Enticed by Korean gastronomy through K-dramas and food documentaries, we strategically planned the LA portion of our trip by renting an Airbnb in the heart of Koreatown. Despite the Saturday night crowds, our well-timed arrival and patience landed us a table at Sun Nong Dan for their famous blowtorched galbi jjim for dinner, which yielded leftovers for breakfast for the rest of the trip. On Sunday, we invited our friend Melissa to the Aquarium of the Pacific, where bat ray petting and lorikeet feeding left Westley’s hair soaked and Melody’s hand nibbled. We recovered with BCD’s soon tofu while watching their sponsored spicy tofu eating contest on TV, then burned off the calories with a rigorous climb to Griffith Observatory, where we experienced our first planetarium show as a family. The steaming kalguksu and mandu at MDK Noodles helped warm us up for dinner, which balanced well with the coconut dessert from MeloMelo. On Monday, we visited La Brea Tar Pits to explore uncovered fossils and asphalt puddles under safety cones, then stopped by LACMA’s Urban Light art installation on the way to Yuchun for their chic mul naengmyun and kalbi lunch combo. We picked up Daiso sponges, Paris Baguette pastries, and H-Mart microwaveable rice, then lazed in our apartment before crossing the street for some hearty housemade tofu at Surawon. We spent Tuesday morning at Kidspace in Pasadena, where we played with pulleys, levers, and bottle rockets, crafted holiday floats, and finger-painted a snowflake ornament. The noodles at Noodles St. were fine, but our epiphany was at Hanbat Shul Lung Tang, where their rich oxtail broth was worth the wait in line. We stopped for a Mang macaron from Dragon Boba and very sweet soft-serve at Bumsam Milk Bar before calling it a night. We checked out on Wednesday, then checked into Wi Spa for their scrubs and saunas while Westley watched his tablet on the heated floors. Our final splurge at Parks BBQ sampled ggot sal, parks gal-bi, bulgogi, brisket, and short ribs, wrapping up an unforgettable culinary journey through LA’s K-town. We had not planned for the lack of child seat options from Lyft upon our return. But holding onto Westley’s belly on our ride home reminded us fondly of this very tasty holiday trip.