WHEN THEY opened Shiku in downtown L.A.’s Grand Central Market in January, Mina Park and her husband, Kwang Uh, knew they wanted to share homestyle Korean cooking that resonated with their own memories of family and childhood as well as the distinctive culture of the city’s vibrant Korean community. The couple quickly hit on doshirak, the Korean style of lunchbox, as the ideal format.
Typically packed with rice, a protein, banchan (side dishes) and various pickles, doshiraks suit the crowd at Grand Central Market: office workers grabbing to-go and diners looking for meals to take home or to a picnic spot. It’s a functional meal with an appealing design, each element complementing the others visually as well as in taste and texture.
A popular vegan option, Temple Tangsu, consists of fried pyogo mushrooms with a dusting of savory dried doenjang (fermented soybean paste). Inspired by Korean temple food, the dish has special significance for the couple, who met at a Buddhist temple. A banchan of spicy tuna nods to a canned version popular in Korea that both Mr. Uh and Ms. Park ate as children. “[Kwang] and his father would go on weekly hikes, and his dad would whip out this can of tuna in the forest,” said Ms. Park. “My family and I would be on a boat and bust them out. It evokes memories of outdoor excursions for us.”
With the pandemic pushing restaurants to rethink to-go containers for outdoor dining as well as take-out, many Korean chefs stateside have seized on the boxed lunch. “Doshirak is so naturally fitting for takeaway,” said Peter Cho of Han Oak and Toki restaurants in Portland, Ore. “Korean dining is communal and sharing, which is hard to have these days.” Mr. Cho added that doshiraks allow each guest to try different parts of the menu at once.
“It just lends itself to the times,” Mr. Cho said. “Because you get this compartmentalized container, it’s nice to be able to pair the different kimchi, kakduki, baechu kimchi and pickles. For me, all the food that we’ve done is closely tied to my personal experience.”
