If you don’t know about the Kogi truck, then you’ve been living under a rock. Roy Choi and buds started humbly with a truck and an idea to cook and sell kogi tacos on the streets of LA. It’s taken the country by storm and it seems like everyone is trying to start-up a truck. Who would’ve thought that truck food could be so popular. It caused such a craze that now food trucks are covered for the first time by the new Zagat guide for 2010. We covered these guys back in January and who would’ve thought they would explode onto the food scene like they have. Walk down memory lane with a video from the Kogi guys on how it all started.

Starting today is the Los Angeles Korean Food Festival.  The sizzling sounds of bulgogi and kalbi are as sweet to the ears as they are to the senses, the smell of smoke and meat unmercifully drenching every strand of hair, article of clothing and inch of skin it touches. If you’re in the mood for a kimchi overdose, check out the 36th annual Los Angeles Korean Festival, a four-day event with more than 200 food booths, traditional performances, a wrestling contest, a photo exhibit, a crafts market and talent shows with special performances. Bring a Seoul-sized appetite and don’t forget extra money for banchan. Seoul International Park, 3250 San Marino St., L.A. 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., Thu. to Sun. Free. (213) 487-9696, www.lakoreanfestival.com.

K-Town Hotties is a funny video that was recently produced by Arowana Films and stars Danny Cho.  So what’s it like dating in LA’s K-town?  What do the girls look like?  Check it out below.  For more on Danny Cho, check out our interview from a few months ago at this link.

The Far East Movement is moving on up and getting even more mainstream.  They’ll be joining the king of hip hop, Jay-Z and many other hip hop artists on stage at the Honda Center in Anaheim for the Powerhouse 09 concert this Saturday night (August 8th).  We know what you’re thinking: a hip hop concert in Orange County?  You know the burbs love hip hop.  More importantly, it’s very cool that the Far East Movement, which is a Korean-American hip hop group is one of the featured acts alongside Flo Rida, Lil’ Jon, Sean Paul and other big names of hip hop.  Step by step, the Korean musicians are making it happen.  Is this as impressive as the Wonder Girls touring with the Jonas Brothers?  Check’em out this Saturday if you’re in the OC!

Source: Ningin

A lot of buzz this week about Saturday’s Korean BBQ Cook Off in Los Angeles.  If you live in Southern California, check out the first ever Korean BBQ competition.  You’ll get a chance to eat Korean BBQ from the best BBQ restaurants of K-Town.  Entrance is free and there will be various parking lots near the summit.

WHAT: Los Angeles’s first Korean BBQ Cook-off will showcase some of the best dishes by top Korean BBQ restaurants. Presented by the Korean American Coalition – Los Angeles (KAC), in partnership with Yelp, the Cook-off will be judged by distinguished judges who will present the prize for best the BBQ dish on Saturday, August 8, 2009.
• 5,000 participants expected for the event
• Ten restaurants are participating in the competition including Beverly Soon Tofu, Byul Dae Po (Star BBQ), Ham Ji Park, Jinju Galbi, Mu Dae Po, Park’s BBQ, So Hyang, and Soowon Galbi.

JUDGES:
• Jonathan Gold is a well-respected and longtime food critic for L.A. Weekly and Gourmet Magazine. In 2007, he became the first food critic to win the Pulitizer Prize.
• Russ Parsons is the Los Angeles Times food editor and columnist. He has been writing about food for 25 years and is the author of the cookbooks “How to Read a French Fry” and “How to Pick a Peach.”
• Evan Kleiman has been the host of Good Food on KCRW since 1998. A longtime restaurateur and owner of Angeli Caffe on Melrose, she was also the founder of Slow Food, Los Angeles.
• Emile Mack is the Administrative Operations Chief Deputy of the Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD).
• Jim McDonnell is the First Assistant Chief with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
• The Honorable Michelle Park Steel is a member of the California Board of Equalization.
• The Honorable Herb J. Wesson, Jr. serves as Los Angeles City Councilman, representing the 10th District, which includes parts of Koreatown.

WHEN: Saturday, August 8, 2009 from 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
• 2:00 pm – Eating contest with mystery ingredient
• 3:30 pm – Cooking demonstration “How to marinate Korean BBQ” by Monica Yang, resident chef at Good Samaritan Hospital
• 5:00 pm – Cook-off competition
• 6:30 pm – Awards ceremony

WHERE: Parking lot of the Summit on Sixth Building, 3223 W. Sixth St., Los Angeles 90010. The event is accessible through the Walgreens parking lot off of Vermont Ave. or Sixth St., as well as off of New Hampshire Ave.

