Cult favorite Supamu Okinawa Onigiri just opened their first brick-and-mortar location in Koreatown after building a following as a food truck and pop-up. The restaurant has entered the scene where Korean fried chicken joint Michin Dak once stood on 6th and Catalina at 3324 W. 6th St.
Angelenos come to Koreatown for the searing fried chicken and endless assortment of boba and bingsoo shops, and stay because these things barely scratch the surface of the neighborhood’s eclectic and multicultural culinary landscape.
Onigiri can be found all over Little Tokyo about 20 minutes away from the heart of Ktown, and right in the neighborhood if you hit the food court and H-Mart at the City Center mini-mall down the block. But nowhere else will you find Okinawa-style onigiri, also called omusubi.
What makes Okinawa-style onigiri different is that it’s wrapped in nori and folded like a sandwich, unlike the typical triangle and ball shapes you see in Japanese convenience stores. Pork on top of tamago, a Japanese-style omelet with a sweet taste, are the typical fillings. Okinawa-style onigiri was the inspiration for the Hawaiian invention of SPAM musubi. SPAM was introduced to Okinawa as a result of post-WWII military occupation, with the Japanese-American immigrant community in Hawaii creating SPAM musubi.
Today, you can order Okinawa-style onigiri from Supamu without waiting for a specific day that they’re doing a pop-up or got the food truck out. The kiosk has a handful of outdoor seats amidst a quintessentially-LA colorful graf setting, and is conveniently located near the Wilshire-Vermont and Wilshire-Normandie Metro stations. The menu features Okinawan classics like beef sukiyaki and new inventions like the K-pop supamu that has kimchi and corn.
You can even bring your vegetarian friends because they’ll substitute the SPAM for organic tofu for a buck! (Heads up it’s still got egg from the tamago, the only vegan item is the seaweed salad.) Customizations include adding cheese, SPAM, Hot Cheetos, and more.
Not up for the trek to Ktown? You can now get Supamu delivered to you from major food delivery apps, with special promos on their Instagram.
