Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

With 1.3 million Asians in Los Angeles...it's making me more interested in L.A. and its ethnic communities.

I drove through there a year or so ago, and explored some of the Korean ones, Vietnamese ones, and Cambodian one (they were all very strip mallish - but interesting nontheless).

Are most of them spread out and strip-mallish? Any interesting ones...and anyone been to or had much experience with any of these facts. I'm pretty curious about all these different communities in Los Angeles.

[jg]

I meant to send you a pm about LA since you were very helpful (as usual) in my post about Oakland, but I'll put it here.

Chinese/Taiwanese can be found throughout the San Gabriel Valley. Monterey Park is famous for its Chinese enclave, but Rosemead, Alhambra, San Gabriel and bits of Temple City have tons of Chinese shopping, renters, homeowners, services, video shops, etc. I think Monterey Park is the most famous because it's a bit upscale, but then Alhambra is really nice in parts and San Marino seems to have some Chinese with absolute goo-gobs of money. There are so many foot massage places on streets like Valley that the price has gone down to $10, how the L do they make any money?? And the places are authentic - B/C grade from the health dept, all chinese staff/clientele, etc. Rowland Heights and Hacienda Heights both have some really dense Chinese shopping malls, but the cities themselves are kinda shabby.

Vietnamese -Rosemead and Alhambra have lots of places, but if you want more than pho or the "Bun" bowls, the choices slim considerably. There are places opening up that specialize in crawfish, mainly on the main drags, and there are tons of those "French" baguette places where you can get a Vietnamese hoagie for less than $5.

The Vietnamese and Chinese communities seem to be pretty well integrated, often sharing the same strip malls, shopping plazas along Valley and Garvey Roads.

Ethiopian - Fairfax. Two blocks or so of restaurants and cafe's, not bad, but nothing like Washington D.C. in terms of sheer numbers. Little Ethiopia really is little, and is in the area of lots of Israeli stuff, perhaps there is a heavy Jewish population nearby?

Koreatown is K-central, even with the high population of Latinos. 6th street, Western, Olympic, and 8th are all busy with bustling restaurants and shops. OB on 8th has good fried chicken and big pitcher of beer for cheap. I peddled English at two different evening hagwons in Koreatown and many of the students lived within walking distance, so there are Koreans in K-town. There also seem to be lots of Koreans in Cerritos, Garden Grove, Hacienda Heights, and hanging out in Pasadena and at the Grove, an upscale mall. In fact, you might not realize how many until you take your Korean ladyfriend there and feel about 47.8% of the discomfort you feel going with her to many K establisments to pass the time. Some of the Korean bars will not admit you unless you are Korean, others unless you are with one! Fine, keep your hookers. One of the reasons I'd moved to LA was I thought it would be interesting to live in an area that had Asians besides Chinese, particularly Koreans as I'd had lots of pleasant experiences before, but I must say that Koreatown really turned me off - 4 times (3 LA, 1 Chicago) in my life I have been refused entry into bars, and they were ALL Korean. I spent 2+ years going out regularly in China, never once a problem. I spend almost 5 months living near Koreatown and occasionally wandering (or trying to) into a Korean bar, and boy was it an eye-opener. Also, apparently Koreans are exempt from the no-smoking laws. Well anyway, thats that. The K homies that LA attracts are a different sort, no?

Japanese - Japantown has lots of by-the-numbers sushi places (most seem Korean owned) but there are some restaurants that go beyond the sushi/sahimi/tempura trinity. Torrance has some Japanese stuff too, but who cares? Its way out there, and if you've gone that far you may as well just head for one of the Beach towns, Hermosa or Manhattan. It seems Japanese enclaves aren't even remotely as dense as those of Chinese/Vietnamese

Mexican - downtown is a good place to get tasty Mexican, and it's also a good place to be alert in after dark, though its slowly gentrifying. The area around MacArthur Park has lots of good, good cheap regional Mexican and Salvadoran too. El Monte, a suburb next to Rosemead, has a fantastic selection of great Mexican places, as does Paramount, and both El Monte and Paramount are safer than some of the other areas you might want to go to get your barbacoa on. You'd think good Mexican would be everywhere in LA, but that's not nearly the case, though the more affordable parts of town and suburbs like the ones above and Huntinton Park, West Covina, and many others have lots of Mexican. Compton is good for Mexican food too.

Thai town I don't know anything about.

Soul food - On Crenshaw blvd south of Pico there are a few places, but I was surprised at how few soul/southern restaurants there were in LA. There is M & M's on Carson street in Long Beach, R & J's in Paramount, but it's nothing like Chicago or parts of the South. South Central seems to be burger/taco Heaven, really disappointing from a stomache standpoint.

Cambodian - Anaheim blvd in Long Beach. Apparently they don't get many non-Asians because the times I went there they were surprised. The food is good though and the people were really, really nice.

Armenian - Glendale.

Samoan - apparently they eat in secret underground bunkers because I cannot recall seeing any restaurants or cafes. Or maybe thats the secret to their size: they don't eat, its a reverse thing!

Westminster has a lot of Korean/Vietnamese stuff, but its so far from LA, and you gotta drive past anything interesting in Long Beach to get there. I guess if you find yourself living in/near there thats fine, but its really kind of a lame but delicious bedroom community.

