Musubi Kings

Oh man, this booth is addicting!
Musubi Kings is one of the reasons that kept me going to Off The Grid Fort Mason. They only appeared there every other week, so I always checked my weekly Off The Grid email and made sure that they were there whenever I went.
All their Musubi costs $ 5 each which is actually a pretty good deal considering what you get. Besides the usual Spam Musubi, they offer a whole variety of Musubi such as Peking Duck, Pork Belly, Bulgogi, and Banh Mi. My two favorites are the Peking Duck Musubi and Pork Belly Musubi (
). They’re so good! Especially the Pork Belly! And they’re very meaty with a very balanced meat to rice ratio as you can see from the pic.
I can’t wait for Fort Mason Off The Grid to start up again in March so I can taste their magical Musubi again. Hopefully, I’ll be able to try their other Musubi that they show on their Facebook page. I definitely want to their their Bacon & Egg and Banh Mi Musubi.
March can’t come soon enough!!!

3.5 stars.
Three things I love to eat: Peking duck, pork belly, and yes… spam…especially spam that’s pan-​fried in a pooled mixture of shoyu (soy sauce), teriyaki sauce and sugar. At Musubi Kings they serve all three.
The musubis are good, but they fall apart and become pretty messy quickly. They are also quite pricey at $ 5 per musubi, $ 4 for the spam ones (you can get a whole can of Hawaii’s favorite mysterious luncheon meat for less than that). These guys must be raking in a fat margin worthy of a monarchy.

Walked by this truck at Off the Grid and saw the menu of musubis for $ 5 each! $ 5 for a musubi??? At 7 – 11 in Hawaii, they have amazing teriyaki (Hawaiian marinate) spam or chicken musubis for $ 1.69 each! I couldn’t believe any place could think of charging $ 5 for a musubi, which consists mainly of some meat, tons of white rice, some nori (Japanese seeweed) and waaaayy too much salt.
But then, something flashed in front of my eyes. I saw the «Pekking duck musubi» on the menu and I knew, I KNEW I HAD TO TRY IT. I love pekking duck and I had never seen a pekking duck musubi.
To my surprise, it was amazing. The pekking duck was so tender, moist and amazing. Just amazing! This truck is brilliant! $ 5 musubis, worth it.

OTG Ft Mason… Bundle up and order up the Peking Duck Musubi — Very well built and proportioned and tasty. Lines get long after awhile but worth the wait.

I was excited to try the Pork Belly Musubi cuz I love all things pork belly! But unfortunately, mine was ALL FAT and no meaty part at all. Just looking at it, I felt really gross. I took out all the fat and only ate the rice and seaweed. I’m sure I just got a bad piece because seeing all the other pics of other’s they had a great piece of pork belly. We also got the bulgogi and kimchee musubi, it had good flavor but I felt like the bulgogi was pretty dry and hard to swallow. I regret not trying the peking duck… maybe next time. They were also partying in their tent while making their musubis… I saw a handle of Jameson and shots being passed around… that could’ve helped my bulgogi go down. haha.

Braised pork belly perfected by well-​known chefs? PASS
Pork chops from famed chophouse? PASS
Charcuterie so beautiful it brings a tear to your eye? PASS
But, SPAM, which is essentially processed mystery meat in a can… BRING IT ON!
My questionable preferences are baffling, I know. My only defense is that SPAM calls to mind summers camping with my fam; the aroma of pan-​fried sizzling gelatinous pork alongside sticky, white rice wafting into our tents, nudging us awake.
Musubi Kings are frequent occupants at OTG Fort Mason. They’re creative: duck, pork belly, etc but I go for the O.G. of musubis – SPAM! Thanks to their food truck, I now eat SPAM more than a few times every summer. Forget the above-​mentioned gourmet incarnations of pork… straight from the blue can – now *THAT’S* classy!

YES! YES! YES!
This truck alone changed my mind about Off the Grid. Yes, it’s $ 5 bucks for two pieces. Yes, they make spam musubi. And yes, I will happily empty my wallet for mainly this item…
You ready?
PEKING DUCK MUSUBI. Why didn’t I think of this???
The duck is so flavorful and is just a perfect little meal to make a fancy musubi. Sorry spam, you may have met your match.
Pork belly musubi is a distant cousin. Still good, but really not the real deal.

