Eat All About It

Korean taco condiments/Photos by David Dickey

In the hidden vertices of Seattle’s food world sit our friends Kye Soon Hong and Eric Vigesaa, generously sharing their good taste, specialized knowledge, and outsized endowments of kitchen curiosity. One week might find them setting up a blind tasting challenge for the city’s best croissants. Or maybe organizing a sukiyaki dinner at Kappo, or introducing friends to the addictive pleasures of Chicky Pub or the cold Korean noodle soup called mul naengmyun, or comparing the two major varieties of Chinese-Korean noodles, a divide that has strained lesser marriages. Not long after we had a wistful conversation about our envy of L.A.’s Kogi Korean taco truck they outdid themselves with a homemade Korean taco party, the marinated meat and toppings so delicious I begged Kye to quit her day job and open her own business. (She wouldn’t. Luckily, Marination Mobile is stepping into the breach later this month.) Now they’ve been outed nationally, with Matthew Amster-Burton writing  about their tacos for Gourmet.com, recipes included.

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Every time a friend visits Los Angeles lately, I’ve been asking about Kogi, the amazing taco truck that’s almost singlehandedly causing trendspotters to call Korean food the next hot thing. I went so far as to figure I could rustle up enough contributions, along with other curious Seattleites, to lure the Kogi trucks to Seattle for a day, and wrote asking if they’d consider a Northwest road trip. The lovely and polite answer: They’re flattered, but don’t think their trucks would survive the drive. We’re still talking options, but that’s a long introduction to say I was absolutely thrilled to learn of Marination Mobile, a Korean-Hawaiian taco truck opening soon on our own Seattle streets.

I talked today with Kamala Saxton, who is founding the venture with partner Roz Edison. In the truck kitchen will be Catherine Calleja, most recently of Yarrow Bay Grill. The first good sign: When Saxton answered the phone, she was busy cooking up a batch of kimchi fried rice, which will be one of the items sold on the truck, complete with a fried egg on top and a garnish of green onions, furakaki and sesame seeds. Other planned menu items: A kalbi taco, a spicy pork taco, braised tofu, and “Aloha Sliders” of kahlua pig on Hawaiian sweet rolls. And, says Saxton (whose heritage is both Hawaiian and Korean), she will not forget the Spam. Tacos start at $2, and nothing will run more than $5.

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