Melissah Yang/Neon Tommy

No, it’s not the VMAs. Rather, eager mouths are lining up and looking for something delicious to eat. 

On Saturday, the Korean American Coalition Los Angeles (KACLA) hosted their first annual A Taste of Koreatown. 

The red velvet rope led to the most popular stand: Seoul Sausage Company who is currently competing on The Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race.

Seoul Sausage’s Yong Kim and Ted Kim manned the front-of-the-house, serving flaming fried balls - deep fried rice balls of spicy pork, seoul sausage, and kimchi topped with a kimchi siracha garlic jalapeno aioli. They planned to stay for the entire event. Or at least until food ran out. 

“Ted’s been involved with KAC for a while so we wanted to come out and support.” 

Melissah Yang/Neon Tommy

Park’s BBQ, Palsaik Korean BBQ, and soft tofu king BCD were a few of the other participants, but Papa Cristo’s and El Cholo – two restaurants that don’t serve Korean dishes – stood out on the vendor list. 

It was clear that KAC had a different angle in hosting their event. The emphasis wasn’t on just Korean food; it was on all the businesses and restaurants in Koreatown.

KAC volunteer Jenni Hwang explained the reasoning behind bringing in different cultures. 

“We wanted to include all of the restaurants in Koreatown because there are so many other restaurants that are part of Koreatown that aren’t Korean." 

Still, the primary goal was to introduce Korean food to the public. 

“There are so many different types of restaurants and Korean food that people don’t know about. This is a good way to promote that.” 

Reach Reporter Melissah Yang here.