well, you heard the testimony. you looked into her eyes. what did you see? what do you think? as for what the jury thinks, what the jury decides, stay tuned. and thanks for watching this and thanks for watching this anderson cooper special report. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com for korean americans, according to the stereotype, anyway, it used to be that you grew up to be a doctor, a lawyer, an engineer. there were a specific set of rules and expectations. >> are you asking me to be in a porno? is that what you're asking me? >> thanks to some remarkably bad koreans, though, things are beginning to change. >> i went to one year of law school and walked out. >> so you're a bad korean. >> i'm a bad korean. >> any final advice for someone who's actually about to marry a korean woman? the answer -- don't do it! ♪

♪ ♪ all i knew was that this town was going down and no one was showing up. and so we as koreans figured that out really quickly. there's a point where you and i look at each other and say -- >> they're not coming. >> they're not coming. >> the choppers will not be here anytime soon. >> that's when all the stuff started to go down. >> roy choi is a second-generation

korean-american. he lives in los angeles. he's the owner/operator of four groundbreaking and much-loved food trucks, among the first to harness the strange and terrible powers of social media to alert customers to where to find delicious food. >> this was the command post. from here, you know, you could look and you could see if fires were going on. >> when the los angeles riots happened in 1992, roy was 22 years old. and this plaza's rooftop played a central role for koreans defending their town. but let's back up a bit. after the immigration act of 1965, thousands of koreans began arriving in l.a. the first to arrive were mostly middle-class, college-educated, hoping to make a lateral move into american society. but unless you had a medical or engineering degree, that turned out to be tough. they found work as merchants, store owners, opened liquor stores, groceries, massage studios, dry cleaners.

they did that in an area that was, as it's called, underserved, where major chains feared to tread, where others preferred to abandon, koreans moved in. so 1992. four l.a. police officers are on trial for what sure as hell looked to me like a wildly excessive and prolonged beating of an unarmed rodney king. in april of that year they were acquitted. for me it was a holy -- i never saw that coming moment. for african-americans it was a somewhat ruder surprise. to say people were angry would be an understatement. >> they don't represent the people anymore. >> south central's that way. so you could almost feel it like a tidal wave coming. >> the lapd were completely unprepared for what happened next. >> everything you see right here, all this was being looted. chairs, rocks, everything being thrown through walls. if you go straight down western on venice, the whole plaza

burned on fire. we were calling 911, and there was no response. >> did the cops come at all? >> i was here all three days. i didn't see any cops. >> well, where did they set up their front line? >> rodeo drive. >> where did the forces of law and order set up their perimeter? not here. koreatown was left to its own devices. the officials borders are third street on the north end, olympic boulevard to the south, vermont avenue in the east, and western avenue to the west. that's three square miles left pretty much to burn or fend for itself. this rooftop quickly became the command post for rapidly improvised korean defense forces. they armed themselves, set up crude but effective command and control, communication and patrols. >> we weren't going around just slugging and capping people. all that was happening was just don't break down my store. making sure our parents, our

uncles, our families, these stores, this town, stays alive. >> 58 people were killed. only a quarter of korean-owned businesses survived, either destroyed outright during the riots or abandoned afterwards by owners who felt the entire underpinning of their contract with america had shifted. yet today koreatown is bigger and better and forever changed by what happened in 1992. dong il jang, however, is as unwaveringly old school as you get. roy and i sit down with roy kim, whose grandfather opened the place in 1978. like most korean restaurants, you didn't mess with the original, ever. and like most korean father/son relationships you obeyed dad's wishes, no matter what. >> my father put all this

redwood in, all this cherry. to this day i can't touch certain things here. >> i can see he doesn't let you change the uniforms either. >> no. he still controls the restaurant. >> you just do the work. >> i just do the work. as a korean he knows. >> we start with bon chong. all those delicious little pickles, kimchi, spicy squid. no bonchon, no meal. >> they're getting away from the chairless rooms. >> the feet under, knees forward? feet under? >> the tea ceremony seating. that was punishment for koreans. that's a punishment. >> and with a book over your head. >> for hours. >> what would a crime be -- what got you into that position? >> it could be as minimal as a 94 on the test. >> korean parents? well, let's just say they veer toward the strict. moms and dads were not, shall we say, conflicted about corporate

