In which Jonathan Gold visits Moko in Culver City and considers the career of chef Gary Robins, the state of banchan in Los Angeles and the efficacy of ordering s'mores.

Banchan, the parade of small courses accompanying a Korean meal, often is ignored by dudes intent on plowing through all-you-can-eat Korean barbecue, but it may be the latest frontier in Los Angeles cooking: highly flavored, exquisitely seasonal, infinitely varied, capable of accommodating any number of farmers market vegetables but spicy, fresh and almost without weight.

Read the complete story in Gold's Counter Intelligence, “Who you calling side dish?” and check out Anne Fishbein's photo gallery. Then, probably, get in your car.

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