The Tortilla Takes a Road Trip to Korea
By JOHN T. EDGE
International Herald Tribune

TOMAS LEE has long dreamed of selling American consumers on Korean
barbecue.

Mr. Lee, a 42-year-old native of Seoul, South Korea, who grew up in
Mustang, Okla., took a step toward realizing that dream in October 2009
when he opened Hankook Taqueria in Atlanta, serving tacos stuffed with
soy- and garlic-marinated beef, along with chicken and pork, all
barbecued in the Korean style.

"I was going to open a traditional Korean barbecue restaurant," Mr. Lee
said. Then his wife, Mackenzie, had an idea. "She saw this thing about
Kogi on the Web," he recalled. "And I thought tacos might be a way to
get Korean food on everybody's table."

What captured Ms. Lee's attention was Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, a
retrofitted catering truck that rolled onto the streets of Southern
California in November 2008, selling corn tortillas piled with
Korean-style barbecued short ribs known as kalbi, garnished with onion,
cilantro and a hash of chili-soy-dressed lettuce.

Eighteen months later, dozens of entrepreneurs across the country are
selling Korean tacos. Like Buffalo wings and California rolls, Korean
tacos have gone national, this time with unprecedented speed. Few of
these entrepreneurs appear to have made pilgrimages to Southern
California to eat at a Kogi truck. (There are now five.) Many,
especially those of Korean ancestry, say they studied news media reports
of the Kogi concept, recognized their culture at the core, and made the
concept their own.

"You get the feeling that this is our chance to mainstream Korean food,"
said Jae Kim, a Seoul native, selling Korean tacos since February at his
Chi'Lantro truck in Austin, Tex. "And it's happening so quickly. It's
like everybody is realizing that it's now or never."

"I've never tasted anything like this before," said Tim Burroughs, a
recent customer at Hankook Taqueria. "It's as if they're making up a
cuisine as they go."

Granted, Koreans have long eaten kalbi wrapped in lettuce leaves, in a
taco-like fashion. But it's a 21st-century paradox that Korean food,
still considered exotic by many Americans, has begun to gain widespread
acceptance, when wrapped in a Mexican flatbread and topped with taco
truck embellishments.

Last month in Indianapolis, John Ban, 31, raised in Indiana by Korean
parents, and Arnold Park, 28, a native of Seoul, began selling $2 tacos
- corn tortillas piled with nubs of beef, chopped onions, cilantro
leaves and red jalapeño salsa - late at night to club kids who visited
their West Coast Tacos truck.

"First we were going to move to Korea and open a regular taco truck,"
said Mr. Ban, who has worked as a D.J. and hip-hop artist. "Then we
thought we'd do a Korean taco truck in Korea. We settled on doing a
Korean taco truck in Indianapolis."

"The meat makes it Korean," said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a
soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue
dishes. "The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers
that this food is O.K., that this food is American."

Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, a native of Seoul, raised in Southern California by
parents who ran a bodega that catered to a Mexican clientele, said the
Mexican-Korean culinary connection was born of proximity.

"The idea of Korean tacos isn't new," said Ms. Lee, who wrote a
guidebook to South Korea and recently finished writing a Mexican
cookbook. "Koreans run stores. They hire Mexican workers. They eat
together."

"Before, when Koreans ran out of rice and grabbed a tortilla to go with
our kalbi, we called it lunch," she added. "Now we call it a Korean
taco."

The dish may have honest folk roots, but many Korean taco makers across
the country recognize Roy Choi, a Kogi founder, as the pioneering force.

"Chef Roy was the alpha," said Bo Kwon, who has been serving Korean
Oregon Infusion BBQ from his Koi Fusion trucks in Portland, Ore., since
May 2009.

"We just Portlandize what he did in L.A.," said Mr. Kwon, whose menu
borrowed from Mr. Choi's in the manner that 50 Cent sampled Biggie
Smalls.

Mr. Choi respects the work of Koi Fusion, where the specialty is a
marinated short-rib taco, a virtual Kogi knockoff dressed with shredded
cabbage, chopped onions, scallions, bean sprouts, cilantro, daikon
sprouts and salsa.

But he worries about what will happen as more and more restaurateurs
adopt the form.

"If Kogi-inspired trucks change how American eats, I'll be a pig in
slop," Mr. Choi told a November 2009 gathering of chefs at the Culinary
Institute of America's Greystone campus in St. Helena, Calif. "But if
their food isn't any good, I'll be Kurt Cobain."

