#locol

[sanctobin]

theLAnd Interview: Roy Choi.

In a definitive and far-reaching conversation, the chef behind Kogi and LocoL talks about rap, failure, psychedelics, politics, mourning Anthony Bourdain and Jonathan Gold and what’s up next.

There is no dictionary definition for a real one. Realness is subjective and intangible, but unmistakably obvious. As game always recognizes game, real will always recognize real. Realness is being genuine, understanding your inner self and never abandoning your core values. Realness is being loyal to the soil, respectful of tradition and fearless in the face of cynics. It’s never going Hollywood or acting brand new to your day ones. It’s using timeless ingredients to conjure something startlingly original. It is Roy Choi.

Over the last decade, the Dr. Dre of the food truck revolution improbably transformed himself from a journeyman hotel chef into an avatar of Los Angeles’ vibrant, diverse and demotic food culture. His abridged resume includes stints as a restaurateur, author, host, go-to culinary consultant for film directors (Jon Favreau’s Chef) and a two-time member of Time’s 100 Most Influential People. The Beastie Boys tapped him to a write a mini-chapter in their autobiography. But the day after our interview—amidst the stress of hosting a television show (Broken Bread on KCET) and opening up a 9,000-square-foot restaurant at Park MGM in Las Vegas—Choi emails me to change his Top 5 all-time rappers list. He’d made a grave omission by forgetting Scarface, the Houston rap legend so real that his breakthrough album’s cover showed him wheeling his partner Bushwick Bill out of the hospital after his eye had been shot out.

It’s easy to take Choi for granted. The 48-year-old has reached a level of ubiquity to where his celebrity occasionally shrouds his lasting imprint. But in an era where chefs became “rock stars,” complete with clownish gimmicks and sordid allegations, the Seoul-born embodiment of L.A. hip-hop and car culture ultimately made his reputation by staying cool and selling $10 rice bowls and tacos out of a truck.

But sometimes a taco is not a taco. The Kogi taco was an idea, Southern California’s sabor sublimated into a feast that could fit in the palm of your hand. The components were plucked out of the familiar ether like a scene from Iron Chef Fantasia. Fresh steaming-hot corn tortillas, a blizzard of sweet chopped onions, Napa cabbage, and cilantro, a tangy acceleration of lime juice and salsa roja, and of course, the BBQ short-rib beef, practically caramelized but still savory, chopped into divine oblivion and tossed on the plancha like a sacred rite.

When Choi first began serving from a truck called “Roja” on a rainy Thanksgiving weekend in 2008, it felt less like an invention than a discovery; If you grew up in L.A., the first time you had a Kogi taco, it hacked into an atavistic code scrawled in the recesses of your cerebral cortex. The favorite taco truck you’d grown up going to in pre-Internet days that one day suddenly disappeared into the freeway archipelago never to return, colliding with the K-BBQ strip mall spot with the god-level bulgogi, that you could only go to with your Korean homie because the menu was entirely in Hangul. The Kogi taco was Magic hitting James Worthy on the fast break. Herb Hudson in 1975 renting out a storefront on Sunset and Gower to tell the world about the holy alchemy of fried chicken and waffles. Snoop teaming up with 2Pac, two of Amerika’s most wanted in the same motherfucking place at the same motherfucking time. No champagne glasses necessary at Kogi, but a Mexican Coke couldn’t hurt.

Choi’s almost mythic backstory screams for cinematic adaptation. Chronicled in his excellent memoir/cookbook L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food, Choi immigrated to L.A. from South Korea with his parents as a toddler. His madeleine’s were Tommy Burgers, Chinatown almond cookies and Bob’s Big Boy’s chili spaghetti, accompanied by his mom’s dazzling heaps of home-cooked Korean food. His family weathered struggles with alcoholism, financial pressure and countless relocations all across L.A. They eventually settled in Orange County, where they briefly ran a restaurant that served the best kimchi in Garden Grove. After multiple business failures, his parents finally hit it big in the discount jewelry business and bought Nolan Ryan’s house after he left Anaheim to sign with the Houston Astros.

