As we gear up to Tuesday’s The Daily City Food Truck Bazaar (gear up; get it?), I thought I would do a preview of one of the bazaar’s participants, Korean BBQ Taco Box. Recently, I told you about Big Wheel Provision’s shiny new truck that is essentially a professional kitchen on wheels. But if Big Wheel’s rig is the Rolls Royce of food trucks, Korean BBQ Taco Box’s is, well, the Dodge. A Dodge Sportsman, to be exact, one of a certain age. Its yellow paint job does not appear to have been professionally applied, and you don’t have to get too close to spot the places where it has been puttied and patched. And from what I could see when I peeked through the open screen door of what is essentially a repurposed camper, it is not outfitted with commercial grade cooking equipment. But the food, though perhaps as quirky as the vehicle, is good. At least the spicy pork taco box I sampled was. Actually, on the menu, it says spicy pork tacos, however there was only one. But a big one. The chunks of fried pork had been marinated in a deliciously spicy sauce and folded with lettuce inside a large flour tortilla. I was hoping it might have some shredded kimchi to further the fusion theme, but alas no. There were some other goodies included in the box, however. There were a couple of small rice balls and two little pieces of an egg roll. One compartment held some lettuce with ginger dressing, and there were a couple of pieces of fried tofu and a fried chicken wing. It was plenty to eat for $5.99. KBBQTB has only one table with two plastic chairs for people who choose to eat their lunches onsite. It’s really more of a take-away sort of truck. I had only one major complaint, and that was the length of time it took from the time I ordered my food to the point where it was passed through the window, which was more than 20 minutes. That’s a long time to stand around in the hot sun. But when I saw that one of the people who had placed an order before I arrived was handed three bags of about seven boxes, I figured that was the holdup. And when my order was finally ready, the young man who gave it to me apologized for the long wait, so I’m guessing it was an anomaly. During the day -- everyday -- Korean BBQ Taco Box is parked at the Citgo gas station on the northwest corner of Colonial Drive and Primrose Avenue, next door to a McDonald’s. The actual address is 2705 E. Colonial Drive, Orlando. In the evenings, it can be found at a Shell gas station in Oviedo, at 4300 Alafaya Trail and the corner of McCulloch Road. Click this link to go to the Korean BBQ Taco Box website, but you can call orders ahead to 407-844-3990.
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6 comments:
This is a very unique enclave of food. It's not every day you find a take out place that serves a few rice balls, a chicken wing, a Korean beef taco and some salad with ginger dressing. Receiving such an assortment of food items reminds me of me of going to the cafeteria ( aka Beans) here at Rollins College. Beans always had multiple cuisines to offer on any given day. If you were craving sushi, pizza and salad, Beans could make your wish come.
I l-o-v-e Korean BBQ Taco Box! I ended up eating there one night when it was a late night meal and nothing else was open. My boyfriend, who is likely the most food-picky of the three of us present, was worried over getting salmonella or some other exotic food poisoning. However, when he peeked inside the kitchen even met his concerned standards. As Professor Kupetz explained, something fancy this is not, but the environment seems clean enough and the people working it are friendly. Our Korean friend, who was staying with us at the time, spoke Korean to the people working there and at that point I was sold. I feel like you always know the food is authentic when the people speak the language and have come directly from the country. She found out that the owner of the Taco Box had owned a Korean food restaurant up north and had sold it before hitting the road in the Taco Box.
As Professor Kupetz said, it does take some time to get your food (even if there isn’t a giant order ahead of you). I didn’t think it was too bad, but I went at night so there was no sun beating on me. But it takes some time because I wouldn’t call it “fast food” but closer to a restaurant quality. My Korean friend said the food was halfway authentic. The Korean BBQ (inside the Taco) was pretty close, given the quality you’d expect, and that the chicken wing reminded her of home and street foods that were popular when she was growing up. But, we were all equally confused about the odd, yet tasty, meatballs covered in rice and other little bites of deliciousness.
The only criticism we had of the place was that the food was a bit greasy. My friend’s and mine were fine, but my boyfriend (who got the pork) had a lot of grease in his. I don’t know if it was an odd-ball or the norm for that dish. Either way, if you’re looking for something new to try with a good value I highly recommend the Korean BBQ Taco Box. Plus, they’re nice people there, and I always like to see small businesses that are offering a good product/service supported.
It seems to be a running theme throughout the blog that people comment on how western culture has influenced South Korea. I'm pretty sure every time an article has been posted about food, people start commenting on obesity.
What I found interesting about this article is that it is the first one that I can say with confidence that maybe South Korea is influencing us in the United States. Not only is the food in the Korean BBQ Taco Box authentic (as Claire's friend confirmed), it is also a replica of Korean street food. We have discussed the popularity of Korean street food a number of times this semester, and this article shows how their culture has made its way over to America.
A few months ago I was researching a new restaurant concept when I read about a restaurant chain called Kogi based in Southern California. It serves Korean-Mexican fusion cuisine (spicy pork tacos, kimchi quesadillas, etc.) from four food trucks that roam LA and surrounding areas. The drivers use Twitter to let followers know where they are going to be parked for either lunch or dinner service. It has been very successful and people love the combination of Mexican and Korean cuisine. It seems that the concept has found its way to Orlando! I love that food in America is so eclectic- who would have ever thought that Mexican food and Korean food would make such a great pair? I have not been fortunate enough to eat at the Korean BBQ Taco Box but I plan on checking it out.
If you want to take a look at the Kogi website its kogibbq.com
Kogi has cool branding and a nice looking website for anybody with an interest in online marketing.
I am very interested to try this place one night from the all of the reviews and the price seems very reasonable for the amount of food you get. There are not many places in Orlando that serve Korean BBQ and authentic Korean BBQ from a camper actually sounds pretty good. Some of the best foods I find around town come from the most unlikely of places. There is a similar concept from a burger joint that started out from a trailer called Columbia Burger. They fuse some Columbia taste characteristics into a burger that is now my favorite burger around town. The stand became so successful that the owners dumped the trailer and moved operations to an actual store. I have attached the facebook page to check out Columbia Burger and what the burgers look like.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Junior-Parilla-Y-Sazon-Columbian-Burger/173427531926
If the BBQ taco box moved its location to around UCF or downtown at nighttime it could be very successful because of all of the late night eaters in those areas and eventually transfer into an actual restaurant in the future just like Columbia Burger did.
I plan on trying Korean BBQ Taco Box tomorrow after my final exam. The combination of Asian and Mexican cuisine is actually a popular trend in Florida, Texas, and California. It's a niche market that targets open-minded individuals with demographics that relate to either culture. Variation in general is a concept that's being capitalized in every category of society from technology to apparel. Food is no exception and probably provides the greatest possibilities for creativity.
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