Korean Festival 2010

In the beginning of October, my friends and I went to the 37th Annual Korean Festival in L.A. It's a 4 day event with more than 200 food booths, a parade, beauty pageant, traditional performances, lots of Korean people and other fun stuff lol. I mainly went for the food. I was looking forward to some really good Korean BBQ, bulgogi or kalbi and a Kimchi overdose while my friends went because I forced them to jk. Even my bestfriend Monica who's the world's most picky eater went lol. I told her there won't be any tortillas there hehe...


We started our night by checking out all the food booths and sampling the food. I made Monica taste a lot of weird things. She asked "what's that?" and I said, "just eat it, it's chicken lol". I'm evil but it worked lol. As long as I didn't make her taste pork because she's allergic..supposedly allergic! I tasted a lot of crazy Kimchi. I say crazy because they weren't your typical pickled cabbage that I'm used to. I didn't know what they were called but some hasd really strong and pungent taste that stayed in my mouth for a good while lol. But I didn't mind since they were all good.


This guy in the photo below was hardcore. He was cooking a beef and veggie mixed with red spicy sauce and the lady next to him was cooking some fish on a stick with broth. I wanted to try them but the line for this booth was super long so we had to move on.

The Huli-Huli Chicken had their own booth. We smelled it from a distance and we knew it wasn't Korean bbq. It's a Hawaiian style rotisserie cooked in an open flame. I've seen their restaurant in China Town but I've never tired it before. Monica, got excited when she saw this. Finally, something she could eat lol.



This is the DeliManjoo booth (photo below). There was huge line for these little twinkie looking things so we head over to check it out. They had this machine that cooked these tiny twinkies. Once they're done, the man took them out and stuffed them with a custard filling. It was entertaining to watch how it was made. But we didn't get to taste them because the line was way too long...we had to move on O_o








 We were looking for Korean BBQ but we couldn't find it anywhere. We went to all the booths and we didn't find a single booth that had some kind of korean bbq. Heck, there was even a KFC booth and no Korean bbq? Weird! We probably missed it but I don't know...

We had chicken and pork gyozas and they were so delicious. They were only 4 for a $1. Then I had this weird pasta looking thing (photo below). I forgot what this was called but I call it a Korean pasta lol. Those fat finger looking things were made out of rice. They were soft and very chewy and didn't taste anything at all. You get the flavor from the red orange sauce they poured on top which was sweet and spicy. I liked it but after a while I got tired of chewing. Also, this was a 10 dollar plate. I thought it was pretty expensive but then again they gave me a huge portion so I didn't mind.

Mon and Manuel had the Hulu-Huli chicken plate with rice and salad. I got a piece of the chicken and it was delicious. It was very tender and juicy like OMG! This also was a 10 dollar plate.

I also got this 3 dollar fried shrimp and fries. Nothing special about them but they're pretty good.

On our way back to the car we spotted this super cool food truck called Tornado Potato. I've seen them around many times and I got excited when I saw them parked across from the Festival. All they sell are potatoes. An entire potato spiral-cut on a stick, dipped lightly in batter then fried. Sounds cool right? They are available in with an array of powder toppings like cheddar cheese, ranch, bbq, cinnamon and sugar and many more. Sounds kind of weird but they're really delicious.

Mon and I share a regular with cinnamon and sugar. I didn't think sugar would work with potato but it did and it was the bomb! I could have eaten more but I was already full O_o. I have to stalk them next time to try other flavors.

Overall, it was a fun experience. I was a little disappointed that I didn't get my Korean bbq fixed but then I did get my Kimchie overdose and tasted lots of different things so I couldn't complain. I can't wait for next year!!!

3 comments

Toni Tralala said…
OMG! I love gyoza and I live in L.A. too! I'm totally following you now! :))

I've never heard of this festival. I'm going to ask my husband about it. :)
Toni Tralala said…
FYI, I'm going to Korea Town later cuz this post got me so hungry! :))
Toni Tralala said…
Oh! That sticky rice thing is called ddeok! :) I used to teach Korean kids so I got used to it. :))