I love how there is always a surprise in every neighborhood. Every corner has their own little stashed treasure and hidden find. One such is here, with an interesting play on a category of food I am not too familiar with.

My understanding of Korean cuisine has been limited to Korean BBQ and soon doo bu (spicy tofu) – with sprinklings of kim chi on everything. School Food in Koreatown plays off traditional dishes, food served at home or on the average person’s lunch, and adds their own modern construction of it. Home comfort food – revisted.

Complimentary broth, served from a kettle – One of the best things there, actually. Tastes like miso soup, but less grainy.

Spicy rice cake with pork cutlets. Though the dish is glowing red, it is not that spicy. The fried pork cutlets add a nice texture to compliment the rice cakes.

Combination sushi rolls with squid ink, fish eggs, and spam. I remember the squid ink being my favorite, and maybe the novelty of eating black rice had something to do with it. Korean sushi is constructed with a different taste background than Japanese sushi, so don’t go into it expecting the emphasis on the fish. In fact, there wasn’t any fish in the rolls we bought.

Cheese ramen. Yes, a slice of cheese. No, it’s not kraft – we know because we asked for a second slice.

Tip: don’t mix the cheese into the ramen, just eat it in pieces with your noodles. The soup wasn’t too spicy until you reached the bottom of the bowl – a very comforting dish after a night out on the town.

Spam rolls wrapped with eggs. The construction of this was so pretty, with the delicate eggs lightly wrapping the spam and rice.

Cold noodles (jjol myun) with spicy sauce and seaweed, with a ribbed cut hard-boiled egg. I don’t usually like cold noodles, but I enjoyed this. The seaweed gives that much needed savory and dry addition. The egg was cute.

Wish this was the school food I had growing up, instead of Shakey’s pizza and Carl’s Jr. burgers in elementary school (this dates me as attedning grade school before the healthy cafeteria movement, obviously..)

School Food Blooming Roll
621 S Western Ave, Ste 301
Los Angeles, CA 90005