The Unvegan

Recent Posts

10 Years of Unvegan
A Quick Bite at Burrito Express
Serendipity at Northern Waters Smokehaus
Twerks and Burritos at Casa Amigos

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11/23/2009 Mobile

Finishing Up at Frysmith (CLOSED)

Want some fries with your chili?
Want some fries with your chili?

Last week, I brought you an interview with Frysmith, the newest food truck to roll out in LA. Although they were opening Friday, I didn’t think there was any chance I could make it, due to a previous commitment. At the end of a long Friday night, I decided to check Twitter to see if there were any taco trucks to be found. I was pretty sure that Frysmith had already wrapped up, but I was still in need of some mobile foodery. As I checked Twitter, though, I found that Frysmith was still at the Brig in Abbot Kinney, so I rushed over to see if I could make it in time.

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11/12/2009 Mobile

More First Fridays with the Flying Pig (CLOSED)

Who wouldn't eat from a bright pink truck?
Who wouldn’t eat from a bright pink truck?

EDIT: While the truck is grounded for good, the Flying Pig has spawned some brick and mortar that may or may not be anything like the truck.

For my second course on First Fridays in Abbot Kinney, I headed out to one of LA’s newest food trucks, the Flying Pig. When I first read about this Mexican-French fusion truck, I wasn’t too amazed by what I read. Fusing Mexican food with Asian is one thing, but to try to fuse it with French as well seemed like a strange niche that I didn’t need to explore. Lo and behold, my opinion changed when I saw the truck and the happy customers outside of it.

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11/11/2009 Mobile

First Fridays with the South Philly Experience

Seems like it would be hard to drive with that sign...
Seems like it would be hard to drive with that sign…

Sometimes, following LA’s food trucks on Twitter can be a difficult process. If you don’t have a Twitter account or a smartphone, then it gets even harder (seriously, not having Twitter or a smartphone is soooo 2008). Luckily for those who fight the future of technology, there is a little event on the first Friday of every month on Abbot Kinney in Venice creatively called First Fridays. These nights are the best opportunity to experience LA’s food truck culture.

One truck I’ve been trying to find for a while happened to be there. It’s called South Philly Experience (SPE) and dishes out Philly Cheese Steaks, plus a couple other random East Coast faves like Tastykakes. The menu was as basic as you’d expect from a food truck, offering a couple varieties of sandwiches, but I only wanted the original. I ordered as specified on the menu, “witout” onions and “wit” Cheez Wiz, as I’ve heard the Wiz is Philly’s top choice for cheese steaks.

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11/6/2009 Los Angeles

Getting Spicy at Agra Indian Kitchen

Too many onions all up in my chicken.
Too many onions all up in my chicken.

With one of those strange restaurant.com gift certificates in hand, my girlfriend and I set off to try Agra Indian Kitchen in Venice. Kitchen is an appropriate name for the place because it was only slightly larger than a kitchen. Luckily, though, one table was open when we arrived and we were seated immediately.

The menu looked pretty good, despite its massive vegetarian section. I was stuck in the bread are for a long time, trying to figure out which sort of naan or other bread we should get to start the meal. In the end, we kept it pretty simple with garlic naan , but also experimented with some cheese naan. The cheese naan was kind of like an Indian version of a quesadilla. There wasn’t a ton of cheese in it, but the bread was like an edible pillow, in a good way.

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10/30/2009 Mobile

More Food Trucking with Don Chow Tacos (CLOSED)

Not quite as shiny as the other trucks...
Not quite as shiny as the other trucks…

Although the Grilled Cheese Truck is the newest member of LA’s fleet of food trucks, Don Chow has already been roaming the streets in search of hungry night life for months.

The truck isn’t nearly as shiny as Kogi or Nom Nom, but I’ve never felt the need to be served from a shiny establishment. In fact, when I did catch up with the Don Chow truck in Venice, the cheap sign had fallen off and it looked like any other generic taco truck. Good thing my girlfriend noticed a small sign on the front of the truck ensuring us it was Don Chow.

