Food Truck Friday: Korean Grub with Ahn Joo

The food truck lot at K1 Speed in Gardena/Torrance has been pulling in some of the hottest names mobile food for weeks.  Yesterday, I got the word that Ahn Joo — a Korean Snack Bar — was making a stop and decided to check them out!

Website: http://www.ahnjoo.com/main.html

Twitter: http://twitter.com/AhnJooLA

The Truck:

The Food:

Ahn Joo's KFC: Korean Fried Chicken.

Ahn Joo came to my attention when I heard that Debbie Lee was the creative force behind the menu.  You may recall Debbie as one of the main contenders in season five of Food Network’s The Next Food Network Star.  With “Seoul to Soul” being her culinary style, I was eager to check out some of her Korean style pub grub.

On this visit to Ahn Joo, I tried two items:  The KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) ($7), and the apple egg roll ($5).  I added fried rice to the chicken for and additional $1.

The generous portion of chicken — three hefty drumsticks — was garlicky and overall very nicely seasoned.  The meat was crispy and savory on the outside, while moist and a little less flavorful on the inside.  I hoped the flavor would permeate the meat to the bone but alas it was just chicken on the inside.  Still, the portion was big enough to share and the seasoning was good.  The rice was a decent side but I think I would pass on it next time as it didn’t contribute much to the chicken.

On the other hand, the apple egg roll was phenomenal.  The texture was spot on with the crispy shell and firm apples inside.  The sauce was perfect: sweet but not syrupy.  The roll was served with a cistrusy, ginger infused marscarpone that complimented the dish nicely.  These were a little harder to share:  first because there are two rolls in the order and second because they tasted so darn good!

Apple egg roll with ginger marscarpone for dipping.

Other items on their menu that I didn’t sample but look forward to trying are the Korean Nachos and Mama Lees Meatloaf, pub and comfort food respectively with a Korean inspired twist.  I’ll be checking this out and reporting back as soon as I can.