The Unvegan » food trucks

Whining About The Wien

The Unvegan — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 16:00:03 +0000

Wien me a river.

Hot dogs: the edible version of man’s best friend. Genius in conception and pretty easy to do well. But to do a hot dog great takes some skill and some food trucks have taken this easily portable meal to the streets to some success. Up in North Hollywood, The Wien brought its truck over to my office one day and I thought I should give it a try and see if it could compete.

Quickly, I zeroed in on a dog built for an unvegan. Called The Gunslinger, this $6 dog was wrapped in bacon, then topped with onion rings, Smokin’ Willie’s BBQ Sauce (whatever that is) and cheddar cheese. Then I figured I could use a side of chili cheese fries to keep my dog company. I ordered up and then waited just a few minuted for my hot dog to be ready. This was certainly one of the most efficient food trucks I had ever been to.

Deep inside, the cheese is still meltless.

But efficiency does not necessary translate into good food, as I soon learned. I unwrapped my food to find both the dog and fries were covered with pretty unmelted shredded cheddar cheese. I wasn’t too happy to see this, because while I like cheese in any form, melted is preferred as a topping. I bit in and found just what I expected. The bacon around the hot dog was done well and the hot dog had the slightest little snap. Not as much as I would like, but enough to be respectable. The onion rings attempted to make up for this by adding a crunch to the dog and, finally, the BBQ sauce added a nice bit of sweet to counter the otherwise savory dog. It was a good dog, to be sure, but nothing particularly special or groundbreaking.

It would be better to have not had these at all.

The fries, though, took the meal to another level. And that level was not a good one. Like I mentioned before, the cheese was unmelted, which meant that it wasn’t mixed too well into the chili. Not that it would have mattered, because this was some of the most flavorless chili I had ever had in my life. I’m not sure if it was homemade or not, but if it was, The Wien needs to find itself a new recipe. You know, one that calls for flavor.

So, while The Wien provided an acceptable hot dog, the chili cheese fries were far from acceptable. And if you need a microwave in that truck to melt some cheese, by all means, please do it. It could mean the difference between a good hot dog and a hot dog worth returning for.

Unexpected Fruitiness at TnB BBQ

The Unvegan — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 16:00:23 +0000

What the what sauce?

On a one-night bender, I found myself facing down three strange taco trucks on Main Street in Santa Monica. None looked familiar and none looked particularly amazing. But it was 2 am in Los Angeles, when food options are usually limited to subpar diners and…well…taco trucks. The trucks here seemed to be some sort of missing link between gourmet and roach coaches and so after much circling we wound up at TnB BBQ.

This truck seemed to fuse Korean food with tacos (how creative), and after much deliberation, I chose the beef quesadilla for a whopping 7 bucks. This had to be a damn good and big quesadilla or I was going to be one unhappy drunk. And in my drunk, I was reduced to my most basic unvegan self and made sure to ask if there were any vegetables involved in this pricey quesadilla. The man told me no, and I stepped back to let them prepare my food.

Within minutes, my ‘dilla was ready and I looked upon it in curiosity. It wasn’t huge, but wasn’t slacking in size either. It also came with a little cup of some sort of salsa. I chomped in and what I found was some pretty decent Korean-Mexican fusion. It had your average sweet Korean beef taste and enough cheese to scare off a lactard. But what truly separated this quesadilla from every other Korean taco fusion I’ve ever had was the salsa. Not content to be a simple salsa, this stuff was fruity. And not just “oh heyyyy, lets put mangoes in our salsa” fruity. No, this was fruity to the core, with the most prominent flavor being strawberry. It made for one hell of a twist on your typical dipping sauce.

But was it good? Was it bad? I don’t really think it was either. It was just kind of…well weird. But if nothing else, TnB introduced me to something I never knew existed. Yes, I could have lived a happy life without ever having tasted strawberry salsa on a Korean quesadilla, and now that I have tasted such a thing, my life will continue on as it would have otherwise. Not better or worse, but having eaten something damn strange.

Keeping Crunchy at The Nacho Truck

The Unvegan — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 16:00:57 +0000

Looks classy...

In the grand explosion of gourmet food trucks, tacos have found themselves mixed with all sorts of craziness, from Korean BBQ to fish and grapes to kung pao chicken. Yet, in all this food truck excitement, the bastard cousin/side dish of the taco has been left behind. Yeah, I’m talking ’bout Shaft…err…nachos. But along came The Nacho Truck to remedy this sad predicament. Before this truck arrived at my office, I knew nothing of it, so my expectations were pretty low. Yet, as someone who doesn’t keep nearly enough track of food happenings in LA anymore, it is certainly possible that The Nacho Truck had simply flown/driven under my radar.

