This versatile kitchen's flavors sing

While these brews would make any tender-tongued debutante sweat, the raw spice here was ultimately less blazing than in other Korean meals I've had. Still, you can do no better to quench the burn than slurp a bowl of chik mool naengmyun, a nest of chewy black arrowroot-buckwheat noodles submerged in a vinegar-braced beef broth so frigid it is slushy with bits of ice.

Of course, some cold Hite lager and swimmingly smooth soju Korean rice liquor will also dull the spice. They will also stoke the courage needed for the evening's grand finale - a trip to the underworld of karaoke.

Singing to cheesy cover tunes in front of friends and strangers has become a phenomenon of Asian youth culture - making its way recently to Chinatown's sleek new Yakitori Boy. But in North Philly's Koreatown, it has long been hard-core. This is especially true at the New World karaoke parlor, a separate business three flights down below the Everyday Good House, where 18 private rooms fitted with black leather couches and music-wired TVs often rock on weekends until 5 a.m.

With a reservation made for us by the restaurant, we were among the first to arrive at 9:30, switch on the red-lit disco ball, and begin yowling for $30 an hour. The Bono and Springsteen impersonations were inflicted, mercifully, upon only a select group of forgiving friends.

Two hours later, though, every one of New World's closed-door rooms was ringing with unbridled, soju-juiced song - like an Asian dorm hall bounding through a happy night. By midnight, our voices were completely spent as we got into the car. But as we drove away, my lips still tingled with the flavors of an evening to be remembered for a very long time.