Monday, November 1, 2010

Vit Goel Tofu (Lighthouse Tofu) in Annandale

While DC lacks a Japan Town, Annandale is a mini-Korea Town with a plethora of restaurants specializing in different dishes.  The hardest part is learning where to go and what to order, but if you're adventurous it's full of delicious and affordable surprises.  Honey Pig is great for Korean bbq  but some times the wait is too long.  Saturday night our HP plans were dashed when we drove through the full parking lot and saw many people waiting.  Instead, we headed down the road to Vit Goel Tofu Restaurant at 4121 Chatelain Road. http://www.menusarang.com/xe/293
 It's a brief menu, and specializes in soon dubu.
 The panfried mandu were flavorful and better than at Honey Pig. ($5.99 small)
 The pan chan are much nicer too.  Water kimchee, fresh kimchee, cucumbers in kochujang, steamed beansprouts in sesame oil.
Large (seafood pancake) hamul pajeon ($12.99).  Baby oysters, crab, shrimp and baby squid studded  pancake with scallions.  A bit greasy but delicious.  We should have ordered a small.
 Soon dubu #3 (tofu stew) with clam, shrimp and oyster ordered spicy. ($9.50)
My boyfriend ordered his #2 (clam, shrimp, oyster, beef) spicy spicy, and it was hot enough to make sweat drip from his brow. 
***
Lighthouse is great in the colder months when you need a hot bowl of bubbling soft tofu stew to warm you up.  Cracking the raw egg into the stew is optional, but the stew is so hot, it will cook the egg quickly.  The seafood noodles (jukumi bokuem) looked good too, fat udon noodles mixed with squid, vegetables and a special sauce.  They serve the rice out of a hot stone bowl, and pour a barley tea into it after serving the rice.  You put the rice with tea into a small bowl and it reminded my boyfriend of ocha-zuke, the Japanese dish of green tea poured ontop of rice. 

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