His coming-of-age was tumultuous. An outsider behind the Orange Curtain, Choi cliqued up with a tough crew of mostly black and Hispanic friends who called themselves the Grove Street Mob. His book devotes an interstitial chapter to a friend who never made it out, dead from a car accident of murky circumstance (written with the pour-out-a-little-liquor pathos expected from a real one.) At one point, Choi joined a Norwalk and Whittier-based Latin car crew called the Street City Minis. Zapp was bumped—more bounce to the ounce was accomplished. There were bouts with drugs, a ferocious gambling addiction and innumerable wild and violent nights in Koreatown. Somehow, Choi survived and wound up at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York. And then a decade wandering the gustatory Sinai: he worked in country clubs and for Embassy Suites, at the Beverly Hilton and a Century City pan-Asian mall restaurant from the founder of The Cheesecake Factory. The last business fired him, leaving him down and out and ostensibly marked for career death at age 38. Instead, Choi built an empire by doubling down on himself and the very thing that made him singular but symbolic of the city writ large.

2018 was a year of transition and grief. On the professional level, he parted ways with Koreatown’s Line Hotel after overseeing its food and beverage program since its opening in 2014. Last August, he closed both the Oakland and Watts locations of LocoL, his and chef Daniel Patterson’s fast food concept that sought to bring cheap and healthy options to historically underserved communities. Last year also found Choi grappling with the deaths of his friends, Anthony Bourdain and legendary L.A. Times food critic Jonathan Gold—one of Choi’s most steadfast champions.

To understand Choi is to understand someone possessed with a streak of indomitability. He is fiery and passionate, willing to humbly listen to criticism, but quick to lash out if he feels it unfounded. So here we are on a winter afternoon in Chinatown in the shadow of Chego, his rice bowl Nirvana located in the Far East Plaza. It’s one of Choi’s three current restaurants in the L.A. area (including the Hawaiian-themed A-Frame and a Kogi brick and mortar).

His latest venture is Best Friend, a Korean BBQ restaurant in Vegas with a menu advertised as Choi’s greatest hits—including a chili spaghetti homage to Bob’s and slippery shrimp inspired by Yang Chow. There’s an entire section of the menu titled “L.A. Shit,” featuring Kogi Tacos, carrots and elotes from his Line Hotel rooftop restaurant Commissary. Best Friend’s name is fitting because that’s the vibe Choi exudes. You know Roy Choi even if you don’t. He’s the O.G. pulling up to you at the stoplight blaring “Computer Love” from the booming system, the two of you silently nodding at each other as a sign of respect. The badass older brother of your friend that always snuck you cigarettes, who your parents said to avoid because he’d never amount to nothing. But they were wrong.

Best Friend opened around New Year’s Eve with a weekend of shows from The Beat Junkies (a very real one booking). Consider Choi the only person on earth who could bring Katy Perry and Y.G. out to a restaurant launch party. If Vegas feels permanently corny and garish, Choi aspires to bring the L.A. that exists to locals to the land of Liberace. A tall order, but one that almost feels fated, the ambassador of staying true transplanted to the city that revels in artifice. I wouldn’t bet against him. By Jeff Weiss, Photo by Emari Traffie.

[sunsetsmakemesad]

Many mikus out there

[irequirealobotomy]

”why dont schizospec people tell their doctors theyre struggling” bro i trust my doctor less than the locol walmart manager what am i supposed to do

[mjrtaurus]

Dragon showing Crocodile some of his favourite edits of himself and Crocodile has to pretend he didn’t make them. Like wow this MR_0 is pretty good.

The squeal-laugh combo he unleashes when Dragon follows him back could have broken every glass item with 12 city blocks.

It started as a joke. It really, really did.

He and Bentham got a little a tipsy during a locol conservationist’s gala and it ended up with the most conspicuous account ever with the most horrendously down bad shit you’ve ever seen (Dragon couldn’t be his plus one because he’d been working a pretty nasty case at the time, so he was missing him).

But then the joke kept going.

And going.

And going.

And apparently he was the catalyst for the virality, totally unintentionally.

‘Tornado Alley’s Hottest Lawyer: How an Oklahoman District Attorney Took the Internet by Storm’

The headline is plastered across his screen in bold Times New Roman.

