Tragic Sandwich

Tag: Kogi BBQ

  • Food Truck Follies

    Once upon a time, there was an empty lot in Santa Monica. Then, the owner of the lot thought, “Hey, what if–instead of selling the lot–I let food trucks park here and sell food?”

    People loved it. All day.

    Then, Santa Monica shut it down.

    So what is a food truck to do? They scattered to the winds. Fortunately for me, two of them landed just a few bus stops away from my office. And also fortunately for me, one of them was posting on Twitter.

    First up, Calbi BBQ. This truck serves Korean-style BBQ. I ordered two tacos: one beef, one shrimp. I got two tacos: one beef, one chicken (I think). Get the chicken–it was excellent, and I didn’t even get the spicy sauce. The shrimp might be great, but I don ‘t know. The beef was fine, but I liked the offerings at Kogi BBQ better.

    A half block away was the truck I’d found via Twitter: Frysmith. As you might guess, they sell fries, topped with a range of multicultural offerings. I chose the Rajas fries, which come with shawarma-marinated steak, poblano peppers, caramelized onions, and jack cheese. This combination is delicious. It’s also a meal, which means that I would have been able to have more of it if I hadn’t eaten two tacos from the Calbi truck just moments before.

    Between the two trucks, though, I’d had a fair amount of spice. What to do? Why, walk across the street to Baskin Robbins and have a scoop of New York Cheesecake, of course.

    So what did this feast set me back? If you add in the water and don’t count the $2 in bus fare, about $13 for more food than I could (and probably should) eat.

    Later, I thought, “Hmm. I probably didn’t need that mid-morning protein shake.”

  • Tiny Tacos, Big Taste

    Each month, a group of us go out for lunch. We’ve tried a number of places around town, ranging from the police academy coffee shop to soul food, and we’ve enjoyed them all.

    Today we embraced social media, and tracked down the Kogi BBQ truck. Knowing that the truck can develop long lines, we got to the location 30 minutes early. Naturally, that meant we waited 30 minutes.

    And it was worth it. Although we had to loiter while they found a workable parking space (a food truck is not a Miata, after all) and then set up, we found that the service was so quick that any earlier delay seemed immaterial.

    I started with the signature short rib taco and found it tender and flavorful. The spicy pork taco was the perfect level of spicy; hot enough to be hot, but not so strong that you lost track of the taste. Both came topped with a cabbage and lettuce salad, sesame-chili salsa, and a cilantro-green onion relish. This sounds like it should be too many flavors for one taco, but it’s not. It’s just right.

    The other aspect of a food truck? All the food is to go. While we had originally planned to head over to a nearby park, we quickly opted to eat right away instead. That’s what curbs are for, right?

    One of my fellow diners brought along a pair of apple tart tatins from La Maison du Pain, a bakery south of the Miracle Mile. Flaky and full of apples–a slice of this was hard to beat after our lunch.

    So not only was our meal delicious, it was international!