Weekend Movie Guide 03/04: I Saw The Devil & It Looked Like Rango
Johnny Depp's built his career on characters as varied as they are unusual. In his latest film, the animated Western Rango, he's literally a chameleon actor. More transformation abounds in Beastly, a teen twist on Beauty & The Beast with heartthrobs Neil Patrick Harris, Alex "Number Four" Pettyfer, Mary-Kate Olsen & Vanessa Hudgens.
4 Members of "Asian Mafia Assassins" Arrested for Hate Crime Against Chinese Man Ordering Take-Out from Korean Restaurant
A total of four men, all Korean, have been arrested over a period of several days, for their involvement in an alleged hate crime that took place at a Korean restaurant in Rowland Heights. Los Angeles County Sheriff's officials say that a 25-year-old Chinese American man was the victim of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon following a violent confrontation outside the eatery on February 6th.
Eye Nosh: Kimchee Fried Rice at Shin BBQ
This is the kimchee fried rice at Shin BBQ in Hollywood (corner of Wilcox and Selma)
The food at Shin is great. This time I tried the special house dish Kimchee Fried Rice. It arrived with this gorgeous fried egg on it. Then we mixed in the egg. There is some cooked beef mixed through also. And best of all it's $5!!
Baja Fresh Backs Down on Using 'Kogi,' Goes with 'Gogi'
Not even 24 hours after a post on LAist about Baja Fresh's suspiciously sounding Kogi BBQ-like menu spread through Twitter, the Orange County based company has changed their word usage and released the following statement by Chuck Rink, president of Fresh Enterprises, which owns Baja Fresh:
Is Baja Fresh Straight-Out Copying Kogi BBQ?
In what appears to be inspiration from the street (or a complete rip off) Baja Fresh is bringing new Kogi Korean BBQ menu items to its new concept test location in Irvine. Not only can you get alcohol and cilantro lime rice at the fast casual restaurant, you can get Korean BBQ inspired tacos and burritos that just happened to be partially named Kogi like the famous Kogi BBQ.
New 43-Story Tower Approved for Downtown
A new mixed use tower to across the street from the LA Convention Center was approved today by City Council. It will be New York City-based architect Daniel Libeskind's first for Los Angeles and the savvy architectural readers at Curbed LA are mostly giving a thumbs up. The building, located at 1340 S Figueroa Street, will include " include 273 residential units stacked atop an eight-level podium, restaurants and a spa," according to the LA Times.
Baja Fresh Trying Out Margaritas, Kogi BBQ in New Concept
A Baja Fresh with margaritas, korean tacos, new salsas and step by step ordering like you do a Chipotle? That's what the Cypress-based company is testing in Irvine, according to Nancy Luna, the Fast Food Maven of Orange County. She also notes that one of the franchises in Huntington Beach recently received an alcohol permit, which might be one of the 13 locations that gets the liquor upgrade, according to the chain. The Kogi Korean tacos won't be from the famous truck, but definitely seems inspired by them. According to a blog dedicated to Orange County Mexican food, Baja will let you choose a meat--spicy chicken ($6.59) or Korean BBQ steak ($6.99)--for two dishes: The Baja Korean Taco Platters ($6.59) are two tacos with corn tortillas garnished with Kimchi slaw and sesame salsa Roja, served with cilantro lime rice, black beans, chips and salsa. Their Korean BBQ Burrito will consist of sesame salsa Roja, served with cilantro lime rice and kimchi slaw.
Your Weekly LAist Film Calendar
Look to the skies! The flying saucers will always be there! Not even your local cinematheque is safe when evil extraterrestrials & suave spacemen invade Santa Monica. Should our valiant heroes survive these "Far Out" encounters, they must still contend with a Martian militia, led by none other than our governor himself! I heard it through my magick Tesla Coil!
Kogi BBQ Getting More Popular by the Day
If Kogi BBQ wasn't popular enough with hundreds of people lining up where Twitter tells them to go, now the only Pulitzer Prize winning food critic and journalist has penned his thoughts on the Korean taco truck that LAist covered last month. "The frequent tweets make you feel connected to Kogi, as if you were friends with the owners instead of just another hungry mouth, even if your only contact with them has been a quick fist bump when you picked up your tacos," Jonathan Gold explains. Last night, it was reported that Kogi BBQ was once again so crowded, some gave the extremely long line one look and found a sit down restaurant nearby instead.
Eat This: Korean BBQ With the Edge of a Street Taco
Late last night in Westwood, among the dense maze of housing east of UCLA's campus, was a line, at least an hour's wait for some, of some 500 people waiting to grab some Korean inspired tacos and burritos and maybe the day's special--Kimchi Fried Rice Cake with Egg-Shiso. Meet Kogi BBQ. It's Korean food with the edge of a street taco on a catering truck mixed with the savvyness of Web 2.0 (follow them on Twitter to know their location).
South Bay Korean: Gu Jip
Gu Jip is a hidden gem of sorts. It's not tucked away in a dark alley somewhere, but I sure had enough trouble finding it -- there's no English signage at all except a blue lit sign that says "Tofu House." Not. Helpful. Good thing the suite number is also on top of the door and that matched up with the Gardena address we had in hand.
Korean Feast: Ondal 2
I'll just start by saying this: I LOVE Korean food. These Asian brothers and sisters know how to eat! And the selection of Korean food here in LA is just spectacular, just take a quick drive over to Korea Town and see for yourself.
Old school Korean: Dong Il Jang
Dong Il Jang is highly ranked on Yelp and is one of the oldest Korean restaurants in Los Angeles. It also happens to be one of the higher-end Korean places in K-town. It is a little pricier than the usual cheap Korean places I go to, but you see it reflected both in the atmosphere and the presentation of the food. I'm looking to get away from strictly Korean Barbecue and go for more variety of Korean meals, so here we go.
In Brief: The Korean Superblock
Mayor Villaraigosa, joined by Councilmember Herb Wesson and South Korean Consul General Choi, will celebrate the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the partnership between the City of Los Angeles and the Republic of Korea for the Superblock project.

