Typical Day
Jennifer Kong, better known as the Korean Taco Queen of Peoria, Illinois, wakes up at noon on a sunny Tuesday. "That's the fifth largest market in Illinois, thank you very much," Jenny likes to quip to those who laugh after she tells them what she does for a living. As far back as she can remember, Jenny was always ahead of the trends. Even as a kindergartner, little Jenny refused to be seen wearing her big sister's hand-me-downs.
Jennifer's always had this go-getting, snappy talking, original prankster type of personality. In high school, inspired by her grandmother's cooking and her own ravenous hunger for cash, Jen spoke to the principal one day and got permission to set up a taco stand in the lunch room.
The first day of business, Jen woke up at 5:00AM and whipped up some disgraceful imitations of her grandmother's specialty: the pork belly and pickle taco. Not only did every student who tried one demand their money back, but one kid got a touch of food poisoning. Fortunately, Jen convinced the victim not to sue with a month's supply of free tacos. Fully cooked ones.
Over the years, Jen streamlined the cooking process, fine-tuned the recipes and put in serious work in the field of consistently making sure that all taco meat is fully cooked.
Lately, between shifts in the taco truck, Jen has been putting the final touches on the perfect freezable taco. Jen's dream is to hit the grocery store shelves within the decade, and she's been putting in calls to anyone she can find who may be able to help. For now though, just the two taco trucks—east side and west side. After a few years, Jen has found a sizable sort of cult following of local taco freaks, and she is doing well. Really well. She's anxious to expand further.
Jen gets up, thoughts of tacos spinning in her mind. She has her nephew Clarence working the east side truck for the lunch shift, so she has a little well-deserved time to lounge around in her pajamas. Not feeling like cooking, Jen orders a pizza with her favorite eccentric toppings—olives, pineapples, and salami. All she'll have to do is add the pickles when it arrives. In the mean time, Jen puts on her favorite show, Chopped.
Halfway through round two of the first episode, Jen's doorbell rings. "Pizza pizza pizza pizza pizza!" Jen screams in a frenzy as she runs in her Panda socks to the door, just barely avoiding a nasty slip and fall in the process. She swings the door open.
"Hey Jen," says the pizza man.
"Kenneth," replies Jen. Jen is on a first-name basis with every food delivery guy in a half-mile radius. "You got the goods?"
"You got the money?"
After a tense staredown and exchanging of the cash for the goods, Jen plops back down on the couch with the pizza and the jar of pickles to watch some chump get chopped. Jen is about to enjoy the first bite of her trademarked pizza pickle roll-up when her adorable vintage phone rings, making mewing cat sounds that jar Jen out of her moment of bliss. The pickle slips loose from its cheesy wrapping and lands on the hardwood floor.
Muttering irritably, Jen reaches for her phone. It's an unknown caller.
"Hello?"
"Mrs. Kong?" replies the voice on the other line—an energetic man's voice.
"Speaking."
"I'm so glad I reached you, Mrs. Kong," continues the mystery man. "My name is Howard Nixbaum, I work with Mega Foods Frozen Goods. We received your proposal, and I've been reading up about you on your local review sites. I'm very impressed. I was hoping to set up a meeting some time soon."
Jen's initial urge to tell the caller to find someone else's pickle party to interrupt is overcome by her new desire to babble insanely. This is the call she's been waiting for. After manic introductions, Jen makes an appointment to meet with Mr. Nixbaum at his office in Chicago the following week.
Jen spends the rest of the day in a daze. She's too distracted to finish her episode of Chopped and instead goes to the kitchen and tries to whip up some new freezable sauces. Her shift in the taco truck flies by as all she can do is dream of box designs and new flavor options. It's finally happening—all that she has worked for since that fateful day in high school. Jen hopes her grandmother would be proud.
Later that night, too excited to sleep, Jen jogs on her treadmill and catches up on that episode of Chopped she never finished. But she's not really watching. Gears are turning in Jen's mind, and if you waved your hands in front of her face there's a good chance she wouldn't notice. It's going to be an exciting couple of months.