punishment. >> i love that you both immediately recognize this. >> this is what we're known for, thinly sliced ribeye marbled. >> thinly sliced ribeye and bulgogi, thinly sliced fat-marbled beef, barbecued tableside. >> for koreans it's funny that barbecue has become the gateway to you're food. >> it's delicious. >> it's delicious and we're like, okay, this is the portal, and we're cool with that. >> this kimchi bulgogi, basically kimchi fried rice but it fries in the pan like paella. so many great rice dishes where that outer layer of crispy stuff is just the best. >> tableside cooking, i think people overlook that a lot. this is like crepes suzette, filleting a dover sole. >> oh, man, that's just ridiculously delicious. will you be doing this in 20 years? >> if we did change, tonight i would get a complaint.

>> and you'd have to talk to your dad. >> oh, yeah. >> that's the problem. >> what do you do if our a locavore in l.a.? you look around. what's local and delicious? artisanal and authentic. and as iconically l.a. as it gets. if you're roy choi, you see tacos. and with kogi truck, he brought one of the first great mutation mashups of korean and mexican to the people. what started as one truck became four trucks, and three brick-and-mortar restaurants to go with them. >> for m kogi was always one truck in my mind. but then the lines got big, you know, and it evolved. [ speaking foreign language ] >> roy trained at the culinary institute of america, and interned at la bernardin in new york city. he runs his trucks like you'd

expect of someone with that background. >> within our food media landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and a great kitchen are supposed to look and smell and feel like. but just because those are beautiful doesn't mean that this is not beautiful. for me, i don't see mustard plants and sheep grazing. i see barbed wire and telephone poles. i see puddles and, you know, all of that stuff contribute to the flavor of the food. so it's truly what i call a terroir, you know, a regional food. >> [ speaking foreign language ]. >> and they're off. >> every lunch shift and every evening the trucks' locations are sent out over twitter. the locations change every day. and people flock quickly to find them, as the lines can get long. very long. i took a run with roy as he made

his nightly rounds. so how often do you make the full circuit between all of your various enterprises? >> twice a day, every day, unless i'm doing something crazy like this. it's kind of like i have a huge las vegas hotel, but the hallways are the streets. >> first stop, chego!, a rice bowl place in the palms neighborhood. >> these are my guys right here. hola. [ speaking foreign language ] >> kimchi spam, classic. >> yeah, this is the menu right here. >> a big bowl of rice with meat, vegetables, and lots of flavor. for less than ten bucks. good deal. >> i just find it interesting you're so sentimental about the business of feeding people. >> it's a trippy state of romanticism. like i'm very hard-assed too. you pack your own [ expletive ].

if you complain i give you your money back. but within those rules there's a lot of love, there's a lot of care. >> across town in venice is a-frame, roy's first brick and mortar. >> this used to be a ihop, so everything is really new. >> hence the shape. >> it's heavily influenced by local takes on hawaiian cooking, not that you would necessarily notice. every dish designed to be eaten with the hands. what's good? the baby back ribs are air dried, braised, then breaded and fried. ling cod tacos treated like schwarma. beer can crackled chicken. brined, rotisseried, air dried like peking duck, then fried. meanwhile, not too far away on sawtelle, a koegi truck pulls up, stops, reverses back to the corner. before the awning is even up there's already a line. hungry people have been waiting