So what did these guys have to offer? For one, they had your classic gameday nachos, but with a certain gourmet look to them. They called these Friday night lights, with chili, something they called the best cheese sauce ever and jalapenos. They threw in a few more interesting twists to ordinary nachos and even had a caveat on the menu encouraging substitutions. God bless creativity. But for me, creativity wasn’t necessary as The Nacho Truck had dreamed up a set of nachos most meat blogworthy.

So pretty. So meaty. So sleepy.

Called The Flyover State, this nacho concoction consisted of BBQ baked beans, chili, bacon, chipotle corn, tillamook cheddar, blue cheese crumbles and BBQ ranch sauce. It weighed in a bit heavy at 9 bucks, so I was hoping these nachos would be as hearty as they sounded. But after choosing what I wanted, I still had to order and this took a solid 10 minutes. Not because of a line, but because the nacho crew was diligently putting together nachos for other patrons. Finally, I got my order in, waited another good 10 minutes and found myself looking at some wondrous nachos.

Clearly, they took their time with each order, yet I couldn’t help feeling there weren’t enough actual nachos. Until I started eating. I quickly discovered these nachos were plenty filling and plenty amazing. Rather than using corn, The Nacho Truck uses flour for their chips and the results are spectacular. I am definitely a convert, because these chips were not only tasty, but withstood the sauciness of the nachos to remain crunchy through and through. As for the toppings, I have to say I was a bit disappointed to find bits of peppers mixed into the debris. Fortunately, the flavors of bacon and beans were wildly overpowering and the peppers were hardly heard from. In fact, the flavors of the meal were almost too overpowering on the salty level. I actually wouldn’t have minded a bit less topping and a bit more chip to provide more balance. It was pretty much the opposite of what usually happens with nachos, when you are stuck eating plain chips in the end.

Yet, the power of the meat prevailed and made me damn happy this truck had made its way to the area of my working. The 9 bucks definitely provided a meal to fill me up and I would not pass up The Nacho Truck if a similar opportunity presented itself once again. Look out, tacos, the nachos are ready to do battle.

No Veggies at No Tomatoes!

The Unvegan — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:00:46 +0000

No tomatoes in here.

By name and color, No Tomatoes! has the makings of an amazing food truck. The name implies an amazing lack of the vegetable known as the tomato (I don’t care if it’s anatomically a fruit, so is a cucumber and you don’t see anyone calling that a fruit) and the orange coloration that enshrouds the truck makes it look beautiful. Oh and if the name doesn’t give it away, it serves up Indian food. But hidden in this supposed gem of a truck is deception. For there is one dish at No Tomatoes! that actually contains tomatoes: Tikka Masala. So while they were serving up lies with Tikka Masala, I looked to other options.

Mango lassi makes for a good combo.

The one other option that stuck out to me was the Kathi Roll. This was shredded chicken (or potatoes or paneer for those not unvegan inclined), red onions, cilantro and mint chutney, wrapped in some whole wheat breadstuff. I said no to onions, then upgraded to a combo. This meant paratha bread and mango lassi. I grabbed the lassi and waited for my wrap to appear.

Mango lassi, by the way, is a delicious mango drink. It’s kind of like the mango version of orange julius, but even more refreshing. With about half of my mango lassi consumed, my wrap and bread were ready.

A lot of char and a bit of taste.

I started out with the Kathi Roll. The shredded chicken was nothing short of delicious. It was so juicy that some of the juices even escaped the wrap and wound up on my pants. Annoying? Yes. Worth it? Also yes. Because it wasn’t simply juicy, it also had an awesome spice to it. They seemed to have dropped a lot of cilantro with the onions, but some was still in there and added a nice, cool change of pace to the wrap. The mint chutney, though, I moved over from the sandwich to use with the paratha bread. The truck menu described the bread as flaky, buttery and layered. It was certainly all of these, but also a little charred. It was good, but less char definitely would have been preferred. The mint chutney helped me battle against the char, but I still wouldn’t get the bread again.

So no tomatoes and no onions made for a pretty good meal. The chicken of the Kathi Roll was some of the best spiced and juiciest Indian chicken I’ve ever had. And really, despite having a dish with tomatoes, the concept of No Tomatoes! is truly unvegan-friendly. I would definitely be up for another visit if they came by the office again.

