One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Seoul Sausage Joins Food Network's Great Food Truck Race in Addition to Planned Brick-And-Mortar
(Photo of the Seoul Sausage team courtesy of the Food Network)
Don't get flustered; your Twitter feed has not failed you. The reason why you haven't hunted down the three Los Angeles culinary teams competing in the upcoming season of the Great Food Truck Race is because the show is switching up its format, featuring aspiring food truck owners instead of seasoned road warriors.
The new season airs August 19, and will feature Barbie Babes (former caterers serving Aussie barbecue), Pop-A-Waffle (a threesome cooking up wacky waffles, including something called a fajita waffle), and most notably Seoul Sausage. Noodle heads who hit up Tsujita might have seen their under construction storefront in Little Osaka, the opening of which is highly anticipated due to the popularity of their various catering gigs, showings at street food fests, and appearances at the popular 626 Night Market.
The owners -- Chris Oh, Yong Kim, and Ted Kim -- grew up together in Korean American families in NorCal, attending the same school since they were younsters. Against their parents’ wishes the guys chased their love of cooking and started up a small business serving up Korean sausages with flair from Chris's apartment. Since then they've developed a stable of encased Korean BBQ flavors like galbi, kimchi, spicy, garlicky pork, and of course a vegetarian sausage for the meat-free crowd. They've also recently added "sausage and balls" to their repertoire -- the balls being made from Korean kimchi fried rice. (Hey, someone had to take over the innuendoes in Starry Kitchen's absence.)
Seoul Sausage's storefront window (Photo credit: Krista Simmons/LAist)
They'll compete with eight other teams on the season which is fully wrapped. It remains to be seen who won the grand prize (a food truck and a $50,000), but whatever the outcome might be, we just hope it doesn't push back the opening of the brick-and-mortar any more. We're ready for a sausage fest!
(At press time we'd tried to reach the owners for an opening update, but had not yet heard back. Last word was for a mid-August date.) The Seoul Sausage team is hoping for a late-August soft open, and an early-September grand opening, barring any major road blocks. The series premieres on Sunday, August 19th at 10 p.m., and beginning the next week will air in its regular timeslot Sundays at 9 p.m. Sounds like perfect timing to us.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
