Mission Kogimpossible
Hey gang,
Some of you may recall a previous post of mine, or have read in blogs, yelp, or the local news about that Korean taco truck that's going around town and sometimes chased off by the popos. Well, I had to check it out. On their site, you can see where they're going to be, and they also use twitter, so you know exactly where they'll be at. They were in Rosemead until 9, so some friends and I headed over there and got there around 6:15ish.
When I got there, goddamn the line was long...The writing came out small, so you can click on the picture to see it bigger, but I just wanted to point out where we started, and how long this line wrapped around the truck...
Closer...(This was approx after 1 hour)
Almost there... (roughly 2 hours at this point, but time didn't even seem to exist upon smelling these famed and fabled tacos as our minds and hearts drifted closer and closer to achieving complete union, and the angels sang Holy Holy Holy).
And then, the heartbreaker. Whispers started running rampant as the people in front of line began to play telephone, and when the message finally got to us, it said: They ran out of food.
g f*cking g...
They did give everyone who was waiting in line(which was a lot believe me), which I thought was a nice gesture. But this was a debbie downer to all of us that night. Still, I left with a firm resolve that I would be back to get these damn tacos, and that next time, it would probably be better to come on a weekday. I've never waited this long to get food before...
A quick meeting of the heads, and we decided to head over to The Boiling Crab in Alhambra. All I wanted was those damn tacos, but I was still down since I had been wanting to try it out, after reading about it.
This place was also poppin, and we were on the top of the second page at the waiting list. A few beers(they got bud light, corona, heinie/heine light, newcastle, sam adams, wyder's apple cider, and xx) and an hour and a half later, we were finally seated. We were the last group to get a table. The waitress/hostess however was probably the most helpful/friendly person I have ever met when I went to ask her about the wait, after standing around for about an hour. The rest of the staff was grea toot: knowledgable about the menu and helpful with the selection. One of the guys tied my bib for me (+1 star).
If you aren't familiar with The Boiling Crab, or any of its doppelganger brothers/sisters, it's supposed to be a Southern Style seafood place, where you order stuff by the pound with your choice of seasoning: garlic, lemon, cajun, or the whole shebang(the three formerly mentioned). The food comes out in a big bag cooked/steamed with the seasoning of your choice, as well as the heat level (we chose medium).
Among the four of us, we got a pound of king crab legs, 2 pounds shrimp, and one pound crawfish.
The other part of the menu...we also got some corn and sausages to put put along with our seafood and some other random things...
Sweet potato fries. The flavor of the potato stood out, but I would have liked it if the fries were crispier and hotter. Still, after waiting for over three hours to eat, anything and everything sounded good.
Oysters 1/2 dozen for $7.99. I thought that was pretty cheap. I hadn't had a raw oyster since Taps, but I guess I'm over the paranoia now because I slurped this down. Not the freshest, but it was still good.
Gumbo with rice $5.99. I was pretty disappointed with this and the price was a bit too much imo. It had this strong bitter after taste to it, which reminded me of this Korean herbal "medicine" that I had to drink when I was younger. But where that tasted came from, I'm not exactly sure. But someone in the back was definitely shakin that herb bottle like a salt shaker... The broth had the trinity, and I could taste the celery in it. There were also some pieces of shrimp.
Yea it's a crappy picture, but when you're starving, survival comes first, so taking a picture of each thing was out of the question, especially when you're eating with your hands, sorry. You can see a piece of corn in there, and the rest of the stuff is the sausage, shrimp, and crawfish. I thought the spice level was right on. It wasn't something you'd be downing water with, but the spiciness would build and linger on your lips. There was a lot of garlic in the bag as well. The shrimp was good. This was my first time eating crawfish, and it was fun to eat, but as for the flavor of it, I couldn't really tell because all I was tasting was the whole shebang.
The king crab legs came out separately, and it was only two legs. For the price, it definitely wasn't worth it at all, and the meat wasn't even that great/fresh either.
Parking can suck. What's funny is how a sign on their door says parking in the back, but the actual lot can only fit around 7 cars. It's better to park in the lot next to Noodle World or try your luck on the street.
Total, including beers, came out to around $85 w/o tip. I wasn't full, but I was content.
742 W Valley Boulevard
Alhambra, CA 91803
For dessert, we stopped by a place, across the street a couple blocks down for some yogurt called Pingo Yogurt. They had 4 flavors: original, green tea, blueberry, and mango. I asked for some free samples, and wasn't very impressed with any. Plus they told us they ran out of original. I was just about ready to kill someone if I had to hear "we ran out" one more time. I got a small green tea with strawberries, blueberries and mochi, and the total came out to $5.01. It was what it was. Nothing special. They had these weird cheap plastic chairs as well that felt as if they couldn't support your weight entirely...(I'll bet some of you are reading this and thinking, that's probably because you are just a fat ass who goes around eating food and does nothing else in life...stop bitching and go join a gym. HA) Seriously though, these things were cheap.
358 W Valley Blvd
Alhambra, CA 91801
Oh, and btw, a late by 21 minutes gung hay fat choy to ya all!
