that's good. that's good. >> this is a monster. want to pet it? >> yeah. >> we have to let him back quick, though. -- 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, things are beginning to change. >> i went to one years of law school and walked out. >> so you're a bad korean. >> any advice to someone about to marry a korean woman? the answer -- don't do it. ♪ ♪ i took a walk through this beautiful world ♪

♪ felt the cool rain on my shoulder ♪ ♪ found something good in this beautiful world ♪ ♪ i felt the rain getting colder ♪ ♪ sha la la la ♪ sha la la la la la ♪ sha la la la la la la all i knew was that this town was going down, and no one was showing up. 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. in this plaza's rooftop played a central role for koreans defending their town. 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 have 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 no more. >> south central was 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 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. >> 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, 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. we sit down with roy kim, whose grandfather opened the place in 1978. like most korean restaurants, you didn't mess with the original, and like most father/son relationships, you obeyed dad's wishes, no matter what. >> my father opened put all this redwood and cherry, to this day

i can't touch certain things here. >> 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 the pickles, preserves, kimchi, a spicy squid. no bonchon. no meal. >> you know what this restaurant has that a lot of restaurants are going away from are the chairless rooms. >> the feet under, knees forward? >> the tea ceremony. no can do. >> that was punishment for koreans. >> and with a book over your head. >> for hours. >> what would a crime -- what got you into that position? >> as minimal as a 94 on a test. >> korean parents? well, let's just say they veer toward the strict. moms and dads were not conflicted about corporal punishment. i love that you both immediately recognize it.

>> this is what we're known it, thinly sliced ribeye marbled. >> beautiful. >> thin sliced rib eye. and bulgogi, thinly sliced fat-marbled beef, barbecued tableside. >> for its it's funny that barbecue has become the gateway to our food. >> it's delicious. >> it's delicious and we're like, okay, this is the portal, and we're cool with that. >> and in this. basically kimchi fried rice, so many great rice dishes with that outer layer of crispy stuff is just the best. >> a tableside cooking, i think people overlook that a lot. this is like crepes suzette, filleting a dover sole. >> 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 you're a locavore in l.a.? you look around. what's local and delicious? artisanal and authentic. and iconically l.a. as it gets? if you're roy choi, you see tacos. with the 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 me kogi was only one truck, in my mind. but then the lines got big 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 someone you'd expect from someone with that background.

>> within or feud media landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen ar landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen o landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen m landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen m landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen f landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen o landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen o landscape we've romanticized certain compositions of what a great chef and great kitchen ed landscape we've romanticized great chef and great kitchen a e 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, a regional food. right here. and they're off. every lunch shift and every evening, the trucks' locations are sent out over twitter. the locations change every day. 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. >> 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. >> you are so sentimental about the business of feeding people. >> it's a trippy state of row maintain schism. i'm very hard-assed. you pack your own stuff. 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 i hop, 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 hand. what's good? the baby back ribs are air dried, braised, then breaded and fried. ling cod tacos treated like shawarma, then meat dried like duck. then fried. meanwhile not too far away on sawtell, a kogi truck pulls up, stops reverses back to the corner. before the awning is 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. wow, what's the longest line you ever had? >> 600. >> 600 people for one truck? >> yeah. >> the kogi taco, double caramelized korean short ribs on fresh corn tortilla, with cilantro, relish, and napa cabbage slaw, with a vinaigrette. oh, yeah. >> the rep for kogi is we go everywhere, to every single corner of the county and the city. we're not just going to the hip areas. >> what about bel air? can you pull up on a corner in a residential area in bel air? what happens there? do you get rousted? >> no, no, they come out in a versace robe. >> that i got to see. >> in beverly hills, it's crazy. >> why should you be excited about food trucks? 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 credulous partners and they're affordable. they're democratic. and they're faster, better and infin -- preferable to fast food like the king and the clown and the colonel. for teaching me not to take life so seriously. thanks for loving me and being my best friend. don't forget to thank those who helped you take charge of your future and got you where you are today. the boss of your life. the chief life officer. ♪ it's not the "juggle a bunch of rotating categories" card. it's not the "sign up for rewards each quarter" card. it's the no-games, no-messing-'round,

