Touring LA: The AWESOME Food Truck Scene
One of the things that surprised me the most about LA was how in vogue it is to eat food out of a parked vehicle
-- I mean I knew taco trucks were popular, but I didn't understand the extent of how the food truck culture spread to every part of an Angelenos’ life. When Yelping places to eat, most of the highest rated places were trucks instead of brick and mortar restaurants. At night, girls all made up with their heels and Gucci bags, are seen eating Korean tacos and dim sum on the sidewalk. Even later at night, food trucks would park in the outdoor lounge areas of clubs so people could eat while taking a break from the dance floor – how convenient!
I guess the popularity of food trucks makes complete sense if you consider LA's geography and ethnic diversity. Its urban sprawl combined with the huge mix of people, means that Mexicans couldn't remain the only ones with awesome food trucks for long!
My question is – when did this all happen? Is this a new trend or has it just been developing slowly? What was the “tipping point”?
Well anyway, all I have to say is that I LOVE it! While in LA last week, I ate a majority of my meals out of trucks. Not only was the food delicious, but it’s affordable and convenient!
I found that a great way to experience LA food truck awesomeness is by going to
. I thought the festival was centered around food trucks, but turns out that it's a day where businesses on Abbott Kinney Blvd stay open late. Food trucks come to join in on the fun, all along Abbott Kinney Blvd and with most of the excitement centered around the Brig's parking lot (
). There is also a
LA Street Food Festival coming up on Saturday, July 24th
where 60+ vendors will be there to allow attendees to eat their hearts out! I wish I could be there, but I will just have to live vicariously through my boyfriend’s phone pics. Also, this
collects every truck's tweets and compiles it onto a map -- not always accurate so be sure to read the actual tweets that show up.
Here are some of the trucks I tried (in alpha order) and some on my "To Eat" list for next time I'm in LA. I’ve only tried a few so far, but I’m working on it! Let me know what some of your favorites are – I’d love to try them all!
Coolhaus serves up ice cream sandwiches Diddy Riese style where you can pick your cookie and ice cream
– except their ice creams are a little more adventurous, including blood orange, dirty mint chip, sea salt caramel and mascarpone balsamic fig (I don’t even know what that is…). After waiting in line for 30 minutes, I went the conservative route and ordered a snickerdoodle cookie with vanilla bean ice cream so I could reassure myself of no regrets upon receiving my order. And there were definitely no regrets! The cookies were delicious and the ice cream tasted fresh, like something you’d get at
. They also distinguish themselves by serving all the ice cream in an edible wrapper (think White Rabbit candy wrappers). They advertise that they can put your company/event’s logo on there if you want them to cater an event – smart marketing I’d say. Wish they had this near my work for a 100 degree afternoon snacks… [
]
I know I already posted about the
Dim Sum Truck
, b
ut I went back for more and got some photos for you all! I must say I am biased because I love dim sum so much (had it 3 times during my week long trip), but the dim sum from here is pretty awesome and on par with restaurants like Joy Luck in Cupertino and beats the dim sum places in Manhattan Chinatown.
They have all the traditional goodies like shrimp dumplings that don’t fall apart when you pick them up, pork shui mai where the pork isn’t overground and pork buns (both steamed and sticky!). They also have some modern interpretations like the Peking Duck Taco and a Spicy Tofu Mulita.
This is a definite must try if you’re craving some good old dim sum and the first place I dragged my friends to when I got to LA on Friday =)
I was a little excited to get my order =)
Pork Shu Mai, Shrimp Dumplings and Shrimp and Chive Dumplings
The Peking Duck Taco
Close up of a shrimp dumpling... yum!
After eating from all these new/modern food trucks, I told friends that I wanted to try a REAL LA taco truck. They, and
, pointed me to the El Tauro Taco Truck on
. My boyfriend and I went back 2 times in the span of a few days because we couldn’t get the deliciousness of the
tacos out of our heads (mmmm drooling just thinking about it). Here’s how it goes: once you order, they prepare it fresh for you! The al pastor meat is on a vertical spit grill and they scrape off some meat just for your order and pan fry it or something (I was too short to see unfortunately). Anyway once you receive your food, there are all these side fixins you can add in and they even have a nice clean table where you can eat at and watch their flat screen TVs. Although the fancy TVs and neon lights made me question their legitness (I usually ascribe to the philosophy that the dirtier a place is the more authentic it is =P), I think this truck is only so fancy because of its success – on yelp they had older photos and it looks like the truck just got the recent upgrade. I’ll be back to see you soon El Tauro Taco Truck! Especially to try the empandas everyone is raving about! I definitely missed out on that one…
Jing getting all the sides for our tacos
Plate with the beef and al pastor tacos. I was surprised at how plain they came
(I don't get to eat authentic Mexican food a lot...)
My favorite combination: Al pastor taco with the red and green sauce and these radish things
(what are they??) As you can see I am not very knowledgeable about
Mexican cuisine.. someone please enlighten me!
Oh the famous Kogi Truck! I’ve been told that this is one of the first trucks that made it big on modernizing the LA taco truck fare.
The concept is pretty simple – they make tacos, quesadillas and burritos, but with Korean BBQ style meat in it. This simple, but delicious idea has made the truck crazy popular -- crowds line up about 30 minutes before they open at lunch and the line at Venice First Fridays was about an hour long! In addition to traditional styles of Mexican food, they have sliders too. The wait time may limit how many times I’d go back here, but I will at least once more to try the sliders and get the delicious spicy pork tacos again mmmm.
These are the galbi tacos. They were delicious, but my favorite was actually the spicy pork taco!
The Blackjack Quesadilla
Here are the ones left on my "To Eat" List.
- The Grilled Cheese Truck: The line for this truck was MASSIVE at Venice First Fridays, but I’m hoping to get a chance to try the cheesy mac and rib melt when the line isn’t so crazy…
- Frysmith: Fries with stuff on them – simple enough. My boyfriend tried these Rajas fries with steak on top and the chili cheese fries on the website look awesomeeee. Next time!
- The Nom Nom Truck: I love me a good Vietnamese/Banh Mi sandwich, so I really want to give this Nom Nom place a try… For $5 a sandwich though, it has to be REALLY good.
- The Place LA: I was introduced to the owner of this truck at a club (or at least from what I remember) and have wanted to try it since. The menu looks like they mostly serve heart-attacks-on-a-plate (my favorite) and I’m dying to try these Pastrami Fries and the mustard that these Yelpers keep raving about!
Anyways, until the next time I visit LA, I will enjoy my favorite NYC food trucks / carts.
These are of course the famous
and the
and Fruit Cart outside my work (49th between 6th and 7th).
is pretty delicious and I’m still on a mission got try the
truck that I saw on the Food Network. Unlike the trucks in LA though, a lot of these carts aren’t as high tech with websites and twitter accounts – a lot of them don’t even have names!
covers them pretty well though and here's a r
detailing some of the food trucks in the city.
Happy munching everyone!
