A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed for an article in the New York Times about Korean food in Los Angeles. I'm not quoted or mentioned in it at all. Although there is information in the article that the writer culled from our conversation, my sound bites must have been left on the cutting room floor.
Actually, I mostly provided back story and context for the evolution of Korean food and immigrants in Los Angeles. And why Korean food and ingredients are becoming trendy now.
Overall, a well researched and written article. The writer, Jennifer Steinhauer, is also the Los Angeles bureau chief for the New York Times.
"Korean food has blipped on the radar of culinary trend watchers before, but it never seems to gain momentum. In part, Mr. Benson said: “It is because there is a misconception about Korean food. Japanese food is high protein, low in fat and is this very clean cuisine, where Korean food has a reputation as being not healthy."
I have no idea where Benson came up with this. I've been Korean my entire life and I talk, write and teach about food professionally to diverse audiences. I've never heard of Korean food being considered not healthy, quite the contrary. Koreans and Korean-Americans have extremely low rates of obesity.
It's simple. Korean food and ingredients are becoming trendy now because there is a second generation of Koreans who know how to market it.
“We tried to marry two cultures,” Mr. Choi said, “with this crazy idea of putting Korean barbecue meat inside a tortilla. We have never tried to make it any more pretentious or different from that, and we wanted to be very simple but delicious.”
Not so crazy. This is a very a Los Angeles and Californian idea. We put everything on top of pizza, between two slices of bread, in a bowl, or a wrap. Think California pizza kitchen with "Thai toppings", panini with "Indian flavored relishes", burgers with guacamole, shawerma tacos at Armenian owned Sevan Chicken, cream cheese into sushi rolls and so on. Our versions of sushi look like burritos
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