in cars around the corner ever since the twitter announcement 30 minutes ago. >> i feel guilty. i'm jumping the line, right? wow. what's the longest line you've ever had? >> 600. >> 600 people for one truck? >> yeah. >> the kogi taco, double caramelized korean barbecue short rib on fresh corn tortilla, with cilantro, relish, and a napa cabbage romaine slaw and a chili soy vinaigrette. >> oh, yeah. >> the rep for kogi is that we go everywhere, we go to every single corner of the county and the city. we're not just going to the hip areas. >> what about bel air? could you pull up on a corner in a residential area in bel air? what happens then? do you get rousted? >> no, no, they come out in the versace robe. >> that i've got to see. >> yeah. beverly hills. beverly hills it's crazy. >> why should you be excited about food trucks? because they allow creative

chefs like roy without a lot of money to start creating and selling their stuff, introducing themselves to the world without having to gather up a million dollars or credu lous partners. and they're affordable, they're democratic, and they're faster, better, and infinitely preferable to fast food like the king and the clown and the colonel.

stereotyping coming. look, how do i put this? good korean kids grow up to be

doctors, lawyers, or engineers, goes the story. there are expectations. but what if you're a bad korean? what if you're a korean-american and just didn't give a [ muted ]? what if you said where do i fit in society? and were unsatisfied with the answers you were getting? what if you were an insanely talented artist in a small startup company called facebook asked you to do some murals in their offices and they paid you in stock and you became ridiculously wealthy and you still didn't give a [ muted ]? well, then, you might be david choe. >> hi, i'm david choe. ♪ >> be like me. >> is that an ak-pinata? >> that is an ak-47 pinata.

>> wow. >> i mean, this place is in downtown l.a. so i try to have as many weapons like hidden throughout. i've got ninja swords and ninja stars. >> you need a puppy, man. you need a puppy. >> i do need a puppy. i'm going to paint you today. is that cool? >> yeah, sure. >> all right. so just sit right there, and -- sorry, i don't usually paint this early in the morning. okay. i'm going to go more expressionistic, if you don't mind. >> i want to know, you said young people are looking to follow your road to success, your advice is, whatever you do, don't date a korean girl? >> okay, i try to be open-minded about things, right? but, well, i'm racist. you know, for me i've given it a shot and then i end up in a

situation where i feel like i'm dating my mom. >> so what characteristics in common were you -- >> overbearing. >> overbearing. >> jealous. unreasonable. like unrealistic about life. demanding. like it's -- i mean, i could go on and on. but also the men, too. like if you're a woman i would never recommend dating a korean guy. for the very few women out there that are into asian guys, if you are going to go that route, definitely go chinese. yeah. come check it out. >> oh, yeah. whoa! awesome. wow. >> i don't know. what do you think? >> dude! i'm honored. >> i've never had my portrait done before. >> thank you. >> hey, man, you're welcome. >> and this [ expletive ] will be worth some money on ebay for sure. >> now i'm definitely ready for

sizzler. nice. >> standing tall and prominent amongst the many asian and central-american restaurants in the community, one place holds an unexpectedly cherished position in the collective memories of many second-generation korean-americans. i am personally unfamiliar with the sizzler brand. oh, i know it by name, but never have i managed to actually cross its doors. >> after you. >> thank you. >> wow. >> how are you doing today? >> i'm doing good, thank you. how about yourself? >> i'm doing fantastic. i got my sizzler outfit on. so here's the thing. you can get like a steak and then add the salad bar with it. you get the best bang for your buck. or you can just get the salad bar. >> i have to have some steak. >> i'm going to go traditional and get just the salad bar. >> thank you. >> have a seat anywhere you

like. ♪ >> excellent. oh, yeah. >> pour for your elders. >> oh, now you're getting all korean on me. >> yeah. super embarrassed right now because we're in koreatown and i'm taking you to eat at sizzler, which for a lot of koreans is the best food in koreatown. >> if you eat non-korean this was it. >> we never ate out ever and if we did it was mcdonald's. and it was a birthday and a special celebration and you wanted to kick it up a notch and go really special then it was sizzler. >> this is a judgment-free zone where there are no mistakes, a world to explore inkong ruous combinations without shame or guilt. flee of criticism from snarkologists because tlrk no snarkologists at sizzler. >> obviously, here's all the accouterments for making a nice nacho taco salad. and here's all the stuff for pasta, spaghetti, whatever. the move is you get a hard taco

