What should I do this weekend? <- This is always the question on my Mondays! (Something to look forward to and get me through the week T_T) Last weekend, we went to the annual Los Angeles Korean Festival! Free admission, and as always, the parking can be a little tricky in Ktown, but they offered event parking for $5. And since it is an Asian thing, it is all cash only!!! Just like the 626 market!
#1 Shopping
They have a lot of small businesses, such as cosmetics, accessories, packaged foods. They happened to be hosting the Korean Small Business Expo this year, so we saw a lot of products from South Korea as well as familiar vendors in LA. For food, there are SAMPLES! Free things always taste better right? We got to try different pickles, ginseng, tea, etc. It was a lot of fun, and we bought some ginseng products for my grandma and some kimchi for ourselves. They also have a lot of cosmetics and skin products, but the problem is they don't speak very good English, and I am not familiar with the brands, so I didn't buy anything. I should have done more research on what's good to get for Korean brand skin products.... oh well, next time!
#2 Fun
Besides the shopping, they have game booths for kids as well as booths for doing some artwork!! You can paint on a fan or make lotus using paper cups and petals. Not only kids, a lot of adults enjoy the artwork station. They also have price wheel (I got a frisbee), and raffles! I am never lucky enough to win anything, but it never hurts to try!
#3 FOOD!!!!!
When at an Asian event, there's no doubt they have delicious food!!! They have a large variety of food, including Korean street food ( korean ricecake, bulgogi, fishcakes, kimchi pancakes, spicy pork over fries, etc) as well as waffles, bobas, the spiral potato thing, etc. I was so stuffed by all those little snacks we bought along the food alley lol They are so good and...... fattening! Time to go to the gym and burn the food off!
One of my favorite food encounters was the Manjoo. I wasn't even sure what this is at the time, but it looked good and the line was super long, so I decided to try it. (Tips: always follow a long line for food, can't go too wrong) They were sooooo good and definitely worth the wait! They were made fresh, so the cream inside exploded out when you bit into it. I am glad that I got warned by the person who was selling them. And I found this amusing machine that made these little precious cream balls. On the right is a video I took of this awesome little machine. This place called Deli Manjoo is located in Diamond Bar if anyone wants to try those little cream balls.
This is one thing I love about LA. There is always something going on! If you try hard enough, there is always something fun to do!