What Korean-Mexican fusion dish originated as Los Angeles street food?

The Korean-Mexican fusion dish that originated as Los Angeles street food is the Korean taco.

Korean tacos pair a small Mexican corn tortilla with Korean-style fillings and flavors, commonly bulgogi, spicy pork, kimchi, and Korean sauces. The format combines the hand-held structure of a taco with ingredients associated with Korean barbecue.

The dish’s modern popularity is closely associated with Kogi Korean BBQ, a Los Angeles food truck founded by Roy Choi and Mark Manguera. Kogi used Twitter to announce truck locations, helping turn Korean tacos into a widely discussed street-food phenomenon around 2008–2009. The truck’s mobility also connected the dish directly to Los Angeles’s food-truck culture.

A common mix-up is confusing Korean tacos with Korean burritos. Korean burritos use larger flour tortillas as wraps, while Korean tacos generally use smaller corn tortillas and remain open or folded. Bulgogi pizza and sushi burritos are also fusion foods, but they are not the canonical answer to this question.