shell and you put meatballs in it. this is italian-mexican dining and you make a meatball taco and there's nowhere else in the world where you can have this. you put three meatballs in the taco, some guacamole, and then you put all this nacho cheese, all this other stuff. >> i know where i'm going. i'm going for the full south of the border experience here. >> there you go. >> i'm not kidding around here. oh, yeah, now we're talking, my friend. >> it's a little bit nicer than i remember. there it is. that's the best bread that you can get. you tell me if you like that. >> now, wait a minute. are you saying that the cheese toast is complimentary? >> it's complimentary. and once we found that out we would order stacks of it. it was our favorite part of sizzler. and we're like we need to figure out how to manufacture this at home. >> so were you good sizzler customers? your family. do you think they were happy to see you when you'd come in? i love this dish, man.

when i go back, i might have to have a meatball taco. >> i mean, so we did -- we like gooched the system a little bit but not like completely abused it. there would be the guilt associated with we never eat out but now we're going out to eat sow better [ muted ] eat. you better put down at least three plates. what do you think of the bread? >> it's delicious. i get why it could be a wonderland. >> everything's really good. >> for you sizzler is a happy place still? >> lots of memories. it's satisfying. get me more of this cheese bread. [ male announcer ] straight from red lobster's chefs

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something dave choe and roy choi have in common is that they may be korean-american but they're also very much creatures of l.a. and what is l.a.? l.a. is mexican, central american, filipino, vietnamese, thai, samoan, bangladeshi. everybody has left their mark, continues to shape the town, determine its character. k-town exists right upside its latino neighbors, and it's natural that both choe and choi identify very much with mexican

street culture. few things embody that particularly southern california latino street culture more than low riding. esteban orrial is a photographer, chronicler of everything iconic at the cross-roads of hip-hop, design, tattooing, fashion, and low riding. >> the old-timers that used to cut the coils or put picks or sandbags in their truck to make them lower. then around the '70s is when they got popular. >> why these particular models of cars? >> it's pretty much always been late '50s all the way through the '60s and the '70s and the '80s came up, they started bringing in the cadillacs and the regales. the most classic well-known car for low riding is probably the '64 impala.

>> how many korean low riders are there? >> there's a few asian ones. sprinkled in the other club. >> more asians? more koreans than 15 years ago? >> we're seeing a crossover with the food. >> right. for the most part things are starting to get a lot more open. if you're asking, i think there's geg to be a lot more asi asian-hispanic mixed babies coming up in the future. >> amen to that. >> ideal low riding is about getting appreciated by the people who best appreciate the traditions and techniques, the getting it right. for that, you head to east l.a. >> the most famous notorious street in l.a. is whittier boulevard because of the history of it. and crenshaw boulevard in south central. >> your most critical audience

and at the same time most appreciative. >> yeah, the ones you want to see your car. >> it's a slow-moving piece of art. and you treat the car like a piece of art, acutely aware of the dangers. cops, for whom you are a target. potholes. other cars. in east l.a. you see people ooh and ah. you see expressions change from who the [ muted ] is that to nice ride. >> hopefully gang members giving us props, giving us respect, you know. first you build a car for yourself. but at the same time you're building it for the streets. you know, you're building it for the people. you want them to appreciate it. ♪ >> within the border of koreatown, it's not just koreans. there are new arrivals every day. there is in fact an official

little bangladesh right in the middle of k-town. >> oh, man. there's all sorts of -- >> it smells so good in here. >> yeah, this is going to work. >> you're not short of options around here. >> no, you can get tacos across the street. korean bimbimbap right next door. and then get goat stew. you can pray to muhammad or buddha. >> a tiny mosque next door where services are held five times a day. >> i was talking to a guy in the parking lot who said this is the first little bangladesh in america. >> yeah. and that just happened like two years ago. we went to sleep, we woke up and it was little bangladesh. >> here at sawata step right in for some curried goat, samosas, tandoori chicken. oh, yeah, and this. laori fish curry with no small amount of chilies. >> such fragrant, aromatic, delicious food. >> it's very good. >> what good food are you likely to find within the confines of koreatown? >> we el salvadorian, guatemalan

