Koreatown, located in the Mid-Wilshire district of Los Angeles, is the heart and nexus for Koreans in America. In the early 20th century, a small Korean community--many of whom were active leaders and supporters of the Korean independence movement--initially settled around Bunker Hill. The community migrated in the 1930s toward Jefferson Boulevard, near the University of Southern California, to an area known as Old Koreatown. By the late 1960s, following the freeway construction boom and the Hart-Cellar Act of 1965, Korean markets, restaurants, and businesses began to blossom along Olympic Boulevard. Today, Koreatown is a thriving urban center where Koreans, Hispanics, and Bangladeshis coreside in one of the most densely populated and diverse sections of Los Angeles. Its boundaries were officially designated by the Los Angeles City Council on August 20, 2010.
A New York Times bestseller and one of the most praised Korean cookbooks of all time, you'll explore the foods and flavors of Koreatowns across America through this collection of 100 recipes. This is not your average "journey to Asia" cookbook. Koreatown is a spicy, funky, flavor-packed love affair with the grit and charm of Korean cooking in America. Koreatowns around the country are synonymous with mealtime feasts and late-night chef hangouts, and Deuki Hong and Matt Rodbard show us why through stories, interviews, and over 100 delicious, super-approachable recipes. It's spicy, it's fermented, it's sweet and savory and loaded with umami: Korean cuisine is poised to break out in the U.S., but until now, the cookbooks have been focused on taking readers on an idealized Korean journey. Koreatown, though, is all about what's real and happening right here: the foods of Korean American communities all over our country, from L.A. to New York City, from Atlanta to Chicago. We follow Rodbard and Hong through those communities with stories and recipes for everything from beloved Korean barbecue favorites like bulgogi and kalbi to the lesser-known but deeply satisfying stews, soups, noodles, salads, drinks, and the many kimchis of the Korean American table.
No one will soon forget the image, blazed across the airwaves, of armed Korean Americans taking to the rooftops as their businesses went up in flames during the Los Angeles riots. Why Korean Americans? What stoked the wrath the riots unleashed against them? Blue Dreams is the first book to make sense of these questions, to show how Korean Americans, variously depicted as immigrant seekers after the American dream or as racist merchants exploiting African Americans, emerged at the crossroads of conflicting social reflections in the aftermath of the 1992 riots. The situation of Los Angeles's Korean Americans touches on some of the most vexing issues facing American society today: ethnic conflict, urban poverty, immigration, multiculturalism, and ideological polarization. Combining interviews and deft socio-historical analysis, Blue Dreams gives these problems a human face and at the same time clarifies the historical, political, and economic factors that render them so complex. In the lives and voices of Korean Americans, the authors locate a profound challenge to cherished assumptions about the United States and its minorities. Why did Koreans come to the United States? Why did they set up shop in poor inner-city neighborhoods? Are they in conflict with African Americans? These are among the many difficult questions the authors answer as they probe the transnational roots and diversity of Los Angeles's Korean Americans. Their work finally shows us in sharp relief and moving detail a community that, despite the blinding media focus brought to bear during the riots, has nonetheless remained largely silent and effectively invisible. An important corrective to the formulaic accounts that have pitted Korean Americans against African Americans, Blue Dreams places the Korean American story squarely at the center of national debates over race, class, culture, and community. Table of Contents: Preface The Los Angeles Riots, the Korean American Story Reckoning via the Riots Diaspora Formation: Modernity and Mobility Mapping the Korean Diaspora in Los Angeles Korean American Entrepreneurship American Ideologies on Trial Conclusion Notes References Index Reviews of this book: Blue Dreams--a poetic allusion to the clear blue sky that Koreans see as a symbol of freedom--is a welcome exploration by outsiders into the vexing and largely invisible Korean-American predicament in Los Angeles and the nation. [Abelmann and Lie 's] colorful interview subjects offer sharp observations. --K.W. Lee, Los Angeles Times Reviews of this book: An informed and thoughtful examination of Korean immigration to the United States since 1970...[Abelmann and Lie] show that even in a period as short as twenty-five years, there have been successive waves of differently motivated, differently resourced Korean immigrants, and their experiences and reactions have differed accordingly. --Michael Tonry, Times Literary Supplement Reviews of this book: [The authors'] transnational perspective is particularly effective for explicating Korean immigrants' behaviors, activities, and feelings...Interesting and readable. --Pyong Gap Min, American Journal of Sociology Reviews of this book: Beginning with a poetic book title, the authors recount in depth as to how the 'Blue Dreams' of the Korean-American merchants in East Los Angeles had shattered in the midst of [the] 1992 riot that turned out to be 'elusive dreams' in America...The book not only portrays the L.A. riot surrounding the Korean merchants, but also characterizes diaspora of the Koreans in America. The authors have also examined with scholarly insights the more complex socioeconomic and political underplay the Koreans encountered in their 'Promised New Land'. --Eugene C. Kim, International Migration Review
This collection defines Koreatowns as spatial configurations that concentrate elements of “Korea” demographically, economically, politically, and culturally. The contributors provide exploratory accounts and critical evaluations of Koreatowns in different countries throughout the world. Ranging from familiar settings such as Los Angeles and New York City, to more unfamiliar locales such as Singapore, Beijing, Mexico, U.S.-Mexico borderlands, and the American Midwest, this collection not only examines the social characteristics and contours of these spaces, but also the types of discourses and symbols that they exude.
