Not sure why, it’s just a hunch

If you do it, I will kick your ass!

Wait… they don’t serve minors? That’s weird, I thought this was Korea…

Terry wasn’t really being bad (is he ever?) and I don’t even own a muzzle, but I wanted to let him try one on for size! It would be utterly shocking if he were to ever wear a muzzle again under my watch, unless he goes all zombie or something.

Oh btw, Terry wasn’t a fan of the Hannibal Lecter mask. Big surprise!

Note to self: never buy a burger off the street in Kangnam! Yeah I know, the irony.

₩2,500 for an undercooked “burger” made of 50% beef (so the guy claims) and 50% pork. He forgot to tell me about the 75% 떡 (rice cake) hiding in the middle of the patty!

I knew it was gonna be shit but I was curious. At least Terry liked it…

His & Hers public toilets! I like.

When I started drafting that last post about the truck I was still selling french fries, I wasn’t selling burritos, and I don’t think I had given the business a name yet! Fast forward a little bit and suddenly the fries are gone due to my electric fryer sucking up too much juice from the generator, I’m now making some fairly huge burritos which are gaining popularity with all the drunks roaming around, and I’ve dubbed the truck Taco de Mayo. See, it’s like the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo, but it’s Taco instead of Cinco. I even have an unofficial tagline… it’s like a fiesta in your mouth! (and everyone’s cumming) Maybe my next career should be in branding and corporate identity cuz, gosh, I’m just sooooo clever.

Since making improvements to the tacos (they tasted a little like shit the first couple of weeks) and adding burritos to the menu, sales (and the weather) have been getting progressively better. I’ve also managed to stake out a pretty good spot in Itaewon, right in front of Hamilton Hotel. We haven’t been able to park there the past month or so due to construction, but it looks like construction is finally done and we can reclaim our territory.

As for marketing, I’m trying to build a cult-like following through social media but it’s way harder than it sounds! Here’s what I’m currently doing:

1. Take pictures of people who look like they’re having a good time while they’re eating
2. Give them a business card that has Taco de Mayo’s Twitter & Facebook information, and tell them they can see their pic (and hopefully send it around to friends) in a couple of days after I get around to uploading it
3. Before I upload the photos to the tacodemayo.com blog (which automatically posts links to Twitter & Facebook), I apply a template that shows my logo/website/twitter info

The obvious problem here is that I’m lazy as fuck, and sometimes it takes me several days to put the pics up! It would be better if I could upload instantly, but I feel compelled to put my stupid Taco de Mayo template on the photos.

So anyway, that’s my shitty attempt at marketing. I think soon I’m gonna come up with some kind of contest where people have to Like my page on Facebook or follow Taco de Mayo on Twitter and possibly win some free food in the process… but first I need to figure out how to do it in a way that isn’t completely stupid.

More random pics from the truck are available here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=266365&id=500976027&l=8e7a6aa31d

Fiesta in your mouth!

Chicken taco

Steak taco

Check out my photo template at the bottom of the pic... that's my attempt at viral marketing

Alright these pics aren’t just for Kdub… they’re for anyone who’s curious about what a rookie food truck looks like! Feel free to ogle even if you’ve never flown a fighter jet over Iraq. Stories to come later (about the truck, not aerial combat).

Lee and I were having a beer and spotted one of the bar’s kitchen workers taking a very long break

At least that’s what BHYB would have you believe!

So my friend Bri went and knit a sweater for Bama’s dog, and after making Terry try it on for size she went and knit one for Terry to keep! I didn’t ask her to, she just did it because she fucking rules at knitting and apparently she also enjoys putting clothes on animals. It’s really an impressive garment… striped collar, cableknit down the back… Bri went all out on this thing!

The good news is that BHYB already knows he’ll probably never wear it… except maybe when she and Ben come over, kind of like when I was seven and had to put on that new Izod sweater before my aunts showed up at the front door for Thanksgiving. Oh yeah, and I have to confess that Terry does look ridiculously cute in his new sweater! It’s kind of sickening.

'Hey BHYB, thanks for the kickass sweater! Now you just have to convince my dad to let me wear it...'

I’ve been trying to pull this burger truck together for about three months now and it’s almost ready to roll! You’d be surprised at how much crap you gotta do to make something like this street-ready. Of course, part of that can be attributed to my tendency to obsess over various things that I insist on having done a certain way, such as having a stainless steel table extension built for the truck so I can make fries without accidentally frying an employee, and then there were the custom-sized steel frying baskets so that I could use one fryer instead of two… and again, avoid any hot frying oil mishaps.

People keep asking when I’ll start selling and I keep telling them… when I’m ready, goddammit! And not a minute sooner. But I’m pretty close to hitting the streets.

A few random pics to start off with… and here’s the skinny on Pepero Day:  It’s basically a poor-man’s Valentine’s Day where you give the significant other some Pepero sticks which, if you arrange them correctly, can spell out “11/11”. These Korean marketing people are crafty!

Well at least Terry does. Every time we walk past a food cart or a restaurant with their door open, I have to literally drag Terry away! Can’t say I blame him… if people were constantly handing me free food in exchange for wagging my tail and being cute I’d milk that act for all it’s worth. Well at least I know that if we ever get separated he won’t go hungry…

Women of all ages are powerless against Terry's awesome powers of persuasion

Driving MegaTruck around Seoul is a pain in the ass because (a) my excessive subway and taxi use means that I don’t know the streets for shit, and (b) making quick last-second lane changes when you have no rearview is a good way to crash the mobile kitchen.

GPS, of course, is the solution, and the GPS units here make TomTom and Garmin look like garbage! I paid ₩240,000 for what’s probably a semi-low-end device that does real-time turn-by-turn GPS and also streams DMB content. DMB stands for Digital Multimedia Broadcasting… in other words, I can watch TV in the truck while I’m driving, and no that’s not illegal here! At least I don’t think it is. Cab drivers do it all the time. This thing can also play music and videos from the memory card, it has A/V input for the backup camera that I may be investing in, and it even has a built-in calculator.

I have no intention of doing math or watching Korean soap operas on the road, but BHYB has discovered yet another use for my fancy new piece of hardware: scribbling stupid shit for no particular reason.