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Andy Park offers some Ssahm Kimchi Fries. (Entree Dallas)
The Park family has produced three generations of restaurateurs, but the chain would have been broken if Andy Park had gone to law school. Instead, the family’s latest generation has taken Korean marinated barbeque and enveloped it in the Mexican tortilla. Although his name never became the title of a law firm, the names of Park and his business partner, Joey Hong, have been on the tongues of those who have tried the food at one of their rolling restaurants.
“Ssahm” is a transliteration of the Korean word meaning “to wrap.” Each taco is loaded with your choice of marinated short rib (kalbi), pork (daeji), chicken (ddak) or tofu (dubu) and is cradled by two corn tortillas. The meat is dripping in its marinade when Park drops it on his griddle. The taco is adorned with a colorful mix of toppings including caramelized kimchee, sesame soy vinaigrette salad, cilantro, onions, salsa roja and spicy mayonnaise. The vivid purple of red cabbage, green cilantro, and orange mayonnaise is an eyeful.
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A beef and pork taco from Ssahm BBQ. (Entree Dallas)
It’s uncertain which category in Korean or Mexican cuisine SSahm’s kimchee fries fit in. This is a dish born out of food truck culture, and it goes well beyond the standard chili cheese fries. Park starts with hand-cut fries and then drizzles it with Monterrey Jack and cheddar cheese—perfectly normal, right? Then the generous addition of kimchee, a fermented cabbage ubiquitously used in Korean cuisine, and spicy mayonnaise takes these fries to a new level. There are those who say that kimchee is an acquired taste, but the crowd around SSahm all seemed to have taken to the flavor quickly.
Other menu items include burritos, quesadillas and bacon-wrapped frankfurters. Park isn’t certain where his business will take him, but he is fairly certain that “a lot of the menu items that you see that we’ll be introducing in the future will be more Mexican fusion based.”
It’s puzzling to think why a chef with unbridled ambition would work out of a truck. Why subject oneself to sweltering summers and frigid winters? It’s tough work and Park doesn’t have fond memories of last summer’s heat, but that doesn’t deter him from cooking for those who brave Dallas’ fickle weather.
“Food has always been a passion for me. I love what I do,” Park said.
This is what drove Park from the halls of academia onto the avenues of Dallas. Instead of serving justice he serves food words cannot yet do justice. As new cultural fusions happen, our tongues and minds are befuddled by their appeal. Ingredients that seem haphazardly thrown together cooperate in cuisine as well as the diverse population of the city does in daily life.
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The truck. (Entree Dallas)
“Food is a very universal thing where it’s accepted by everybody. As long as it tastes good and the cost is reasonable. I’m a firm believer of really good customer service and making everybody really a friend more so than a customer. And a lot of our customers are all frequent customers. We get a lot of new customers but a lot of them are hardcore fans. We’re very blessed and we’re thankful for that.”
Park seems to know the heart of his customers. David Rolfe, one of many customers making SSahm a crowd favorite on a rainy day in the Arts District, has been coming to SSahm for his workday lunches since they opened last July.
“I don’t know, man. It’s just good food. The tacos are real good, the kimchee fries are really good … It’s good food, and it’s cheap,” Rolfe said.
“Good” is a go-to word used by customers to describe SSahm’s food and the friendly conversations they have with Park, and until we come up with Korean-Mexican portmanteaus that sufficiently describe it, “good” will have to do. Park’s barbeque, imbued with rich family tradition and dipped into the cuisine of Mexico, is dripping with all that is good from each culture. The question is whether or not people’s mouths can remember to take a bite at a time.
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For more information on Ssahm BBQ, visit their website.