all around. koreans all throughout. pakistani and bangladesh food. oaxaca takes over all of 8th street. >> why oaxaca? that's the way it worked out? >> you know how it goes. probably one guy showed up. filipino fast food just behind us. and then a bunch of riffraffs in between. >> filipinos are very proud of their food. underrepresented. >> i think they're going through kind of what we went through, where the glass hasn't been broken yet to translate it but still keep the core and soul of it. but it tastes delicious. >> a few blocks over the iconic filipino fast food chain, jollibee's. laugh all you want but ask any filipino they love this drive-thru mutation for specialties like this deep fried spam sandwich thing. but the desserts get crazy. >> decisions, decisions. >> we'll take one aloha burger, and one spam little big bite. let's do a halo-halo. that's it.

>> oh, look at that. what is that? >> that's halo-halo. >> oh, yeah. halo-halo. dig deep and you hit delicious stratas of red beans, white beans, and chickpeas, cubes of red and green jell-o, young white coconut, shaved ice. and is that flan? it makes no goddamn sense at all. i love it. >> part of every pinoi filipino's life, halo-halo. >> i've got to take a picture of that. it's oddly beautiful. all right. you know i'm getting a bite of that little -- what is it? >> it's a little big bite. >> little big bite. >> favorite thing in the world. >> no, don't say that. it's actually -- i like that. >> it's good, right? >> aloha. it just sounds magical. is there like pineapple in there or something? >> yes. >> hence the aloha. that's a very tasty burger. nice char. >> asian fast food. it's fast food but it's made

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♪ [ speaking foreign language ] that's true, dad. we all look the same. [ laughter ] >> i love it. >> he may be a korean gone bad, but dave choe still tries best he can to be a good son. he bought them this house in los feliz and visits for family meals often. in fact, when we first met, sensing it had been a long time without a true home-cooked meal, he invited me to dinner with them. so guests are not unusual. jane choe is an amazing cook. >> it's going to be very delicious. >> mom, dad, look who's here. >> hello. >> can you smell something? >> oh, yeah. good stuff. >> yeah, all the good stuff coming. maybe somebody going to hire me later.

>> okay. which ones are you? are you the oldest? >> i'm the middle. i'm the suicidal pirate. >> already signs of trouble here. >> my older brother is the hip-hop santa. he was the oldest. he beat me up, i beat him up, and then he would just cry. i'll show you my dad's painting. hey, dad, come over here for a second. when did you paint, this dad? 30 years ago? >> '73. 1973. >> every christmas he unrolls it and just like scotch-tapes it to the wall. my mom's the artist in the family now. >> so this is a family of artists? >> the choes are devout christians, which is not unusual in the korean community, but they are unusual in that they're both artists of a sort. jane treats the house like an ongoing art prornlths project, drawing sunglasses on family pictures, stapling angels to paintings that have hung in the white house.

getting crazy with the glue gun, adorning wreaths with happy meal toys, sticker-bombing the kitchen with birds, cows, spaceships piloted by her three boys. she is relentlessly energetically and inarguably creative. >> she brainwashed me from the time we were kids. she was like you're the best artist in the world, you're the best artist in the world. >> you are. >> oh, thanks. but now she's telling me she's going to be the best artist in the world. she's very competitive. she said she's going to destroy me. >> awesome. >> food is ready. >> so you want to explain what everything is, mom? >> the food i prepared tonight is a very common korean food. kalbi which is beef ribs stew. >> the kimchi's looking fresh. >> the kimchi's fresh. >> today is chestnut rice. >> no one has this kind of rice. >> special rice. >> special rice for tony.

