Kogi BBQ - Street Cart Chic

Devoted Kogi fans. Photo: Alexa Weibel.

As street cart fare becomes increasingly sophisticated, heralded Los Angeles street cart Kogi BBQ is being commended across the nation for its brilliant adaptation of local cuisine and its reinvention of advertising concepts. Serving succulent Korean BBQ wrapped in freshly made tacos, the truck's empire has successfully spawned a proper fleet of three carts, spanning the vast Los Angeles vicinity in just one year.

The idea dawned upon founder Mark Manguera, 30, in the midst of a boozy, late-night taco snack: Why not transform the Mexican staple by filling it with a distinctly Korean stuffing? It made sense, Kogi creative director Alice Chin told Slashfood: "For some reason, Korean and Mexican chiles play well together with sesame oil, lime and cilantro." So Manguera partnered with RockSugar chef Roy Choi, procured a truck and took to Twitter – and the streets, in November 2008.

Armed with three trucks, sans fancy PR company or organized advertising, Chin humbly notes, "We are but your local L.A. taco truck... times three!" But it works: The trucks thrive strictly on their masterful Internet usage and -- most importantly -- word of mouth. With a Web site promoting the specials and Twitter updates indicating the weekly locations, the Kogi trucks inevitably attract more people than they can even serve, and specials are usually sold out well before the end of each shift, which serves anywhere from 300 to 800 people in a matter of hours.

More on Kogi -- and a photo of their fare -- after the jump.

Street cart chic, from left: chicken quesadilla, short ribs tacos and sliders and the kimchi quesadilla. Photo: Alexa Weibel.

And Kogi BBQ is something Los Angelenos are passionate about – so much so that they're content with spending the entirety of their lunch hour or a couple hours of their evening waiting in line to tote home a bag of the trademark fusion fare. Though the setting may be unceremonious -- Kogi trucks park mostly in empty lots or on street corners -- their food truck cuisine is anything but.

With a staple menu offering spicy-sweet short ribs, chicken, pork and tofu tacos, burritos and the signature kimchi quesadilla, Kogi also offers a rotating roster of specials, ranging from a Kimchi Pastrami Melt, Short Ribs Sliders or a Chocolate Tres Leches, a spiced peanut brittle merging Cocoa Pebbles and Cinnamon Toast Crunch with cayenne, toffee and cinnamon. Their tacos – which may sound dubious to those who haven't tried – envelop juicy barbecue topped with a Korean-influenced "salsa roja," pickled cabbage and heaps of cilantro, served with orange slices.

But don't call Kogi fusion cuisine -- Chin argues that Kogi is strictly the result of local flavors and influences, preferring to refer to it as "L.A. food." "The word 'fuse' implies that two disparate things are fused or forced together," she says. "The reason why I don't vibe with the label is that our Korean and Mexican flavors get along with each other and they aren't used as a gimmick." In fact, in a region where taco purveyors are more prominent than McDonald's, Koreans have been making their own "Korean" tacos for some time now, making Kogi simply the first vendor ambitious enough to market the food.

Intentional or not, though, the unique marrying of two distinctly different food cultures has garnered Kogi critical acclaim. Adds Chin, "Koreans and Latinos have been living and working side by side for decades, so it's only natural for the flavors to come together in one happy fiesta!"

Kogi has since established a brick-and-mortar locale, at Alibi Room in Los Angeles, and plans for more mobile expansion. When asked of plans for the future of Kogi, Chin says, "For the moment, we're based in L.A. and slowly trekking on down to the O.C.," describing the L.A. food truck scene as uncharted territory of "the wild, wild West." And as for future expansion beyond the Golden State, Chin confesses, "I'm hoping it'll go more in the direction of Portland and avoid the competitiveness and oppressive, bureaucratic red tape that has developed in NYC." Like Kogi, Chin maintains a positive attitude, signing out with her personalized adieu, "Love and tacos."