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Koreatown

Author: Rich Lang
photographs by Dominique Vorillon and James Baigrie
Korea was the last place I expected to fall for. In December of 1985, I stopped over in Seoul on the final leg of a long backpacking trip through Asia. I was eager to get home and had planned to spend just two days there. But no sooner was I off the plane than I found myself being seduced by the chaotic dance of ancient traditions and rampant modernization, the exotic, expressive faces, the teeming outdoor markets, the lantern-lit roadside bars, the robust, rustic, soulful food. More than two weeks later, it seemed I'd overstayed my tourist visa, and I was politely asked to leave the country. No matter: the spell had been cast, and I knew I'd be back. In a series of subsequent stays, I lived with a family in Seoul, fell in love with a Korean more than once, and even helped raise a Korean boy in the States. I had more than an infatuation with Korea: Korea became a part of me.

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Travel Agency Ninth and Western is the heart of Koreatown in Los Angeles. From this pulsating vortex, Ktown—as it is locally known—sprawls over approximately six square miles of sun-splashed cement, blending into the Mexican bakeries of the barrios to the east and the fringes of Hancock Park's manicured lawns to the west. The largest Korean community outside Asia, Ktown is a wonderful miniature evocation of Seoul, and I came to know it well during the two years that I lived in LA in the late 1990s. Now I'm back, on a mission to share my passion for Korean food by revisiting my favorite Ktown haunts with two editors and a photographer. But time is short, and my list is long.

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Last Minute Travel A chill in the desert air and a late-night rumble in my belly lead me to the first stop, the B.C.D Tofu House, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The menu features six types of soon tubu jjigae (soft-tofu hot pot), among them seafood, pork belly, beef, and seaweed, all served (as the name suggests) in scalding-hot cauldrons. No less important than the choice of ingredients is the degree of spiciness, for which there are three options: duhl mapge (less spicy), bo tong (regular), and mapge (spicy).

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Aloha Airlines Koreans adore their soups, and while the style known as gook showcases the broth, a jjigae is all about the other ingredients. The traditional soon tubu jjigae was always made with pork belly (dwaegi gogi sam gup sal), so, in Korean, I order the spicy version of this classic. My accent must be better than I thought because four Korean men at the next table look at me in amazement.

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Travel Agent A remote, mountainous peninsula, Korea was for hundreds of years sealed off from the rest of the world, and what little contact Koreans had with foreigners was by way of trade or invasion. Today, non-Koreans are as familiar a sight in Seoul as in Ktown, but attitudes shaped by those centuries of isolation still prevail, particularly among the older generation. Nonetheless, before I know it, the four men induct me into their merry group. One of them fills my glass with soju, the national firewater typically distilled from yams, and says, ''I'm so proud of you.'' It is a remark often made by Koreans when they encounter a Westerner steeped in their culture—an expression of both surprise and delight.

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Travel Agents The waitress returns with the prelude to my hot pot: six or so pan chan, ''side dishes to eat with rice''. While there are thousands of variations, these little seafood, meat, and vegetable condiments (usually just a few bites per plate) are a staple at every meal. Some, like raw crab in hot red-pepper paste, may be a bit much for novices, but there is no obligation to try every one. At most group meals (and Koreans love to eat in groups), as many as eight pan chan may appear, offering textures and flavors that are alternately cool, crunchy, creamy; sweet, smoky, salty. To serve a wide variety of pan chan used to be a sign of affluence, and to do so still makes for an impressive—and distinctly Korean—table.

Discount Airfares ''ROK army, I was ROK army,'' one of the men says as he refills my glass. He's referring to the Republic of Korea army, which fought alongside U.S. forces with legendary fierceness in the Korean and Vietnam wars. For a moment, the table falls silent. Then my hot pot arrives, and the mood lightens. ''Mani tussayo [Eat a lot!'' says the waitress; ''Chal mogoyo [Eat well!'' add the men. They needn't worry. Just off the fire, the crimson broth hisses and churns in its black stone pot like lava scooped straight from the center of the earth. The waitress cracks a raw egg into the mixture, and as it gently poaches, she spoons in rice from another hot pot, then pours water over the crispy grains stuck to the side of the rice pot, which is served to me as well. (This light rice broth, called nu rum bap, exemplifies Koreans' economizing: they find a use for every last morsel.) I set the chopsticks aside and dig into the island of tofu with a long-handled spoon. The combination of the velvety bean curd, rich liquid, and tender pork is blissful, but the fiery-red glow is an illusion: the dish doesn't pack much heat.

