THE FIFTH TASTE
BY CHEF GERALD
Hoppen Hierarchy: ★★★
District: Pop-ups/food trucks
Asian Rice Bowls & Noodle Dishes
Perfect For: Casual Dining; Takeout
Standout Dishes: Gochujang Chicken; Fifth Taste Salmon Bowl; Orange Chicken; Lumpia; Pancit
Of the five flavors, umami is the hardest to define. Sweet, sour, bitter, and salty are more commonly experienced and easier to put into words. But umami… you just know it when you taste it.
Or you can just visit The Fifth Taste by Chef Gerald. The owner built the menu with umami at the forefront, and though the dishes aren’t flawless, you can taste the savory, mouthwatering flavor in just about every bite.
The food truck’s mission is to elevate Asian fusion cuisine with powerful, umami-forward flavors served in a familiar format, usually a rice bowl. Most dishes employ a combination of rice, fresh vegetables, a healthy amount of protein, and bold, rich sauces to drive home the umami sensation.
Gerald honed his craft traveling around the world as the chef on a seafaring vessel, visiting 80 countries in 8 years at sea. He then was the executive chef at a restaurant for 2 years in Singapore before moving back to the United States during the pandemic. His wife works in the ICU at Omaha’s Immanuel Hospital, and he saw a great need to help the elderly community, so he enrolled in nursing school.
But even as Gerald pursues a career the noble goal of helping this population, his love for cooking burns within him. So he opened his food truck in the summer of 2025, eager to take all the lessons he learned traveling the globe and inject them into his creations.
The trucks moves around Omaha, commonly posting up outside breweries or at Trucks & Taps (108th & Q). Following it on social media is the best way to find out where it’ll park next.
Most of the dishes on The Fifth Taste’s menu start with an ample bed of fluffy Japanese rice, which has a sticky consistency and a mildly sweet flavor. The flavor plays very well with the bold, savory elements placed on top.
The Fifth Taste Salmon Bowl is a great example. The salmon itself is a bit overcooked and lacks that oily, flaky consistency, but it carries a buttery flavor. The combination of creamy Japanese mayo and a savory hibachi sauce bring a sweet, umami-rich flavor combination that’s practically leaps out of the bowl.
The bowl is rounded out by fresh vegetables, all properly juicy and crisp. Pickled onions add a punch of acidity, while cherry tomatoes and edamame add mild sweet, nutty notes.
The standout vegetables are a throughline throughout the menu, as Gerald clearly buys fresh produce and cuts it himself. They add a solid crunch to every plate, including the signature Korean Pork Belly Bowl (pictured in the header). Slabs of fatty pork belly are marinated in a tangy Korean BBQ sauce. The pork belly is cooked well, though the powerfully funky kimchi proves to be the dominant flavor in the dish. It’s still delicious, but the pork belly isn’t the star.
Not all of the plates on the truck are served over rice, however, including the Lumpia. These crispy Filipino spring rolls are stuffed full of flavorful ground pork and veggies, giving them a tasty punch even before you dunk them in the sweet chili sauce.
And the Pancit is unlike many of noodle dishes you’ll find in Omaha. Stir-fried, the noodles have a bit of an oily finish and a tangy, savory flavor. Chunks of chicken and vegetables give some substance to the bed of tender, springy noodles.
One of the more familiar dishes on the menu is the Orange Chicken, but this isn’t your standard Chinese takeout. The interior of the chicken bites remain moist while the exterior is crunchy, but it’s the citrusy, sweet sauce that makes this dish a standout.
Rounding out the lineup is the Garlic Butter Shrimp Bowl, which features tender shrimp tossed in a rich garlic butter. The shrimp have good flavor, though they’re overpowered by the creamy, funky flavors of eel sauce and Japanese mayo.
While Gerald excels at serving food he feels everyone can relate to, he really is passionate about offering authentic dishes that are astonishingly close to their origin. These are currently served as weekly specials, and there may not be a better example than the Pork Sisig. The cubes of tender pork are savory, smoky, and tangy with a pleasant amount of rich fat. The steamed white rice is fluffy and sticky, chicharrones bring a nice crunch, and the lemon soy sauce gives each bite an underlying saltiness.
They have a completely different flavor profile, but the Gochujang Pork Belly and Gochujang Chicken are great, too. The gochujang is tangy, spicy, and sweet, and it’s sticky consistency adheres it to each bite of protein. The pork belly isn’t too fatty and has a pleasant char on the outside, while the chicken is juicy and smoky.
The menu continues to evolve as Gerald concocts new creations and experiments with what he’s capable with on the truck. His offerings could also vary based on his availability and free time given his schooling and occupation.
But what he has already is a success. Though not all the proteins are prepared perfectly, Gerald’s dishes feature fantastic rice and perfect vegetables. What really stands out are the sauces and the way he coaxes that umami punch into each dish, which is exactly what he’s going for.