Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Asian-Mexican food is like me and my roommate.

[My mom chose the name Diana when she came to the U.S. in 1979. She liked Princess Diana. Her twin sister chose Jenny.]

Jenny started a small sewing shop and hired employees who made baby crib accessories for a larger company. Because they're twins, they were close and my mom worked for her sister. She would work from home, in our garage outfitted to resemble a mini-sewing factory. Sometimes we'd deliver the finished products to Jenny. We'd also hang out a bit, especially with my same-age cousin.

At lunch time, food trucks would roll up to serve those who did not bring their lunch. At the time, most of the food was cold. Food trucks amazed me and I always wanted to look at their selection.

Fast forward ten years and I'm in Asheville now. We never really had taco trucks, but I heard of them and wanted some. I live with Yancey who also knows of these taco trucks. They have the best tacos, he says.

One day, maybe two minutes from our house, a taco truck appears where a car wash and little grocery store already stands. I get us tacos for about a buck. We go back, but the taco truck is no longer there. There's a new taco truck down the road, but we don't go anymore. The novelty has worn off for us.

Two years later, I hear about Kogi BBQ trucks. They serve Korean BBQ tacos. Crazy new novelty, a definite fad. I always told Yancey that we should buy a run-down school bus and serve Asian-Mexican fusion food. He never did listen.

I followed the Kogi BBQ trucks on twitter last summer but never found a way to one or was too busy. I stopped following when I went back home of course. Then, all of a sudden tonight I spotted the orange truck outside of Asian Garden Mall. At least I believe it's orange or I'm color-blind. My aunts and I were out doing late-night shopping for beef jerky and dried fruit by the pound when I saw the glow of the white truck against a muggy night. I made my aunt stop by.


I didn't so much know of a menu, or I had forgotten, so I just told the guy two tacos. They apparently have burritos, sliders, and specials. I think it's a Korean BBQ sandwich this week.

They give a generous amount of meat with sweet and spicy slaw. It provided the flavor for the corn tortilla base.

Little pots of something peaked my attention: chocolate tres leches cakes. Oh, hey Yancey! I thought of my tres leches loving roommate immediately and couldn't resist. Good thing I didn't. It's the best tres leches cake I've ever had. From what I've read, there's cinnamon and cayenne in the cake and it's soaked heavily in cream, condensed milk, and whole milk.


The little cupcake-sized tres leches is multidimensional - it has layers! There's a crunchy topping then it bursts open with milk. Wait, there's a ball of tapioca inside to make it Asian. Finally the bottom of the cake emerges soaked in condensed milk. Oh, it was so good. I need more of their desserts now... time to refollow.

Bonus picture from Kogi BBQ

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