Kingdom of the East (Side)

Well, I’ll tell you…

(in a steamed bun, with peanut butter curry sauce, jalepeno, onion, cilantro, mint, and basil)And yes, y’all…those Tongue Buns were quite tasty. It looked like a flattened, square hamburger patty and tasted like succulent pot roast, but with the melty, fattiness of pork belly-like texture. Yummers.*

*Again I propose the question: How was I ever vegetarian?

Although the beef was good, the buns were better…especially the side that had the peanut butter curry sauce on it. [As per usual, the small child in me decided it was best to completely deconstruct the thing after one bite of the composed creation.]

Where did all of this crazy culinary consumption go down? East Side King, a rather ramshackle (and teeny-tiny) trailer parked behind the equally ramshackle (and what some might lovingly refer to as a “dive”) car known as The Liberty. This is the original location (there is a second trailer on Rainey Street, with a different menu), and the one ‘famously’ featured on No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain.*

*Although I’ve heard Bourdain didn’t actually go there, and that he just sent a film crew? Feel free to correct that rumor, y’all.

So what can you get besides beef tongue in steamed buns? Well, pork belly in steamed buns. (Obviously.) But they were out of that. So I settled for perhaps what is their touchstone dish (at least the one everyone talks about to entice you to come eat at East Side King): DEEP FRIED BEETS!Beets. Fried. With kewpie mayo and schichimi tougarashi.* Holy bejeezus. those things are GOOD. These Beet Home Fries are HUGE chunks o’ beet, and they are very lightly fried (as in, not greasy). So you get a crisp, but still the succulence of a juicy, well-roasted beet. And really, that mayo and whatever-it-is sauce raise it up to new levels of deliciousness.

*Nope. I have no clue what that is or what that means. Other than that it tasted delicious.

The beets aren’t the only fried vegetables at this stop, however. Let’s not forget the brussels sprouts, y’all. Specifically, the Fried Brussels Sprout Salad, with those Brussels, plus shredded cabbage, some sort of incredible sweet & spicy dressing, alfafa sprouts, and East Side King‘s favorite combination of spice and flavor: onions, jalapeno, cilantro, basil, and mint. [Seriously, the mint was the most enjoyable surprise. It's like a treasure hunt digging through this salad, with every bite adding a different layer or dimension...you never quite know what you are going to stumble upon.]

Since everything else was fried, you might as well fry the chicken thighs, too, right?Thai Chicken Karaage, which is the trailer’s version of fried chicken nuggets I wager. Featuring the same quintet of cilantro, onion, basil, cilantro, and mint [hey, at least it makes for a cohesive dining experience no matter what you order, right?], as well as some sort of sweet sauce, these were yummy little nuggets of fun.