Korean tacos and taco flash mobs in the news

Taco enthousiasts gather around one of Los Angeles' Kogi BBQ taco trucks

I have been waiting for this moment. I have seen it in my mind. I’m fairly certain that there have been entire books of scripture dedicated to this moment but until now they could not be understood. What am I talking about?

TACO FLASH MOBS

Before we talk about this, or explain what a flash mob is we must first talk about Korean tacos.  This is no typo.  I’m talking about a new taco craze which has taken Los Angeles by storm.  Roy Choi is the head chef of Kogi BBQ, which is a taco truck which explores Korean flavors within the space of Mexican cuisine.

Korean BBQ tacos? Why is Los Angeles so far???

This sounds like a delicious idea and I would love to try it, but to me the really interesting part of Kogi is how they do business.  They actually use online social networks like Twitter to blast locations where the taco cart will appear next.  Whether you hate Twitter or not, it’s a genius use for it to create a fun exciting and ever-changing food experience.  Their are constantly quick messages broadcasting the next destination of the truck such as :

ROJA: 9PM-2AM@The Golden Gopher – 417 W. 8th St in Downtown LA

VERDE: 3PM-5:30PM@SMC – Pearl in between 19th and 20th inside the Campus; 6PM-8PM@UCLA – Gayley & Strathmore;

UCLA location for today will be Gayley and Strathmore. Hopefully, someone will be kind enough to save us some parking at the corner. ~_^

Now some of you out there know from the Myspace SLC Tacos page that for over 5+ years it’s been my dream to get taco flash mobs happening in Salt Lake City.  What’s a flash mob?  Click here.

The success of the Kogi taco carts to create such a fan base with such a (literal) following gets me a little bit giddy.

What do you guys think?  Are we ready to start some taco flash mobs in Salt Lake?  Get hundreds of us to descend on 800 S and State with a few hours notice and eat as many tacos as we can possibly stomach?

I’m curious to hear what you think.

The Kogi BBQ taco trucks have received a lot of press lately in such places as Newsweek and NPR.  Read more from these links :

NEWSWEEK : Thanks to Twitter, America’s First Viral Eatery

NPR : Tweeting food truck draws LA’s hungry crowds

Meanwhile, I’m finishing transcribing audio from an interview with one of the most interesting people Salt Lake has to offer.  He is a taco enthousiast who has owned a street food stand in SLC and he has some interesting things to say about tacos in Salt Lake and their flash mob potential.  Look for that this weekend of early next week.

Later,

Kelly