what i did for a taco

canon digital rebel xsi

Food trucks are all the rage these days. One of the most popular in LA is called Kogi. They sell Korean BBQ tacos. They announce their location on Twitter and Facebook, and watch the fans line up.

Last night B saw that the Kogi truck was going to be in our neighborhood - literally across the street from the post office. It's ETA was quarter to eleven (pm). We figured, why not, and headed out.

A few minutes later we arrived to find a very very long line of people in parking lot. This was the first time Kogi had come to this area, and word had clearly gotten out. We ended up at nearly the end of the line at around 11:20pm. I would guess there were over 300 people ahead of us, all waiting for fusion tacos in the late night in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere in Los Angeles County.

Most of the people in line were close to half our age, and most surprisingly, were Twitter haters. I can't tell you how many times someone laughed at the idea of Twitter. Many admitted to having accounts on Twitter, but never having signed in after setting up their account.

After a bit of standing there, and the line seeming to go no where, one of the Kogi guys came out and told the person at the end of the line that he was the last. The last guy was Dino, in case you were curious. There were then worried hushes about the possibility of waiting in line only for the food to run out. People around us made plans to leave at a certain time if the line hadn't moved ahead far enough. The women behind us, who had brought a dog, decided pretty early on to leave. There was a guy ahead of us who seemed to be there alone who was one of the last to give up and leave. I think he may have gotten a call from his folks telling him it was time to go home. It was nearly 1am at that point. I felt bad for him - over two hours of standing, and no tacos to show for it.

B actually got a call from his parents around the same time (oh yes, I have been feeling like a naughty teenager, myself, lately). They wanted to know if their tacos would arrive soon. B explained that we were still in line, and it didn't look like we would be back very soon. They decided to go to bed.

We decided to continue waiting. The line would move in bursts. Still, by 1:30am, it felt like we were no where near the truck. We could smell it at least though.

Overall people were fairly well behaved. I couldn't believe though the people who pulled out chairs from their trunk, munched down their tacos and burritos, and then threw all their garbage in a pile in the parking lot. They weren't the only ones. A few people in the truck came out and cleaned up the mess, or I am sure they would risk being fined or barred from the city.

Around 2am we finally made it towards the front of the line. That's when I began to feel suddenly very odd. I am not sure if it was the difference in the temperature around the truck, or the more intense smell, or even a panic attack, but I felt like I might get sick or worse, pass out. I told B, and headed over to a little grassy patch and used a tree truck to keep my balance.

At one point I ended up sitting on the ground. A guy in the line noticed me, and gave me his bottle of water. It is possible I was dehydrated. We didn't think to bring any water as we never expected the line would be so long. The water helped, and I was able to get up and make it back to the car. As they set limits on how much each person can order to keep things fair, and had run out of everything but tacos, B was only able to get six tacos. I felt bad, but was just glad I was starting to feel better.

We drove back to the house, and we each finally got to take our first bite of a Kogi taco. I tried the chicken taco, and must say it was quite tasty. Worth over a three hour wait - I'm not so sure. But I might do it again. Just not tomorrow.


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