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Today’s lunch decision was tough. It was a toss up between Korean cuisine, empanadas, and burritos. I decided to go with Korean cuisine. Fire and Rice’s food truck made an appearance near my work building today, so with the assistance of Food Truck Fiesta, I decided to pay them a little visit!

This food truck was the first that I actually had to wait in a line for. It’s only been around since June, I discovered, so I thought that must be a good sign right? Usually I’m in a rush to get back to work but today I decided to take it a little bit more slowly even though to do was one of the coldest days of the week.

The pricing of this particular option was pretty on par with all of their competition – it seems that the average amount that you can expect to spend on a lunch if you’re going to a food truck is $10.00. I’ve decided that, starting next week, I’m going to make an effort to pack my lunch also instead of eating out or not eating everyday. In the past I’ve gone for breakfast instead of lunch (I’m usually not hungry when lunch rolls around), since breakfast is a more important meal of the day. I also feel a lot better knowing that I had the entire day to burn off those calories. But whatever, this is besides the point.

I chose this truck also because of another simple reason: carbs and protein. Pretty straightforward. Identity to the dinner I had the night before as well (Garlic and wine marinated chicken breast with simple butter & herb noodles).

I’ve realized that I think I enjoy food trucks because their menu’s are relatively small and simple. Today I went with the buldak chicken bowl.

I’m not very accustomed to Asian cuisine but I was excited to try this. The Korean meat bowls seemed to be a nice, quick lunch that wouldn’t be too filling. Boy was I wrong! While it was nice and quick it was actually filling! I know chicken will do that to you but their portions, while not too too large, were still pretty adeaquate.

As you can see in the pictures, they specialize in what is called “bibimbap” which means veggies and meat on top of rice. They had a ton of options for vegetables: bean sprouts, radish, zucchini, carrot, spinach, and lettuce. A big part of this kind of cuisine is the fried egg on top. An old friend named Matt introduced me to the art of the fried egg but I believe it to be more of a southern thing. Once I saw that the eggs were fried yet the yolks were still raw for the customers that preceded me, I decided to go ahead and pass on that one. Sorry for not going all the way!

I thought that the food was exceptional. As I said it was rice on the bottom with chicken on top. In between those two layers were carrots, bean sprouts, radishes, and carrots – I was giving the mirage of being healthy.

The chicken was marinated in what your VERY average person would probably guess is curry – it had a similar flavor to that Indian spice but definitely not as flavorful or as distinct. It was sweet but just a little bit spicy at the same time.

The bean sprouts were nice and crunchy and tasted like the bean (almost like green beans) that you would expect it to. I wouldn’t get the carrots again – they were mushy and tasted bagged as opposed to maybe freshly grated (I’m big of fresh, natural, ingredients that are as inexpensive as carrots). The rice was sticky just as was expected so that if I wanted to eat it with my chop sticks I could have.

Again, one of my favorite things about meals like this is the dichotomy of temperature in your mouth. When you bite into a hot piece of chicken and then you have a nice cold piece of bean sprouts, both with very different flavors (one sweet and the other earthy), it makes my taste buds pretty happy. I learned from a Korean friend in college that they way to eat this kind of meal is to just mix it all together and go to town, so that’s what I did. While I would’ve liked to keep the flavors separate, I feel like I needed to do as the Koreans do when I eat Korean food. ☺

I can tell why Koreans don’t get fat usually! This meal didn’t drag my down at all and wasn’t very greasy at all either. The seasonings and the limitless free veggies on top were definitely what carried me through to the last bite.

Overall, I would definitely come back here. One of the highlights was the yellow soy-ginger sauce that you had the option to squirt on top. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love Japanese style soy-ginger flavoring, and especially soy-ginger shrimp (Cabo Fish Taco, I’m talking to you). If this was soy ginger chicken I’d be all over it.

Another highlight was some kind of spicy Sriracha sauce. I know Sriracha is Thai (edit from my original thoughts that it was Spanish), but I didn’t catch the name of their particular red sauce. Boy was it spicy! Thankfully I thought ahead and put a little tiny squirt of it in the corner of the bowl so that it wouldn’t go crazy all over everything else.

As you can see from the picture above, overall, I enjoyed this choice. On this particular day it hit the spot for me and I’d recommend it to a friend. I’d be interested in trying the beef and maybe the Korean Sodas that they offer.

TL:DR: This place was a good choice. Average price and good food. I’d go back. If you’ve never tried Korean food, the flavors are tame enough to be a great introduction.
Food quality: Good! Everything seemed nice and fresh besides the carrots. Rice was cooked just as expected in Korean food.
Customer service: Fast and quick. The gentleman serving made an aqwkward ordering line very accessible which was a highlight for me. Props to him for warning me that the fried egg would be an extra 2 minutes – so I declined. I tipped him the extra dollar for it anyways because I wanted to get back to my desk.

**Would have had pictures. But I deleted them. :( ** Sorry!