold tofu. Hahm's version is also pretty good as well. You also see the spicy cucumber kimchee in the background.

Here's the spread for all the banchan plus the BBQ accompaniments for just a table of three people...not bad!

For the main event, we ordered probably one of the most common yet most delicious korean soups...Soon Du Boo. It's a soft tofu in a fiery chili broth, sometimes with small bits of meat or seafood added.

Here are the condiments you get when you order BBQ, in addition to the standard bean paste, garlic, jalapeno, and scallion salad, you also get some less common items I haven't seen before, including this nutty powder mixture that tasted great with the meat. You also get a spicy dipping sauce, sweet dipping sauce, and some pickled radish slices to cut the richness with some acidity.

We ordered some sliced short rib and pork belly. For the DIY grilling I also usually see an actual grill, but Hahm is also unique that it uses a super hot heated stoneware.