after dinner sneeze

t says:  There was a week in time where I found it convenient to eat at a lot of Philly food trucks.  Perhaps I am not as well-trucked as a, but I nevertheless found some pretty interesting handheld foods that are worth mentioning.

As I was walking by Koja’s truck (it’s got some pretty bright colors), I was distracted by their advertisement of a “America’s Top 10 New Sandwich”.  Check it:

KoJa promoting its bulgogi sandwich

I couldn’t let the opportunity pass, so I ordered one and consumed it as I walked:

Koja bugogi steak sandwich = steak + onions + peppers + cheese + bread

This sandwich was interesting because it’s kind of like they made an ordinary cheesesteak except that you replace the standard meat with sweet, succulent bulgogi meat.  Sounds like a good idea, right?  I must say that the bread was wonderful on this sandwich – super soft.  The meat was surprisingly tender (bulgogi is commonly overcooked).  What was interesting, though, is that there was still cheese on the sandwich; the Korean flavor + cheese combination took some getting used to.  In the end, I feel that it was a solid sandwich, and a great deal!  (Something like $5, or maybe less than that?)  I’d give it another go if I needed to.

The next thing I needed to do was to find another Korean-inspired hoagie.  I knew just where to go: Tyson Bees.  But there was one problem.  Actually, there were two.  The first was that they discontinued the steamed pork buns – a favorite of mine, even if the quality of the product had gone down substantially since the truck changed owners (it was never as flavorful as it used to be, but still pretty good for $3).  They did, however, have a Korean bulgogi burrito.  I’ve had it before, but this time I asked them to put the filling onto a hoagie roll.  They did, no problem:

Tyson Bee's bulgogi burrito on a hoagie roll = steak + rice + special sauce + kimchi + other stuff + cilantro

As you can see, this is definitely not like KoJa’s.  While KoJa’s paid homage to the classic cheesesteak, this is very different.  There’s meat and some kind of “special sauce”, kimchi, and a mix of veggies and herbs.  Unfortunately, Tyson Bee’s meat was fairly tough – it didn’t have the give that KoJa’s had.  Bummer.  The bread was also not as soft on the inside or as crackly on the outside.  However, the redeeming qualities were the kimchi and cilantro which added a nice zing to the sandwich.  The rice was superfluous, but of course, this was meant to be a burrito, so I can’t ding them for that. I can ding them for expense, though, as I think it costs more – something like $7-$8.

Conclusion: When push comes to shove, I’m actually going to give KoJa the nod for the bulgogi burrito – I just couldn’t wrap my head around Tyson Bee’s inferior beef.  That said, maybe I should suggest that KoJa should just toss some kimchi in their sandwiches – maybe at the last second.  Or maybe allow patrons to choose kimchi vs. cheese?  I mean, they’ve got to have kimchi because they’re a Korean food truck, right?