Photo: Courtesy Rice Thief
If I may recall the words of my colleague E. Alex Jung: Every Asian baddie on TikTok has been posting about Rice Thief. Jung was writing about its ganjang gejang in early 2023, and for those who haven’t kept up since then, Rice Thief is no longer a semi-clandestine delivery service for Korean raw marinated crab. It is now a 38-seat restaurant in Long Island City. The new space meant new dishes, and owner Richard Jang currently sells social media’s favorite seafood tower: It’s built around the soy-marinated crabs that made Rice Thief famous, followed by a tier containing two types of raw shrimp (one large, one giant) as well as abalone on the half-shell, then a final layer with slices of salmon and scallop sashimi. What sets this $179 selection apart from the zillion other seafood towers in town — in addition to the soybean soup, steamed egg, and abalone congee served alongside — is Rice Thief’s 50-ingredient soy marinade, a recipe concocted by Jang’s mother, who runs the kitchen.
A recent dinner started with shots of soju, nibbles of banchan, and Rice Thief–branded bibs. When the stainless-steel tower of cold, glistening seafood arrived, I first went to pluck one of the six sesame-sprinkled shrimp hanging off of the middle level with my plastic-gloved hand before our server relayed some instructions. “Mix the rice inside the body of the crab,” he said, pointing to large filled shells at the base, “then with the marinated pieces, squeeze the crab on the nori and add some of the banchan for more flavor.”
He let us know the salmon came from Canada, the scallops from Hokkaido, and the XL tiger prawns from Ecuador. Jang buys his top-of-the-line Gunsan crabs during frequent trips to Korea, while the two whole abalone served on the shell (the livers are used to enrich the congee) come from Jeju Island. Radish matchsticks, pickled pink ginger, and kimchee were available for further customization.
Vertically stacking so much seafood is going to be a high-cost proposition no matter the restaurant, which is perhaps why most versions keep it low-risk and rarely stray from the shucked-and-steamed format. To an extent, diners expect a fresh catch that won’t be doctored too much; restaurateurs have to balance creative flair with customers’ anticipation. Crab salad, smoked mussels, and albacore conserva are the raciest options on any of the four plateaus at Jeffrey’s Grocery. Oceans’ La Tour throws in a Japanese-inspired tuna gomae, while in Greenpoint, the tinned-fish bar El Pingüino adds fluke ceviche, scallop aguachile, and Jonah-crab salad with its oysters and shrimp.
Jang won’t reveal everything that goes into Rice Thief’s 50-ingredient marinade besides the soy sauce, only sharing that both gochugaru chile powder and gochujang paste play a part. The resulting flavor is surprisingly balanced for how complex the production is. Jang puts more weight in how much time each item on the platter marinates, a strict schedule that he’s also keeping secret.
I took Jung — who felt back in 2023 that the ganjang gejang wasn’t as fishy or funky as versions he’d had in L.A. and Seoul — to see what he thought of the new platter. “It’s definitely better than before,” he said after his first bites of crab, but he felt like it could stand to be marinated even more. In my inexperience, I feel it is better to err on the side of under- rather than overmarinated. It might not be as intense as anything you’d find in Korea, but compared to the other platters in New York, this one is special.
See All
