Eighth Street Soondae

If you appreciate blood sausage and all things offal, Eighth Street Soondae is the promised land. If you don’t, this could be the place that converts you. As you might’ve guessed from the name, this quiet family-run strip mall spot serves Koreatown's finest soondae, Korean blood sausage stuffed with rice and glass noodles. The menu here is relatively short, and practically everyone orders the combo, which comes with a heaping pile of soondae and poached slices of heart, liver, and tongue, plus a rich beefy soup with perilla seeds and a handful of banchan. Dip the sausage in salt or salted shrimp or spicy soybean paste, or throw it in the soup with some purple rice, then wash it down with chilled cornsilk tea— repeat until blissed out. A large combo costs just $30, which is a steal because it includes enough sausage to feed at least two hungry bodybuilders.