Kevin Kwak's Blog

Aunt recommended that we go eat at this Japanese restaurant in Little Tokyo. Little Tokyo resides few blocks and about a mile away from the central business district, aka LA Downtown. I drove by ‘Japan Town’ (what my aunt calls it) many times getting by LA but I’ve never set foot in inside one of its fine retail store.

She said she knows this great ramen place and should go try it out for lunch. If you’re a Korean native, ramen is like the typical afternoon meal you make at home. A very popular Korean ramen called “Shin Ra Myun” could be found in almost every Korean homes, if not, some other ramen brands imported in South Korea or produced here in So. CA [Nong Shim and its subsidiaries opened its first U.S. facility in Rancho Cucamonga, CA]. So I was relucantly to go eat ramen. She reassured me that I will enjoy the bowl of ramen.

The restaurant that makes an authentic Japanese-style ramen was the ‘Orochon Ramen.’ If you are a restaurant owner and want to quickly get the name out, a good word-of-mouth strategy is needed and that is exactly what OroChon restaurant executed.

There was a party of four waiting outside as we approached the entrance. The restaurant was packed with Asian-Americans. The restaurant is popular with its ramen line. Three flavors: miso, soy sauce, and salt. After the flavor selection, you get to choose nine different layers, ranging from super mild to super HOT. The top two spicy level is called Special Level 1 and Special Level 2, the latter being the extreme. There is even a warning print next to Special Levels: Eat at your own risk!!! And yes, they are serious.

I was starving so I didn’t want to spoil my meal with something I wasn’t very sure of. I know my limits when it comes to spicy hot. I ordered Hyper Orochon Level 2 [top 4 including the Special Level line] and my aunt ordered Special Level 2 along with half fried rice.

Our bowls finally arrived and I dug my spoon deep into my miso bowl. The soup was real good and the ramen noodle is real good too. Beat udon, hands down. I don’t know the nutritional facts for the ramen so I won’t comment or compare with the infamous Vietnamese noodle which I was once hooked on.

The funny thing was, my aunt barely touched her bowl. She did took some sip of the soup. When I was half down with my bowl, she said she was full and noticed share barely touched hers. She ate some of the fried rice. As I was almost down with mine, she transferred her noodles into my bowl. Special Level 2 or not, I wanted more. The noodles from Level 2 were spicier and a lot more jalepenos were hiding between the noodles.

Two bowls of Japanese noodles and a plate of fried rice, satisfaction was above the roof. The parking is free for two hours with validation so I’m coming here again in the near future.

Lastly, online or onsite of the restaurant, Orochon restaurant features a gallery of bold Level 2 conquerors. These are young lads that finished the entire Level 2 bowl within a 30 minute time period. As expected, this are young adults in their early 20s to 30s, a lot of them being college students [USC Trojans, Go Broncos, 'Gone in 13 Minutes,' 'Socially Inept.', and etc.]. Might have taken them a couple of practice visits to get to their level or they simply wanted to impress their peers and suffer the consequence that same night, they finished the entire bowl of hell. Brave souls.

Congratulations to all college graduates! I have one more year to go….

I was really looking forward to my summer vacation. I just wanted to relax, watch movies, go hang out, hot spa, workout, read good books, and take everything easy. But I once again have too much responsibilities, errands, work, and summer school. Sigh~

However, from all the midst of work, I went and put everything aside and did what I enjoyed. The past weekend, I played the drums for several church events. I love jamming with the band.

I stopped by California Korea Supermarket in Cerritos to buy Korean bakeries and rented two Korean movies.

A Tale Of Two Sisters

I’ve seen the poster in different websites and I had the urge to rent and watch the movie. Due to spring schedule, I needed to hold off on the movie until today. A Tale Of Two Sisters has been added to my favorite list. I love psychological thrillers! From the beginning part to the end, I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen and I listened carefully to the dialect. Thank goodness I understand Korean because there was no subtitles.
The ending is the best part for all psychological/suspense/mysterious movies. The reason being, there are always some sections that I could not comprehend. And I just love how the ending resolves most, if not all the motives of the characters. I had to visit http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365376/board/threads/ to get find the significance, motivations, purpose, tidbits, every single detail about the movie.
If you watch this movie and have enjoyed it, I also recommend the movie, “Old Boy.” It is a similar Korean movie.

More info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0365376.

[b]Rest In Peace Min Chon[/b]

Today was not an ordinary day. After a 15-consecutive days of rain, the sunshine decided to return home to the Southern Californians. It was noon and I had attended the 1st meeting of the Round Society club, a club for atheists, agnostics, and any other nonbelievers. Maybe I should have not attended. But anyways….

Afternoon at around 5p.m., I was walking towards the locker when I met my KCCC brothers, Jonathan, David, and Suk Ho hyung. While exchanging hellos, David asked if I went to Min’s funeral.

I gave David the o_0 look.
“You mean the tall Min?”
“Yea. Did you go to his funeral?”
“Are you joking David?”
“No. Min got into a motorcycle accident. I thought you knew because you were his high school friend.”
“I lost in touch with him.”

A very shocking news! Min Chon, only 21 years young, a bright future ahead of him….

[font=Geneva]I first met Min Chon back in junior high. He was a good friend of Sam Van, Joon Koh, and Thomas. I did not really know him back in John Burroughs Middle School but had finally had a chance to get to know him. Min attended Van Nuys High School with Sam Van.
I had to take Algebra 2 course in Fairfax high school. Min was a tall fellow, comely, with a sensational personality. Min had the charisma that easily invites people toward his vicinity. Summer school was real fun, thanks to Min. Min’s friend and I ditched our classes and rode the MTA bus to Beverly Center and watched movies. I still remember the time we went to see the “Blair Witch Project” or the time when we visited a liquor store to pick up ‘boricha’ for our lunch.

Time flew and what do you know, I am now attending the same university as Min. How cool is that. Min got into the dormitory in the first quarter and I got in during the 3rd quarter. Surprisingly, I was put into the same dormitory building where Min stayed. Thanks to Min, I met his dorm friends and had dinners together in the cafeteria. We chat on AIM (username was [b]KtownxMin[/b] and forum username was [b]user0005[/b]) many times and we even played Counter-Strike on the dorm LAN.

One year from today, I had the chance to invite Min to a KCCC (christian campus for Christ) chapel meeting. After insisting that he should come take a look, he finally showed up with one of his colleague. I’m thankful that he did show up. I even heard that he came out to a few other meetings too.

A year or two had flown by and we were in our 4th year, which would have been our current year. The last time I had seen Min was on campus, in the engineering building. I was reading and he was on his way to class. I was glad to bump into him and we talked briefly. Min headed off to his class and that was the last time I had seen him.

Tuesday, January 11, 2005, I heard the shocking news. David told me that accident occured a month ago. Due to disconnection, I was not informed of Min’s funeral. So here I am, dedicating this thread, reminiscing of my good friend, Min Chon, and to farewell him good.[/font]