A fter all the holiday feasting, the boozing and carousing, it comes as no little relief to get back to basics. Warming sustenance is what we crave in this coldest of seasons. And few things are more comforting, to body and spirit alike, than the hearty home cooking of the Korean Peninsula.
So glory be to Hallelujah. It's not just one of Tokyo's oldest Korean restaurants — funky and convivial, it was catering to devotees in Hyakunincho long before that neighborhood north of Shinjuku acquired its "Little Seoul" epithet — it's also one of the tastiest, most authentic places in the area. But it has been quite a while since we've made that particular pilgrimage. There's no need to now, since we discovered that it has a branch not far from Gaienmae, just off Killer-dori (Gaien Nishi-dori).
It's very hard to miss: Just look for the freestanding two-story house with its frontage of clapboard and rust-brown corrugated sheeting, and the sign in hangul lettering. It's a facade, artfully and expensively distressed, but the message is clear: We may be just a short stroll from the fancy boutiques of Aoyama-dori but here the old-fashioned Asian values of Shin-Okubo still pertain.