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[ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh, what a relief it is! stereotyping, look, how do i put this? good korean kids grow up to be doctors, engineers or lawyers goes the story. there are expectations. what if you're a bad korean?

what if you're korean-american and just didn't give a [ muted ]. what the you looked around, asked yourself who am i, what am i supposed to be, what where do i fit in with society and were unsatisfied with the answers you were getting. what if you were an insanely talented artist in a small startup company facebook asks you to do in murals, and paid you with 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. ♪ you're like me. >> is that an ak pinata? >> that's an ak-47 pinata. this place is in downtown l.a., so i try to have as many weapons hidden throughout.

i have ninja swords and ninja stars. >> you need a puppy, man. >> 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 i'm racist. for me, i've given it a shot and i end up with a situation where i feel like i'm dating my mom. >> what characteristics in common were you --

>> overbearing, jealous, unreasonable, like unrealistic about life, demanding. like, i mean, i could go on and on. but also the men too. 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. >> hey, man, you're welcome. >> and this -- going to 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 a unexpectedly cherished position in the memories of many second-generation korean-americans. i am personally unfamiliar with the sizzler brand. 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 have my sizzler outfit on. here's the thing. you can get a steak and add the salad bar with it, the best bang for your buck or just the salad bar. >> i have to have some steak. >> i'm going to go traditional and just get just the salad bar. >> thank you. >> sit wherever you like. ♪

>> excellent. >> oh, yeah. >> now you're getting korean on me. >> super-embarrassed, because we're in koreatown and i'm taking you to eat at sizzler which for a lot of koreans this is the best food in koreatown. >> if you eat nonkorean, this is it? >> we never ate out ever, if we did, it was mcdonald's. if it was a birthday or special celebration and wanted to kick it up a notch, then it was sizzler. >> this is a judgment-free zone, where there are no mistakes. a world to explore incongruous combinations without shame or guilt. free of criticism from snarkologists, because there are no snarkologists at sizzler. >> obviously here's the accoutrements for making a nacho salad and the pasta, spaghetti, whatever. the move is you get the hard taco shells and put meatballs in it. this is italian/mexican dining,

and you make a meatball taco. and there's nowhere else in the world that you can have this. three meatballs in the taco, some guacamole. and then you put all this nacho cheese and all this other stuff. >> i know what 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. >> 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. we needed to figure out how to manufacture it at home. >> so were you good sizzler customers? do you think they were happy to see you come? >> i love this dish, man. when i go back, i might have to have a meatball taco. >> so we did goose the system a

little bit. but not completely abused it. there would be the guilt associated with we never eat out, but now we are, so you better [ muted ] eat. you have to 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 is really good. >> for you, sizzler is a happy place still? >> lots of memories. it's satisfying. get me more of this cheese bread. you can fill that box and pay one flat rate. how naughty was he? oh boy... [ male announcer ] fedex one rate. simple, flat rate shipping with the reliability of fedex. the day building a play set begins with a surprise twinge of back pain... and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy.

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something dave choe and roy choi have in common, they are korean american but they are also very much creatures of l.a. and what is l.a.? l.a. is mexican, central american, filipino, vietnamese, thai, samoanian, bangladeshi. everyone has left their mark, continues to shape the town, determines its character. k-town exists upside its latino neighbors and i guess it's nature 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 is a photographer, chronicler of everything iconic at the crossroads of hip hop, design, tattooing, fashion, and low riding. >> they used to put sandbags in their trunks to make them lower and around the '70s they got popular. >> why these particular models? >> pretty much always been the late '50s all the way through the '60s and into the '70s and in the '80s they brought 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.