Pork Belly Musubi at OTG — Fort Mason was DYNAMITE!
Oh man — the fat just melted but was also crispy.
If your craving pork belly — skip the line a chairman bao — get this delicious dish!

JB told me about Musubi Kings. I’d probably seen their stand at OTG: Fort Mason a few times, but never stopped by to try them out. That is, until JB heard about them and wanted to try their goods. I then found out that they don’t make an appearance at OTG every week. So I stalked them on Twitter and found out just when they would be there. A and I convinced JB to come with us to OTG and the first vendor we stopped at was Musubi Kings! It was early, probably just after 5, so it wasn’t too crowded yet. There was no line so we just scooped right in and ordered two Peking duck musubis. $ 5 for two pieces. I didn’t know it was two pieces for each order, otherwise I would’ve only ordered one order. So we ended up with four pieces.
We got our order pretty quickly, which was a plus. The seaweed was a bit tough to bite through, but that happens. JB got a duck bone in hers as well, which completely threw her off balance.
It was good, but could probably be better. Good idea, but needs a bit of a better follow-​through. And quite expensive for musubi.

Delicious for Musubi, but a little pricey.
I love love love musubi. You really can’t go wrong with it and it’s hard to mess it up. So when I saw a musubi stand at Off the Grid, i thought it must be good. The line to order isn’t very long, it’s just the wait to receive your musubi that takes longer.
They were offering:
— Spam musubi
— Pork belly musubi
— Peking duck musubi
I ordered the pork belly. Two pieces for $ 5, but then again, it’s pork belly. It was delicious! Only thing is that it has too much rice for me, but otherwise, pork belly cooked very well with pickled veggies. I would definitely go back to get more, but it’s just too expensive for my small wallet.

This was my favorite thing at Off the Grid :) Yes their Peking Duck Musubi is super duper scrumptious! I noticed that they ran out of that later on so I’d say go get these first. I also tried the pork belly musubi — also super duper yummy.
They should think of more awesome stuff to put in musubis. Kalbi and Kim Chi? Satay? KFC chicken skin?

Why does everything that’s bad for you taste so good??? Sure, I see the more healthier and less bad for you options. Sure, I see the vegetarian offerings. But that doesn’t mean I WANT that stuff. I see Musubi Kings at OTG: Fort Mason. I peruse the menu. Spam? Been there, done that. Something spicy… kimchi maybe? No thanks. Pork belly? Wha whaaa? PEKING DUCK??? Oh hells yes! Gimme one of those and one of those!
Why??? Why is the good stuff bad for you?!!
The pork belly musubi was like, «Mmmm…goooood.» But the peking duck was like, «Ohhh, dayamn! Should I get another?!»
*pondering, pondering, pondering
Knowing that I needed to conserve my cash AND the very important stomach space, I resolved not to get seconds. But I swear, if this were the only food stand around, I would’ve gotten thirds for sure.

I got the pork belly and the standard spam musubis. Both were tasty and filling but pricey for musubi. I’m curious about the Peking duck one so I’m sure I’ll check them out again.

Unfortunately by the time I got to the front of the line, they had run out of the peking duck musubi. Luckily, I was already getting full, so I just ordered the pork belly and the kimchi musubi. The pork belly was really fatty (which is great), but it didn’t taste amazing. On the other hand, I enjoyed the kimchi musubi a little better because of the fried rice (instead of regular white rice).
At $ 5 a pop though… it’s a little on the pricey side. And that’s totally fine, but if I try them again, I’d only try the peking duck musubi.

