Seoul Taco

Food trucks. Even though they are driving around downtown and have a permanent spot where they even have a restaurant of sorts, I don't get out to them much. I work in Southern Illinois, close to South County, and while this is still close to downtown, it is still far away enough that it is impossible for me to drive downtown and track down one of the many food trucks within my one hour lunch break.  

Anyways, the situations and variables were perfect one afternoon and I was able to take a quick detour from doing an errand for work, to find this food truck and get what I could.  The only downside was that when I finally found the Seoul Taco truck, they were out of everything except the chicken and tofu. Still, that just means that I need to go back and try a few of their other offerings at a different time. 

Since they had the tofu and chicken, I figured it would be alright, my wife likes tofu and I like chicken.  So, I tried to get a good bunch, since this was lunch for my wife and I and I had to take it back to work. 

What was really cool about visiting the food truck was that after I identified myself to them and asked if I could snap a few pictures of them and the truck for the article, they invited me to the back door to take some pictures of what was going on inside:

These guys were all super friendly and after deciding, I ordered two of the tofu tacos, 2 chicken tacos, a chicken gogi bowl and then 2 of the kimchi slaws. The tacos had this rich flavor to them which I felt like I had experienced before in one of the Korean restaurants in town. This flavor was in the sauce and in the spices on the meat. So, you had these Korean flavors, mixed into this chicken taco on a corn tortilla with some field greens. This was like if someone went by the Taco Grande taco truck and got some of their wonderful tacos and put an Asian twist on them. They were delicious and for only $2.50 each, the freshly made tacos with complex flavors that married together well, it was well worth it. I'd give them a 4 out of 5, so if I returned, I would order them again.

Then I got the "gogi bowl" which is basically a bulgogi bowl with rice and the mixed greens, some sauce and the grilled meat but more closely resembled a bowl of bibimbop.  The meat had the same great flavor as the tacos and it was mixed it with their spicy hot sauce and the rice and fried egg on the top.  The bowl was $7 and while enjoying it, I discovered how much food really is in there for the $7.  All the meat was juicy, the greens were fresh, the sauces and spices were tasty and I had no complaints. I'd also give this one a 4 out of 5.

Now, the last thing left was the kimchi slaw.  The slaw was thin cabbage or radishes and they were tart with vinegar and spicy and tasted like hot and spicy kimchi, to me.  To people who love kimchi, like my wife or father in law, these 1/2 cup servings were inhaled.  I'd say that is a good indication that they were a 4 out of 5. 

My final conclusion is that the trip all over the city is well worth it. The food here is good and is different enough but still uses St. Louis friendly ingredients and flavors that no one here should complain about it. For more information on these guys, you can check out their website at http://www.seoultacostl.com/.  They can be seen on other sites that track the food trucks, but they have their own twitter and can be tracked from their site, more efficiently.