But more on the sandwich in a bit. This is also about how it's always cool to help make a person's day, even if it's just a small thing that may not seem like a big deal.
So a while back, I stumbled on a Kickstarter campaign to raise money for Osoporto, a company run by Jon Berry that makes really sweet surf-related prints, stickers and shirts that pay tribute to El Porto, a super nice beach in the South Bay. Apparently El Porto was once its own little town, but now it's part of Manhattan Beach. I never knew that. But if you like unique and interesting surfy and beachy stuff, here's the website: www.beachbear.squarespace.com. You should check it out if, like me, you're into this kind of stuff. So I kicked in a little bit of dough and I got a bunch of Osoporto stickers. Look here they are!
One I immediately slapped on the back bumper of my car, and I was trying to figure out what to do with some of the others when it hit me that Kogi trucks are just covered in really cool stickers. What a perfect place for one, no? But I didn't know what was the protocol for getting a sticker on one. So I tweeted both Kogi and Chef Roy Choi with that very question, and I got a response that I thought was so perfect -- they said as long as the sticker "came from the soul and didn't offend" that nobody would stop me from doing it. Well, it does come from the soul, and it doesn't offend. So off I set out on this mission, and the mission was a success! See, look, here's Osoporto on the back of Verde:
I sent the pic to Osoporto and they were stoked! I got a tweet back saying they'd always wanted to be on a Kogi truck, and now they were, so that was nice. Of course, while I was at the truck, I had to have lunch, which you see below, my go-to Kogi order of the three taco combo, with two tofu, and one short rib.
While I was chowing down, I started thing about the guy who started it all, Chef Roy Choi, who has to be the most successful stoner in the freaking universe. I mean, just look at the past year. Not only did Choi release a successful biography/cookbook, L.A. SON, (one that doesn't even cover the Kogi and after part of his life -- so something to look forward to, eh?) but he also opened Pot, Pot Cafe and Commissary in Koreatown's Line Hotel, helped launch Three Worlds Cafe in south LA, announced he's taking on the fast food world with Loco'l, which aims to be a healthy fast food joint, and shot a series of shows for CNN. Oh, and also he consulted on Jon Favreau's CHEF. Just one of these accomplishments would be huge. Taken together it's just amazing, and the total opposite of slackerdom (and by the way, we're not even including in this post Choi's other restaurants, A-Frame and Sunny Spot, although Chego yes…see below).
Man, this guy's busy, right? So how is Kogi these days? Well, quite simply, it rocks. Those tacos up above, for example, were as delicious as the first time I tried them way back in about 2009, when many of us joined this new thing called Twitter so we could figure out where to find the truck. There's something addictive about these flavors and quite frequently I get a craving. Clearly I am not alone. While there were four or five other trucks at the spot where I slapped the sticker on Verde, only Kogi had a line. Take a look:
But it's not just Kogi. I also have a thing for the salty, spicy Kimchi Spam bowl at Chego, Choi's place down in Chinatown. So, of course, when I heard Choi was opening up a bunch of restaurants in the Line Hotel, I was excited. After a surf session one day not long after Pot Cafe got up and running, I stopped in because I saw on the website they had French Bread Pizzas. Okay, here's a confession -- we used to get stoned in high school, and just guess what was the munchie of choice? It was Stouffer's French Bread Pizza. I can't tell you how many times I burned my tongue because we were so freaking hungry we couldn't wait to let the pizzas cool down after they came out of the oven. So I had to try Pot Cafe's version. Have a look:
These were the veggie version because sometimes I like to go vegetarian. Again, more deliciousness, and not just that -- like Proust, these pizzas brought me back -- okay, not to some Parisian patisserie and its Madeleines, but to the smoky paneled basements in the suburbs of my youth. But wait, there's more! I recently read a tweet from Choi that coming to the Line Hotel was lunch at the restaurant, Comissary, and it included not just a Banh Mi (and we know I love Banh Mis) but a Spam Banh Mi.
Whaaaaat?
Now this I had to try. Side note: Spam is also one of those foods that transports me to another place. When I was a kid, I was sent to summer camp. I generally disliked camp. But I did like when we used to go on these hikes up mountains in the Adirondacks. We carried food in to camp sites in backpacks, and somehow I always ended up on kitchen patrol. Always included were cans of Spam. How was it used? As I recall, it was usually at breakfast, popped from the can, sliced, then fried in a skillet over an open fire and served next to a mess of scrambled eggs. Maybe it was the cooking and eating it outdoors, but I loved those crisp, salty, porky slices. So onto Pot's Spam Banh Mi. After a so-so session in somewhat choppy water Wednesday, I stopped in for lunch. You just walk right into the lobby at the Line, and you can eat there, or even outside on the patio. And it was awesome. I loved this Banh Mi. It was salty, a little sweet, spicy, and the fries that came with it were perfectly crisp. What a fun lunch. (And by the way, I wish more people would check out Koreatown because it's such a cool area, and it's just filled with really good places to eat).
Choi isn't just a really good businessman, though. His food is an inspiration. I think ever since I started eating Kogi I started to experiment more with flavors and combinations I wouldn't have thought of. I'm not sure I'd even had Sriracha before Kogi and now I'm an addict, dousing it on just about everything. I mentioned the book, L.A. Son. Well, here it is in my kitchen library, right now chilling out between Suzanne Goin's awesome Sunday Suppers at Lucques and classic Julia Child. See?
Sometimes for lunch I'll make Kimchi Fried Rice, and sometimes I'll make a Kimchi quesadilla, with lots of melted cheese, topped with sour cream and Sriracha and cilantro. I mentioned in a previous post my thing about Ramen -- not the fancy kind either, but the Sapparo Ichiban's packaged version. When I make it and top it with a fried egg, or two, and more cilantro and sriracha I somehow think Chef Choi, who has a Ramen recipe in the book, would approve. Here's mine--
I'm not sure I would have made lunches like this at home in the pre-Kogi era, so I credit Choi with helping me to think outside of the box. Recently I cooked from the book the Kalbi plate. We dug everything about it except I made one mistake. My usual go-to source for meat and fish, McCalls in Los Feliz, was closed for a week of vacation. I had been at our local Farmer's Market, where I saw a guy selling grass-fed beef, and he had the thin cross-cut ribs I'd need to make the Kalbi so I picked some up. Well, we're not big fans of grass-fed beef because it can be gamey, and, frankly, tough. And though Choi's marinade was delicious, we'll try it again with short ribs that aren't grass fed.
So, amazing chef, amazing businessman, but also really an inspiration, a teacher. If all that's not enough for the Beard Foundation, how about also pretty much creating the food truck craze in the first place? Huh? So how about it? I think somebody should start a campaign. Anyway, here are links to all things Choi. Now go eat something good.
Kogi: www.kogibbq.com
Chego: www.eatchego.com
The Line Hotel (for Pot Cafe, Commissary and Pot): www.thelinehotel.com
Three Worlds Cafe:www.3WorldsCafe.com
L.A. Son: www.harpercollins.com/roychoi
Chef: www.universalstudiosentertainment.com/chef
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