Fusion Flavors
A Rice University student discovers Oh My Gogi!

By Tabish Virani, Business and Policy Fall 2020 Intern, Asia Society Texas

Back in the fall of 2016, I had just begun studying at Rice University. Although I had spent my entire life growing up in Sugar Land, and considered myself a Houstonian, I had never really left the Sugar Land bubble and this was the first time in my life I had really gotten to explore Houston properly. At the time, Rice had a policy of keeping their meal halls closed for Saturday dinner as a way to encourage its students to explore, and every Saturday night the majority of students would end up either ordering in or taking the campus shuttle to Rice Village. For the first few months, I found myself ordering in like many of my peers as it was my first time living on my own, and the thought of exploring new places by myself terrified me. Eventually, I too started to explore Rice Village with a small group of friends, and we would more often than not end up eating at Buffalo Wild Wings.

We would normally have our dinner fairly early, around 6:30 p.m. or 7:00 p.m., so that we could get back to the dorm as quickly as possible so that we could get back to playing video games until the late hours of the night. Luckily for us, one night, we lost track of time and ended up not heading over to Rice Village until around 10:00. When we got there, we saw a food truck set up right across from Torchy’s Tacos with a sign that read, Oh My Gogi!, on the side and a massive line of people waiting to order food.

I was intrigued but the friends I was with at the side were hesitant. For the most part, they were pretty picky eaters, so I told them to go ahead to Buffalo Wild Wings (as was the plan once again) and that I’d catch up with them. I remember waiting in the line with my roommate, Eric, who had decided that he too was tired of having wings for the sixth weekend in a row, and smelling the delicious smells of grease and deep-fried cooking.

Once we finally reached the front end of the line, we got a chance to see the menu and learned that the specialty cuisine of this truck was Korean-Mexican fusion.

Up to this point, I had never really been a fan of fusion food, but I had already invested too much time into waiting in line and was too hungry to back out now. Once we got to the front of the line I decided to go all out. I ordered their bulgogi beef fries with kimchi and a fried egg as well as an order of bulgogi beef quesadillas. I topped it all off with some Sriracha sauce and dug in.

With my first bite, I knew that this would be a regular spot for me over the next few years. In fact, it ended up being a place me and Eric would come on almost a weekly basis, to the point where some of the staff at the truck started to recognize us.

For anyone who is a fan of the sweet and tangy flavors of Korean-style bulgogi beef as well as the spiciness of Mexican cooking, all wrapped up in savory, cheesy goodness, Oh My Gogi! is a must-try. The food is hot and made to order and affordable even on a student budget. Although the line can be long and the hours might be strange, the food that awaits you is worth all the hassle.

Even years later, when Eric was working in Houston and I would be visiting home from my studies abroad, we would always make it a point to meet up at Oh My Gogi! to catch up and enjoy some delicious Mexican-Korean fusion street food!