>> 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 will be a lot more hispanic and asian mixed babies coming up in the future. >> i ain't mad at 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 wilshire boulevard, because of the history of it. and then crenshaw boulevard in south central. >> and most critical audience and at the same time, the most appreciative. >> the ones you want to see your car. >> it's a slow-moving piece of art. you treat the car 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 people change the expression from what is that, to nice ride. >> hopefully gang members gives us props, giving us respect, you know. first you build a car for yourself. at the same time you're building it for the streets, 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, a little bangladesh right in the middle of k-town. you're not short of options around here. >> no, you can get tacos across the street.

korean next door and goat stew. you can pray to muhammad or buddha. >> the 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. >> and it just happened like two years ago. it was like we went to sleep and woke up and it was little bangladesh. >> step in for curried goats, samosas, tandoori chicken, and fish curry with no small amount of chilies. >> just such aromatic, delicious food. what good food are you likely to find within the confines of korea town? >> el salvadorian, guatemalans, koreans all throughout. pakistani, bangladesh food. oaxaca takes over all of eighth street. >> is that just the way it worked out? >> yeah, you know how it goes.

one guy showed up. filipino fast food just behind us, and a bunch of riffraff. >> filipinos are proud of their food. underrepresented. >> they're going through what we went through, where the glass hasn't been broken yet, to translate it, but keep the core and soul of it, but it tastes delicious. a few blocks over, the iconic filipino fast food chain jollibee. laugh all you want but ask any filipino they love the drive through for this speciality spam thing. but it's the desserts that 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. dig deep and you hit delicious stratas of red beans, white

beans and chickpeas, cubes of red and green jell-o, coconut, shaved ice, and is that flan? it makes no goddamned sense at all. i love it. >> a part of every filipino's life. >> i have to take a picture of that. it's oddly beautiful. you know i'm getting a bite of that -- what is it? >> it's a little big bite. favorite thing in the world. >> no, don't say that. >> i like that. >> it's good, right? >> aloha. it just sounds magical. is there like pineapple in there? >> yes. >> hence the aloha. that's a very tasty burger. nice char. >> it's fast food, but it's made like just a single family-owned restaurant. >> what family made this? >> maybe not your family. >> the jetsons. >> you like it? >> it's actually very tasty.

>> every single thing you like it? >> wow, there's so much i don't know. ♪ [ sniffles ] i better take something. [ male announcer ] dayquil cold and flu doesn't treat all that. it doesn't? [ male announcer ] alka-seltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms plus has a fast-acting antihistamine. oh, what a relief it is!

♪ [ 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 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. [ laughter ] >> 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. show you my dad's painting. hey, dad, come over here for a second. when you paint this dad? 30 years ago? >> 1973. >> every christmas he unrolls it and just 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, 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 projects. drawing sunglasses on family pictures.

stapling angels to dave's paintings that have hung in the white house. adorns wreaths with happy meal toys, sticker bombing the kitchen with birds, cows spade ships. 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 are. >> oh, thanks, but now she's telling me she's going to be the best in the world. she's very competitive. she says 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 very common korean food. this is beef rib stew. >> kimchi is looking fresh. >> it's fresh. >> today is chestnut rice. >> no one has this kind of rice.

>> special rice. >> special rice for tony. >> and stuffed peppers. >> oh, that's david's favorite. >> seaweed and jelly mung beans noodle with shiitake mushrooms. avocado egg rolls, fried squid and shrimp. potato pancake. often 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. >> 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 homes as the chaos unfolded on tv. after the riots, jim wrote a letter to the editor that was published in "los angeles times." >> i'm extremely angry with the

lapd, for their traitorous action. why the cops to let the looters run wild and rape our city? they somehow had time to bother korean shop owners guarding their stores. how did 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, causing chaos. 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. here's the police, they're not doing anything they're supposed to do, just normal men and women of society acting like animals, and i thought oh, everything

