Back in the ’70s, my parents operated a little coffee shop in Japantown in San Francisco. It was attached to a bowling alley and arcade, and it’s where everybody went to get quarters for video games. That, and our bulgogi cheesesteak sandwiches. My parents started making them because they had the ingredients and they were going to make bulgogi anyway. And then it became the most popular item on the menu.
That sandwich was my first experience with fusion, and I’ve been obsessed with the idea ever since. Sometimes it doesn’t work. But I love an attempt. Blending different culinary signifiers, whether that’s tortillas and kimchi or a burrito and Indian food, and putting them together in a way that turns them into something entirely new and exciting—that’s very American. It’s the literal melting pot!
That’s what I thought about when I first tried the kalbi taco from Kogi, Roy Choi’s Korean taco truck in Los Angeles. It was the early days for food trucks using social media to tell fans where it was going to be in the city. It was this new world where you had to track it down, and it became this very prized thing that everybody was after. I never even considered it a possibility.
Then I tried the taco, and it was perfect. So luscious and really homey, but also very fresh and light. There were so many things happening: The familiarity of the iconic L.A. taco, the Korean tradition of wrapping food, the falling-apart short rib that almost tastes like barbacoa, the complementing sweetness of the corn tortilla. It made so much sense, on so many levels. I became obsessed with Roy Choi and all of his different restaurants after that first bite.
Click here to view the original web page at www.bonappetit.com