Mr. Choi's day of reckoning may come soon, for Kogi-inspired tacos are
now legion.

Four Portland vendors compete with Koi Fusion, including Boolkogi,
Bulkogi and Korean Twist.

Ten or more trucks now roll through Southern California, where Bool
Korean BBQ Tacos & Pastels serves Korean, Mexican and Brazilian foods.
Calbi Fusion Tacos and Burritos, financed by an investor in the Baja
Fresh Mexican Grill chain, is selling franchises.

In the Bay Area, home to a half-dozen or so operators, Jomar Guevarra, a
Filipino, and Sam Pak, born in California to Korean parents, work the
MoGo truck, dishing short-rib tacos as well as bacon-wrapped and
kimchi-topped hot dogs.

Although Korean taco saturation is greatest in California, the growth of
the genre is not restricted to the West Coast.

At Meritage in Philadelphia, Anne Coll, former chef of the
Chinese-French restaurant Susanna Foo, serves a Wednesday night special
of braised short-rib tacos, topped with kimchi. (The sous chef Ann Suk
Miller, whose mother is Korean, previously served a very similar dish at
Ansill, another restaurant in the city.)

In Austin, Mr. Kim, the owner of Chi'Lantro, dishes tofu tacos with a
soy vinaigrette salad. "Korean tacos are what's next," he said. "After
that, maybe it's Korean pizza."

In Chicago, Steve Lee, born in the countryside outside Seoul, serves
chips and salsa, aguas frescas and kimchi-topped tacos at Taco Chino, a
restaurant he opened in December in a strip mall.

"A lot of Mexican restaurants have just one flavor," Mr. Lee said. "I
wanted to add another flavor."

Also in town, Del Seoul, featuring Korean-inspired dishes like kalbi
tacos stuffed with short ribs and the rice dish bibimbap threaded with
turnip greens, plans to open late this summer.

Trend-conscious restaurateurs, some with few apparent ties to Korea,
have also adopted Korean tacos as their own.

In Brooklyn, the Oaxaca restaurants advertise "traditional Mexican
fare," but serve specials of kalbi tacos topped with Asian pear slaw.
Sagaponack, a seafood restaurant and raw bar in the Flatiron district of
Manhattan named for a Long Island village, serves kalbi tacos and pesto
fries.

Meanwhile, in January, Ducks Eatery, set within SPiN, a table tennis
parlor in the Flatiron district, began serving short-rib tacos with
oyster kimchi and miso aioli.

While the trend, which Mr. Kwon of Koi Fusion has called "the movement,"
shows no signs of abating, a few Korean taco businesses have already
come and gone.

Yummo, a frozen yogurt cafe in Kansas City, Mo., that sold short-rib
tacos with homemade kimchi, closed last fall. Kogi Shop, a Korean taco
truck in Oklahoma City that was started in November 2009 by a Korean
husband-and-wife team from Los Angeles, last updated its Twitter feed in
March.

And variations on the Korean taco form were inevitable.

Julia Sharaby, of German and Cherokee descent, runs Fusion Taco, a truck
serving short-rib quesadillas and chicken satay tacos in Houston. In Los
Angeles, Masamichi Kiyomiya, proprietor of LA Chicken, serves Japanese
chicken tacos.

In August 2009, Tan Truong and Jonathan Ward rolled out Kung Fu Tacos, a
bright yellow truck, selling nun chuk chicken and wu shu char siu to
office workers in San Francisco's financial district.

The partners had planned a trip to Los Angeles to sample Kogi's food.
But then it hit them. "My wife is Chinese," Mr. Ward recalled. "Why
would I try Korean tacos when I could try Chinese tacos? So I texted
Tan. I wrote 'char siu taco.' And he wrote back 'brilliant.'"

Recalibration has already begun.

Namu is a sleek restaurant in San Francisco operated by the brothers
Dennis, Daniel and David Lee. They call their cookery "cutting edge, new
California." Born in the United States to Korean parents, the Lees serve
dishes like asparagus with guanciale, maitake mushrooms and a
tofu-sesame purée.

Now on the dinner menu are "real Korean tacos," of kalbi and sesame
rice, topped with kimchi remoulade and daikon salsa, folded into toasted
seaweed pouches.

"Every time someone from the press called, they asked if we made Korean
tacos," David Lee said. "It was like we were being typecast. They were
thinking, 'Hey, you're Korean, you must make Korean tacos.'"

