Feng Mao Mutton Kebab

Who knew there were Chinese people in Ktown?!  I surely did not, but slowly I have come across a few native Koreans who grew up in China or vice versa.  I've had my fare share of Chinese-Korean food, mostly in the form of jja jiang myun at Dragon Restaurant.  For some reason, another popular Chinese-Korean dish is sweet and sour pork.  I can't really understand why, since it tastes like Americanized Chinese food.  Anyways, I digress, since I'm here to talk about a whole different food experience when it comes to the genre of Chinese-Korean cuisine, namely mutton!

Mutton?  No, that's not dog meat, but rather sheep.  Apparently lamb is meat of a sheep in its first year, while mutton is adult sheep.  At Feng Mao, they specialize in grilled meat skewers, varying from mutton, of course, to chicken, beef, and all sorts of offal.

Ban Chan
What Korean meal would be complete without some side dishes?  The offering wasn't very extensive here and I was really craving something to vary up the taste of grilled meats in my mouth.

Gye Gran Jjim egg custard soup
Pretty standard.

Gun Bae or Gan Bay?  Who cares?  Drink up!

Skewered Meat mutton, chicken, beef, kidney, heart
Some reviews recommended 10 skewers per person.  Sounds like a lot right?  I can't remember how many I ate, but it's like eating popcorn, you just pop 'em in your mouth and before you know they're all gone!  I don't think I ate quite as many as 10, but I'm damn sure The Bottomless Pit had his fair share.

You can't really tell which meat is which, but the mutton was pretty darn tasty.  Some were apprehensive of the mutton having that gamey taste, but it was really quite subtle and the meat was very tender.  Overall, the meat did not taste very "Asian."  The dominant seasoning was that of dried spices, especially cumin.  For added flavor, you're supposed to dip your cooked meat in a side dish of even more dried spices, which didn't really do it for me.  I preferred my meat as is.  I felt like I was eating meat in the Middle East or India.  It was confusing because everyone in the restaurant was speaking Mandarin, but then we were smack dab in the middle of Koreatown.  The food here brought back great memories for The Communist and her days in the motherland.  I think this style of eating is popular in Northern China.  Everything always seems so great in Northern China according to The Communist.

Chicken
The chicken grilled up very nicely and was juicy.  

Chicken hearts
They had a nice bite to them.  I was glad they weren't still beating on the stick cuz I am NO Andrew Zimmer.

Fire the grill!!!

I'm glad the service included grilling up these guys because that flame was way too open and big for me to deal with and still keep my eye brows in one piece.

Oooo, look at that beautiful char and all that glistening fat and juice!

Get in ma belly!!  I will have to admit that the flavor is sorta one dimensional, char and spice.  No salty, sweet, sour, or anything contrasting, but I just think that's how it's supposed to be.

Kidney
These were frankly unpalatable.  One nibble and I had to pass on finishing up the rest of my skewer.  I think The Bottomless Pit took care of the rest for me.  It had too much of an organy irony taste.  Ick!

Hot Noodles
It's a good thing everyone at my table spoke Mandarin, from The Communist, The Bottomless Pit, to Bubble Bear and her hubby.  Soprano Man and I got to play dumb as everything was conveniently ordered for us.  Speaking the language didn't help much in the translation department.  I got tired of eating meat skewer after meat skewer so we decided to venture out and get some noodles.  Our choices were "hot noodles" and "cold noodles" with no further descriptions beyond that.  I was hungry and The Bottomless Pit rarely ever says no, so we took a gamble and ordered one of each, hoping for the best.

It was pretty standard.  Only mildy spicy but with good flavor.  It served as a nice complement to our feast of meat.

Cold Noodles
Another standard preparation.  I've certainly had better elsewhere.  It was good to have something cold like this with an open flame burning in front of us.

Pork and Vegetable Buns
We waited quit a while for these ones, so either they were freshly made or they forgot to put in the order for us.  We all agreed it was probably the later.  The wait was worth it because they were perfectly crispy on the bottoms and extremely moist inside.

They were a tad bit greasy, especially if you didn't eat them right away.

The filling was porky with notes of ginger and onions.  Yum yum!  I rarely eat these so I'm no expert, but I liked them here.

Hubby and Soprano Man having a skewer fight

Feng Mao was certainly a different experience for me.  I'd never eaten meat like that before.  It was really fun and pretty satisfying.  I will admit its pretty boring to eat just meat skewers with not a lot of different banchan or dipping sauces to enhance the experience.  But after all the other added dishes, I felt the meal was rounded out nicely.  The place also offers up an array of other Chinese dishes, shredded pork and garlic sauce, eggplant in brown sauce, etc etc.  Luckily we came at a good time because when we left around 9pm there was quite a wait.  Unfortunately the place has less than 10 tables and they're all sized for parties of 4-6 or more, so it kinda sucks if you're a party of 2 occupying a table that could fit 6.  There's only 1 grill per table so you can't really split a table.  Anyways, the place is pretty popular so don't come too late, but there is a 2nd location in Ktown.  I recommend this place if you're tired of the same old boring Korean bbq.  Think of it as Chinese/Middle Eastern bbq served up in Ktown by Chinese-Koreans.  Don't you love the clash of cultures?  Only in LA!

Feng Mao Mutton Kebab
3901 W Olympic Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90019

 


View Larger Map