Flutter me Kogi | Michael Linder

Trendspotting: Flutter me Kogi

Two big trends this week. First, the implausibly breathtaking possibility that Twitter is about to have its tweets choked out by an even tighter killer app. And some truly good news: Los Angeles’ legendary, near-mythical Kogi BBQ roach coach lives up to all its hype. Yes, it does. And then some.

Of course it had to happen. Google wants Twitter, offers $250 million. Twitter laughs it off saying, “Wouldn’t sell for a billion.” And rightly so. Twitter’s search engine does what Google cannot: analyze real-time trends. And Twitter’s got buzz. Anyway, what’s a billion compared to trillions being tossed around these days?

As the Freep’s web editor puts it, “We are Twitter’s currency. Twitter will grow and grow, sell itself to Google or Facebook for billions of dollars, and then another free service will come along and do the same.”

Right. That next big thing? Flutter.

You heard it first — right here…

Topic Two: Kogi. Not the Kogi indigenous people living in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountains of northern Colombia, nor the state of Kogi in north-central Nigeria. This is L.A.’s Kogi mobile BBQ — a smart adventure in restaurateurism that seductively blends two of Angel City’s yummiest cuisines: Korean and Mexican.

Kogi comes to Kinney

I began following @kogibbq on Twitter last week (not taken in by hilarious impostor @omgwtfkogibbq). As every Angeleno knows by now, Twitter is the only way of knowing where the taco truck will next appear. But soon as I began following Kogi, the truck began following me. OMG! There it is, in Brandelli’s parking lot on Abbot Kinney — with a line of foodies and fans some people 50 deep. Pull over!

Erik, taking orders I’m in, on line, hooked by the story at SeriousEats, documenting a day in the life of the little truck that’s redefining the notion of meals on wheels. Its marketing turns out to have been as inspired as its menu, though vehicular food fetishism has a kink or two.

Eric Shin ( < --- a pic of Eric, taking orders) emerges to tell two women behind me they are officially the end of the line and then lays a terrible responsibility on them them — they must shoo away anyone else who shows up.

Fat chance! Another 30 people arrive in the next ten minutes, determined to be fed and refusing to take no for an answer.

The ladies are tortured by their dilemma. They cannot convince the others to quietly go away and feel awful 'cause of their lack of persuasion. But really, who needs such mealtime anxiety, such terrifying gastronomic guilt? Eric, dude. Get a traffic cone with a sign.

The Menu

Gotta say the food is extraordinary. Started with the Kogi Dog which has forever ruined Pinks and Carney’s. Odd to embed that undeniable hot dog taste we learned as kids in a symphony of Korean kimchi sauerkraut. Yum.

The Spring Pork Taco is small but awesome. Tender pork in onions, cilantro and spicy soy-sesame chili in a corn tortilla. Muy delicioso.

But Kogi did me in with the short rib burrito which sorta impersonates its vending machine cousins at first glance — but at first bite? Yow! Ever been served a dish you just didn’t want to end? This was that. I’m drooling now, just thinking about it. Here’s the inside scoop…

kogi-91

Total tab with a Diet Coke: $14.75. If ya get the chance, do this. It’s worth a wait and the crowd’s totally fun to play with — a party celebrating cross-cultural, next-gen, gourmet L.A. at its finest with food we sincerely hope will never be seen in Gelsons’ freezer section.

Follow that truck.

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