I love Musubi, and was surprised to see a Musubi stand at Off the Grid. The line was one the longer ones there, but it was pretty early and I wasn’t too hungry yet, so I thought I’d give it a try. I was immediately drawn to the pork belly musubi (although the Peking Duck musubi also looked delicious). I was also excited because the menu board said that the musubis all came with spicy noodles.
It was only about 7:00 when I got my musubi (OTG runs until 10pm) but they were already out of noodles! Still, the musubi was $ 5, even without the noodles. When I see something on the menu, I expect to get what is promised for the price I pay, so that sucked. The musubi was standard sized — something you might get for $ 2 – 3 at a Hawaiian restaurant (although not with pork belly) — so I thought $ 5 was a bit pricy. The pork belly itself was delicious, but I found it a bit too fatty. I expected the fat, but there were a few big chunks of fat in my musubi that were a bit off-​putting.
I’ll gladly try another musubi (or three) from Musubi Kings next time I see the stand, but hopefully they’ll have noodles left (or the price will be cheaper).

I tried the Peking Duck Musubi at OTG last Friday night and I think is was one of my favorite things I tried the whole night.
Yes. the rice was a little mushy. but I think it was still really yummy! The duck meat was tender. I liked that they didn’t put too much skin in it because it would be too fatty. I’m not sure if they were supposed to give noodles or slaw with the orders but they just gave us the musubi by itself.
Would I be willing to hunt this down for lunch? Probably not. For the price I would have to buy a crapload to get full. This was a nice treat at OTG because it left you with more room to try other things. :)

Tried out the Peking Duck Musubi. Definitely worth trying out once, but I think next time, I’ll go for their take on Classic Spam Musubi. They serve the Musubi plates with a small helping of spicy spaghetti noodles. Not bad, but a bit on the hot side for me.
As for the Musubi, the rice seemed a bit too mushy and maybe a bit greasier than what I expect sushi rice is supposed to taste like. Perhaps that’s because of the duck fat this time, so I’ll give them another shot at greatness the next time I find myself @ On the Grid — Ft. Mason.

buying musubi is such a waste of money…
EXCEPT, i’m willing to make an exception here and pay $ 5 for a PEKING DUCK MUSUBI with scallions and hoisin aioli.
even though it is preposterously tiny… like 3 bites’ worth… this little musubi is amazing. it contains fatty duck skin, dripping flavorful fatty oil (usually this would disgust me… but MMMM!!!), slow roasted juicy duck meat, and the rice is perfectly «al dente»… what more could you ask for from this musubi (except make it bigger)?

It’s obvious that Musubi Kings hadn’t anticipated their popularity. You could watch them perform through the mesh of their booth, frantically busting their ass like ants saving food before the cold weather comes, trying to produce food for a starving and demanding public.
The «pick-​up» line was an oxbow of hodge podge customers, impatiently tapping their foots and throwing their hands up in the air occassionally saying, «What the fuck?» because their names hadn’t been called for their Musubi. I ordered the Morning Musubi for $ 4 — spam, smoked bacon, maple aioli and egg — I don’t love spam, but it’s a nostalgic ingredient for this girl who grew up in the ghetto.
When I finally got it, I looked down and there was something missing. What’s missing? I walked back up to the window and said, «Excuse me, I’m sorry, but could you please tell me where my spam is?» «Oh, you know what? Take this one.» The spam was missing. And with a new Musubi in hand, this time my complimentary side of coleslaw was missing. No worries. By the time I was handed my Musubi, it was stone cold. Bummer.
I couldn’t taste anything but seaweed and smoke. I would have loved to taste something as wonderful sounding as maple aioli, but I didn’t. What this Musubi is missing is texture. Maybe if the spam could be left on the grill until the edges become crunchy, or maybe the bacon could be crispy instead of limp. I don’t know. It just seemed to be lacking a lot of somethings.

Not bad for a newbie at Off the Grid. Musubi Kings drew a decent crowd with their menu.
*Bahn Mi Musubi (head cheese, steamed pork, pickled carrot and daikon, pâté and mayo) $ 5
*Peking Duck Musubi (slow roasted duck, scallions and hoisin aioli) $ 5
*Pork Belly Musubi (braised pork belly, pickled radish) $ 5
*Morning Musubi (spam, smoked bacon, scrambled eggs and maple aioli) $ 4
*Spicy Luau Musubi (spicy spam, pineapple and spicy aioli) $ 4
All orders come with a side of slaw. It’s worth a try if you have a musubi craving.