While in Redlands CA for a month visiting with my cousins, we all went to a wonderful art show in Pasadena. We assumed that there would be food trucks or concessions so decided to eat lunch while meandering through the show booths. To our surprise we spied the Kogi Food Truck in Pasadena CA!
Steve’s about to get in line to order our Kogi BBQ
I had read so much about Kogi BBQ in the many online publications that I read. I also read founder Roy Choi’s memoir/cookbook L.A. Son, and remember wanting to eat the pages because the recipes sounded so flavorful and yummy.
Roy Choi is a Korean-American chef who rose to fame as the creator of the gourmet Korean-Mexican taco truck Kogi. Choi is a chef who is well known for unfancy food. But he’s probably best known for being one of the founders of the gourmet food truck movement. And that led him to be a consultant on one of my all time favorite movies “The Chef”.
The Kogi food truck started in 2008, bringing a humble Korean short rib taco to the streets of LA. Using social media to drive hungry revelers to a nightclub in Hollywood in the middle of the night. Then they started to create crowds craving their food across the whole city using a new form of dialogue and culture to transmit their message.
The Kogi menu
Since then Kogi food trucks have gone on to feed people on almost every street from LA to OC to the South Bay to the Valley and so on. The trucks show up at major music festivals and art shows all over California and even worldwide!
Nowadays they have a fleet of trucks, a full catering operation, a bar called Alibi Room, a Taqueria and a rice bowl counter shop, Chego! Quoting KogiBBQ.com: “Kogi set off a flavor bomb that would shake up the foundations of the industry so that street food would never be looked at the same way again. ”
Similar to my Short Rib Burrito from the Kogi Food Truck in Pasadena CA
Photo Credit: Canva.com
So at this point you are probably wondering what we all decided to eat. For me the choice was easy. I wanted the Short Rib Burrito. In fact I was so excited to take my first bite that I hurriedly took one photo of my lunch and started to devour it. It wasn’t until we got home that I realized that photo was totally unusable! Sorry. The one above is just an approximation of my luscious burrito. It was so much more delicious than the one in the pic looks!!!
Steve’s Short Rib Quesadilla with Salsa Verde
Steve ordered the Short Rib Quesadilla with Salsa Verde and it tasted even better than it sounds. Lots of succulent short rib, cheese and a not too spice sauce to enhance it all.
Gail and Frank also ordered from the Kogi truck but I never got pix of their food. Like I said, we were ravenous and too anxious to taste the food from this legendary food truck.
Remember the old days when food cooked and served from a vehicle was known as ordering from a “roach coach”? Thanks goodness that is not the case anymore. The food you get from most food trucks is now restaurant worthy! And if you ever have the opportunity to eat some of Roy Choi’s food from one of his Kogi trucks, run – don’t walk. It’s that good!!!
