Whether we call them catering trucks or mobile kitchens, its pretty indisputable that the trend of the contemporary food truck can find its roots in Los Angeles, and that our food trucks here number among the nation's most known and popular. To look back at the very brief history of the Twittering food trucks as we now know them, Mashable recently published an infographic chronicling "The Rise of the Social Food Truck." more ›

Just steps away from the Levi's Film Workshop space set up at MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary last Thursday night, food and film enthusiasts gathered under the stars to watch the premiere of a trio of short films about food. more ›

Some kitchen switch-upping to report from Venice's Beechwood. Leaving her post is SF-to-L.A. transplant and former Top Cheftestant Jamie Lauren, who took over the head cheffing duties there just last October. In her stead, local culinary empresario and "stoner cuisine" guru Roy Choi, the man behind the seminal Kogi BBQ truck, Chego!, and A-Frame. more ›

Two years ago this month, a group of friends after a night of Hollywood clubbing had the munchies, but had no where to turn for some late-night eats, specifically Korean food. A month later, one of them took that inebriated desire and turned it into a business: Kogi BBQ, an agglomeration of the classic L.A. taco truck with Korean food. more ›

What do the Kogi BBQ truck and the World Cup have in common? Well, if you've seen the hungry crowds that Kogi attracts, you could say it's something of a spectator sport. And both celebrate different nationalities coming together for something good. But that's where the similarities end. So, is there any way to combine these two seemingly disparate phenomena? more ›

When you need a jump, you rely on a friendly stranger or maybe AAA. When you've got nearly 65,000 Twitter followers and a full service kitchen, you can tweet for help and offer food in return. That's exactly what Kogi BBQ did last night when they tweeted "Roja out of battery @UCLA any1 can jumpstart us 4 some tacos?" The truck is back on the road today. more ›

If you've ever found yourself in a restaurant with a plate of something so fantastical in front of you that you couldn't help but wonder if the chef was high when he or she came up with it, well, they just may well have been. more ›

Honorees named as Food & Wine mag's "Best New Chefs" of 2010 will be formally announced and celebrated tonight at a party in NYC, but news of who made the list broke a little earlier via F&W's iPhone app, according to GrubStreet. more ›

Nothing says lovin' like the best chefs in Los Angeles teaming up with some of the most reliable providers of reproductive health care, and it's all coming to Santa Monica this Thursday as Planned Parenthood presents Food Fare, its annual fundraiser. more ›

Merril Shindler of ZagatBuzz, the blog from the influential Zagat guide folks, has published his picks for the most-anticipated Los Angeles restaurant openings of this year. more ›

Speaking of the recent Kogi BBQ growth and drama of losing the person who developed its Twitter strategy, let's step back to last week's Wall Street Journal article on the king of mobile food trucks. Specifically, buried at the bottom, is this amazing fact: "Mr. Choi says that in its first year of operation, Kogi grossed about $2 million from check averages of roughly $13 a person. Mr. Choi earns a $90,000 salary; a manager on each truck earns about $38,000. Profit margins are around 20%, which has enabled Mr. Choi and the Mangueras to put money aside for a restaurant." Wow. An estimated 65 food trucks are now on the road (you can see many of them on our master list) and we're curious which ones can achieve similar results in the future. more ›

Looks like Kogi BBQ is losing some of its roots as it expands from the streets to a permanent address. Mike Prasad, the brand/social media guy for Kogi (and credited for bringing the Twitter idea to the table), has severed ties with the mobile food truck king. more ›

Kogi BBQ owners have been talking about this, even before the food truck craze grew to an unwieldy size: have a real restaurant. You know, like a real restaurant where a competing food truck, in theory, could park outside and take business away from it (tee hee). Via Eater LA and Food & Wine, we learn of the designer street food king's next move is to open up a rice bowl-focused mom-and-pop-like counter service-style digs on the Westside on Overland. Opening date? They hope February 24th--that's chef Roy Choi's Birthday. more ›

With the end of the year comes the inevitable wrap-ups, reflections, and predictions, and in the world of food this is no exception. Here in Los Angeles our Patron Saint of Dining Out, Pulitzer Prize-winning LA Weekly columnist Jonathan Gold, offers his take on the eating year that was in the LA Times' Opinion section today, noting how many high-profile restaurants our city has seen launch despite the tanked economy (Rivera, Drago Centro, Bouchon, and so forth) and the resurgence of the "tony cocktail bar." more ›

Terry Wunder of The Wunder Blog sent us this video story of 6 Angelenos and 6 LA Food Trucks. They chat with the truck operators and talk shop, and, of course, eat. Featured in the video are a mix of the "old guard" and newbies in the mobile food world: Barbie's Q, Lomo Arigato, The Flying Pig Truck, Coolhaus, Little Spoon Desserts, and KogiBBQ. more ›

Like sunny skies and Ugg boots, the current trend of gourmet food trucks remains in perpetual motion here in Los Angeles. Just a couple of weeks ago the Grilled Cheese Truck got people salivating with their cheesy "Pre-Melt" event held at the Farmer's Kitchen adjoining the Hollywood Farmers' Market in preparation for their roll out, and this week has seen the official on-four-wheels debut of both Downtown Dog (hot dogs) and the Flying Pig Truck ("Asian Fusion with French Technique"). more ›

VendrTV digs into mobile meme, Kogi BBQ. If you're the one person who hasn't yet had it, you can host Daniel Delaney devour some Korean vs Mexican fusion. And why not try Chinese tacos? more ›