Travel Deals Then I recall the one major difference between Korean food in Ktown and Korean food in Korea: in Ktown it may be delicious and authentic, but its five-alarm color on the plate doesn't always mean a five-alarm fire on the palate. According to Daniel Oh, chef and part owner of the popular Ktown restaurant Ham Hung and the president of America's Korean Restaurant Coalition, the toned-down flavors reflect the growing diversity of the Korean-American diet. ''Koreans here don't eat only Korean food,'' Oh says. ''They're not used to that kind of heat anymore. We manufacture red-pepper paste and powder using slightly sweet peppers that give the color people love without the intense heat.''

Air Fares Later, as we stroll down 6th Street, Oh touts the gastronomic virtues of his community. There are about four hundred and fifty Korean eateries in the area, he says, and about twenty are open 24 hours a day. I'm shocked: most of LA closes down at 10 p.m. With a coy smile, Oh says, ''Everything's better in Ktown. You name it, we got it. Twenty-four hours, whatever you want, and it's all good.''

Travel Insurance This is not far from the truth. Nearly everything a transplanted Korean could want is here: not just restaurants but a Korean museum; cultural, business, and political associations; saunas; nightclubs; markets; video stores; and much more. And many Koreans, somewhere between two hundred and fifty and six hundred thousand (estimates vary widely), have settled in Los Angeles, most having arrived since the mid-'60s.

Travel State Gov The Korean presence in LA dates from the 1890s, when a few dozen students, merchants, and political exiles landed in the city. This small group grew into a politically active community protesting Japan's imminent occupation of their homeland, and in the early years of the 20th century, several hundred more Koreans joined them. But the subsequent immigration was essentially limited to a trickle of students and the wives of American servicemen until 1965, when a change in immigration laws allowed 20,000 Koreans per year to enter the United States. Although New York, San Francisco, and Chicago proved popular to Koreans, the majority gravitated toward LA, at least in part because of its place in the history of the Korean independence movement.

Travel Trailer Today there are somewhere between one and two million Koreans in the U.S. Nonetheless, of all the Asian cuisines, Korean is the least familiar to Americans. This is partly because large-scale Korean immigration is relatively recent, but it's also because Korean restaurateurs have never made the kind of effort to attract non-Korean diners that Daniel Oh is making now.

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Travel Agencies It's lunchtime. Palm trees sway in the warm breeze along Western Avenue, the Champs-Élysées of Koreatown. As usual, business is booming at Ma Dang Gook Soo, a tiny, no-frills restaurant specializing in noodle and rice dishes. I've opted for an old favorite: bi bim bap (literally, ''mixed rice''—rice with an assortment of vegetables and meat or seafood). A harried but good-natured waitress in a candy-stripe uniform approaches with my order but gets sidetracked when she spots a Mexican busboy. ''Amigo, amigo!'' she calls out. Despite my hunger, I'm amused as I listen to them butcher each other's languages in a comical display that points up the importance of La-tino labor to this bustling neighborhood. When she finally slides the massive stainless-steel bowl, along with a small dish of gochu jang (hot red-pepper paste), onto my place mat, I can't help admiring the colorful toppings spiraling out from under a fried egg, the sunny yolk resting in the center.

Travel Guide No dish is more popular in Korean restaurants and homes than bi bim bap, which originated as a way to use up pan chan and bits of leftover meat—and the version at Ma Dang is an example of California's influence on Korean-American cooking. ''You would never see that quantity of vegetables in Korea; maybe half that,'' says the local next to me. ''Yeah, and without the beef and egg,'' I reply, ''this would be a vegetarian's delight—vegan, even.'' His confused look says it all: Ktown may be in LA, but vegan bi bim bap definitely isn't Ktown.

Time Travel The trick to eating bi bim bap is in the mix. (Bi bim, after all, means mixed; bap means rice.) All the elements should be stirred until the egg yolk and red-pepper paste have turned into a sticky, tangy sauce that coats every grain of rice. I dig in just as the waitress sets down a small bowl of mu gook, or daikon broth. Soup and rice, rice and soup—one is seldom served without the other. The straightforward, clean taste of the liquid, which is also used as the base for many hot pots and casseroles, helps buffer the intense flavors and textures of the typical Korean meal.

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Lowest Airfares One evening I take some finicky American friends for kalbi jjim (braised beef short ribs) at the local status palace, Woo Lae Oak, which has similarly sleek branches in Bev-erly Hills, Manhattan, Washington, D.C., Chicago, and Seoul. It's the kind of place frequented by Korean women draped in Chanel and Prada who arrive by black Mercedeses, cell phones glued to their ears. Not surprisingly, the kalbi jjim looks like sculpture: chunks of meat, carrot, and daikon stacked like boulders in a sweet soy-sauce glaze and presented in a heavy ceramic bowl. With its garlic, ginger, dried red dates, and ginkgo nuts, the dish is emblematic of a cuisine that beats a path straight to your soul.

