man. anthony: totally joyless. roy choi: yeah. anthony: uh, what did your parents want you to be when you grew up? roy choi: for me, a doctor or lawyer. anthony: right. you re obviously not a doctor or a lawyer. did you finish college? roy choi: i finished college and i went to one year of law school and i walked out. anthony: right. so, you re a bad korean. roy choi: i m a bad korean. if i was a mediocre accountant, it d be better than being a top chef. anthony: according to who? roy choi: according to korean culture. anthony: right. roy choi: according to korean uncles and aunts. and it s just, it doesn t register that that is a profession. you know? i wouldn t have to explain myself if i just said i was a cpa. anthony: right. roy choi: never. you know, that s, that s, that s weird shit. anthony: i know. you still got some splaining to do. roy choi: still. to just get it across that i, that i cook, and that there was this phenomenon that happened on
so, how often do you make the full circuit between all of your, uh, various enterprises? roy choi: twice a day, every day, unless i m doing something crazy like this. so it s kind of like i have a, a huge las vegas hotel, but the hallways are the streets. [ chuckles ] anthony: first stop, chego, a rice bowl place in the palms neighborhood. roy choi: these are my guys right here. hola! [ whistles ] man: hey, chef. [ speaking spanish ] anthony: kimchi spam, classic. roy choi: yeah, this is the menu right here. anthony: a big bowl of rice with meat, vegetables, and lots of flavor, for less than 10 bucks. good deal. but it s funny to hear you re so sentimental about the business of feeding people. roy choi: it s a trippy state of romanticism, like i m very hard-assed, too. like, you pack your own shit. you get what you get. if you complain, i take the food out of your hands. i give you your money back. but within those rules, there s
beans, and chickpeas, cubes of red and green jell-o, young white coconut, shaved ice and, is that flan? it makes no goddamn sense at all. i love it. roy choi: part of every pinoy filipino s life, halo halo. anthony: nutsy, man. i got to take a picture of that. it s oddly beautiful. all right. roy choi: all right. anthony: you know i m getting a bite of that little what is, what is it? roy choi: it s a little big bite. anthony: little big bite. roy choi: favorite thing in the world. anthony: no, don t say that. [ laughter ] that s actually i like that. roy choi: it s good, right? anthony: aloha. i mean, it just sounds magical. is there, like, pineapple in there or something? yes. hence the aloha. that s a very tasty burger. nice char. roy choi: asian fast food. it s fast food, but it s made by like it was just a single family owned restaurant. anthony: what family made this? roy choi: yeah, maybe [ laughter ] maybe, maybe not your family. anthony: the
david: it s true, dad. we all look the same. [ laughter ] jane: i love it. anthony: he may be a korean gone bad, but dave cho still tries, best he can, to be a good son. he bought them this house in los feliz and visits for family meals, often. in fact, when we first met, sensing it had been a long time without a true home-cooked meal, he invited me to dinner with them. so, guests are not unusual. jane cho is an amazing cook. jane: it s going to be very delicious. david: mom? dad? [ speaking korean ] david: look who s here. jim: hello. david: mom, anthony s here. jane: can you smell something? anthony: oh, yeah. jane: yeah. anthony: good stuff. jane: yeah, all the good stuff s coming. maybe somebody going to hire me later. [ laughter ]
roy choi: mm, that s good. anthony: mm. yeah, all tofu should be spicy, by my way of thinking. it s so good. roy choi: yeah, it s really good. anthony: koreans can well remember when nobody was interested in their food. now it s confusingly au courant. must be strange for the owners, who ve just been doing what they ve been doing for years. roy choi: like, for example, like, us sitting here like this, the questions a lot of people are asking me in korean, like, i m telling them we re filming, you know, we re trying to show a piece of koreatown. the, the number one question is, they re not mad or vindictive, is, why? it s still, why? it s like, why anthony: why would we be interested? roy choi: why would we be interested? why would you waste your time? there s other things to do. anthony: it s an extraordinarily beautiful and delicious thing. roy choi: but see, that s the thing, is the beauty is just already a given. it s already a part of the fabric. so it s lik