New York Street Food: Korilla BBQ

So if you read this article the other day, maybe Korilla BBQ would have caught your eye. I happened to be near where they park their truck on Mondays, and I had their bulgogi burrito one week and their pork tacos (below) the next. Korilla, according to their story, is “a portmanteau of Korean and Grill.” Yeah, kind of. Except what’s the a doing on the end? As far as I was concerned, it was about a gorilla, maybe a Korean one, but their mascot appears to be a slightly angry version of Tony the Tiger. According to Wikipedia, “the tiger replaces the lion as King of Beasts in cultures of eastern Asia, representing royalty, fearlessness, and wrath.” OK, fine, and I guess that explains the cartoon tiger’s scowl. It doesn’t explain why you get Korean BBQ served inside a burrito or tacos, but that’s kind of besides the point. What matters is that it/they are delicious. The burrito’s kind of small for $7, but actually I don’t even know what $7 is worth anymore. That was a lot of money for lunch when I was a lad, but it seems pretty normal in New York now, and it is good, though not a patch on Luardo’s on Whitecross Street in London. It’s fun to get kimchi in a burrito, and the sticky rice and bulgogi were delicious, but I just missed the black beans and guacamole. The tacos, on the other hand, were outstanding. You get three of them, and they are double-wrapped to make sure they don’t disintegrate under the weight of all the meat and goodies you get on top. That thing on the left is a spicy and delicious pickle – it’s huge! These tacos aren’t enormous either (about two big bites each) but they’re extremely satisfying. If the orange van with the tiger and the dudes who all talk like Leo Fatzpatrick from Kids while they blast trance music under an overpass and treat your lunch like a new designer drug that’s going to blow your puny mind and the three tacos for $7 came by once a week, I’d definitely eat there often.

The van:

The tacos:


Really good.