i've been taught and learned my whole life is disintegrated before my eyes. but in the end, you know, we're -- from great disasters come great things, right? koreatown burned down. it's like we own l.a. now. it's half the l.a. >> now korean culture, grow up in size, all the over the world influence, you know? >> filmmakers, all the top korean film makers. >> what about me? >> yeah. >> artists, right? >> except you. >> sorry, david. he thinks -- [ laughter ] >> today i went into all the different ways you guys used to beat us when we were kids, you know. the stress positions, you know -- all the korean punishments. >> what's remarkable to me, every kid, i mean, all korean kids, the same position, holding a book -- >> yeah, that's the way we learned from 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. it's a concept non-koreans can be difficult to fully grasp. >> all right. you want it? here we go. han connotes a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overwhelming odds. connotes -- in some occasions anthropologists had recognized it. someone who dies of han is said to have died of -- [ speaking foreign language ] >> it's heartburn. >> well, it's been described in a way that sounded benign. this is a burning sense of injustice, besiegement and desire for revenge. >> the han is the reason we are who we are, but also the same reason why i won't marry a korean woman. >> you never know -- >> i know, mom. >> he's cute.

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thanks for giving me your smile. thanks for inspiring me. thanks for showing me my potential. for teaching me not to take life so seriously. thanks for loving me and being my best friend. don't forget to thank those who helped you take charge of your future and got you where you are today. the boss of your life. the chief life officer. ♪

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 leave them on my door, because she's not allowed in my house. i just said, where are you getting these? my mom likes to withhold information. i finally got it out of her. >> myung in dumplings. where they serve a mix between korean and chinese. each plate handmade to order by friends. opened in 2007 on olympic boulevard, it's run by yu jin, a korean by way of shenyang province in china. >> before coming here for 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 ever had. maybe just people get them to go. >> right. they all look like -- >> kind of, yeah, pre-prolapse. >> king dumpling. thick dough, stuffed to the gills with pork, kimchi, vegetables, precisely made,

weighed and crimped. steam until soft, eat. >> wow, nearly the size of your head. >> yeah, it's like pizza. i'll eat them cold, too. save two and have them for dinner. >> and mandu, smaller, served with red chili paste. >> wait for the dessert one. >> wow. boy, these are delicious. >> they're just like so huge. >> go for it. >> so would this be classically post-drinking food or pre-drinking food? laid out a base of absorptive material. >> there's a lot of bread here. i don't really drink, just falling under peer pressure right now. be one of the cool guys. >> 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. hi. >> how are you? >> 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. >> i'm asking everybody, stress position as a child? did you have to do -- >> he knows it. >> he went right into it. >> stress positions? >> you did that? >> see, the speed with which they assume the position. >> a bucket of water over your head. >> water. >> 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. i'm a white boy from the suburb. but i noticed something over time in my k-town adventure. similar anecdote. >> they came up with a new one.

>> i was very aware that all my korean friends, no matter how creative or successful seemed strangely haunted by something. but i never knew this. >> how do you do this? >> it goes up like this, and then it's like opening an umbrella. >> you think it's hilarious -- adults do that to each other. >> what the hell that's about, i can only guess. >> cheers. >> koreans gone bad. >> you're korean now officially. of back pain... e and a choice. take up to 4 advil in a day or 2 aleve for all day relief. [ male announcer ] that's handy. ♪ yep. got all the cozies. [ grandma ] with new fedex one rate, i could fill a box and ship it for one flat rate. so i knit until it was full. you'd be crazy not to.

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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 l.a. >> 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 forget 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 and table-side, 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've been 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 koreatown. the number one question is -- they're not mad or vindictive. the question is why? why would you be interested? >> why wouldn't we be interested? >> why would you waste your time? there are so many other things to do. >> extraordinarily delicious and beautiful things. >> that's the thing. the beauty is already a given, already a part of fabric, so it's like why congratulate you, you know. there's no reason to congratulate you because this is like what we do.

>> that sounds awful, honestly. that is totally joyless. >> yeah. >> what do your parents want you to be when you grow up? >> for me, a doctor, a lawyer. >> right. >> 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 was a bad korean. if i was a mediocre accountant it would be better than 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 never known was there, but i'm trying to figure it out. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ since i was 14 years old, i always wore cowboy boots. maybe because my little boy role models were always the men in the black hats. richard boone in "have gun will travel," robert vaughn in "the magnificent seven." silent killers. men with pasts. men from somewhere else who found themselves in the great american west. a place where reinvention, a new life was always possible. as long as you were willing to kill for it.