The Best Restaurants, Markets & Local Culinary Offerings The ultimate guides to the food scene in their respective states or regions, these books provide the inside scoop on the best places to find, enjoy, and celebrate local culinary offerings. Engagingly written by local authorities, they are a one-stop for residents and visitors alike to find producers and purveyors of tasty local specialties, as well as a rich array of other, indispensable food-related information including: • Favorite restaurants and landmark eateries • Farmers markets and farm stands • Specialty food shops, markets and products • Food festivals and culinary events • Places to pick your own produce • Recipes from top local chefs • The best cafes, taverns, wineries, and brewpubs
Through new research and materials, Edward T. Chang proves in Pachappa Camp: The First Koreatown in the United States that Dosan Ahn Chang Ho established the first Koreatown in Riverside, California in early 1905. Chang reveals the story of Pachappa Camp and its roots in the diasporic Korean community's independence movement efforts for their homeland during the early 1900s and in the lives of the residents. Long overlooked by historians, Pachappa Camp studies the creation of Pachappa Camp and its place in Korean and Korean American history, placing Korean Americans in Riverside at the forefront of the Korean American community’s history.
In 1884, a Japanese sailor named Hamanosuke Shigeta made his way to the eastern section of downtown Los Angeles and opened Little Tokyo's first business, an American-style café. By the early 20th century, this neighborhood on the banks of the Los Angeles River had developed into a vibrant community serving the burgeoning Japanese American population of Southern California. When Japanese Americans were forcibly removed to internment camps in 1942 following the attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States' entrance into World War II, Little Tokyo was rechristened "Bronzeville" as a newly established African American enclave popular for its jazz clubs and churches. Despite the War Relocation Authority's opposition to re-establishing Little Tokyo following the war, Japanese Americans gradually restored the strong ties evident today in 21st-century Little Tokyo--a multicultural, multigenerational community that is the largest Nihonmachi (Japantown) in the United States.
Being alive in Los Angeles means driving It means having friends in a hundred neighborhoods. Everyday I figure 8 my way through the blood & bones of the city. These journeys invigorate me. Connecting the dots is what I like to do, from the hilltop parties to the Watts Towers, North Long Beach to Frogtown, there's o much flavor-landscape & characters. I love it all. I Am ALIVE IN LOS ANGELES! In this progressive collection of poems. Essays & notes, Mike the PoeT digs into the real Los Angeles. Passages of charged prose & poetic snapshots capture the panorama of the city of angels. Pieces cover the mythical afterhour parties, unique architecture, socioeconomics, graffiti, gangs Hollywood & more. Poet Journalist Historian, Mike Sonksen aka Mike the PoeT has performed at the L.A. Times Book Prizes, Divine Forces Radio, Music Plus TV & published hundreds of poems & articles in the LA. Citybeat, O,C. Weekly, Jointz, Kotori & so on. "It's easy to target Los Angeles' deficits: flashiness, venality, gross disparity of wealth. But is takes rare understanding and eloquence to see this fair city in all its lights, both good and bad. Mike Sonksen, aka Mike the Poet, achieves that unusual feat with his debut spoken-word release, "I Am Alive in Los Angeles!" A third-generation L.A. native Sonksen has special insight into the multi-textured realities that comprise the city."-L.A. Alternative Press "Mike the Poet the most cool, positive guy in poetry, future LA legend you read it here first." -TEKA LARK LO
A history and guidebook for locals and visitors who want to explore the flavorful delights of the nation’s street food capital—includes photos! Los Angeles is the uncontested street food champion of the United States, and it isn’t even a fair fight. Millions of hungry locals and tourists take to the streets to eat tacos, down bacon-wrapped hot dogs, and indulge in the latest offerings from a fleet of gourmet food trucks and vendors. Dating back to the late nineteenth century when tamale men first hawked their fare from pushcarts and wagons, street food is now a billion-dollar industry in L.A.—and it isn’t going anywhere! So hit the streets and dig in with local food writer Farley Elliott, who tackles the sometimes-dicey subject of street food and serves up all there is to know about the greasy, cheesy, spicy, and everything in between.
Korean food is enjoying a renaissance, and rightly so as it offers a real change from the more usual Asian cuisines of China, Thailand and Japan. This title reflects the author's favourite thing about Korean food - small plates, simple and delicious, ideal for sharing with friends, which encompass Korea's full culinary range.