EVENT DETAILS:
• The restaurants will sell dishes for $10-15/plate. (It’ll be worth it….it’ll be good quality meat)
• Other food booths will include (tentative list): shaved ice, drinks, grilled corn, and more.
• Barbecue categories will include LA galbi (marinated bone-in beef ribs), galbi (marinated boned-out beef ribs), pork ribs, bulgogi (marinated sliced sirloin), and grilled intestine barbecue.

SPONSORS: Yelp, AllKPop.com, California Country Club, the U.S. Census Bureau, The Chadwick Apartment Homes, The Mercury, Coors Brewing Co., Blue Moon Brewery Company, and the Good Samaritan Hospital.

About Korean American Coalition – Los Angeles (KAC)
The Korean American Coalition – Los Angeles (KAC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization established in 1983 to promote the civic and civil rights interests of the Korean American community. KAC endeavors to achieve these goals through education, community organizing, leadership development, and coalition-building with diverse communities.

About Yelp
Yelp (yelp.com) is a site that connects people with great local businesses. Yelp was founded in San Francisco in 2004. Since then, Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland. Yelp.com drew an audience of more than 22 million unique visitors in June 2009. Yelpers have written more than 6 million local reviews, making Yelp the fastest growing and deepest local source for real word of mouth info on everything from boutiques and mechanics to restaurants and dentists. Small business owners can set up their free Yelp business account at http://biz.yelp.com.

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Those guys at Kollaboration sure know how to have fun.  They not only know how to put on a show, but PK knows how to freestyle a bit.  Check him out and the others beatboxing and freestylin’.

What are you doing on the 4th of July?  If you’re in LA, you can go hear the pop sounds of fire crackers or you can go hear some Kpop at the Ford Theater with a special appearance by Shin Hae Chul and N.E.X.T.  For those infatuated with Se7en, SNSD and the Wonder Girls, Shin Hae Chul was Kpop before a lot of these current artists.

“It’s in Koreatown.  And these amazingly strong Korean women, scrub you down.”  Eva Mendes was on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien and she revealed one of her favorite spots to go in LA and that’s to a spa in Koreatown.  Really?!  The way Eva described it was so heavenly to her and very cleansing.  Perhaps even cathartic.  It was obvious that Ms. Mendes loves this place because she couldn’t stop talking about it with Conan O’Brien. Where is this place in Koreatown?  If anyone knows, please send us the info so we can take the staff down to Koreatown for a nice scrub down.

Freeze!  Put your hands up!  How many Korean-American women are both a cop and a veteran of the Iraq war?  Don’t know exactly the number but there’s Julie Sohn who’s an officer of the LAPD.   What’s strange is that she grew up in the white suburbs of Orange County and is now patroling the streets of Koreatown in Los Angeles.  She certainly pursued the road less traveled, especially for a Korean-American female from the ‘burbs.  NPR found her story to be fascinating that they did a quick feature on her non-traditional path for an immigrant child.  For the full story, go to NPR>

Tomorrow night in the Los Angeles area, it’s Kollab Hip Hop & Laugh Off at the Ford Amphitheater.   Play a role in launching Asian-American stars of the future.  A hip hop dance-off highlights this family-friendly dance and comedy competition where the audience gets to vote the winners.

KOLLAB HIP HOP & LAUGH-OFF
Date: Friday, June 12, 2009
Time: 8:30PM
Venue: Ford Amphitheater
2580 Cahuenga Blvd East
Hollywood, CA 90068

Students (with valid ID) & children only pay $5!!

**SPECIAL PERFORMANCE**
World Famous BBOYS from KOREA – Hong10, Physicx, Born, Phoenix, Rookie (Rivers Crew & Drifterz Crew) – Project Soul Collective

Line up includes:
Dumbfoundead, Verseatile, tier2, 3Strykes Krew, Starstudded & Funky Soul
Watch the Bboy Crews battle it up on stage!
Comedians include Gerry Bednob, Edwin San Juan, & Kevin Shea

Park on Site
Stacked parking costs $5 per vehicle for evening shows.

Satellite Parking & Shuttle Service for Ford Amphitheatre Summer Season evening performances only
Shuttles start running 2 hours before the show time at 20 minute intervals
A FREE shuttle to the Ford stops at the
- Universal City Metro Station at Lankershim Blvd. and Campo de Cahuenga in the “kiss and ride” area. Parking is free in the Metro Station lot.

The address of the Universal City Metro Station is:
Lankershim Blvd & Universal Terrace Parkway
North Hollywood, CA 91608

For more info, go to Kollaboration.org>