Soon e

Goodness, Gracious, Great Balls on Tires

The Unvegan — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:00:31 +0000

One if by sea, two if by truck.

When Great Balls on Tires first debuted last year, I was concerned that such a name for a meatball truck was a bit of a gimmick. Yet, now that GBOT has lasted through the middle of this year, I felt it was time I tried them out. When I walked up to the truck to see what they had to offer, I found there were only a few sets of balls to choose from. Yet, more than one of these balls looked attractive to me. Unfortunately, all balls came in sets of two, so I had to limit myself to only one ball type.

Plus, priced at 6-7 bucks for a set of two balls, I couldn’t really justify paying to try more than one. This was a shame, because had the balls been priced individually, I would have probably been willing to try three types. Instead, I approached the lady at the window to ask her to choose between two ball varieties for me. The first was the Ciao Balla (veal, pork, pancetta marinara, shaved parmesan and fresh basil on a toasted brioche bun) and the second was the Buffalo Ball (chicken, buffalo sauce, mac and cheese and blue cheese on a similarly toasted brioche bun). When I asked, she threw my ideas completely out the window and said I should get the IncrediBall. This was the most expensive, weighing in at 7 bucks. The only trouble was that this was not an unvegan-friendly ball. Sure, it had Kobe beef, applewood smoked bacon, gruyere and garlic aioli on that recurring brioche bun, but it also had arugula. And apparently I am a sucker, because I ordered the IncrediBall, but without the arugula.

The result was ready almost instantly and I found myself looking at two beautiful mini-sandwiches packed with meatballs. If nothing else, I must say how happy I am that GBOT didn’t stoop to inaccurately calling these sandwiches sliders. So thank you for that and on to the eating. I dug in and discovered a pretty tasty sandwich (or two). These guys were composed of a perfect balance of bacon, cheese, bread and meat. Plus, the aioli packed some good flavor. The beef tasted as though it were mostly seasoned with salt and pepper, and although it wasn’t bad, I felt like it might have been better with some more Italian seasonings. Also, I should clear up that although the menu said Kobe beef, this was more than likely American Kobe-style beef, which is pretty much as good, but can’t legally be called Kobe beef unless it comes from Japan. The beef was juicy, but eating it just reminded me of how much better Kobe beef is in steak form than in ground beef form. It’s better beef, but not so much better that it should cost a crazy amount more. Fortunately, these balls only cost a dollar more.

Wow, so there’s my usual Kobe beef rant.

In general, I really did like my IncrediBalls, but I was not completely satisfied. In this case, I can’t just limit myself to judging the taste and price of the food, because I think the practice of selling all these balls as doubles is flawed. I think GBOT should really split up their balls and allow people to order one-offs. This will give people more options and a better eating experience. I know I’d go back if I knew I could try more things without killing my wallet.

Getting Whizzed at Bera’s Custom Cheese Steaks

The Unvegan — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 17:00:46 +0000

Love the maize and blue colors.

One day outside of my work, a new truck appeared. It was called Bera’s Custom Cheese Steaks and since the best cheese steak I’ve ever eaten came from a food truck, I thought Bera’s was definitely worth a try. They have a surprisingly robust menu for a cheese steak truck, ranging from Thai Chicken Steak to Stromboli Steak. But as good as some of these looked, I was thinking more about the “Custom” in their truck name.

Going custom meant I got a choice of meat, cheese, topping and sauce/dressing. For the meat, I chose their rib-eye steak and for cheese I went with the classic Cheez Whiz. For my topping, I went with bacon and then skipped out on the sauce. After all, Cheez Whiz is essentially cheese and sauce in one. I paid up my $8.99 for a full-sized sandwich, which also came with chips, then waited for my food.

Get in me.

Shortly after, my cheesesteak with bacon was ready. I opened up my little cheese steak box and and saw a beautiful sandwich. I couldn’t wait to get my mouth around it. As soon as I did, I was in cheese steak bliss. I don’t know where the roll came from, but it seemed to be the perfect cheese steak roll. The outer crust flaked just a little bit, and inside it was perfectly soft and easy to bite through. I was a little disappointed by the small dose of bacon, but when I considered it as a topping, it really filled the role well. It was perfectly crispy and really added a nice salty, smoky taste to the sandwich. The steak itself was chopped deliciously thin and the cooking process had made it juicy enough that even without the Whiz, I probably wouldn’t have needed a sauce. Yet, I did get Whiz and it complemented the cheese steak just perfectly. In my day, I’ve had some good cheese steaks and I’ve had some great cheese steaks (and of course some bad ones). The difference between good and great? Cheez Whiz. No doubt.

