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my journey to explore curry culture in
America has taken me all over New York
City I've had Jamaican curry go in
Flatbush Malaysian curry hotpot in
Chinatown and Japanese curry rice in the
East Village but now as I explore
Korea's relationship with curry I had to
leave the five boroughs and head to the
Golden State I'm here in LA home of one
of the country's largest Koreatown to
see what k-town curry is all about to
help me on my quest
I'm timming up with a true Korean
American icon jay Park is a kpop
heartthrob turn rock nation rapper who
had a breakout year thanks to his Korean
drinking anthem soju from curry instant
noodles to barbeque curry chicken we're
heading to toe bang cafe where chef
Chris O is whipping up a special spread
of Korean comfort classics let's eat
so you just had a song with two chains
called soju what can you tell me about
Korean drinking culture it's extreme in
Korea you can buy alcohol at all hours
of the day everything is open 24 hours
even this place is called Toba okay wait
a minute
Soto means throw up poly means room so
basically this is the throw-up room side
dishes when you drink or our appetizers
or whatever it's called
Anju and that that is very very
important you know you can't drink on an
empty stomach there's a lot of like
soups and broths and stuff like that
while you drink or there's like a bunch
of just a bunch of doesn't punish
it you will probably see something like
today so for those who don't know what
is soju soju is basically the the drink
of of Korea's like the traditional drink
of Korea everybody from younger people
to elders drinking everybody drinks it
from like you know they they they get
lit or like they drink it like one it's
like they're sad or they drink it one
like they try to have a conversation
with somebody like yo let's have some
soldier bro sometime you know so
everybody drinks so we're gonna be
eating Korean curry so my mom would um
you know cook for us like dinner for us
every time we come home from school
every so often she would make curry from
the the instant packets I feel like
Korean curry
it always has potatoes and carrots in it
I know there's cotta which is Japanese
curry I know this Indian curry I know
there's Indonesian curry I know there's
Steph Curry I know there's uh but that's
whole point of this ideas find out what
Korea's but it came from India and it
traveled the world it kind of had its
own journey through different cultures
we're like the curry hunters yeah we are
that's kind of dope all right we're
gonna eat a lot today I'm hungry I did
not eat breakfast okay are you ready I'm
ready
let's get it first up we're gonna be
trying Sam Yang's curry hot chicken
flavor ramen Sam yang is a stir-fried
instant noodle from Korea which became
popular in the u.s. in recent years
thanks to the viral fire noodle
challenge the freeze-dried noodles come
with a thick spicy curry sauce and a
packet of fried potatoes carrots and
other vegetables we oh you do a good
little turn thing isn't this how like
little kids eat spaghetti if you don't
want to eat it like this in Korea this
is I think this is me it grows that is a
straight this is this is cool it's
actually kind of good this is a curry
flavor you know I think the original one
is is is hotter you know you have like
any type of flavor
yeah there's like there's cheese there's
you know spicy there's like black bean
paste it tastes like curry but a very
light yeah
so I heard that Koreans actually consume
the most instant noodles all around the
world what is the obsession with that
it's it's it's good it's easy
my parents eat it like all the homies
eat it like we go to you know like
little PC cafes what's that
so it's called a PC pong it's like a
internet cafe they just stay there for
hours and they just eat you know noodle
and or they study a lot and then so they
need something just kind of fast and
quick and so they eat noodles and then
go back to studying I know that hella
people in korea eat it but i didn't know
that was like they consume more than
anybody in the world there's this whole
internet trend of might say this wrong
yeah that's what we're doing right now
this is muck bug man we're muck buggin
it up walk is like I think it's TRO for
like Wang Ling Wang Zhong and impound is
like pants on so it's like it's like
eating broadcast basically could be
someone trying with just good food or
someone trying weird foods it could be
anything but just broadcasting it you'd
make a shitload of money like this is
doing he just orders hella food like
pizza and is just he just eats it
he gets paid like hundreds of thousands
of dollars a year how do you feel about
the whole Asian hip-hop scene blowing up
in the US I know we have Kris Wu we have
yourself we have 88 rising are we seeing
a moment for Asian rat right now the
space is getting bigger for for people
like me and for people like you know hi
brothers rich Brian people like stupid
young you know that is he's just
Cambodian dude from Long Beach
he's like an Asian yg you know there's
people like dumbfounded who's been
putting off for a while so I think
people are getting used to seeing an
Asian person you know rapping and doing
hip-hop and so like they're getting used
to it so the space for it is getting
bigger next up we have the classic
Korean style curry rice here Chris is
making the dish with a pack of instant
curry powder two cups of cooked rice
potato carrots onions garlic and bacon
and then a fried egg is laid on top
you're breaking the egg first I'm gonna
follow you all right no don't follow me
I don't really carry that often so I'm
just doing what feels natural to me
that's good mm-hmm very like thick
consistency for the curry on the rice
the egg is really nice with it how is
this compared to all the other curries
that you've tried this one's I feel like
maybe a little bit more savory but
similar to a Japanese curry okay
very different from like the Jamaican
and the Japanese ones a little bit more
on the sweeter side you ever had
Japanese curry I have I really like
Japanese curry so from my understanding
curry and curry came from Japan how
would you describe the similarities or
differences between Japanese and Korean