"So we gave them they wanted," Mr. Lee said. "Korean tacos, but on our
own terms."

On 7/28/2010 4:52 PM, Victor Sack wrote:

> "The meat makes it Korean," said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a
> soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue
> dishes. "The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers
> that this food is O.K., that this food is American."


Best paragraph in the article.

George L

On Jul 28, 3:04*pm, George Leppla > wrote:
> On 7/28/2010 4:52 PM, Victor Sack wrote:
>
> > "The meat makes it Korean," said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a
> > soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue
> > dishes. "The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers
> > that this food is O.K., that this food is American."
>
> Best paragraph in the article.
>
> George L

I read that story today......guess what I want to make this weekend!!!!

In article >,
Victor Sack > wrote:
> The Tortilla Takes a Road Trip to Korea
> By JOHN T. EDGE
> International Herald Tribune
>
>TOMAS LEE has long dreamed of selling American consumers on Korean
>barbecue.
>
>Mr. Lee, a 42-year-old native of Seoul, South Korea, who grew up in
>Mustang, Okla., took a step toward realizing that dream in October 2009
>when he opened Hankook Taqueria in Atlanta, serving tacos stuffed with
>soy- and garlic-marinated beef, along with chicken and pork, all
>barbecued in the Korean style.
>
>"I was going to open a traditional Korean barbecue restaurant," Mr. Lee
>said. Then his wife, Mackenzie, had an idea. "She saw this thing about
>Kogi on the Web," he recalled. "And I thought tacos might be a way to
>get Korean food on everybody's table."
>
>What captured Ms. Lee's attention was Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, a
>retrofitted catering truck that rolled onto the streets of Southern
>California in November 2008, selling corn tortillas piled with
>Korean-style barbecued short ribs known as kalbi, garnished with onion,
>cilantro and a hash of chili-soy-dressed lettuce.
>
>Eighteen months later, dozens of entrepreneurs across the country are
>selling Korean tacos. Like Buffalo wings and California rolls, Korean
>tacos have gone national, this time with unprecedented speed. Few of
>these entrepreneurs appear to have made pilgrimages to Southern
>California to eat at a Kogi truck. (There are now five.) Many,
>especially those of Korean ancestry, say they studied news media reports
>of the Kogi concept, recognized their culture at the core, and made the
>concept their own.
>
<snip rest of article>

I'm hoping to catch our local Korean taco truck after an interview on
Friday. (Reviews have it that the spicy pork is the best.)

We also have a couple of trucks that do the same with Pinoy food (adobo
and sisig tacos).

As a note, we have substantial local Korean and Filipino populations and a
good selection of "brick and mortar" restaurants representing these
cuisines. But the carts are very popular indeed with office workers,
farmer's market shoppers, and clubbers.

Charlotte
--

In article >,
George Leppla > wrote:
>On 7/28/2010 4:52 PM, Victor Sack wrote:
>
>> "The meat makes it Korean," said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a
>> soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue
>> dishes. "The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers
>> that this food is O.K., that this food is American."
>
>
>Best paragraph in the article.

You're so right! LOL

Charlotte
--

On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 15:30:30 -0700 (PDT), ImStillMags wrote:

> On Jul 28, 3:04*pm, George Leppla > wrote:
>> On 7/28/2010 4:52 PM, Victor Sack wrote:
>>
>>> "The meat makes it Korean," said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a
>>> soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue
>>> dishes. "The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers
>>> that this food is O.K., that this food is American."
>>
>> Best paragraph in the article.
>>
>> George L
>
> I read that story today......guess what I want to make this weekend!!!!

A couple of in town whores?

George L.

On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 17:04:49 -0500, George Leppla wrote:

> On 7/28/2010 4:52 PM, Victor Sack wrote:
>
>> "The meat makes it Korean," said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a
>> soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue
>> dishes. "The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers
>> that this food is O.K., that this food is American."
>
> Best paragraph in the article.
>
> George L

i noticed that, too.

your pal,
blake

On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:52:25 +0200, Victor Sack wrote:

> The Tortilla Takes a Road Trip to Korea
> By JOHN T. EDGE
> International Herald Tribune
>
> TOMAS LEE has long dreamed of selling American consumers on Korean
> barbecue.
>
> Mr. Lee, a 42-year-old native of Seoul, South Korea, who grew up in
> Mustang, Okla., took a step toward realizing that dream in October 2009
> when he opened Hankook Taqueria in Atlanta, serving tacos stuffed with
> soy- and garlic-marinated beef, along with chicken and pork, all
> barbecued in the Korean style.

