Soondae! Soondae! Soondae! No, this isn’t just a reference to the monster truck rally commercials of my youth advertising another battle between Bigfoot and Grave Digger. It’s also what was racing through my head at Yu Hyang. I visited this side street restaurant from North Korean immigrants Charles Kim and Jung Hee Kim, which Victoria Kim wrote about for the LA Times. The Los Angeles restaurant specializes in pork blood sausage.

During my recent lunch with Beer Belly co-owner Jimmy Han, a blue basket full of steaming soondae links emerged from the Yu Hyang kitchen as soon as I sat down. Given that indelible image, there was little doubt we’d quickly place an order for soondae. We received three plump sausage links, stained dark with pork blood, fortified with rice and vegetables, sliced and stacked. Better yet, the platter came with firm slabs of pork liver, strips of belly, and tender slices of tongue. Yes, the liver and tongue meat appeared rather wan and grey, but the taste was restrained and satisfying. Especially when I dipped the organ meats in salt or tiny, pungent fermented shrimp sauce.

Dose of Vitamin P spotlights my favorite pork dish from the previous week.