theatlantic:

Spicy, Stinky, and Delicious: The Radical Reinvention of Asian American Food

It’s a weekday night at Chego, a rice bowl joint situated next to a convenience store in a postage-stamp-sized mini-mall in West L.A. Customers line up at the register to order dishes like buttered kimchi chow, a bowl of rice topped with fiery Korean pickled cabbage, a fried egg, and red chili tofu, strewn with a colorful garnish of Mexican fried pork rind, and Japanese dried seaweed. Many customers supplement their orders with a house favorite — a glorious mess of French fries smothered in sambal-spiked sour cream, melted cheeses, chilis, cilantro, and pickled garlic. The amped-up flavors — salty, sticky, sweet, spicy, and addictive — assault the senses like stoner food from a Harold and Kumar fantasy.

These loud-mouthed dishes are the inventions of Korean American chef Roy Choi, 42, who grew up in L.A. thinking he was Latino and who in 2008 ignited the food truck revolution. […]

Choi is part of a tsunami of rule-breaking Asian American chefs who have created a new genre of cooking in America: a robust and astonishingly creative blend that draws on Asian, Latin, and Southern foods.

Read more. [Image: Nancy Matsumoto]

This made me cry for some reason.

1. bostonfly reblogged this from theatlantic
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3. bunchabanchan reblogged this from theatlantic and added:

   CHEGO is delicious!!

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8. escranesque reblogged this from theatlantic and added:

   A really great article on Asian American food. Certainly not as introspective as this one, but a good read nonetheless....

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    I wannnnnt

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34. trixsiegrace reblogged this from theatlantic and added:

    This is the reason I would love to move somewhere new one day....food in alabama seems...

35. trixsiegrace likes this
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38. bastardise reblogged this from theatlantic and added:

    Made me order Asian food. Probably won’t taste as good as Chego (et al) are supposed to be. Next time I’m in the US (a...

39. lemonanddil likes this
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41. annwhatever reblogged this from sabotengirl and added:

    live and work by Chego, but never been. Roy Choi is LA’s David Chang.

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43. neblina reblogged this from theatlantic and added:

    NOM NOM NOM NOM NOM

44. ironladyisfe reblogged this from theatlantic and added:

    This made me cry for some reason.

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