Korean-Americans in Los Angeles are taking their food beyond their neighborhoods. Devoted fans of Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, above, which fuses Mexican and Korean traditions, wait for more than an hour.

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER


LOS ANGELES - As the sun begins to sink behind the Santa Monica Mountains and the northbound traffic thickens on the nearby freeway, the hungry refresh their browsers.

After obsessively checking the Korean taco maker’s postings on Twitter, the social networking site, to see where the truck will park next, the throngs begin lining up.

And they wait, sometimes well beyond an hour, all for the pleasure of spicy bites of pork, chicken or tofu soaked in red chili flake vinaigrette, short ribs doused in sesame-chili salsa roja or perhaps a blood sausage sauteed with kimchi, all of it wrapped in a soft taco shell.

The food at Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, the taco vendor that has overtaken Los Angeles, does not fit into any known culinary category. One man overheard on his cellphone as he waited in line on a recent night said it best:“It’s like this Korean Mexican fusion thing of crazy deliciousness.

The truck is a cult hit in Los Angeles, drawing more buzz than any new restaurant. A sister vehicle and a taco stand within a Culver City bar were recently added to quell the crowds, which Kogi’s owner put at about 400 customers a night.

Kogi, the brainchild of two chefs, has sprung up at just the right moment. Its tacos and burritos are recessionfriendly at $2 each. The truck capitalizes on emerging technology by sending out Twitter alerts so fans know where to find it at any given time.

Yet Kogi’s popularity and the sophistication of its street food also demonstrate the emerging influence of this city’s Korean food purveyors.

In the last few years, second-generation Korean Angelenos and more recent immigrants have played their own variations on their traditional cuisine and taken it far outside of Korean-dominated neighborhoods.

“We thought Korean food was underrepresented here, and we were right, said Robert Benson, the executive chef of Gyenari in Culver City, who has two Korean partners.“There is a certain mysticism to Korean food, and we have tried to make it more accessible.

At the same time, an increasing number of Korean chefs and restaurateurs here have aligned themselves with other nations’ cuisines, to great acclaim.

One of the city’s hottest hamburger spots, Father’s Office, is owned by Sang Yoon, 39, who immigrated to Los Angeles from Korea when he was a year old. He cooked at Michael’s, a well-known restaurant in nearby Santa Monica, before taking over an old bar nearby, now packed with people willing enough to wait in line for an Office Burger. It is served with Mr. Yoon’s choice of accompaniments (caramelized onions, blue cheese, Gruyere, arugula), not theirs. A second Father’s Office recently opened in Los Angeles.

Scoops, an artisanal ice cream store in East Hollywood that whips up strawberry balsamic vinegar and brown bread treats, is run by Tai Kim, who came with his family to California from Korea as a teenager. Korean-Americans have made their mark in the frozen- yogurt trade, too, with Pinkberry and Red Mango.

“The first generation of Korean immigrants here mainly catered toward a Korean clientele, or made grocery markets catering to a minority clientele, said Edward Chang, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of California, Riverside.“But more recent immigrants have ethnic and capital resources that enable them to branch out in the mainstream economy.

Thus,“Korean-Americans have gained visibility since the unrest of 1992, when riots targeted Koreanowned businesses, he said,“and over the last 10 to 15 years, they became much more visible. In terms of economic and political spheres, they are forces to be reckoned with.

Roy Choi, 38, who runs the Korean taco truck, calls himself“the angry chef. He works every night with about five employees who squeeze into the tiny, pristine space.

The idea, Mr. Choi said, was to bring his ethnic background together with the sensibility and geography of Los Angeles, where Koreatown abuts Latino- dominated neighborhoods and where food cultures have long merged. Former Mexican restaurants, now Korean, serve burritos, and Mexican workers populate the kitchens of Korean restaurants.

“We tried to marry two cultures, Mr. Choi said,“with this crazy idea of putting Korean barbecue meat inside a tortilla. We have never tried to make it any more pretentious or different from that, and we wanted to be very simple but delicious.

Recently, Mr. Choi’s team began leasing space in the Alibi Room, a lounge in Culver City, serving up kimchi sesame quesadillas ($7) and hot dogs with kimchi sauerkraut and Korean ketchup.

“It has evolved into a socio-cultural thing for me, he said.“It is my vision of L.A. in one bite.