cuisine I mean they definitely have
sushi sushi and like in Korea they have
play
okay it's like sashimi oh and then in
Korea is called a lab Yun and then in
Japanese is called la min okay
ramen oh yeah I feel like in Korea
everything's a little bit more spicy
mm-hmm because they use a lot more
peppers so yeah there are similar dishes
but there the tastes are very different
for sure so I know that this is actually
a big home cooking staple what was the
food like in your house growing up your
mom make this definitely everything we
have rice involved just because like I
love rice and Raijin so it'd be like
Hamburger Helper with rice I could be
like a fusion of western food and in
Korean food I didn't really like Harry
going up I didn't like kimchi before I
went to Korea but now it's kind of like
all I eat is Korean food so we've been
talking a lot about Korea mm-hmm I know
you're from Seattle and you've lived a
lot of your life there Seattle actually
invented the American style of teriyaki
ever since I was growing up till now it
was like there's been hell it's just
teriyaki spots and it's all on my Korean
people so like it all the Korean
families they either own like a dry
cleaning or like a teriyaki splat okay I
guess you know like the Korean Americans
in Seattle they kind of like tick
teriyaki and put their own twist to it
and I used to eat it a lot but not so
much these days well I don't want to get
to stuff cuz we got one more dish you're
gonna love it you're gonna call your mom
and say hey those days that you were
making curry I was wrong mom I'm sorry
okay sure good let's go hey what's up my
name is chef Chris ow I'm a chef owner
of jingle Hawaii Seoul sausage managing
partner at kpop foods and I'm here in
k-town I'm taking over toh bong doing a
curry Korean takeover
Carine a Korean standpoint and Korean
culture was more like a comfort food you
know you'd come home from like a rainy
day you know your mom wouldn't make you
this a nice hot bubbly gooey curry from
out of the packet over some rice it was
kind of like our like comfort food
Asgard chicken noodle soup so basically
different Jane jazzing it was a BBQ
curry chicken with cheese it's based off
this really fun dish in Korea where they
take chicken with some melted mozzarella
but what we did today was kind of just
sparked it up with some curry it's a
really fun and really delicious dish
the first thing I do with that dish was
marinate the chicken in the curry let
that sit for a couple hours and then
once that marinated I threw it right
under the grill well we're looking for
on the chicken when we're grilling it is
that nice char you know I'm sure there's
some natural sugars in the curry that
want to get caramelized the type of
cheese we're using is just good old
classic mozzarella
apparently mozzarella is a big thing in
Korea right now I don't know why but it
tastes good it's nice and melty so we
just use mozzarella pop a little bit of
corn and if you guys know what core
cheese is it's this real real
traditional Korean Street food to
recondition not just that we had did
some shreds of pickled ginger some
pickled jalapenos topped up the little
furikake and put some green onions and
send it out Bombay who doesn't love hot
melted cheese and some delicious acid
chicken we got this burner in front of
us I don't know what we gotta do but we
need some help
yeah so the best thing about Korean
restaurants is you don't have to wait
for a waiter because they have this bell
salt yes sir all right dish yes oh my
god that looks delicious ooh
that cheese how about that's G oh we got
barbecue chicken curry with some cheese
some corn from jalapeno some pickled
ginger waiting for the the fire to melt
the cheese then just take a piece of
chicken take some cheese and just have
one big party in the mouth Wow I
appreciate them of course guys thank you
guys
oh oh all right this looks so intense
I'm excited to try this okay you already
got your bite ready oh my god
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hmmmm I will go this is the one this is
the one this is the one
mmm what was the name of this dish
talking to Chris oh this Alzheimer's
chicken this chicken kind of reminds me
of sindhu a chicken
watch again then duty it's an Indian
style chicken often red when they do it
in at the nude which is like a clay oven
I'm gonna put it in there and it gets
all charred but this is delicious it's
endless
it is it's endless so corn and cheese is
not necessarily a pairing that I've done
before but how big is this in Korean
cooking you would eat corn cheese as
Andrew that when you drink oh yeah when
you drink and so just this place is like
a drinking spot it's called Obama mm-hmm
so I think that's why they have it but
this is this is on another level I've
had cheese and corn together I've had
chicken but I've never had it like all
in the same little pot but this is good
I regret not having it and not trying it
so now but I'm glad I tried it no it's
delicious the chicken with the corn and
cheese and it's like the bubble effect
not in itself look so beautiful and
these little jalapenos and these little
like pickled ginger things they they
they added like a good flavor to but it
this is definitely a good drunk food
like from a night of drinking come here
eat this - yes seal off your day yeah
just knock out well thank you for
joining me Jay you can check out his EP
ask about me and keep on eating that
curry know for sure you definitely will
all right there you have it season 1 is
in the books over the course of the six
episodes I got to learn Jamaicans
language Sean Paul stuck on a shrimp
frame with Jo koy slurp ramen noodles
with Rena Sally Yama died on the ghost
chili chicken with aasif Mandvi and ate
a lot a lot of curry nothing connects
people quite like food and prairie this
heart is a fine mixture of spices and
traditions such as almost every culture
around the world from India to the
Philippines to Korea to Japan
thank you all for traveling with me this
season and make sure to let us know what
crease you'd like to see featured on the
show in the comments we hear we hungry
this is a curry shop and we out
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you
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