My custom cheese steak from Bera’s really surprisingly delicious. The combination of Whiz, steak and roll were perfection and the bacon served as a great icing on the cake. After that experience, Bera’s is a food truck definitely worth visiting again.

Grill ‘Em All Makes a Behemoth

The Unvegan — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 17:00:17 +0000

You are a Behemoth.

It seems like just yesterday that I was totally caught up in the craze of Gourmet Food Trucks. Within a few months of the launch of Kogi, it seemed like there was a new truck to try every week, serving everything you could imagine. I did my best to try all that I could, but although I predicted the fad would die out quickly, my desire to try every one of them died out even quicker. Some trucks failed, but new trucks kept coming out. And sadly, in the time that I was burned out on trucks, some pretty cool ones began to emerge. These were no longer trucks with one little idea out to make a quick buck to capitalize on the success of Kogi. No, instead, these were carefully crafted culinary machines. One of these was the Grill ‘Em All burger truck.

Although I had been following Grill ‘Em All on Twitter for a while and wanted to try them, I found it difficult because they never seemed to come near my stomping grounds on the West Side. But after watching them for six episodes on Food Network’s The Great Food Truck Race, I knew I had it in me to at least chase these guys down. The opportunity finally came when I found out they weren’t too far from my office during lunch time. I grabbed a co-worker and chased down that truck.

When I arrived, the line only had about ten people, so we grabbed our spot and took a look at the menu written on the truck. Although I gave their specials and other burgers a good look, there was really only one burger I was interested in: The Behemoth. This aptly named monstrosity consisted of two grilled cheeses in place of traditional buns, cheddar cheese (you know, for the burger itself), bacon, pickles, BBQ sauce and beer-soaked onions for 10 bucks. While certainly not the first guys to replace buns with grilled cheeses, this looked to me like one of the best executions. I ordered mine without the pickles and onions because even soaking in beer can’t make those things edible. On top of that I ordered some of their double-dipped fries with garlic aioli dipping sauce. The total came to 13 bucks and I was an excited man.

After waiting for about five minutes, one of the truckers/cooks came out of the truck and erased the Behemoth from the menu. Fortunately I had gotten there in time, but it did teach me a quick lesson to get there early if I ever wanted the Behemoth again. Another five minuted passed and my Behemoth was ready. I topped it with a to-go tray, paper bagged it and brought it back to the office to see how it could be.

Ever wonder what the inside of delicious looks like?

The first thing I noticed upon opening was that it was huge, yet still looked edible. The bacon looked crisp, the cheese looked gooey and overall it was a pretty picture. After the first bite, something didn’t taste quite right. You see, in one bite I was really only to handle one of the grilled cheeses and found that one side had been a bit burned. This did not bode well, but it also did not stop me. A couple bites later and all my fears were assuaged. Although I am certain the entire half of that grilled cheese was burnt, the rest of the burger completely covered it up. I had completely forgotten about the burn (well, until writing this article) by the time I reached the middle of the burger.

What I liked best about the Behemoth (or at least my version of it) was that it didn’t try to do too much. Sure, it had the pure shock value of all the cheese and bread, but inside was just a damn good bacon and BBQ cheeseburger. In fact, even if I liked vegetables, I feel like the onions and pickles would have added just a bit too much to the burger and thrown it out of balance. The bacon was perfectly crispy and the barbecue sauce added a sweet tang that really tied the burger together. Without that BBQ sauce, I fear the burger would have become too savory and too dry. With it, though, all was well in the Behemoth.

The fries are good enough to eat.

It took me a while, but I finally tackled the whole burger. It was definitely the best execution of grilled cheese buns I’d ever tasted and overall a pretty great burger. The fries were also pretty delicious. Although they had cooled off significantly during the consumption of the burger, I could definitely appreciate them for what they must have been upon removal from the deep fryer. The garlic aioli only made them better and the garlic was so fresh it almost felt like I had squeezed it from the clove myself.

Grill ‘Em All was certainly a truck worth chasing down. For a sheer shock to your tastebuds and cholesterol level, the Behemoth is a burger worth eating. It’s no wonder they won The Great Food Truck Race because I will certainly be seeing them again.

Pickled by the Patty Wagon

The Unvegan — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 17:00:23 +0000

Heresy!

