We’re huge food cart fans here at Foodista and we couldn’t be more excited to  interview  Kamala Saxton and Roz Edison of Marination Mobile.  Marination Mobile serves up a wide variety of Hawaiian and Korean dishes from their rockin food truck, located in different neighborhoods throughout Seattle.

You were recently voted Best Food Cart in America, by ABC’s Good Morning America, congratulations! How does a food truck get to that status? It’s all in the city Seattle! What kind of women would we be if we didn’t give big ups to our own city? Seattle is the reason we were able to dream up this adventure and launch it to great big open hungry arms. But seriously, the Marination mob (our amazing customers), along with talented chefs, our strong marketing platform, and two devoted owners who love Seattle Street Food and even the Health Dept. at times gets us to that status.

Previously, to Marination Mobile, what were you two doing? Marinating on a much smaller scale.

Marination Mobile serves food that is both Hawaiian and Korean- why not just Hawaiian or just Korean? It would have caused issues between the Koreans and Hawaiians in my family…family gatherings just wouldn’t have been the same.

Was there a moment when you were in the process of building your cart when you stood back and thought, “What have we done?” We have got to make “moment” plural. It happens all the time.

As business owners of this venture, how has it impacted your life? Do you think you are the type of people who are meant for this? I no longer can make happy hour engagements, or my morning spin class. With that said, I wouldn’t trade Marination for the world. And without a doubt we were meant for this line of work. It allows us always keep our creative thinking caps on at all times.

I see you on Facebook and Twitter, how has social media helped you out? It’s one of the reasons we can put gas in the truck and keep our chefs around.

Hours and location? Where can we find you on a given day?
Roaming the streets of Seattle six days a week. Equal opportunity neighborhood dwelling. Typically open 11a.m. to 2 p.m. The changing locations are posted on our website. marinationmobile.com and Twitter:  @curb_cuisine

What other food carts, restaurants or bars do you frequent? Too many to list.

You have quite the following. Who is likely to show up at your window? Our customers are people who are hungry and don’t want to spend a ton of money on lunchfuel.  More than half are walking distance from our daily location, but we have saucy diehards who drive to find us whenever the mood strikes. All of our regulars are special, and we know each other by name. Sometimes it’s a nickname we’ve coined, rather than their real name, but still.

Currently, Seattle has a much smaller food truck scene than Portland, what do you think the future will hold for Seattle’s food trucks/carts? I already know of 5 additional street food businesses that will be launching this summer. It’s a good start, but this is no easy business and we would suggest to anyone interested in street food to invest in comfortable shoes, don’t hire anyone you can’t imagine being right next to umpteen hours a week, and don’t wear anything on the truck that you want to wear elsewhere, ever. Don’t think set-up and tear-down is a fast process. Boy, its anything but that.

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Barnaby loves himself a good kimchi. The stinkier and more sour, the better. I must say, I’m right there with him. After living in Japan and traveling in Korea I, too, developed a fondness for this spicy fermented cabbage dish. We’d never made it ourselves though and decided to begin the “stinky cabbage” quest.

We supplied ourselves with Napa cabbage, green onions, salt, sugar, ginger, garlic, and the pièce de résistance: Korean red pepper powder. The sweet flavor of this chili beautifully comes through without being overly spicy. We’re now so hooked on this blend of red peppers that we’re moistening it into a paste with a touch of cider vinegar and putting it on about everything from scrambled eggs to roast chicken.

We chopped the vegetables, mixed all the ingredients into a beautifully vibrant red concoction, and put it in an earthenware pot to “brew and bubble.” The longer it sits, the better, as the acids begin to break down and soften the vegetables, but after about a 24 hour period we tasted it and it was spectacular! The majority of it went back down to the basement for further “aging.”

For the complete recipe go to Foodista:

Note: We purchased Wang’s Red Pepper Powder at our local Uwajimaya. Check your local Asian market for this product.

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