"This has officially gotten out of control," tweeted Angeline Vuong, a Citysearch community manager, in reference to LAist's growing list of designer food trucks that Twitter. That list, which was updated yesterday, includes 23 trucks plus six more, like the grilled cheese truck, that are coming to Los Angeles streets soon (add in this fact: a 2006 estimate has the number of taco trucks at nearly 4,000). more ›

Not even 24 hours after a post on LAist about Baja Fresh's suspiciously sounding Kogi BBQ-like menu spread through Twitter, the Orange County based company has changed their word usage and released the following statement by Chuck Rink, president of Fresh Enterprises, which owns Baja Fresh: more ›

In what appears to be inspiration from the street (or a complete rip off) Baja Fresh is bringing new Kogi Korean BBQ menu items to its new concept test location in Irvine. Not only can you get alcohol and cilantro lime rice at the fast casual restaurant, you can get Korean BBQ inspired tacos and burritos that just happened to be partially named Kogi like the famous Kogi BBQ. more ›

It's safe to say that Kogi BBQ has started a trend: fusion, Twitter and deliberate locations. Don Chow Tacos, obviously inspired by Kogi, has been around for about two months and last night they were found at the Downtown Art Walk. more ›

Kogi BBQ is making a special New York City appearance today in Midtown, drawing hundreds of curious about our city's food truck sensation. It seems, not even New Yorkers are used to this kind of attraction. "Wow, that's some crazy line! I think it will be easier to just hope on a plane to LA!" said one commenter on Gothamist. The blog Midtown Lunch live blogged the one hour appearance, watching 200 people get a kimchi quesadilla along with a chocolate mousse with peanut butter center from Kogi's host, The Dessert Truck. Of note was that Lee Anne Wong from season one of Top Chef was cooking. "She is now the executive chef of east coast operations of Kogi BBQ and will be in charge of the first Kogi BBQ truck in New York," the blog announced. more ›

Will Kogi BBQ start getting more notoriety because of these awesome rants instead of their food? The last time, it was an e-mail from Kogi's PR person to a food blogger where she explained she did not like being treated like a "vending machine" for press inquiries. Now, their resident blogger going after the so called "hypestar" in a long post. Here's an excerpt where the term is defined: "What is a hypester? (Not to be confused with a hipster - which is a very strangeLy fancifuL and occasionaLLy deLightfuL creature!) A hypester is a snarky littLe Negative Ned/Nancy who uses aLL avenues of the internet — be it a comment board, bLog, Twitter, Facebook, etc.- to try and start sh*t cuz it’s entertaining. These emotionaL/psychic vampires utiLize or create hype to provoke a reaction out of an internet personaLity, start a fLame war or some weird littLe feud over a triviaL opinion, an emaiL taken out of context or a quirk that they’ve re-cropped w/ their literary, gossip-driven Photoshop to be a personaL offense. The KEY CLUE IS HYPE. For they aLmost never use soLid evidence or reaLity as a means to sway one’s opinion." more ›

Current TV's InfoMania's Ben Hoffman, the show's Tech Report guru, takes us behind the scenes at the Twittering and tastebud phenom KogiBBQ. Josh Heller, the Online Comedy Producer at Current TV, notes that Hoffman's "candor bites through the hype, and may or may not start a race war," in this segment from last week's show. Besides the high-tech hijinks of mobile food purveyance, the report delves into the tangled world of ethnic fusion foods, and the anatomical challenges of interracial dating. It's a lot to chew on, but if you don't mind laughing with your mouth full, check out this clip. more ›

Parked in front of MySpace headquarters yesterday, Kogi BBQ was cited by police for not having the correct permits allowing them to operate in Beverly Hills. "You know how new we are," owner Mark Manguera told the Daily Dish. "We didn't know that we needed 50 million more permits here than anywhere else." Kogi will file for the needed permits and be back on the Beverly Hills streets as soon as possible. "You know, Obama is in Beverly Hills today, so there's a huge police presence," he added. more ›

If Kogi BBQ wasn't popular enough with hundreds of people lining up where Twitter tells them to go, now the only Pulitzer Prize winning food critic and journalist has penned his thoughts on the Korean taco truck that LAist covered last month. "The frequent tweets make you feel connected to Kogi, as if you were friends with the owners instead of just another hungry mouth, even if your only contact with them has been a quick fist bump when you picked up your tacos," Jonathan Gold explains. Last night, it was reported that Kogi BBQ was once again so crowded, some gave the extremely long line one look and found a sit down restaurant nearby instead. more ›

When LAist first got word of the Kogi BBQ Korean BBQ-styled tacos served up on their truck, mouths were watering. Not only is their fare fantastic, but they are savvy enough to use social media tools like Twitter to keep followers up to speed on where they'll be parking on any given night. To document their pursuit of the "elusive Kogi BBQ" truck, these food fans put together a video they call "Chasing the Dragon." How do you say "Bon Appetit" in Korean? more ›

Late last night in Westwood, among the dense maze of housing east of UCLA's campus, was a line, at least an hour's wait for some, of some 500 people waiting to grab some Korean inspired tacos and burritos and maybe the day's special--Kimchi Fried Rice Cake with Egg-Shiso. Meet Kogi BBQ. It's Korean food with the edge of a street taco on a catering truck mixed with the savvyness of Web 2.0 (follow them on Twitter to know their location). more ›