“How in fuck did we get here, Ben?”

“Oh, gimme a break! You know you love showing him off!”

[wiskerville]

The fine print at the bottom:

Elders of the Church of Arcaca

The Chuich of Arcota is one of many locol Churches who have been ordoined by the Lord Most High to crisode wid wornings and physicel worfare against foise prophets and feise religion; lead men and women to salvation through the blood socrifice of jesus Christ, and to support his one and true prophet, Donald Trump, whom He has anointed King of Earth, to reion until Jesus return.

[localgaragedoororlando]

Garage Door Repair Cost in Orlando, FL: What to Expect and How to Save

Garage door repair costs in Orlando, FL, vary based on the issue, parts, and labor. Locol Garage Door Repair breaks down the key factors and smart ways to save. Read our blog to learn more!

[homeiswherethewitchcraftis]

"[I] grew up with a folk witchcraft practice".

Can you please elaborate? As someone who loves folklore I'd love to hear more.

There are many books and resources on folk magic traditions in the u.s. im.from Ana rea that is regionally both the Midwest And Appalachian. So the traditions I grew up with are a mixture of the locol folk magic traditions in those areas

[alexadd77]

Ramones - Loco Live Lp 1991 Chrysalis - Spain

Mitica actuacion en Barcelona dentro de la sala Zeleste, primera grabacion con C. J al bajo y con el combo subiendo la velocidad hasta meter 33 temas en los surcos del disco. De sonido crudo y poco producido junto a los temas tocados mas rapidos ofrece todo un aliciente al que sumar que este grabado en mi ciudad.

Todavia menor aunque conocia a la banda ni me entere del concierto. No esperaba tener en vinilo este directo con los precios que corren asi que fue una sorpresa encontrarlo por menos de lo que vale un menu. . #ramones #locolive #lp #album #33rpm #punk #punkrock #vinylcollection #vinyljunkie #vzeleste #coversalbum #classicalbums #vinylcollectionpost #record #recordcover #garage #live #recordcollection #recordcollector #artwork #design #photography #rock #guitar #classicalbum #newyorkpunk #livealbum

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[sanctobin]

Roy Choi was born in Seoul, Korea and raised in Los Angeles, California. Roy is known as one of the architects of the modern food truck movement through Kogi BBQ by merging food and social media with community and honoring the street food culture that laid the path before him. He is the host of the civic-minded Emmy Award winning series ‘Broken Bread’ on KCET/Tastemade, which in 2020 won him a James Beard Foundation Award for Outstanding Host in a television series. On a global scale, Roy is co-host in the full blown Netflix cooking series ‘The Chef Show’ with Jon Favreau. He is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America.

In 2010, Food and Wine magazine named him Best New Chef. His cookbook/memoir L.A. Son was a NY Times Bestseller in 2013. In 2016 he was named TIME 100 Most Influential People in the World. And in 2017, LocoL in Watts, received the first ever Los Angeles Times Restaurant of the Year award.

Roy resides in Los Angeles where he is a voice and advocate for street food culture past, present, and future, and the co-owner, co-founder, and chef of Kogi BBQ, Chego!, Best Friend at Park MGM Las Vegas, and LocoL.

Instagram: @chefroychoi Twitter: @chefroychoi

[yogsothoths-sugerbaby]

womp womp locol writer plagued with finishing beloved au so they create another au arguably more cringey

[livdiazz]

IG @liv.diazz

[sashafoto]

chef daniel patterson, san francisco (feb. 2017)

my cover story for california sunday’s april issue, out now.

© sashaarutyunova.com

[carolinafishmarket]

Fresh, local, wild caught NC Triggerfish will be in the market after 3pm today from the coast. #fishermen #surfcitycrabseafood #surfcity #surfcitync #surfcitycrab #carolinafishmarket #CarolinaFoodMarket #gottobenc #fishmarket #collaboration #seafood #triggerfish #fresh #locol #wildcaught #nccatch #docktodoor #carolina #nc #charlotte (at Surf City, North Carolina)

[domfoolery]

Locol in Watts

[homocorn]

gamers i start work again tomorrow and i havent Done Work in like 4 weeks god i hope i havent forgoten how