Korean Tacos!

So I was recently inspired after hearing about the KOGI BBQ Taco Truck in Los Angeles and about the crowd of people that were coming to his taco stand. I heard about them on NPR as well as on The Food Network. Both stories were about the bending of food and what makes food American. Food is rapidly changing here and we as Americans embrace these new changes and new flavors in our food.


I see this daily being married to my wife. Tia sometimes complains about my cooking although it is tasty she says sometimes it is too "complex." I can give you a great example of this. When it comes to pork BBQ she believes that there is only one ingredient that is needed to flavor her pork…SALT. I on the other hand like to have a complex and balanced blend of spices that not only embrace the pork but bring out additional flavors rubbed onto my pork. The end result is that one of us like it and the other will just eat it. I often complain sometimes about Georgian food being so bland. So it is hard for me to make Georgian food because I want to taste more than just a potato, and for Tia that is all she wants to taste. The point that I am getting at is that we as Americans really have our own type of food. It is an embracement of cultures and the creation of a melting pot that allows us to take a little bit from each culture and combine it into a flavorful bouquet of flavor that allows us to create something new that can appeal to a wide audience. This is what I think the KOGI BBQ Taco truck does. It takes two different cultures and blends them together.
I have read sometimes there is a line waiting for them to pull up with over a hour wait time. Anyways since I don't live in LA I thought of how to make it come to Utah in my own kitchen. Taking hints from various people I have created my own recipe for Korean tacos and I have to say they turned out great.


Marinade:

2 pounds of Boneless Rib eye steak sliced thin. I did mine by knife as I didn't have the availability of the butcher to slice it. But you should be able to call ahead and have it sliced up for you ahead of time. This will save a ton of time. Keep the fat on, as you BBQ you will lose a lot of it and it will give some good flavor to your meat. I cooked mine on a medium heat until it was medium well.



1/2 cup gluten free soy sauce. You can use regular if that is all you have.

3 cloves of garlic chopped

1 medium onion chopped.

2 Tbsp sesame seeds

1 Tbsp fresh chopped ginger

1/2 cup rice vinegar

1 dried cayenne pepper chopped. 1/8 power cayenne or to taste

1 pinch kosher salt 1 pinch of pepper

2/3 cup of light brown sugar

3 green onions chopped



Combine all of this into a gallon ziplock sized bag and mix. Add your beef to the mix and marinade for 12-24 hours. After you marinade, BBQ on a medium heat until cooked. Once it is cooked you will chop it all up for your tacos.


*Korean Salsa:

1/2 cup of chilli and garlic paste

1 tbsp seasme oil

1 tsp fresh ginger



Mix together and serve on top of your tacos


Kimchi:

I just used a bottle of Korean Kimchi from my local Korean store.



Serve with flour or corn torillas and garnish with sesame seeds and fresh lettuce

*the salsa packs some heat. The kimchi that I had wasn't too spicy.