Bulgogi pork cheesesteak (Koja)

Have you ever found yourself torn between choosing spicy Korean pork and cheesesteak? One is a well groomed package of oily convenience, while the other is a deliciously spicy mess of a meal with limited mobility. How can you possibly decide!? Good news... you don't have to. In somewhat of a conflict of interest, I didn't write about Koja (the hybrid Korean-Japanese truck that lives on 38th street) here, but this... I couldn't bring myself to write for another site. It's like I'm cheating on myself or something. Anyway, I present to you... the bulgogi pork cheesesteak.

I don't think I need to really explain this one. You take a regular hoagie roll, layer some cheese inside (I'm guessing provolone?), and layer on spicy bulgogi (or however you want to spell it) pork w/peppers and onions. A stroke of pure genius. Nothing could make this sandwich any better.



Oh wait. Yes there is. It is $3. For just $3, you get a 10" sandwich stuffed with an entire serving of spicy pork with gochujang. If I could somehow quantify taste and value per dollar, this shit would be off the charts. Just consider the fact that you can have 30" of spicy pork cheesesteak for less than a single Hamilton. Fuck, I bet even Kim Jong Il would be down with that. Insane.



But the thing is, even if it were twice the price, I'd still absolutely love it. That's how good it is in actuality. The bread is a plain hoagie roll that gets toasted, but the part that makes it special is the fact that it somehow gets covered in a thin coating of sweet chili oil. Spectacularly flavorful and soft, it's the kind of combination I wish all my sandwich breads used. Inside, the pork is no slouch either. Cooked fresh with a heaping handful of onions and a mix of red and green peppers, the pork is just spicy enough to numb the tongue without going overboard. Adequately tender, the cheapish meat, high in fat content, truly glistens in bright red glory. It's no shabbier than their standard bulgogi, which on its own is pretty good.

I'll put it this way (at the risk of being crucified by traditionalists)... I love my cheesesteaks the original way just fine. Put some peppers, onions, cheese and plain steak on a roll and I'd consider it a fine meal. If you give me the option of having a jazzed up Korean version of cheesesteak? I'll take that 9 times out of 10. Especially at this price. Way to go Koja.
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基隆廟口's best of the rest...

I know what you're thinking... "is he still talking about that stupid seaport? God I wish he'd shut up already." Sorry. Wait, no I'm not. I guess I could've written about 基隆廟口 in a singular long post, but I feel like that would be an insult to each and every incredible shop located there. They're all tremendously unique, and they all deserve their spot in the limelight (even one as weak as my blog). Combine that with the fact that I have the attention span of a goldfish and you'd have a recipe for disaster. Basically you'd get more rambling and made up words than anyone should have to put up with. Anyway, here's a condensed 'best of the rest' post for things I put in my mouth at Keelung.

Stall #55... home of 螃蟹羹, otherwise known as crab 'geng.' Without rehashing a full explanation of what 'geng' is (read here), this stall serves up a crab meat variant. Like Goldilocks said about the stupid porridge, theirs is neither too thick, nor too thin, existing at equilibrium at just the right consistency for slurping with minimal effort. The mushrooms were forgettable, but everything else was spot on. The bamboo shoots were remarkably tender, the cilantro and garlic were playfully complementary in flavor, and the crab meat with fish paste was absolutely sublime. I won't ruin the description by making up fake words to describe how delicious this was, but all I know is for 55 NT ($1.75), you can buy soup that'd put your grandmother's secret recipe to shame. No offense to your grandmothers.



Still from stall #55, is a single serving of 油飯 or oily rice. They're not really famous for this, but it was 25 NT (75 cents). It just seemed like a good value. Besides, you know how Chinese people are... we fucking love rice. Obviously, if I bought soup, I was going to get rice in some capacity. Theirs was pretty average. Nothing really out of the ordinary, just short grain rice cooked with plenty of oil, mushrooms, pork, and shrimp. Nope, what made me decide to mention this was their accompanying orange sauce. I'm not really sure how to explain what it is (you'll see later that it shows up pretty often), but basically it's a thick, citrus flavored sauce (miso based maybe?), that you can slather on just about anything. For reals, I drowned my bowl of rice in this sauce, and oh it delivered.



Hell yeah son, return of sauce! Stall #60 serves up something called 油蔥粿 for 35 NT (just over $1), which is really just taro cake. Another instance of things being lost in translation, this isn't the kind that fat kids like, but rather a savory 糕 kind of cake, like turnip cake. They serve this two ways, either fried or straight from the steamer. Clearly I didn't make the ordering decisions here, as the version I got was steamed, but in the end it doesn't really matter. Having the consistency of a fresh and jiggly rice cake, you have a soft and tender block of... stuff, with the slightest hint of taro flavor. That probably doesn't sound overly appetizing on its own, but the redeeming factor, again, is the sauce. It's like liquid crack that you can pour on everything. Slightly tangy with a long lasting sweetness, this is the stuff of legend. When combined with the steamed block of taro, you get both components of supreme texture and flavor i.e. pure and unadulterated win.

