Anger Burger

Blah blah blah blibberty jimjam blah.

Look, everyone knows about Kogi BBQ.  Except my mom, I guess.   And maybe my cousin.  And sister.  Okay, everyone¹ back in Washington probably doesn’t know what I’m talking about, and it is for them I will do a little ‘splaining. You see, it’s a taco truck, but it’s Korean, and while the food is good (more on that in a moment) it’s the way that it became famous that is so curious.  It was through Twitter.  They just Twittered where the truck was going to be and the people would come.   Just to be contrary (who, me?) I feel compelled to add that I think the whole “Twitter made them famous!” and “They’re the first viral restaurant ever!” talk is a side-serving of bullshit.  I mean, it’s well-meaning bullshit, but it’s just not good science.  Like, restaurants have never experienced overnight success before?  And add to that the not small issue that Kogi can drive to where the bars are? The only reason this hasn’t happened to a actual Mexican taco truck is because of language barriers (ooo, no she di’int!) and because in L.A., taco trucks are boring.

Anyway, I don’t want to analyze the truck.  I just want to talk about the food.   I figured we’d get a taco, because, well, it’s a taco truck.  We chose a spicy pork and found it to be quite lovely, though no moreso than a traditional Mexican taco — a good one, that is.  Still, at $2 it was a nice bite of food and certainly better than a lot of the gristle-tacos I get slipped around here.

Now, the kimchi quesadilla caused us some grief.  Mike wanted nothing to do with it.  I didn’t think I could eat the whole thing but I desperately wanted to try.  We compromised by Mike grudgingly agreeing to try a bite, which was all the leeway my guilt needed, so we ordered it.  Unfortunately, the walk home caused irreparable damage to the poor quesadilla, being as that I didn’t know it was going to come slathered in liquid.

So a tip to future Kogi eaters: order it without the soup on top (and without the mind-bendingly salty sesame seasoning, too) unless you’re going to slam your face into it toot-sweet.  Otherwise, I found it to be a beguiling mishmash of food – crispy (in places, and in theory), cheesy and rich and threaded with that lovely breathtaking crunch of kimchi all the way through.  Perhaps by design this is one of the better drunk-foods I’ve ever encountered.

Ah, and here’s our girl.  The short rib burrito.  This was a thing of beauty, my friends.  A truly and genuinely excellent burrito.  Not all overwhelmed with rice and beans and lawn clippings and newspapers and whatever the fuck else, but a simple, slender meal of soft, sweet beef, some seasoned cabbage, some… other stuff.  Honestly, I have no idea what was in this.  If I’m reading Kogi’s website correctly, all their burritos are technically “breakfast” burritos with egg and potato, but I can’t say that I tasted or noticed any egg or potato.  I honestly don’t care what was in it — I just want another one.

I have a habit of saying my name “Sunday – like the day” when I am talking to strangers.  Spelling it seems to confuse everyone.  The fellow at the Kogi truck just went, “Oh, okay!” like, yes, like the day between Saturday and Monday.  You know, the Lord’s day:  Sandely.

¹Except for my dad, who is a bigger webnerd than me and sends me emails telling me stuff that is going on in my own town even though he’s 1,200 miles away.