Koreatown, NYC

Our first stop on our blisteringly cold evening in Koreatown was Pinkberry, the hit sensation frozen yogurt shop that has taken Hollywood by storm. Despite the cold, there was a line (albeit short) to get some frozen yogurt on this frozen day. From Pinkberry's website and wikipedia, I found that this little frozen yogurt chain was founded by Korean-Americans in LA and is based on the Korean chain, Red Mango. It's spreading quickly and you can probably expect to see a Pinkberry in a city near you very soon.


I was very impressed with the frozen yogurt. Maybe I'm biased, because I've always preferred frozen yogurt to ice cream, but this was full of flavor and deliciousness. If you stumble upon a Pinkberry, I highly recommend that you give it a try.


After getting our Pinkberry we headed over to a little HOF style place called Pocha32. Walking in here I really felt like I was stepping into one of the chillest HOF's I'd ever seen. It was full of Korean-speaking people, Korean food and soju. The decor was basically netting on all sides with soju caps hung from the netting, plus some photos and Christmas lights. Sounds pretty relaxed, huh?

We ordered some bosam (which I never got around to trying in Korea, strangely) and tubu kimchi. Both were excellent and tasted like Korea... makes me excited to go back!


Tubu (tofu) kimchi.... looks kinda weird and nasty, but this was delicious!


Bosam, boiled pork, cabbage and spicy radish (?). You wrap the pork into the cabbage to eat it.
We also ordered a soju coctail to go with our anju. I've never seen soju cocktail served like this, in a bottle like this and frozen like a slushy, but I liked it :-)

The only downside to this restaurant is the price. I guess it's not expensive for the US, but paying 18.99 for soju coctail makes me cringe a little when I know how much it costs in Korea. The bosam and tubu kimchi were a little pricey, but not over the top, both I think each was between $13-16.
Typical signage in Koreatown. Everything is bilingual. Very cool, makes me feel like I'm at home...