Nouveau Roach

Over the years grease trucks or roach coaches have served up coffee and stale cinnamon buns for breakfast, pre-wrapped tightly bound sandwiches for lunch and even tasty frozen treats. For the blue-collar worker, fast food is delivered to the place of business. These genuine “meals on wheels” cater to the military, those on a movie set, sporting events and even school campuses.

But this newest phenomenon of mobile catering is the Taco Truck, BKA (better known as) Kogi Bar-B-Que. Ingredients for instant success include one tortilla, one truck, a dash of Korean flavors and the cell phone.

On a recent balmy Orange County evening, the eve of summer, neighbors were preparing for the Santiago Art Walk in the upscale work/live section of Santa Ana.
For a week, “talk” was running rampant across the web that Kogi was coming to town as part of the event.

This particular Saturday night, everyone was a-twitter over Kogi. People started lining up in an alleyway at 7PM and we were lucky enough to be 15th in line for this LA food extravaganza. The “tracking” begins as the line curves around the corner and down the streets of Santa Ana. By 8 PM nearly 300 people were trying to zero in on the taco truck. At 9 PM the orderly crowd ramped up to 400 young people. The average age was 20 something and my husband and I were the oldest in the group by nearly 30 some years. Ouch!

Hundreds of heads bowed low as if they were paying respects to the hand held devices. From above I am certain the scene may have looked like round dark heads and 800 thumbs wrestling with an array of colorful slim rectangles.

Rumors were flying… KOGI, where you? Has the truck been cancelled? Is there another truck in case Kogi can’t get a permit to operate behind the orange curtain? There was also talk about the arrival of a camouflaged truck that has been met by the kitchen police. Was there some sort of inspection the white beauty had to undergo before cooking could begin? But it was all chatter, of sorts.

And then, there she was. At 9:30 the truck poked her head around the corner. There were cheers and applause as the two cooks and owner positioned her into place. The happy 30-year-old Manila born entrepreneur, Mark Manguera addressed the crowd. “Sorry, but we must limit your orders tonight. There is only so much food to go around!” There were some gasps from folks who were planning to buy the truck out for their invisible friends, but the line began to be drawn to the truck and the spicy aroma, one guest at a time.

OMG, it was finally my turn. In an attempt to be gracious, and not greedy I ordered two tacos and my husband went for the sliders and burrito. We marveled at the service and held out our hands for out long awaited gourmet meal.

I don’t know what the secrets (known only to Mark, his wife Caroline Shin and the crafty chef, Roy Choi) are but some of the taco toppings that set off the fire alarm include: sesame chili salsa roja, julienne romaine lettuce and cabbage that is tossed with Korean chili soy vinaigrette. There is a cilantro green onion lime relish, crushed sesame seeds and, then then there is the taco meat. There are other choices like Kogi sliders, Kogi Hot Dogs, spicy chicken or pork burritos and it’s all Korean Mexican fusion.

It’s a new age. That’s what all of us old folks say... marketing through social networking with photos on Flickr and Facebook .

Word around the line is that Kogi owns two taco trucks (rojo and verde) that each truck serves 600-700 people a night in LA and they go through more than 500 pounds of food.

If you don’t want to wait in line for two and one half hours, don’t call ahead; it won’t work at this establishment. But you can try the Alibi Room in Culver City, the home of Kogi.