As far as 基隆廟口 goes, I'm sure I only scratched the surface (I wish I were a cow, since then I'd have 3 stomachs), but if a preliminary sampling of random food all turned out this well, I get kind of scared thinking about the potential in the other 50 some odd stalls.
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Tacos Don Memo

Having grown somewhat bored with repetitive visits to the cheesesteak and Asian food carts (despite what this blog seems indicate, I do eat other things...), I thought I'd take the opportunity to fill a craving I've had since I left NYC last year... Mexican food! I'll admit, I'm someone who's never been to the West coast, and never had a truly mind boggling taco or burrito experience (the best I've probably had is Tacqueria Y Fonda near Columbia). I'm definitely down with the whole Chipotle/Qdoba scene, so take my words how you will. Tacos Don Memo is legit.

Simplicity never tasted so good. That's how I feel about the menu. Short and sweet. I mean... just look at that Asian kid pondering what the he wants. He's got that chin on hand thing goin' on. You know everything on that menu must be good if he's having such a hard time deciding, 100% true. In all seriousness, their menu is crazy short. Burritos, tortas, tacos, tostada, and quesadillas, and that's it. Each comes with the option of beef, chicken, marinated pork, or seasoned pork (sorry vegetarians!). Like I said, super simple, but that's probably why their stuff is so good. They don't have to fuck around with trying to make 20 different types of food. What's that stupid programming acroynm? K.I.S.S. - keep it simple stupid.



And the pork torta (marinated please, for the juice content factor). For $6, it's a pretty hefty sandwich, stuffed with more pork than you'd think belongs in a sandwich 8" long. From a value perspective it's solid. Filled with shredded lettuce, jalapeno peppers, onions, black beans, and more mayo/pork than you can shake a stick at, this one probably isn't a meal suited for anyone who cares about their waistline, but honestly... who cares? The meat is pull apart tender and the vast amount of mayo and fat make the contents extremely juicy. In yet another engineering marvel, the sandwich somehow doesn't fall apart at any point during eating (which was confusing given how loose the pork was). This is the work of Mexican leprechauns... I swear it.



Chicken taco? Yeah, I'm not sure what I was thinking. I never go chicken on any taco... ever. I'm a big fan of eating cows and pigs, preferring my chickens to be fried. In this case though, it was perfect. Their tacos are $2, and adequately sized. By which I mean, I suppose I could buy 5 and make a meal out of it. Anyway, these are definitely above average (in the scheme of what I've tasted at least). The shells are soft and pillowy, although I have no proof of them being made in house, props to them if they are. The chicken was perfectly juicy, adequately flavored, and provided just enough oomph in the presence of the other fillings. With just a hint of spiciness, all the flavors played together to form a light, but still powerful taste... heavy in cilantro for those who like it like that (I do).

Is this the greatest Mexican food I've ever had? I don't know, I haven't really been to enough places to even begin comparing. Is it better than places like Chipotle? Hell yeah they are, with the added bonus of serving their stuff out of the back of a truck. I think all these places deserve bonus points for that. Anyway, craving fulfilled.
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George's Lunch Truck

I'll never be a professional food writer. I have neither the qualifications, nor the talent in writing to ever make money doing this, and I'm okay with it. So while Sam Sifton can afford the luxury of being paid to shit all over fancy pants restaurants, I do not. As a direct result of this misfortune, when I go out to eat, my first priority falls on the wallet, with taste being secondary (sad... I know). Luckily, I like food... in all forms. Yes, expensive restaurants certainly have their niche in my book, but like Danny, fast food and generally boring stuff is fine with me too. Shit, I'm a grad student, and like I said, I don't get paid to eat.

This is where George's fits in. If you're looking for the holy grail of cheesesteaks, burgers, or sandwiches... feel free to stop reading now. Actually, if you're even looking for an above average meal, you can probably skip this post. Nope, I'm gonna dedicate this one to all the broke ass students who are sick of dining halls. George's is a food truck that specializes in American cuisine, which apparently just means sandwiches and burgers, for prices that keep my checking account adequately full. Sort of. For example... for just $3.75, you can get a bacon double cheeseburger (see above). Like I said, it's not spectacular. In fact, calling it good would probably be a lie. If I had to find a comparable, it's like a better version of a whopper with bacon, which isn't all that awful. The meat is of the frozen sort, and then cooked through and through, but if we consider the fact that it's only $3.75... it's looking pretty decent now no?



For the same $3.75 you could also get the cheesesteak. Melted white American cheese, a generic 10" hoagie roll, onions, and frozen chopped steak. The recurring theme here is that it's not spectacular, but it's cheap as hell. In a straight comparison of food, Steak Queen kicks George's metaphoric ass, but at 75% of the price, it's acceptable on days I don't feel like walking that far. Basically, with my limited food budget in mind, even though George's isn't a culinary mecca of burgers and cheesesteaks, it's fine by me.
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