if you are a culinary nerd you have heard about the food truck craze. food trucks have become hugely popular in cities like LA, new york, and even boston (this week's tv diner was devoted to boston food trucks). sadly, there are no food trucks in portland, yet... however, with the recent opening of gogi you can feel like a trendy LA hipster while munching on korean/mexican fusion.
gogi (653 congress street) is in a space right next to local sprouts on congress. i admired the black painted tin ceiling on walking into the restaurant. i was hungry on this particular friday afternoon so i went for the proverbial "it." one pulled pork taco, one beef short rib taco, and an order of fried dumplings, whose filling i cannot remember. my food was ready in two shakes of a lambs tail and at $3/taco and $6/order of dumplings, a great value.
the tacos were wrapped in a single corn tortilla and topped w/ lettuce, cilantro, bean sprouts, and thin slices of radish and cucumber, with a wedge of lime on the side. both variations were super tasty. of the two, i enjoyed the pork more.
the dumplings were wonderfully fried and crispy and came with a vinegary soy dipping sauce that i could have consumed as a beverage.
my only complaint about the whole meal is that i had a taco "blow out." you know what i mean, right? all the taco stuffs busted through the tortilla, forcing me to rely on my fork to finish. if gogi doubled up on the tortilla, like a traditional mexican street taco, they could reduce the risk of such blow outs.
given the affordability and uniqueness of gogi in portland, i think this establishment is a great addition to the portland food scene. what is really cool is that gogi is open late night so if you need some korean/mexican fusion at 1 am, and who of us hasn't, you have a great option.
here is an article from the portland daily sun on gogi for a little more back ground.
