Vancouver is a multicultural city with a population of 2,606,350 (Worldpopulation.com, 2021). With a high population comes a high demand in culinary, fusion cuisine is a popular trend amongst Vancouverites. Fusion cuisine could be simply understood as a mix between two or three cuisines from different regions. This type of cuisine will attract more customers and highlight the best feature of each cuisine in the fusion dishes. (Nisbets.co.uk, 2021). Not only Vancouver is famous for fusion cuisine. It is also popular in the food truck scene. Placed 3rd in North America for food truck cuisine, Vancouver offers various dishes and its variety in food. There is a food truck that has a breakthrough with its fusion cuisine and satisfies the hunger of Vancouverites in every street.
KYU-3 alphabets that can get you free food in any restaurant in Winnipeg, Manitoba. 3 alphabets that have so many awards to their name it most likely would make an award named after them soon. Yes, for all those who have guessed it correctly and for all those who we have not bring you an episode about the KYU grill food truck which has already created a name for itself on the streets of Vancouver. We first saw it when Brian spotted it and it appeared to be worth a shot. We went ahead and spoke, and they had a cheerful demeanour and it showed they loved what they served.
HOW IT STARTED!
About 8 years ago, while working for his family restaurant Chef Peter Truong coined the idea of starting something which the world had not seen and thus began the journey of KYU Grill from a food cart and rose swiftly through the scales and grew up to be a food truck by 2015. Chef wanted to be different, “Restaurants you wait for customers but if you start a food truck you travel and you have the mobility to approach the customer”. That is what motivates them to start a food truck.
THE CUISINE!
Inspired by the origin and preferences of its owners, KYU Grill serves a fusion of Japanese-Hawaiian food and are most famous for their HEROSHIMAS- a sandwich made with the combination of soft & sweet hotdog buns, ginger soy slaw, house made signature Japanese fusion toppings and sauces. When ordered as a meal they come in a combo with fries and a pop of choice. Keeping in mind the vegetarian population of Vancouver, the KYU veggie spring rolls have been put in the menu which have a separate fan base. They are also currently running a day special with the Birria Tacos and Birria fries.
LUNCH IS SERVED!
We ordered the three bestselling Heroshimas to taste and surprisingly had very different preferences and opinions.
We would each speak about our individual experience while presenting the blog.
We had to order the food and Ayushi took our orders and billed us using the SQUARE POS system. She along with Denise prepared our orders and they were extremely polite and hands on with their approach. We had our orders in no time.
For the Mango Chicken (Brian) I really like the taste when it comes to my mouth it feels like something new i never ever tasted, the Japanese and Hawaiian fusion food truck exceeds my expectation. The Presentation of the food is decent. The fries are amazing. It is at the right temperature, it’s not too hot and not too cold, it’s still crispy and not soggy. Personally, I will visit and try the new menu from Kyu Grill food truck.
As for the Spicy Mayo, (Kai). The food is a mix between Western cuisine and Asian cuisine, I can see the resemblance between Takoyaki with American hotdogs and French fries. They were true to say they wanted a Japanese fusion when the garnish they put on top was indeed Bonito flakes which are often used for Takoyaki, a Japanese appetizer. The sauce was not that spicy as the name advertised but however, I can feel a tingling sensation on the tip of my tongue. I would say the fries were cooked carefully and its crunchiness is quite impressive. However, the spicy mayo seems to have a major flaw since under the sausage they put a lot of cabbage to fill up the bread which causes food to drop or spill out when eating it.
While speaking about the Pork Belly(Debarghya) I would like to mention that the bread was a bit on the dry side which mostly lacked adequate usage of spread or butter. Kudos to the person who cut the nori sheet as it was of perfect shreds. Additionally the Teriyaki sauce was of the exact texture and consistency and had the optimum level of sweetness as well as the glace. The pork was tender and juicy, shallow fried to the perfect point where it retained its flavours. If you are having it, just finish the fries fast. I just might grab them from your plate at the blink of an eye. They are the USP of the whole combo
However, there were some improvements that would make the food tastier and also make the truck more hygienic since we could obviously see that the grill pad of the truck looks greasy and has not been cleaned thoroughly.
An Insight
Head of culinary and management of KYU Grill, YVR, Chef Phe took out time from his busy schedule to give us an exclusive interview to provide us information in order to give us a detailed insight about the truck and the kind of food they serve.Chef Phe, who graduated from Cordon Bleu is also a youtuber. His channel were called “Cookingezwithpheezy ”, He and few of his friends are also on a cooking show called Rollingout show. The shows are mostly reviews about food in Vancouver and also teaches us about food and how to cook. When we visited the food truck we were very lucky to get a sneak peak from Chef Phi about the Rollingout show. The moment he met us, the first thing he asked was “hungry? Let us feed you.” Which is the motto of the KYU franchise. He mentioned that all the bread, meat and other ingredients that they use are exclusively made in their own commissary and nothing is outsourced. This does not allow them to put up an elaborate menu but ensures everything is served fresh as well as a clean kitchen. Food handling shows they know what they are doing and show a good impression on the pace of handling the food.
THE PANDEMIC
Although the truck had initially started in 2019 in Vancouver, in the beginning of 2020,it had to be temporarily closed due to the lockdowns during the raging Pandemic. However on 1st July 2020 they reopened and had their first anniversary in 2021. “A good response in the first year” says Chef Phi. Nowadays people like to use social media for their marketing strategy but it comes different for Chef Phe, he wanted Kyu Grill to be known by itself meaning from mouth to mouth and then after it is quite known in Vancouver they will start their marketing on social media.
TRIVIA
- Kyu Grill was the Winner of Manyfest’s Food Truck Wars Peoples’ Choice Award5-Years consecutively (2015-2019).
- Judges’ Choice Best Presentation – Kyu Grill(2019,2016)
References
Vancouver Population 2021 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs). (2021). Retrieved 16 October 2021, from https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/vancouver-
What is Food Fusion | Mixing Culinary Styles & Mash-Ups On The Menu | Nisbets Articles UK. (2021). Retrieved 16 October 2021, from https://www.nisbets.co.uk/what-is-food-fusion
Google: www.kyugrill.com
7, P. on J. (2020, July 7). New to Vancouver’s food truck scene is Winnipeg’s Kyu Grill, known for their HEROSHIMA signature sandwiches. Foodgressing. Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://foodgressing.com/kyu-grill-vancouver-food-truck-heroshima/.