Mama Kim on the Go - Go Find It


When we were busy planning SactoMoFo last year we knew that we would have to bring a lot of gourmet trucks in from the Bay area. As of last fall, all we knew of in the Sacramento area were traditional catering trucks, not the gourmet kind, and street vendors like the tamale ladies, BBQs, and the Wood Fired Pizza Company.

Then we were contacted by Mama Kim to tell us she had a truck here in Sacramento. None of us had heard of it and so we asked her to send some pictures and her menus. Turns out, as far as I know, she had the first gourmet, non-taco, roving truck in the area. (Note that Leaven & Earth is stationery.) She had been doing minimal roving in the County, outside of City limits (mostly North Highlands).

What is unique about Mama Kim on the Go is that the menu changes regularly. Most gourmet trucks will focus on a certain food theme. Miniburger does burgers, Wicked Wich does Pittsburgh style sandwiches, Cupkates does cupcakes, and Hapa SF does modern Filipino. But because Mama Kim has been a caterer first and foremost, she just changes her menu depending on her mood. One week it will be salmon roll sushi, the next banh mi sandwiches, and many times you'll find her very popular tri tip sandwiches.

MK has started to venture downtown now that the food truck trend has started in earnest in Sacramento. On Wednesdays they are in the Arden/Harvard area and on Thursdays they are at CalPERS. They are stilling trying to figure out a route and profitable stops to fill out their schedule.

I've now had a few items from MK and am pleased to report that the food is generous and delicious. Being that I'm a smaller eater, I often find myself unable to finish everything.


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I'll be the first to tell you that the reputation for their tri tip sandwich is well deserved. On a fresh French roll you get a large serving of tender, sliced beef, with generous amounts of whole grain mustard dressing, a bit of BBQ sauce, and coleslaw. You will be messy after eating this sandwich. You get a side of either potato salad or their homemade sweet potato chips. The potato salad was average. Definitely opt for the chips instead. They are perfectly fried slivers of sweet potato that are quite addicting. The nice thing is that you can get this sandwich in whole or half sizes. The first time I got a half and loved it so much that the next week I requested a whole. But then I felt so overly stuffed to the point of bursting that I've decided I'm a half sandwich girl after all.

Last week I opted for the chicken prosciutto sandwich. This one had a whole, marinated chicken breast that was covered with a shaving of lovely Italian porky cured goodness and then topped with mozzarella. It was all warm and melty with the pesto aioli dressing. Although I appreciate that you get your money's worth with a whole chicken breast, I found it awkward to eat and thought to myself that the breast would have been easier to eat if it had been fileted in half.

The side that came with it was a pesto pasta salad. I've had pesto pasta salads for years and used to have to make them at the gourmet pasta shop I worked at during college. This one was top notch. The pesto was great, of course, but there was also finely diced pieces of celery and fresh tomato. They gave the salad both color and a nice, crisp crunch to go with the toothsome spirals of pasta.

I was especially happy that day when Phillip pointed out dessert - chocolate glazed cream puffs! I'm a sucker for anything with cream as the focus and so I had to have one of those. This lovely little morsel was only a $1.50 and well worth it. Full of lovely whipped cream and that slick layer of chocolate ganache, I was in sweet tooth heaven. If only all the trucks offered desserts. For that matter, when are we going to see our first dessert truck!!!

Last weekend they were at Second Saturday and I tried the fish taco made with a large piece of California caught albacore. Kim tells me that she gets a phone call from her Bay area fish vendor telling her what they've caught that morning and she places her order each day.

MKOTH is not as well known and I blame it on the lack of a serious social media campaign. Twitter and FB are what drive the food truck business and until they embrace it fully,  they will stay under the radar.

I'm hoping that MKOTG will venture downtown more as it establishes a following. Right now I think many folks are still flocking to the other trucks because they are uncertain of MK's menu. I think once they give it a chance, they'll appreciate the changing menu and the quality of the product and service.