Eat Drink Style Korean-Mexican Fusion: Korean BBQ Kalbi Tacos?

What I like best about living in LA is the accessibility to almost any type of food you crave. The SGV is home to many cantonese, chinese and taiwanese establishments. Little Tokyo and the South Bay are home to delicious japanese food. Thai food in Hollywood, etc. But Koreatown has to be one of the largest ethnic enclaves in Los Angeles. Within Koreatown, there's also a growing population of Latinos. Mmm... korean food and mexican food - such good stuff. We've all heard of musical mash-ups. An old 80's song with a current hip hop track, i.e. Same goes with fusion food, which has been the culinary trend of late.

Back in college, bbqing was something that we did frequently. At this one particular bbq, we had a mix of korean bbq ribs and carne asada tacos. A few hours later, after constant binge drinking and eating, we found ourselves left with no carne asada but a gang of ribs. Yet we still wanted tacos. I thought, hey why not use the korean bbq meat. It's still beef. Keep in mind, I wasn't very sober. Without salsa, the only spicy thing in sight was either the trusty Sriracha bottle that never seemed to run out and the jar o' kimchi for god knows how long it was first opened. I chopped up the korean bbq beef and added some chopped kimchi, cilantro, green onions and a nice dollop of guac. Honestly it was good... for being drunk.

And how does it taste in a sober state? I had to find out again after nearly 5 years. I marinated some beef with soy sauce, coke, black pepper, garlic, onions, scallions, sesame oil and water. I wasn't able to find good kimchi and had to resort to the Cosmos brand - bleh. So watery. I grilled the meat at J's place and prepared a kalbi taco the same way 5 years ago. Beef, kimchi, cilantro, green onions, guac... and to add more of a korean flair - sesame seeds. Although my korean bbq marinade sucked, it still tasted good because of the large mix of ingredients. I had to give it to Miss Taco Hunt for the final verdict.

Miss Taco Hunt: "It's good."
Me: "Yeah, and?"
Miss Taco Hunt: "Tastes like a cross between a carne asada taco and a pupusa. They use a pickled cabbage similar to kimchi."
Me: "And?"
Miss Taco Hunt: "Meat is too red."
Me: "Would you eat this again?"
Miss Taco Hunt: "Yeah... maybe."

Would these do well in the LA/Koreatown area? Probably not. Bandini of Great Taco Hunt would probably look at me like I'm crazy. Hey! Guys like weird food. We like Yoshinoya - girls don't! But, one day, if you happen to see a shoddy taco truck running on one spare tire, spitting out black exhaust with Korean & Spanish written on it... it's probably yours truly. So help me pay my rent! Thanks for reading.