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10/27/2009 Mobile

The First Melt at the Grilled Cheese Truck

So shiny and like-new
So shiny and like-new

The highly anticipated Grilled Cheese Truck finally rolled into town tonight and due to my frightening obsession with cheese, I made sure to greet the truck. In the tradition of other great ks before it, the unveiling took place at The Brig on Abbot Kinney. I arrived 15 minutes before the scheduled 8:00 start time and was shocked to find the parking lot at The Brig empty except for the shiny orange truck. Apparently, I was to be the first in line!

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8/27/2009 Mobile

Almost Deja Vu at the Nom Nom Truck (CLOSED)

Like a shiny beacon of Vietnamese-ness.
Like a shiny beacon of Vietnamese-ness.

A little more than eight months after my first taste of Kogi BBQ, I found myself once again standing in the parking lot of The Brig, eager to take on another food truck inspired by the fusion of Asian and Mexican food. If so much hadn’t changed in the food truck scene of LA since that first taste of Kogi, I would have felt some intense deja vu. Since the arrival of Kogi, it feels like a new food truck is unrolled every week. From the architecturally inspired ice cream sandwiches of Coolhaus to the beautiful women running Baby’s Badass Burger truck, I almost feel like LA offers more food on wheels than it does in restaurants, with more coming. Nonetheless, the official opening of the Vietnamese and Mexican fusion Nom Nom Truck was exciting for me, and I made my way to The Brig in Venice to see if I would have a new friend on wheels.

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6/29/2009 Los Angeles

BBQ the Right Way at Baby Blues BBQ

Such a pretty plate of not vegetables.
Such a pretty plate of not vegetables.

After attending the LA BBQ Fest, all I wanted to do was find a good BBQ place to go to whenever I wanted to. I heard some great things about Baby Blues BBQ and saw their mac n’ cheese at the BBQ Fest, so I decided to try the place out.

The restaurant looks like a BBQ place should, reminiscent of a shack and nothing fancy by any accounts. The wait to sit inside was pretty long, while outside seating was pretty empty. We decided we may as well sit outside and eat because it would probably take just as long to get our food and eat outside as it would to just wait out there for a table inside. Does that make sense? Well, it does in my head. Anyway, the waitress was there in an instant to offer my girlfriend use of her jacket, which was one of the nicest things I’ve ever seen a waitress do, and she accepted the offer.

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5/13/2009 Los Angeles

Screwing the Recession at The Yard (CLOSED)

The recession never looked so good.
The recession never looked so good.

Drink, Eat, Play has been spearheading a “Screw the Recession” effort by finding restaurants to offer 50% promotions while our nation suffers. In other words, if you still have your job, you can get some pretty awesome deals.

Recently, The Yard in Santa Monica was chosen for the 50% promo. I made some reservations and headed there for a semi-early dinner, hoping to take advantage of both happy hour and the promo. Unfortunately, upon arrival I was told that people doing the promo couldn’t partake in happy hour. What the hell? Nonetheless, I stayed the course and chose a couple dishes to split with my girlfriend.

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12/17/2008 Mobile

Kogi BBQ

This is what Mexico and Korea should look like. Don't worry, that green stuff is cilantro.
This is what Mexico and Korea should look like. Don’t worry, that green stuff is cilantro.

Over the weekend, a friend of mine enlightened me to the existence of Kogi BBQ, a Korean taco truck. The very concept of this blew my mind, in a good way. The truck’s whereabouts can be tracked via Twitter. Now I’m not entirely sure what Twitter is (perhaps a polite way to say twister without offending people with lisps?), but we found out that the truck would be outside of a bar called The Brig on Abbot Kinney that night.

We set off, and although most of my friends were looking forward to the bar, I really only cared about the taco truck.

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