WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.699 --> 00:00:05.239
Roy Choi is a second-generation Korean-American. He lives in Los Angeles.

2
00:00:05.572 --> 00:00:10.480
He's the owner / operator of four groundbreaking and much-loved food trucks,

3
00:00:10.511 --> 00:00:18.441
among the first to harness the strange and terrible powers of social media to alert customers to where to find delicious food.

4
00:00:19.305 --> 00:00:25.011
The Kogi taco, double caramelized Korean barbeque short rib[s] on fresh corn tortilla,

5
00:00:25.083 --> 00:00:32.082
with salsa roja, cilantro onion-lime relish, and Napa cabbage romaine slaw in a chili soy vinaigrette.

6
00:00:36.092 --> 00:00:36.780
Oh, yeah.

7
00:00:37.014 --> 00:00:40.322
The rep for Kogi is that we go everywhere.

8
00:00:40.360 --> 00:00:46.137
We go to every single corner of the county and the city. We're not just going to the hip areas.

9
00:00:46.121 --> 00:00:48.181
Why should you be excited about food trucks?

10
00:00:48.315 --> 00:00:53.930
Because they allow creative chefs like Roy without a lot of money to start creating and selling their stuff,

11
00:00:54.156 --> 00:00:59.816
introducing themselves to the world without having to gather up a million dollars or credulous partners,

12
00:00:59.994 --> 00:01:02.253
and they're affordable, they're democratic,

13
00:01:02.522 --> 00:01:09.730
and they are faster, better and infinitely preferable to fast food like the king and the clown and the colonel.

14
00:01:13.046 --> 00:01:17.340
Dong Il Jang, however, is as unwaveringly old-school as you get.

15
00:01:18.659 --> 00:01:24.318
Roy and I sit down with Roy Kim, whose grandfather opened the place in 1978.

16
00:01:24.638 --> 00:01:28.626
Like most Korean restaurants at the time, you didn't mess with the original, ever.

17
00:01:29.409 --> 00:01:36.475
And this kimchi bulgogi bokumbap, basically kimchi fried rice, but it fries into the pan like paella,

18
00:01:36.743 --> 00:01:41.645
like so many great rice dishes, where that outer layer of crispy stuff is just the best.

19
00:01:42.470 --> 00:01:48.871
You know, tableside cooking, I think people overlook that a lot. You know, this is like crepes suzette, filleting a Dover sole.

20
00:01:49.968 --> 00:01:52.828
Oh, man, this is ridiculously delicious.

21
00:01:53.480 --> 00:01:57.447
Across town in Venice is A-Frame, Roy's first brick and mortar.

22
00:01:58.914 --> 00:02:00.263
This used to be a [an] IHOP.

23
00:02:00.968 --> 00:02:01.465
Oh, yeah.

24
00:02:01.472 --> 00:02:02.569
So everything is really narrow.

25
00:02:02.615 --> 00:02:04.560
Hence the shape.

26
00:02:05.400 --> 00:02:10.501
It's heavily influenced by local takes on Hawaiian cooking, not that you'd necessarily notice.

27
00:02:11.139 --> 00:02:14.479
Every dish designed to be eaten with the hands.

28
00:02:15.117 --> 00:02:15.590
What's good?

29
00:02:15.951 --> 00:02:19.972
The baby back ribs are air-dried, braised, then breaded and fried.

30
00:02:20.324 --> 00:02:22.767
Lingcod tacos treated like shawarma.

31
00:02:23.481 --> 00:02:29.038
Beer can crackling chicken -- it's brined, rotisseried, then air-dried like Peking duck then fried.

32
00:02:33.554 --> 00:02:38.839
Within the borders of Koreatown, it's not just Koreans. There are new arrivals every day.

33
00:02:39.993 --> 00:02:44.764
There is, in fact, an official Little Bangladesh right in the middle of K-Town.

34
00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:46.334
Oh, man, there's all sorts of stuff.

35
00:02:46.334 --> 00:02:47.803
It's so good in here.

36
00:02:48.330 --> 00:02:51.511
Yeah, this is gonna work. So, you're not short of options around here.

37
00:02:51.528 --> 00:02:56.870
Nah, you can get tacos across the street. Korean bibimbap next door, and then get goat stew.

38
00:02:57.546 --> 00:03:00.220
You can pray to Muhammad or Buddha.

39
00:03:00.606 --> 00:03:04.515
The tiny mosque next door where services are held five times a day.

40
00:03:06.698 --> 00:03:13.564
Here at Swadesh, step right in for curried goat, samosas, tandoori chicken.

41
00:03:14.155 --> 00:03:18.362
Oh, yeah, and this -- Lahori fish curry with no small amount of chilies.

42
00:03:19.025 --> 00:03:21.685
It's such fragrant, aromatic, delicious food.

43
00:03:21.735 --> 00:03:22.662
This is really good.

44
00:03:23.924 --> 00:03:29.363
A few blocks over, the iconic Filipino fast-food chain Jollibees [Jollibee].

45
00:03:29.661 --> 00:03:33.099
Laugh all you want, but ask any Filipino;

46
00:03:33.139 --> 00:03:38.001
they love this drive-thru mutation for specialties like this fried Spam sandwich thing.

47
00:03:38.132 --> 00:03:40.881
But it's the desserts where it gets really crazy.

48
00:03:41.584 --> 00:03:43.750
Oh, look at that. What is that?

49
00:03:43.750 --> 00:03:45.199
That's halo-halo.

50
00:03:45.293 --> 00:03:47.234
Oh, yeah, halo-halo.

51
00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:55.881
Dig deep and you hit delicious stratas [strata] of red beans, white beans and chickpeas, cubes of red and green Jell-O, young white coconut, shaved ice and...

52
00:03:56.010 --> 00:03:57.061
is that flan?

53
00:03:57.325 --> 00:04:00.425
It makes no goddamned sense at all. I love it.

54
00:04:00.710 --> 00:04:05.161
Pretty much any Korean you meet anywhere, you can take it for granted they like food,

55
00:04:05.384 --> 00:04:12.828
that they're passionate about food, particularly their food, which of all the immigrant cuisines has probably been messed with the least.

56
00:04:13.911 --> 00:04:19.428
Unlike many other new arrivals, Koreans seem to have been the most unwilling to accommodate western tastes.

57
00:04:20.005 --> 00:04:22.796
Maybe that's why it took us so much time to love this stuff.

58
00:04:23.984 --> 00:04:30.767
Beverly tofu house, like so many of K-Town's finer establishments, is tucked away in the corner of a strip mall.

59
00:04:31.770 --> 00:04:37.078
Sundubu is the thing to get, a fiery, tongue-searing, ass-burning tofu soup

60
00:04:37.395 --> 00:04:40.903
that will make you forget every bad thing you ever thought about tofu.

61
00:04:41.792 --> 00:04:45.361
A spicy, spicy red broth of tofu are the base.

62
00:04:45.767 --> 00:04:51.578
We're taking soft tofu here, with a texture of like buratta, and from there you've got a handful of variations.

63
00:04:51.802 --> 00:04:57.410
But the most common is with kimchi and a bit of everything -- beef, oysters, mussels, clams.

64
00:04:58.004 --> 00:05:00.404
Oh, at table side, they crack an egg in there.

65
00:05:00.543 --> 00:05:09.569
Wow. Right in there. Cool. That looks completely awesome. All tofu should be spicy by my way of thinking. It's so good.