Bongo Berries!

Bongo trucks are an important part of the commerce culture in Korea. These flatbed trucks are essentially rolling kiosks. Sometimes people will park them on a market street and open up to display a little kitchen that serves food or a miniature clothes boutique. Other times you hear them rolling through neighborhoods blaring on a mounted speaker system about the goods or service they have to offer. I have seem computer repair, kimchi pot salesmen, even what appear to be rolling rummage sales. This time of year though, the produce bongos are the most ubiquitous.

Now, it seems difficult to catch the rolling ones. You have to flag the driver down, communicate what you want, and block traffic while you negotiate the price. I have often purchased things off the parked bongos, but today I finally got up the nerve to flag down a rolling one.

One of my colleagues is laid up at home, so we are all taking turns cooking for him. Tonight was my turn so I made a really great stir fry (I tasted it. It was good :), and I decided the best dessert to send with it is strawberries. So I set off to walk to the market and get some, but on the way, a bongo drove by full of strawberries! So I thought what the heck, hollered yogiyo!, and I purchased approximately a half gallon of strawberries for about $2.50 from a rolling retailer. Bongo berries!