The Korean Clay-Pot Roasted Duck You Can Only Find in LA — K-Town

K-Town has all sort of things. I mean, you have Central American restaurants, you got some old Oaxacan restaurants, and you have the place that basically invented nachos. I loved El Chola. I used to go there in college all the time because they used to have a 50% off discount for students. This restaurant, Tareo, leans on one particular ingredient, which is duck. They do a whole roasted clay pot duck. Yes, there's something in Korean cuisine that actually uses the oven. And I honestly think that this is the only place in America where you can get it. You have to order it a day in advance. We are gonna have some duck barbecue, but what they do differently is that they smoke the duck first. So all you're really doing it is gently finishing it off, and it turns into this almost bacon-like consistency. This method that they use is optimal because you get all these different aromatics. You get the earthy flavors of nuts and mung beans and wild rice. And on the top, there's a little bit of the Korean traditional medicine roots and everything. Ooh. Ah, so these are like herbs. This is such an amazing feast. I'm gonna try some of the meat here. It is super tender. You can see that it breaks apart really, I mean, effortlessly. Whoa. I mean, you can't ask for duck to be cooked any better than this and roasted any better. Just the right, like, dark meat for a turkey. It's, I mean, duck is really an improved chicken. I think. Chicken, but just all dark meat all around. Mm, oh. Everything you need for this meal is encapsulated inside this duck. Pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, ginkgo nuts, walnuts, and some of this glutinous rice that's actually been mixed with some black beans. This rice is actually a blend of different wild rices, and there's some black rice and also black beans to give it extra color, but it's really glutinous. I mean, it's just sticking. Oh, whoa, I said that little piece. But you also have some sweet notes of jujubes, right? They're basically like little mini crab apples, and you can eat them fresh, they're good. But when they dry out, they really just soak up all the aromas of the Korean medicinal roots and the nuts and the duck. Oh, man. So there's a whole, like, sweet potato. Amazing. Oh, oh, oh. Look at this. It just keeps giving. It's tucked away, you know? And each little bite, because it has a different mix of aromatics and because it was cooked slightly differently, it's a new experience. Whoa. I can imagine just sitting out in the country, the Korean country, and there's just a little bit of snow on the ground. It's cold, and I'm huddling over, and I'm diving into just one of the most deeply satisfying Korean platters. I feel like this, I want to replace my Thanksgiving dinner with this. First, starting out with sweet potato, and then just an onslaught of duck. So this is actually all parts of the duck that have been pressed together, and then they're sliced quick. And the reason why they go on the grill is just to get a, just a slightly even sear on it. You don't need to cook these again. You'll start to see some of the fat melting off and running into the middle where the sweet potato is. This definitely reminds me of pastrami, right? This is a cured and smoked duck. There's almost like this maple-y sweetness aroma coming off. Pastrami is actually, originally the method of preparing that was actually goose. So it makes total sense that we Koreans have adopted that into duck. You know it's good when the fat still sizzles after you pick it up. Let's try this one here. You can see this one got just a little bit of a sear on it, but otherwise isn't like, you know, cooking again. The classic preparation, he gives you a stack of these beautifully pink pickled daikon radish that are just like shaved paper thin. I'm gonna top it with a little bit of this cabbage slaw. And he suggests one of the two, so we get this tangy, spicy sauce with ginger and garlic again, or we can get a little bit of mustard. I'm gonna try this mustard for kind of that complete pastrami experience. The duck meat is just gently smoky. You know, this isn't barbecued necessarily. The meat is tender and rich. The fattiness gives it a little extra chewy bit. That interplay between smoky meatiness with mustardy goodness and acid and crunch. This is a kind of Korean barbecue expression that you almost cannot find. I think it's only here. The way this method of smoking duck is only something you can find in LA's Koreatown. Thank you so much for watching this episode of K-Town, and if you want to see more, click right here. Wait, so you guys put the bak kwang on the side? Or the tangmoji? We put it on the side. You know, growing up, I would always- I wanna push them out. I did that too! Push them out. Oh my god!