Holiday weekends are odd--Saturdays feel like Friday, Sundays seem amiss and Mondays feel like Sunday. That was the case a few weeks ago when me and the SO were out and about and starting to feel the need for food. We hit upon jaunting by SOMA StrEatFood Park to see what was going on. Turns out, not a lot. There were maybe five trucks operating and at first it seemed a little weird then I was like, oh yeah, it's a Monday night, not the weekend. Since the choices were few and I'd been to most of them already, me and the SO actually were able to agree on trying a new we hadn't seen called Seoul of Taipei, I think it was the fries covered in stuff that caught both our attentions on the menu.
Looking over the menu we decided it was supposed to be a fusion of Korean and Tawainese flavors(?), though we couldn't really say for sure. I mean rice bowls and smothered fries seem to be de rigueur for a number of food trucks these days. Still, since that is what they were offering, it's what we got.
Seoul fries--crispy shoe string fries topped with Meyer's all natural short rib and halmuni's (means grandma in Korean) gravy with melted jack cheese, scallions and Sriracha drizzle at $8.50. For the most part we both liked this dish. For the price it is mostly a generous helping you can carbo load with--that means it had a lot of fries. It's served up hot and crispy and as usual Sriracha adds a nice punch. The gravy tasted to us like a brown meat gravy sauce, kind of mild, decent, sort of like a poutine, not too salty, though they could have done a better job of dispersement over the fries--some got it many didn't. The beef was appropriately stringy, moist and tender--we both wish there had been more of it and spread around better. Also could have used a bit more cheese as that kind of got lost in the gravy. I will say the gravy and the beef needed to be kicked up in the seasoning department. Grandma needed to rework the recipe just a tad. Most of the flavor here comes from the Sriracha. Yeah, I know, I said we liked it, which is true. Who knows, maybe we were just really hungry and a boatload of salty, crispy fries can sometimes do the trick. It was good, it just seemed to be missing that something to make it stand out above all the other smothered fries.
Spicy chicken rice bowl--shallot infused rice topped with organic slow cooked, spicy chicken thighs (pieces-not on the bone), spicy gravy, a fried egg and side of spinach and mixed greens salad with Asian vinaigrette for $10. First impression, pretty, another generous portion--at least of rice and greens. I'm not going say the chicken was spicy, because it wasn't. Tender with a hint of flavor yes, but not spicy. We couldn't taste the shallot in the rice, it just tasted like sticky rice. I did like the tangy sweet dressing on the greens. The egg, while an interesting touch that seems to be the thing to add these days, should have had a runny yolk but was fried hard, thus you miss the salty yellow to run over your dish. Final impression, filling, priced about right and a solid if not exactly flavorful dish.
I can't say Seoul of Taipei really excited either of us with their flavors. I do think they could embolden them up some more. But since we were hungry, they did offer large enough portions to fill us up and make us feel like we actually ate something as opposed to those things that only fit in the palm of my hand and cost about the same amount. I guess that means if you are looking for a quick bite it will do. If you are looking to be excited by some food truck fare flavors, this may not be the one for you. For a holiday Monday night at a food truck park with few choices--it was fine.