The Korean tea houses are the best! Didn't quite make up for the other azzholey aspects of K-town, but free wifi, (sometimes) awesome teas, hotties galore, smoothies and (overrated) frozen yogurt, and friendly staff/ownership. Is there a law that Korean middle aged women must open tea houses? There must be a billion of them, how do they all stay open? I was really impressed with some of them, the ones that took an effort to make a good product especially. The Chinese tea houses were pretty good, and the Vietnamese were occasionally okay, but some were pretty gangsta, though not exactly unfriendly. How can a place that sells boba teas and mango smoothies also have grimey video poker and menthol flavored air? Is smoking mandatory? How come they are such sausage parties, besides the sketchy looking woman behind the counter?

Chinatown in downtown LA shuts down for the most part when 6 rolls around. There do seem to be some younger chinese in the area, but again the suburbs are where its at. Its not a young, thriving Chinatown by any means.

[Tiger Beer]

Thanks jg!

Some great information in there!

I'm just gonna digest all of that and hoping to hear other comments other's might add or experiences and such as well.

Some of my own:

I went to Long Beach's CAMBODIAN area. It was also heavy heavy Latin American. Everything either Cambodian or Spanish, and kind of ghetto feel to it. Amazing food though!

Also went to Westminister in Vietnamese area. Felt like a mile or two or three of ALL Vietnamese signs absolutely everywhere. But very strip mallish. You definetely needed a car to go from place to place and park in parking lots. It would be strange to just walk around. All linear straight down a main road. Some interesting malls which were ALL Vietnamese. I mean ALL. I was the only non-Asian guy for miles.

I visited two Korean areas. One I can't remember now, which was somewhat similar to the Vietnamese one but mostly Korean (but others mixed in too). Plus the L.A. one near downtown which is mixed around with a lot of other stuff too.

Also drove down to 'Little Manila' which wasn't much of a Manila feel at all. There were some Philippines restaurants, but nothing built like the Korean or Vietnamese areas by any means.

Anyways, thanks JG. Hope to read some more postings and info, and just taking it all in. L.A. is HUGE, and while I saw some areas, there are very large significant other areas I never knew existed, know nothing about, etc.

[jg]

Walking wasn't that bad in LA, I was surprised. People often stopped when someone was in a crosswalk, I even got used to doing it and now I'm back in Chicago where everyone just zooms on through. The public transit, though... surliest and most foul bus drivers I've ever encountered. And though people walk that doesn't mean that the layout makes walking a useful enterprise, not with stuff so spread out. You need to drive somewhere - like to Colorado street in Pasadena, or to Pine Ave in LBC - then get out and walk. You can take bikes on the subway but thats cumbersome and you're likely to encounter people who aren't happy with your bike, understandable really. I gave in and bought a car, however then come the parking tickets (but the meter was broken!!!) and stalking around, trying to find a parking space.

Riding my bike around LA wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either but the sheer number of bad drivers made me nervous, plus those idiots on their cell phones. Driving is a not a right and its way too easy to get a license in the U.S. For a city with two major universities, tons of poor people and fitness buffs, and a great climate, they sure have a pathetic attitude towards marked and maintained bike lanes.

If you go back and are looking for a cool place to wet your whistle, try the HMS Bounty bar on Wilshire and Alexandria in Koreatown. Good food, great east coast tavern style atmosphere, and that part of Ktown has some neat stuff in walking range.

[Tiger Beer]

Thanks jg!

Any more comments, I'm sure there are others who have also lived in Los Angeles or area as well.

[Tiger Beer]

[Yaya]

I had the terrible misfortune of living in Los Angeles for two years, and much of my problem lay with Koreans. So what if you get into a Korean joint, many are lame as can be (Karnak, Le Prive, S Bar and others). Koreans in the SoCal area are downright nasty and unpleasant, and living in that dump called Lala Land just reinforced what I think about L.A. Koreans, not to mention Korean Americans in general.

I did like hitting Chinatown in Los Angeles, as I liked all the nice souvenirs they sold at stores for cheap, not to mention good Chinese food.

Overall, I wouldn't cry too much if an earthquake gobbled that place up.

[Mr Freeze]

...

[samd]

Monterey Park has some good food, and would be the only place I would live in LA apart from Koreatown, which is good compared to the rest of LA, but terrible compared to good neighborhoods in other cities.

LA is a great place to live if you're rich, then you can live Entourage style - driving or being driven to great restaurants, high-end shopping and clubs full of models. For everyone else LA is a polluted stinkhole. The only thing that makes visiting bearable is the food, Vietnamese, Korean, Chinese, Thai, Mexican etc. I had great Peruvian food there too.

People from LA will sometimes defend it, but that's usually because they haven't lived anywhere else.

[jg]

[Tiger Beer]

Pasadena is looking to one of more desireable places in Los Angeles.

The SG Valley would be interesting for the Chinese/Asian feel, but suburban and no bars, wouldn't be so interesting. Sounds better to just stay in Asia.

[Yaya]

I've been to just every place mentioned on this thread, and they all suck. The greater Los Angeles area is mostly a Mexican slum, and you couldn't pay me to live there again.