China Airlines There is another beef dish, however, that better epitomizes the earthiness of this fare: Korean barbecue—called bulgogi when made with rib eye or sirloin and kalbi kui when made with beef short ribs. (For both kinds, the meat is usually marinated before it is grilled.) This is the Korean dish most familiar to foreigners, and it's said to be descended from the ancient practice of cooking meat on big iron rice-pot covers thrown over a fire.

Travel Com At Soot Bull Jeep (''charcoal house''), where Korean barbecue reaches ethereal heights, the formula is straightforward: Come hungry, leave happy. The grills are charcoal, not electric, and are built into the middle of your table; the ingredients are top-notch; and the portions are generous. Families and friends gather to knock back soju, pick at pan chan, and add morsels of tender, well-marbled rib eye, sirloin, or short ribs into lettuce leaves stuffed with rice, grilled garlic and jalapeños, fermented soybean paste, and hot red-pepper paste. Midway through yet another memorable feast at the restaurant, I realize that the meal has the same lighthearted spirit as an American barbecue.

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Travel Sites Good as Ktown's restaurants are, experience has taught me that the purest form of Korean culinary bliss is found in the home, especially a home where Grandma rules the kitchen. Thus, when Don Hee Kim, a soft-spoken acquaintance who has lived in Los Angeles for seven years, invites me to his home for dinner, I am both excited and worried: Koreans take hospitality very seriously, and I don't want Don's family to go to a lot of trouble. With typical Korean humility, he assures me that it will be a simple meal.

Discount Airfare At 5 p.m. on the appointed day, I arrive at the modest apartment on Berendo Street that Don shares with his wife, Jea, their 2-year-old daughter, Ellie, and his mother-in-law, Bok Sun Kim. Following the introductions, Don and I settle in to chat about life in Ktown while Ellie and her cousin David eye me curiously. Noticing Jea and her mother scurrying between the kitchen and an electric griddle on the terrace, I sense that our meal will be far from simple. Sure enough, the next time the pair exit the kitchen, they are carrying a large, low, black lacquer table into the living room, and it is covered with an astonishing amount of food: eight types of pan chan, scallion pancakes, pickled cabbage stew, soybean porridge…Everything looks and smells fantastic.

Travel Packages We bow our heads as Don, a part-time pastor at a local Presbyterian church, says grace. He then motions for me to begin eating, and immediately talk turns to the meal. ''This kimchi is homemade,'' he beams, pointing to a bowl brimming with hot-red-pepper-flecked pickled cabbage. Rarely available in restaurants, gut jo ri, or fresh kimchi, takes only a few hours to make and has a cleaner, sharper taste than the more common, fermented version.

Discounted Airfares The pan chan is different, too: restaurants tend to serve thumbnail portions; here big bowls are piled high. Grandma has prepared, among other items, the classic triumvirate: salads of mu chae (sliced daikon), cong namul (soybean sprouts), and she ghum chi namul (spinach). Each is perfectly seasoned, crisp, and cool—a welcome contrast to the hearty main dishes.

Cheap Airline Grandma wants my reaction to everything all at once and nudges me toward the jap chae—stir-fried glass noodles made from sweet-potato starch, tossed with strips of beef and vegetables. Jap chae is an obligatory part of every Korean celebration, but I barely get a chance to try her interpretation before I'm handed a plate of panfried jo ki (white croaker fish), followed by the kimchi stew.

International Travel Next come the jun (the name is used for nearly anything battered and panfried)—which farmers traditionally nibble on rainy days and other Koreans eat almost anytime. Jea and Grandma have fried chunks of bukoh (dried pollack) and slices of ho bak (zucchini), as well as a colorful steaming pa jun (scallion pancake). The last is as wide as a plate and thin, with crunchy scallions and bell pepper slices barely enrobed in batter. Dipped in a combination of rice vinegar and soy sauce, it is addictive.

Go Airlines The Kim clan urges me on with great delight as I eat my way across the table, making the typical male sounds of joyful slurping that indicate to a Korean host that all is well. Hours and countless helpings later, we cap the evening with a platter of sliced fresh fruit and much laughter, at least some of it engendered by my efforts to praise the cooks in Korean.

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Allegiant Airlines It's past 11 by the time I leave the Kims' house, and most of LA is getting ready for bed. But not Ktown: cars crowd the avenues, the young and glamorous are gathered outside trendy nightclubs, and the pool parlors, Net cafés, and restaurants are bustling with life. As I hit Wilshire, Daniel Oh's words are ringing in my head: ''Twenty-four hours, whatever you want, and it's all good.'' Rich Lang is a journalist and screenwriter who divides his time between New York and Spain.

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