Chubby Pork Belly - Chego Restaurant Review

So, I finally go the chance to check out Roy Choi's brick and mortar restaurant Chego in LA and let me tell you that is was so worth the wait! I arrived around 8:00pm and wouldn't you know it there was a line of folks outside trying to get in. So I decided to just walk in the front door as if I was with the "band" and it so worked!!! It's a really tiny spot with a long sit down communal table with benches to sit on and another communal bar top for standing only.

 Because I was solo I was able to score the only seat on the sit down table. I ordered the 5 flavor kimchi sampler, the chubby pork belly bowl with this ooey gooey cotija cheese and for the finale the sriracha bar. WOW did I pick the winning dishes, I'm so kidding because everybody around me was oohing and aaaahhing as if we were watching fireworks on 4th Lake.  Funny how communal tables get complete strangers to begin taking especially about great food. I'll start with the kimchi sampler was really good and the fennel and preserved garlic was the winner on this plate. THE PORK BELLY WAS REALLY OUT OF THIS WORLD!!! The caramelization on the pork was spot on and all of the little crispy bits sprinkled all over were like the crispy treats in the bottom of killer fish & chips. And the sunny side up egg with tons of Thai basil just gave the bowl that WINNING combo.

Last but not least was this sticky rice in the bottom that I will spend the weekend trying to duplicate. I was way too full to eat the Sriracha bar so I saved it for my flight back to the East Coast. So somewhere over Oklahoma, I know this because of that little fancy map on the seatback, I delicately rolled open the foil and begin to eat this incredible candy bar with this crunchy, spicy, nutty, gooey bit of culinary pleasure! CHEF CHOI thank you and nd I'll be back.

Some weekend thoughts before you get all weekendy..

The way we eat has changed more in the last ten years than in the previous ten-thousand…..

-          Michael Pollan (Food Inc.)

Why do you have a kitchen?  Stop and think about that for a minute. Is it for the sparkling granite counter tops and the automated Kohler appliances? Is it for that stainless Sub-Zero refrigerator that can shave the perfect ice for your wine sangria? You might have a fine-looking Garland 4-burner stove that sits there for the vista of your guests to showcase your kitchen’s style and grace. It might be the place where you hang your car keys in prior to heading out to Longhorn Steakhouse for your Friday date night.

Sometime in the last 30 years we lost patience.

We are a pretty fast group of inhabitants.  We want everything high-speed and immediate. If I have to wait more than 30 seconds for my web page to load, I’m done and on to the next site. Hasty is the word in today’s tech savvy lifestyle. Food is no different.  We knew we wanted fast way back in 1951 when a popular trade magazine called “Fountain and Food” predicted, “Fast food type restaurants will soon do the lion’s share of business for breakfast and noon meals eaten out”. We have become numb to the thought of shared family dinners, cracking a new bottle of wine open with friends and heading out to your garden to pick that fresh basil for mom’s lasagna.

In its place, we have turned to our friendly food retailers.  We have created a frenzy pace in this country with food that is piggybacking our love for the quick tempo or friends in the tech industry are creating.  As somewhat of a tech nerd, I truly enjoy my gadgetry that gives me ultimate control over the information world. Currently I am typing this book on a Mac, which is sitting next to my iPad, as I occasionally converse on my iphone. I have bought into technology. But, some things in life are not meant to be coaxed into this medium.

Food being one of them.

Let’s take a step back into the fast food revolution, shall we?  Back in the early 50’s, people started becoming infatuated in speed. The automotive industry began pushing the “hot rods” and home construction was being built at a blistering place.  The friendly skies, were actually, well, friendly. Warren Spahn and Whitey Ford were rewriting the record books with their fastballs. People were seriously moving and shaking. So, what came next? Ah yes, the food.  A quote from the Christian Science Monitor in 1982 summed up the rapid increase of this new model of food service back in the late 1950’s,

“The fast food model was a quick success throughout the land, and two decades later it was conquering the world. The U.S. outcry against the infiltration from the south was matched in vehemence by our neighbor’s outcry of fast food imperialism and the eventual Americanism of their own societies.”

It’s humorous to think that the term “junk food” wasn’t coined until the mid 70’s. And, the wave of fast food that exploded into our country during these years truly summed up the term and introduced the American diet to colossal amounts of empty calories.  We as a society bought in. We bought into this crafted discipline of food shenanigans that played with our health for the years to come. Refined sugars, white flours, trans fat, salt additives, preservatives and coloring agents became our god deity and we bowed down to it often. Very often.

How did we fall victim to this?

We basically bent over and said, “Give me that whopper swiftly and often”. It was this generations credit default swaps. We believed that for $3-5 dollars we could eat and drink our way to a healthy well-being. The problem was that our bodies soon figured out this complex milieu and called us out. “You know what dickhead, that wasn’t real meat and lettuce and I’m calling you out with a little thorn called diabetes, enjoy. Call me when you will consider being an omnivore again.”

As a food industry insider with years of invaluable time spent at researching the Tom foolery of this retail game called “foodservice” and it's not pretty. We've  been hoodwinked and swindled into eating this industrial rubbish for too damn long. I’m calling it out for you and everyone that has bought in.

Step up. Start a garden. Shop at a farmer’s market. (In a non-hippie way of course.)

Amen and here comes Happy Hour....

Now bring me my PINT!