eating research

Now what can be better than eating one's research? Tonight, after a full day at FilAm Arts womanning the front desk for the Hollywood Youth and Family Center so that Ms. Grace and Michael could go to their Emergency training, I met up Christable in K-town to do a little research. After driving around the block in an effort to avoid the single man valet who monopolizes the little parking lot, I walked into Beverly Soon Tofu with Christable leading the way. We had to wait a little while for the owner to arrive but I had barely gotten a chance to take in the restaurant before she walked, greeting Christable warmly in Korean before scurrying off to put her stuff down.

The interview lasted about an hour. I quite enjoyed it even though I was barely a part of it. She was more comfortable speaking in Korean so the interview fell to Christable. Watching the interview and the comings and goings in the restaurant became my job. It occurred to me how much I could understand with the few English words the owner used and her animated gesticulations that colored her words, which were, on the face,  unintelligible to me.

Beverly Soon Tofu has been in K-town fro over 20 years and what started as a little "mom and pop" has had to adapt with the times and trends to stay in business, crafting an "authentic" Korean cuisine. There is a soon tofu for everyone, even the vegan! The owner explained to me the English menu, one of the only times she spoke in English. The English language menu(created for the 70% non-Korean patrons of Beverly Soon Tofu) makes it easy for anyone who is not familiar with Korean food to order something that delight their taste buds. The same principle that guides a personalized hamburger guides the soon tofu and bbq at Beverly Soon Tofu. You can get it plain, mild, medium, hot or even hotter if you request it. The name of the restaurant even adapted to non-Korean patrons. The owner explained how she changed the name so that it would be easier for non-Korean speaking customers to remember. The evolution of the restaurant was in an effort to be competitive with the growing number of Korean restaurants in K-town, over 1,000! 

When asked about non-Korean businesses moving into K-town and she thought that it would be a good idea so that more "foreign" (non-Korean) people would be drawn to K-town and bring more business, money, and ideas and these positives would outweigh the fact that rent would go up. She seemed unfazed by the idea that it would displace many people in K-town. She believes it to be the natural flow of things in all the ethnic enclaves. She hopes that K-town becomes a tourist destination like SF Chinatown, her reasoning being that it would still be Korean but not be so much at the mercy of the economy and the influx of new immigration and the proliferation of restaurants that accompanies it.

Her restaurant being a very popular one, one profiled in LA Weekly and documented in numerous other publications, could benefit from "foreign"patrons and businesses and her desire for a SF Chinatown-like K-town makes complete sense for her business and her livelihood. My thoughts about this was only solidified after her obscenely generous dinner of bi bim bop, galbi beef, and a combination soon tofu mild spiciness, when she drove away in her sleek Mercedes SUV. This mom and pop shop is not the the cookie cutter of what I thought I would find in K-town. It is both refreshing and challenging. And it makes me think, everything comes back to privilege, doesn't it?