i could definitely see this as a Good Thing to eat.

your pal,
blake

In article >,
Sqwertz > wrote:
>On Wed, 28 Jul 2010 23:52:25 +0200, Victor Sack wrote:
>
>> Mr. Lee, a 42-year-old native of Seoul, South Korea, who grew up in
>> Mustang, Okla., took a step toward realizing that dream in October 2009
>> when he opened Hankook Taqueria in Atlanta, serving tacos stuffed with
>> soy- and garlic-marinated beef, along with chicken and pork, all
>> barbecued in the Korean style.
>
>And to think we only have 5 of these Korean Taco places here in
>town, starting about 2 years ago.
>
>It's nothing new, Vic.

But it's made it out of Food Cart Heaven, Steve .

Charlotte
--

On Jul 28, 3:04 pm, George Leppla > wrote:
> On 7/28/2010 4:52 PM, Victor Sack wrote:
>
> > "The meat makes it Korean," said Mr. Ban, who marinates chuck roll in a
> > soy and garlic sauce that is traditionally used with Korean barbecue
> > dishes. "The tortilla and the toppings are a way to tell our customers
> > that this food is O.K., that this food is American."
>
> Best paragraph in the article.
>
At this time, yes, "Korean tacos" are American, and an American-style
introduction to the food. What taco truck customers are unknowingly
missing are all the side dishes they could sample if they were lucky
enough to find an actual Korean bbq restaurant. Called "banchan" I
learned here, they include kim chi and other pickled vegetables,
lettuce to wrap the meat in, and other delights. -aem

aem wrote:

> At this time, yes, "Korean tacos" are American, and an American-style
> introduction to the food. What taco truck customers are unknowingly
> missing are all the side dishes they could sample if they were lucky
> enough to find an actual Korean bbq restaurant. Called "banchan" I
> learned here, they include kim chi and other pickled vegetables,
> lettuce to wrap the meat in, and other delights.

I don't remember where I saw/read that, about someone going to a
Korean restaurant and suddenly all these dishes started arriving.
But I didn't order this! to find out it's just part of the meal when
you ate there.

nancy

On 2010-07-30, Nancy Young > wrote:

> I don't remember where I saw/read that, about someone going to a
> Korean restaurant and suddenly all these dishes started arriving.
> But I didn't order this! to find out it's just part of the meal when
> you ate there.

I experienced that, although I don't know if it was me you read about.

I'd been to several Korean restos, all disappointing. This last one,
I took one more chance cuz of the weird name, BBQ Tofu. I don't even
like tofu! But, this spot had seen many restos come and go and was a
stone's throw from my place and I like supporting local businesses.

A couple was there and I asked for advice. I ordered what ended up
being a huge plate of finger sized bbq beef bits. Then the other
dishes started coming. They were all cup saucer sized or a bit
smaller, but there must have been at least a dozen separate dishes.
Basically pickled veggie sides and kimchee and dipping sauces for the
beef main dish. It was a prodigious meal and excellent in every
respect. I hope they are still there when I go back to visit my
daughter and granddaughters. It was one of my more memorable meals at
any restaurant.

nb

In article <kxD4o.10300$9y.8123@hurricane>,
Nancy Young > wrote:
>aem wrote:
>
>> At this time, yes, "Korean tacos" are American, and an American-style
>> introduction to the food. What taco truck customers are unknowingly
>> missing are all the side dishes they could sample if they were lucky
>> enough to find an actual Korean bbq restaurant. Called "banchan" I
>> learned here, they include kim chi and other pickled vegetables,
>> lettuce to wrap the meat in, and other delights.
>
>I don't remember where I saw/read that, about someone going to a
>Korean restaurant and suddenly all these dishes started arriving.
>But I didn't order this! to find out it's just part of the meal when
>you ate there.

I know, I was really surprised because my previous experience was at a
"takeout" style place in a food court. No banchan.

None at the Korean BBQ cart. I encountered it today and went for
the rice plate with spicy pork (spicy enough to make my nose run,
LOL) instead of the burrito or tacos. I wanted kim chee and some rice
to cool it down with . (The kim chee was not part of the plate but was
available as a side.)

But, hey, if it gets people interested in the cuisine, great!

Charlotte



--