Posted by Tammy
From the video: “Taco trucks pull up to curbs and offer LA eaters everything from tofu bowls to Korean barbeque. Customers flock to them, and recently so have police officers. Truck owners report being cited for everything from parking too close to curbs to parking too far away. Sometimes officers shut them down. Why would law enforcement target taco trucks for nuisance violations? Turns out nearby restaurants don’t like the competition.”
This clash between the police, brick-and-mortar restaurants and the truck food scene is not unique to Los Angeles. The business climate is worse in San Francisco. Initial setup costs for a truck food vendor in San Francisco can be as much as $150,000, according to the organizers of San Francisco Street Food Festival. Food and business permit costs an additional $10,000 per year. With those high-start up costs, one marvels at how most of these trucks can keep their costs down to less than $8 per dish.
One Korean fusion taco truck vendor called Seoul on Wheels wasn’t able to overcome San Francisco’s regulation structure. Julia Yoon now does most of her business on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. She started operating in and around Emeryville, Calif., by offering her Korean fusion flavor to Pixar Animation employees.
Some enterprising rolling restaurants have developed coping strategies by setting up weekly or monthly street food fairs. One in San Francisco last summer was very successful, based on the list of corporate sponsors including the Beringer wine brand and Whole Foods Market. Another sponsor was Foodbuzz, a San Francisco-based food blog community — of which both ZenKimchi and Beyond Koreanfornian Cooking have been “featured publishers.”
Police shut down a similar attempt at a weekly street fair in Los Angeles last year. Yet it has come back to life and is being organized as a yearly event. Imagine your favorite tteokbokki (떡볶이) or boong-o-bbang (붕어빵) stand in Seoul only being open once a year. These annual street fairs are better than nothing.
Now you have an idea of the uphill battle American urban food truck owners — Korean and non-Korean — face all the time just to stay in business.
Tammy Quackenbush lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her love of Korean food started when she taught ESL in Chuncheon, Gangwon-do, back in 1996–1997. However, she didn’t become “famous” for her Korean cooking style until she started making cooking videos on YouTube as Koreanfornian Cooking in 2007 (had to put her college degree to use somehow). Her recipes and articles have been featured on Slice/Seriouseats, Foodbuzz, Korea.net and iFoodTV.
If you appreciate ZenKimchi why not buy us a cup o' coffee?Posted by Steve Ward
Steve Ward has been living in Seoul for nearly five years now and has dabbled in many different hobbies and types of work in that time. SteveWard.TV is the homepage of his official online presence.
If you appreciate ZenKimchi why not buy us a cup o' coffee?
Here’s a little blast from the past. EJ and I visit the Namsan Folk Village for Lunar New Year, where we ended up having our wedding in 2009. It was amazingly frigid that day.
If you appreciate ZenKimchi why not buy us a cup o' coffee?Posted by Steve Ward
Not all E-Marts have the roasters, but it seems like the big ones do and it’s usually by the wine, not the other coffee.
Steve Ward has been living in Seoul for nearly five years now and has dabbled in many different hobbies and types of work in that time. SteveWard.TV is the homepage of his official online presence.
If you appreciate ZenKimchi why not buy us a cup o' coffee?Posted by Steve Ward
“CBTL” is supposedly the high-end brand of Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf. At the Seoul Finance Center location they boast their fancy espresso machine, which is the espresso machine of choice of the pope.
After hearing about the place like six months ago I finally found myself in the neighborhood and popped in to check it out.
Please enable Javascript and Flash to view this Viddler video. If you appreciate ZenKimchi why not buy us a cup o' coffee?Posted by Steve Ward
I was asked recently by a friend what the price range was for buying coffee beans specifically at the import chain coffee shops. I happened to have my video camera with me so just decided to pop into the places around my office and see for myself, as I’ve been buying my beans from independent roasters for quite a while and really had no idea what was being charged these days.
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I’ve got another video coming out tomorrow. Hope these have been useful!
Posted by Steve Ward
It’s the weekend! Why not branch out and visit a new area of Seoul this time around?
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It seems like everyone has been to Shincheon once or twice to meet someone that lives near there. It’s a nice little area with some great places to enjoy.
Best places in Shincheon
Realized a map would probably be beneficial. I also found:
Then my browser crashed and I gave up
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I’m out of touch with much of what’s on TV in the U.S. these days. That’s mostly a blessing. But too bad I missed out on this show, Three Sheets. The host, Zane Lamprey, goes around the world to explore people’s drinking cultures. Think Thirsty Traveler but with more wastedness.
It turns out that Zane went to South Korea. I can’t find any clips of the show that I can put on the site, but you can watch the whole episode here.
And it looks like some folks have caught on to some Korean drinking traditions after watching the show.
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If you haven’t checked out Koreanfornian Cooking yet, you should. The host Tamar used to teach here in Korea, Chuncheon to be precise. She’s just posted her version of Ggaenip Pesto 깨닙 페스토. Particularly liked that she credited ZenKimchi for posting it a while back. I should also give more credit where it’s due, for I got the original idea from Evil Jungle Prince, a great food blog that has since disappeared.
If you appreciate ZenKimchi why not buy us a cup o' coffee?
The Marmot has posted some North Korean ads–yes they’re entering the advertising age. One I particularly, um, enjoyed was the Naengmyeon ad (spelled “Raengmyeon” 랭면 up nawth). Great noodles. Hottie North Korean beauties. Karaoke lyrics.
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