KoKyu Food Truck and Cocoa Cinnamon Coffee {Durham, NC}

We headed to Durham this past weekend to go house-hunting for the big move. I’d been OCD-checking the weather from my space-heater-warmed office for the previous week or so in hopes of warm weather in the near future, so I knew the weather was going to be beautiful during our trip. I just didn’t realize how nice it would be.

My BIL, Ted, offered to be our tour guide for the weekend and suggested an afternoon outing for Saturday. The plan – take the dogs around for some outdoor shopping, site-seeing, and food truck visiting.

He had me at “food truck.”

We met Ted at Motorco – an open-air music hall with a full bar, local vendors, and a food truck set up outside.

I couldn’t think of a better place to be given the sunny, spring day.

The place was dog central. I think I saw one dog for every five humans. Bailey and Ted’s dog, Kerry, loved making new friends with the other dogs.

The first thing that actually caught my attention as we walked up to Motorco was this man blowing bubbles everywhere. Huge, rainbow-tinted bubbles.

And smaller, baby bubbles. They were a major hit with all the kids around…and me. But don’t worry, I’ll spare you the 10+ photos I took of the bubbles. I picked the best two to share with you guys.

We were pretty hungry when we got there, so after a quick walk through of the market, we ordered some eats from the food truck on site – KoKyu. Instead of a boring, numbered ticket, you wait for your order with a playing card. We had the king of diamonds.

The menu was full of delicious options, but hubby and I ordered a couple things to share – a 12 hour brisket slider and a pork carnitas slider…

…plus, some duck fat tater tots with rosemary. The tater tots came with a mayo-sriracha dipping sauce.

All the eats were delicious. On the sliders, the tender meat paired very nicely with sweet sauces, crispy pickled veggies, fresh herbs, and lightly toasted buns. Each sandwich was a perfect combination of flavors and textures. And, the tater tots have to be the best tater tots I’ve ever had – just-right-crispiness with a fresh rosemary flavor. I really shouldn’t have blogged about this on an empty stomach, because it’s seriously grumbling just thinking about these eats again.

We found a spot at the indoor-outdoor bar to eat and enjoy the scenery.

We also did some shopping while we were there. There were two handmade pottery vendors with beautiful goodies in their booths. I knew something was coming home with me, I just wasn’t sure what, at first. I was tempted by some bowls and cups, but when I saw a tiny little cupcake stand, I thought that would be fun to use in some food photos here on the blog. I guess I’d better get to making some cupcakes, eh?

We next headed off in search of something on the sweet side. We walked just down the street to Cocoa Cinnamon, another Ted recommendation and another indoor-outdoor spot.

The boys waited outside while I went in for ice cold coffee goodness.

{Coffee making – in progress}

I was glad to see a special menu just for iced drinks. The KoKy Tu one (made with Coca Cola) sounded really interesting, but I chose the TOON Up to try.

Here’s a random photo of someone else’s order. I can haz? Seriously, what is this? I’m thinking drinking chocolate since I saw a few different drinking chocolate options on the menu. It was a little too hot for me to go hot cocoa, and I’m not an iced milk chocolate kind of gal, but, I’m thinking this needs to be mine in the near future. Preferably served in one of their custom mugs. Aren’t they cool looking?

Dessert happened, too. Completely unintentionally, of course. I originally wanted just coffee, but when I saw cute little cheesecakes on display, I couldn’t resist trying one. They had a few flavor options available, but the orange ginger was calling to me. Buttery graham cracker base, rich creamy filling, whipped topping of some sort, and (what I believe was) candied orange peel on top. I thought this was the perfect portion, too – 1 hubby bite or several for me. The cheesecake was wonderful. I only wish something similar were available in Charlotte.

My coffee was fab, too, with just the right amount of sweetness and milk.

Ted ended up trying the Ko Kyu drink, which looked delicious – dark coffee on the top with layer of milky-something near the top.

The afternoon was off to a fun start, but there was more outdoor sun-soaking ahead! Next up – another Durham outing.

Btw, we’re not moving to Durham…April Fools! 😛

Reader question: Did you pull an April Fools’ Day prank? What did you do?