Sun Nong Dan, Blackbeard's Crafts, Volcano Tea

Sawtelle

plus random photos

Sunset over downtown Los Angeles.

Watching a parking lot being resurfaced is surprisingly interesting.

Spraying the original surfce with some sort of... powder? Oil?

Not a huge lot, but big enough to have some scale.

Specialized machinery for laying down fresh asphalt.

Little one.

Shapiro Fountain at UCLA.

Sun Nong Dan's new Sawtelle location. Inside.

Inside.

Menu.

Inside.

#10 Won Gi Tang, beef shortrib, ox knee, ox tail.

Rare Chris sighting.

Tteok mandu guk, aka dumpling and rice cake soup.

Only two dumplings? Or was it three? But was otherwise delicious.

Watching them sear the cheese on the galbi jjim.

Banchan.

The rear dining room/kitchen.

Blackbeard's Crafts, across the street.

So many non-alcoholic beers now.

Non-alcoholic liquor too.

Non-alcoholic wine.

Lots of imported potato chips. I don't recall that at Blackbeard's before.

Hot taro milk tea from Volcano Tea House.

More semi-random photos from the past few days. Downtown Los Angeles at sunset, Shapiro fountain backlit by the sun at UCLA, and dinner on Sawtelle.

Sun Nong Dan's new location on Sawtelle is very welcome; elected to try their delicious soups this time around instead of their famous galbi jjim, although we watched some nearby tables get the galbi jjim and it looked amazing as always. This location feels fairly spacious, although perhaps not any larger than the one on Western Ave. in k-town, and while seating at old people time (5:30pm) is available, if you come an hour later, well, hope you like waiting in line.

Did some more wandering of Sawtelle after before Chris went back to his family; Blackbeard's Crafts remains excellent for microbrews, their wine selection has gotten a bit better, and they have added substantial non-alcohol beer/non-alcohol wine/even some non-alcohol liquor selections, which is a nice touch, as well as Asia-market potato chips (very cool). Might have to wander back there some other time when there's actually stomach space for chips.

Wrapped up the wandering at 7 Miles Tea Lab for Chris' boba tix, and at Volcano Tea for my taro milk tea fix. The former is not quite shiny new, but still new and trendy, while Volcano is decidedly old school and basic. Both still have their place on Sawtelle, which is kind of charming. Debated more dessert, such as a stop at Millet Crepe, but holy crap that place (another oldie on Sawtelle) has exploded in popularity the past year or so, and didn't feel like that kind of line.