Korean food, fast

There’s a new food truck in town that’s already created a bit of buzz. The Korean menu has some locals pretty excited, especially since the only Korean restaurant in town, Enjoy Teriyaki, closed earlier this summer. The Oshio Teriyaki food truck is owned by Micki Kim, who is originally from Korea and moved to Chico from Sacramento in 2015. Kim says she’s always dreamed of cooking as a business and decided a food truck would be a great way to start. Her husband, Daniel, has been a source of encouragement and even helps out in the truck, but it’s clear that this venture is Kim’s. She loves to cook and is thrilled to bring healthy, traditional Korean food to Chico at a time when there aren’t any restaurants offering it. She is proud to say that she shops every morning to provide nothing but the freshest food every day. Check Oshio out between 11 a.m. and 8 p.m., Monday-Saturday, at the corner of Eighth and Main streets.

What are your business goals?

I want to cook healthy food, and I want people to enjoy it and also, down the road, if I’m really a success, I want to help people, people who are poor or old, something like that. I want to pay back to society.

What’s the Oshio specialty?

Bibimbap is our main dish—it’s like all the vegetables go around [the bowl], all kinds of carrots and zucchini and mushrooms and bean sprouts and lettuce, cucumber, and then we put the rice in the middle and the egg on top. If you want chicken or beef or tofu for vegetarian, we give you the choice and then we put the Korean special hot sauce on top and then you mix everything up and you eat it.

Any other unique dishes on the menu?

Chicken teriyaki is another main dish. We make the sauce, and we put in orange and kiwi and apples. We make the sauce sweeter that way. Bulgogi is a marinated Korean beef; it’s just small pieces of the meat, we slice it and mix it with homemade Korean sauce. Korean galbi ribs—it’s the short ribs and we do specialize with the fruit that we mix in. It’s good sauce and it’s a little bit sweet and it’s really good. Everything is served with rice mixed with black rice, salad and pot stickers.

Your husband has been supportive?

He thinks I have a business mind, so he wants me to do whatever I feel like and just “open it out of your head and do whatever you wish to do,” and I said, “OK.” He said, “You know you’re smart and you know what to do, so try it and if you fail, you fail, so what?”