>> and then stuffed peppers. >> oh, that's david's favorite. >> chung pomuk, seaweed and jaely mung beans. noodle with shiitake mushrooms. and vegetables. avocado egg rolls, fried squid and shrimp. potato pancake. often at the choe house there's a few mexican dishes sprinkled in as well. it is always a great meal. i can tell you that. >> thanks, mom. this is delicious. >> this is awesome. >> it is indeed. thank you. >> i love it. >> during the riots of '92, jim and jane choe worked as real estate agents and property managers, so the destruction in koreatown had a direct impact on their lives. the choes watched from home as the chaos unfolded on tv. after the riots jim wrote a letter to the editor that was published in the "l.a. times." >> "i'm extremely angry with the lapd for their outrageous action.

while the cops let looters run wild and rape our city they somehow had time to bother korean shop owners guarding their stores. how can the owner of a business just sit back and watch his life be burned to the ground?" >> david would have a very different reaction. >> my brother stole a car, and we went into like all the neighborhoods, and then quickly realized it wasn't like about race, it was just about people stealing stuff. but we were out looting. we were causing chaos. you know, i don't think we got anything good. i think i got a tv stand. >> was it life-changing for you? >> it's like you grow up and things are explained to you. like here's police. they're not doing anything they're supposed to do. they're just like normal men and women of society just acting like animals. and i was like, oh, everything i've like been taught and learned my whole life is just disintegrating before my eyes.

but in the end we're -- you know, from great disasters come great things, right? i mean, koreatown burned down. it's like we own l.a. now. it's like half of l.a. >> now korean culture, k-pop and psy, all over the world influence. >> filmmakers. all the top korean filmmakers. >> yeah. >> what about me? >> yeah. >> artists, right? >> sorry. sorry, david. it's incredible. >> today i went into all the ways, different ways you guys used to beat us when we were kids. the stret positions. like you know. all the korean punishments. >> what's remarkable to me is that every kid -- >> right. >> i mean all korean kids. the same position, you either hold a book -- >> oh, yeah. that's the way we learned from the generation to generation. we don't know why. >> to take a peek into the dark

heart of the korean psyche, maybe it helps to get familiar with han, a concept that for non-koreans can be difficult to fully grasp. >> all right. you want it? here we go. han denotes a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overwhelming odds. it connotes aspects of lament and injustice. >> wow. >> in some occasions anthropologists have recognized han as culturally specific medical condition. someone who dies of han is said to have died of poybyong. >> papyong. it's heartburn. >> wow. it's been described to me in a way that made it sound benign. this is a burning sense of injustice, besiegement, and desire for revenge. >> the han is the reason why like we are who we are, but it's also the same reason why i won't marry a korean woman. >> you never know. >> no, i know, mom. >> he's cute. from food particles and bacteria.

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♪ main drag of k-town. another mini mall among many. karaoke, no. >> this is the best dumpling spot in town. my mom would just order all these dumplings and just like leave them on my door, because she'd not allowed in my house.

i just said, where are you getting these? you know, my mom likes to withhold information. so i finally got it out of her. >> myung in dumplings. where they serve a mix between korean and chinese. each plate handmade to order, my friends. opened in 2007 on olympic boulevard, it's run by yu jin, a korean by way of shenyang province in china. >> i come in here for about two years now. there's no one ever in here. every time i've ever come in. i don't understand how they're open. they're the best dumplings i've ever had. maybe people just get them to go. >> right. >> they all look like buttholes, actually. but -- >> kind of. yeah. pre-prolapse. >> wong mandu. king dumpling. thick dough, stuffed to the gills with pork, kimchi, and vegetables. precisely made, weighed, and crimped. steamed until soft. eat.

>> wow. that's nearly the size of your head. >> yeah. it's like pizza. i'll eat them cold, too. save two and have them for dinner. >> i like this place already. good signage is important. >> the sign's awesome.

