At Kong Dog/Kong Pocha in Davis Square, lively street food to shake off a takeaway slump
In my family, and maybe in yours, too, spring is when meal-planning goes completely awry. School sports are in full swing: there are games and practices every night. We dine either at 5 p.m. or 9 p.m., and poorly at that. Ambitious New Year’s resolutions involving shopping for the week and carefully plotting a protein, vegetable, and a grain to match the day of the week seem cute and thoroughly impractical. i’m lucky if i’m shoving pizza in my mouth by bedtime.
Which is all to say: Maybe you’re in a takeout rut, too, and need a new idea. this is how my family and i stumbled upon Kong Dog/Kong pocha in Somerville’s Davis Square. this little storefront first emerged on the scene selling corn dogs coated in Doritos, neon-red cheetos, and fruity cereal: ideal late-night — but perhaps not family dinner — fare.
but Kong Dog has expanded to encompass Kong pocha, a stall with a varied menu and a lively vibe. this is a pop-up inside the space, an orange-roofed tent festooned with twinkling lights, little buzzers on tables to summon servers, bouncy K-pop on the speakers, and corn dog stickers on the walls. it’s fun, and the menu is familyfriendly.
My kids got 12-piece, double-fried chicken wings rolled in a spicy-sticky sweet sauce, crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside ($19.99). they were meaty and big — no sad, stringy wings here. i ordered Kong tteopbok-ki, simmered rice cakes in a thin Gochujang sauce. Here, the sauce is brothier than some paste-based versions, served with sliced carrots and onions. but it was plenty garlicky, spiced just right, with glass noodles and — bonus! — a mozzarella-stuffed, sugar-coated, cartoon-sized corn dog. Wasn’t expecting that; my kids were delighted. there’s also spicy ramen fried rice, pork cutlets, and bulgogi.
the only sour note: limp, nearly translucent scallion pancakes that were far too oily and vegetal for my crowd. but this was easy to overlook amid a feast of wings, savory stew, and a surprise corn dog. More than that, it was a happy spring-weekend respite from our usual diet of trader Joe’s chicken nuggets, pizza on the go, and late-night leftovers. if you’re looking for a legitimate, well-balanced way to fold corn dogs into your routine with a side of K-pop, this is the place to do it.
Kong Dog has expanded to encompass Kong Pocha, a stall with a varied menu and a lively vibe.