Posts Tagged ‘Food Truck’
Korean hoagie face-off
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?
Insomnia Cookies might keep me up at night.
t says: The other day I was feeling blue. There’s only one thing to do when you’re feeling blue … eat chocolate! I happened to spot an Insomnia Cookie Truck. Boom. Done deal. I swung by asked, “what’s the best ‘deluxe’ cookie you have?”. The dude replied, “the s’mores one.” I got one of those and one traditional chocolate chip (or chocolate chunk or whatever it is they call it).
Two giant cookies ... sitting in a tree ... k-i-s-s-i-n-g.
Someone took a bite out of my cookie! (It was me)
I dove into the s’mores cookie. Gotta say that it looked awesome. It felt awesome, too (nice and warm). But the taste was only … “ok”. Only ok?! That’s impossible! It’s chocolate and marshmallow and graham! I think it’s because the cookie, itself, was a little dry. And even though it was brown, the cookie didn’t taste super-chocolatey – I kept longing to encounter a chocolate chunk – that’s where the money was. I liked the deep, almost-dark chocolate flavor of the melty morsels. The graham cracker, although good in theory, really didn’t do much for me; the large pieces burst apart into chalky, dry crumbs (maybe they would have been better in the background of a moist-er cookie?). The marshmallow had a fun-to-chew stickiness about it – but some chunks were so large that I found myself chewing long after the rest of the cookie had disintegrated. It cost over $2 – I felt a little cheated.
I saved the other cookie for g. She came home and offered me a piece. Now THAT was a mighty fine cookie. The cookie was sweet (but not too sweet), moist, and studded with plenty of those chocolate morsels that I looked forward to in the cookie above. Mmmmm. Conclusion – when I see that truck again, I’ll be picking up some more plain ones – no question.
after dinner sneeze 