>> if that sign does not sing to you, then we cannot be friends. >> this is my uncle tony. >> how are you doing? >> this is terry kim, aka guam cruise. more koreans right here. >> some friends of choe's seem to favor this place. they are a thirsty and diverse bunch. >> stress position? did you have to do -- >> he knows it. >> he went right into it. >> you did that? >> see, the speed with which they assume the position. >> a bucket of water over your head. >> what if your arms get tired? >> they make you do it again. >> the whole thing is doing it again. >> look, i'm not korean, i'm not asian, a white boy from the suburb, but i noticed something over time in my k-town adventure. similar apg anecdotes, you might say. >> they came up with a new one. >> i was very aware that all my korean friends, no matter how successful, seemed strangely

haunted by something, but i never knew this. >> how do you do it? >> it goes up like this, and then it's like opening an umbrella inside someone. >> friends or colleagues. >> you think it's hilarious -- >> what the hell that's about, i can only guess. >> cheers. >> koreans gone bad. >> you're korean now officially. girl vo: i'm pretty conservative. very logical thinker. (laughs) i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. (screams) i'm really glad that girl stayed at home.

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pretty much any korean you meet anywhere, you can take it for granted they like food, that they are passionate about food, particularly their food, which of all the immigrant cuisines has probably been messed with the least. unlike many new arrivals koreans seem to have been the most unwilling to accommodate western tastes. maybe that's why it took us so much time to love this stuff. beverly tofu house. like so much of k-town's finer establishments is tucked away in the corner of a strip mall. >> this is one of my favorite spots, where i've been coming for almost 20 years. this is a soup that's just like it's kind of korean but really

more -- >> not a direct transplant from korea. >> it became what we're about to have here in l.a. >> interesting. >> it's different because of the ingredients we couldn't find, but never thinking about pleasing the american palate, just to make ourselves happy. >> this is the thing to get, a fiery, tongue-searing, burning tofu soup that will make you think every bad thing you ever thought about tofu. >> a spicy, spicy red broth of tofu as the base. soft tofu with a texture like borrata and from there a handful of variations but the most common is with kimchi with everything, beef, oysters, mussels, clams. oh, r and table size, they crack an egg in there. wow. right in there, cool. that looks completely awesome. well, we better wait for this to cool. so how do we eat this, spoon it over rice? >> spoon it over rice.

just mix it in. >> that's good. >> yeah. >> all tofu should be spicy by my way of thinking. so good. >> yeah. >> really. >> koreans can well remember when nobody was interested in their food. now it's confusingly au courant. must be strange for the owners who have just been doing what they're doing for years. >> for us sitting here like this, the questions that a lot of people are asking me in korean, like i'm telling them we're filming, you know, we're trying to show a piece of korea town. the number one question, they are not maryland or vindictive. the question is why? why wouldn't we be interested? >> why wouldn't we be interested? why would you waste your time? there's other things to do. >> it's an extraordinarily delicious and beautiful thing. >> that's the thing. the beauty is already a given, it's already part of the fabric. so it's like, why congratulate you? there's no reason to congratulate you because this is

what we do. >> totally enjoying this. >> yeah. >> what do your parents want you to be when you grow up? >> for me, a doctor, a lawyer. >> right. >> you're obviously not a doctor or lawyer. did you finish college? >> i finished college and went to one year of law school and walked out. >> so you're a bad korean. >> i'm a bad korean. if i was a mediocre, >> i was a bad korean. accountant, it would be better than being a top chef. >> according to who? >> according to korean culture, according to korean uncles and aunts. it doesn't register that that is a profession, you know. i wouldn't have to explain myself if i just said i was a cpa. >> right. >> never. you know that. >> still got some explaining to do. >> still. >> just get it across that i cook, and that there was this phenomenon that happened on the streets of l.a. that changed and opened up korean culture to the world. >> what does it mean to be korean-american? does one create one's own world? i don't know that i'm any

smarter about that now than when i first came to k-town in the middle of the night to discover a strange and fabulous and delicious slice of america i had never known was there, but i'm trying to figure it out. this is a good place to both experience fantasy and reality. ♪ beer, explosives and food? you can't beat that. ♪