Wednesday, November 17, 2010

More dishes from KOJA

Jap chae box (Koja)

I've written about KOJA before (see here, and here), but that doesn't expand on the full awesomeness of their little truck operation. On Friday's I don't really have a set schedule since I don't have class and have zero incentive to wake up to do anything, but you can say with 100% certainty, that sometime after 3 pm... I will be at the KOJA truck getting dinner. Not any other day of the week, just Friday. While this probably makes me sound neurotic and like some sort of idiot, there's a good reason. Sort of. On Fridays after 3 pm, something magical happens... like when the clock strikes midnight and Cinderella turns back into the bumpkin that she is, but in reverse... everything on their menu becomes $4.50, which is all sorts of awesome.

Normally everything on their menu is around $5.50... which, now that I think about it, actually isn't all that expensive, but... I'll take those savings any day!

Jap chae (Koja)

The jap chae here is pretty good. It's not Koreana good, but it's pretty decent. Plus when it's $4.50, you really have very little to complain about. There's nothing out of the ordinary, it's just a really massive portion of glass noodles cooked with vegetables, served over rice, and with 2 fried dumplings. The dumplings kind of suck (never get them as an appetizer... ever), but when you give me carbs on top of more carbs for next to nothing... then we straight yo.

SPICY PORK!

The pork bulgogi is actually one of my favorite dishes at the cart. I know bulgogi should technically be beef, but whatever... sweet beef is just too mild for me. I go spicy pork, because that's the manliest thing possible... or something along those lines. The pork isn't the tenderest cut, and the sauce could use some tweaking, but the main flavor profile is present. By which I mean spicy. If you ask them to cook it mild, it will actually be spicy. If you ask them to make it extra spicy, you will most likely be on the toilet and in pain. You have been forewarned.

Beef sukiyaki yakisoba (Koja)

More noodles! I was once told that I should get the noodle dishes here, since they'll pile them across all portions of the box without wasting any precious real estate for rice. True story. The beef sukiyaki yakisoba was decently good. The noodles were springy, the sauce was savory, with a subtle hint of sweetness, and the beef was appropriately tender, but the main point here is that there's a buttload of food for not that much money.

Basically, their food is alright at regular prices. Not something I'd go to as a default. On Fridays though... shit's on, and I'm always down for Korean-Japanese food (if it's after 3 pm).

7 comments:

esther said...

I get it -KOJA- what a great name! pork bulgogi is actually the right term - uses pork and is usually spicy.

hope all is well! :D

Anonymous said...

omg, I need to try their japchae! That actually looks really good, though I don't really like their noodles that much.

Rodzilla said...

Noodles on top of rice. It doesn't get much better.

Anonymous said...

The yakisoba look they started off using a package of Top Ramen.

Nicholas said...

esther - but I think both of them are Korean... so are they just making bootleg Japanese food under the guise of their truck name!? DECEPTION AT ITS FINEST.

I'm doing alright :)

munchimonster - the japchae >> noodles. The noodles aren't great, they're just not bad.

Rodzilla - you speaketh the truth man. Werd.

Anonymous - yeah it does right? The way I see it, if I tried stir frying ramen, I'd probably fuck it up... so they deserve points/money for doing it for me, and not screwing it up...

camissonia (Arleen) said...

Nicholas, I've been avoiding your blog cuz I'm on a diet and everything you post makes me HUNGRY! Anyhoo, the grub looks good, especially the jap chae.

Nicholas said...

camissonia - I should be on one :( I've gained a few pounds since getting back to the US...

I realized I can't actually cook most of the stuff your blog lists, so I've resigned myself to looking at pictures of the final products haha

Post a Comment

oh snap. I can control the text here?