The two ethnicities of food that tend to be the most authentic, delicious and dominant in the city's restaurant scene are Asian and Latin American. The idea of combining the two sounded pretty sexy, so I ventured to the Ferry Building during their Saturday farmer's market for Korean Tacos from the Namu stand, #89 on the list.
I bought two little seaweed wrapped tacos. The rice was nicely seasoned with a sweet vinegar solution that tasted like the seasoning for sushi rice. The cute Korean guy assembling the tacos put the rice on top of a small square toasted seaweed wrapper, the "tortilla," if you will, which felt a little stale. He then topped the rice with my choice of beef or chicken (I got both), which was very mildly seasoned, and a little luke warm after sitting in his mis-en-place all morning. The "condiments" were quite nice, such as the pickled daikon, and kimchi salsa, which actually had tomato, the only trace of Mexican influence. If I were in charge, I would've named my so-called-taco, "open faced beef maki." It seemed to me like a very Americanized sushi roll left unwrapped.
Tasty? Yes. Worth five dollars for two miniscule "tacitos"? Not for a cheapskate like me. However, it was quite nice sitting by the bay, watching the rich white people browse the farm stands, witnessing that Iranian man from the nut stand force free samples of almond brittle upon everyone that passed, and gazing off into the distance at the bay bridge while eating a not-so-mexican korean taco. In this case, it's the experience that counts.
