If you have yet to try the bulgogi tacos from the food truck Seoul Taco (@SeoulTaco; 314-517-8916), you'd better hurry. The Man is about to co-opt the Korean-Mexican mashup trend.
And by the Man, Gut Check of course means T.G.I. Friday's.
As I noted when I reviewed Seoul Taco a few weeks ago, you can trace back the Korean-Mexican fusion trend -- and, for that matter, the modern, social media-savvy food truck -- to Kogi, the SoCal operation of chef Roy Choi.
A trend that spreads from a single Los Angeles business to cities across the country is bound to attract the attention of our corporate overlords and, sure enough, the selection of seventeen new items that T.G.I. Friday's announced yesterday (via Eater) features "dishes that follow current flavor trends," including "Korean Steak Tacos."
Here is a picture of those tacos, which sure look familiar:
Friday's new menu features a few other stabs at trends that have been kicking around the food world for years now, like salted caramel, (which we'd call a cliché at this point if it weren't so freaking delicious every single time).
However, the most cynical example of trendhumping on the new Friday's menu isn't the Korean tacos, but the "Spicy Craft Beer Cheese Burger" because when you think of the leaps and bounds that craft beer has made in America in recent years, you immediately think of spicy cheese sauce atop a burger.