For lunch one day, I happened to notice the Patty Wagon truck was parked outside my office. This seemed like a fun lunch, so I checked out their menu and found a few burgers that looked good. I was a little sad to see that they only had mini-hamburgers, but really happy to see that they weren’t falsely calling them sliders. Each mini burger was in the realm of 3 bucks, which seemed a little pricey, but they did look interesting. A few of the burgers looked really good except for a vegetable here and there. When I went to order, I was told they couldn’t change any of their burgers, which was disappointing, but I was able to find two without any reference to a veggie.

The first was called “I Get a Kick Out of You” and had jalapenos, pancetta, provolone and “a lil mayo.” I figured I could handle a little mayo for moisture, but any more than that and I am an unhappy man. The second was “Keep Your Sunny Side Up.” I was sad to see it contained no egg, but it did have gremolata, also known as garlic, lemon and parsley butter. And it was on a ciabatta roll to mix things up. I also ordered their garlic and rosemary fries.

Shortly after ordering, I noticed that some other burgers had pickles placed upon their buns. Nay, all the burgers had pickles on their buns, held in by toothpicks. This would ruin my meal, so I dashed to the order side and asked the lady to ensure my burgers would have no pickles. Crisis averted, I relaxed and waited for my burgers. The relaxation didn’t last, because as soon as my name was called, I was greeted with a horrible sight.

Keep Your Sunny Side Up

There are few things in the world I hate more than pickles. And as far as edible things (if you can really call pickles edible), pickles take the top spot. Not only do they taste terrible, but everything they come into contact with is also rendered terrible. Buns are ruined, spreads are contaminated and everything they touch turns to crud. They are like the anti-Midas. And there they were on my burger. I tore them off as soon as I could (right after taking a picture), but the damage had been done. I knew no matter what happened from there, these burgers just couldn’t be good.

First I tried Keep Your Sunny Side Up. The meat was dry and although the gremolata was tasty, it couldn’t do enough to add juiciness to my overcooked meat. And of course there was the pickle juice on the ciabatta roll, which made things worse. I hoped the I Get a Kick Out of You could do better.

I Get a Kick Out of You

I started out by opening it up to check out the mayo situation. “A lil” was quite the understatement. There was a full dollop of mayo on the bun and I struggled to reduce it to “a lil.” After that I tried the thing out. It actually turned out to be much better than the other burger. It hadn’t been undercooked and was far juicier. The pancetta tasted just like bacon, which is a good thing, and the rest of the toppings worked just fine. There was the aforementioned pickle juice residue, but fortunately the toppings on the burger like the jalapenos did a good job of overpowering it.

Then there were the fries, which were sliced so thin that they were almost to the thickness level of homemade chips. This was by no means a bad thing and I actually found them quite good. If I were to go back to the Patty Wagon, I would probably get these and I Get a Kick Out of You again.

But I probably won’t be back to the wagon. I simply cannot handle a truck that tosses pickles around all willy-nilly like they are something that tastes good. There are simply too many good burgers in LA to return to such shenanigans.

Not My Kind of Gogi at Lee’s Philly

The Unvegan — Wed, 26 May 2010 13:00:52 +0000

Fuse me!

Where the mac and cheese balls from World Fare were my appetizer at the Silver Lake Jubilee, I still needed to find myself a main course. After a long stroll around the trucks, I found myself at a truck that I had never seen before, called Lee’s Philly. Lee’s Philly is born of the same vein as many of the Kogi-style food trucks. Their specialty is gogi beef, but while they have fused it with tacos and burritos, they have also created a Philly cheese steak out of the stuff. Wording on their truck claims that they have “LA’s Best Gogi,” but I took it upon myself to be the true judge of that.

Looks clean, but this gogi has deadly veggies.

I decided to order their Gogi Cheese Steak and when I asked what came with it, the lady told me it was beef and onions topped with cheese. Aside from the onion part, this sounded great, plus it came with chips for only $5.99. I ordered it without those terrible onions and waited a few minutes for it to be ready. It came rolled up in a combination of tin foil of paper. I peeled away the layers and it looked deliciously onion free. Then I took a bite. There was a crunch. Onions? No, kimchi! I walked back up to the truck with a sad look on my face and explained to the lady that I had no idea it would come with kimchi. She then explained to be that the kimchi was a part of the gogi style. I’m no Korean, so I wasn’t exactly in a position to argue with her, but I was under the impression that gogi only applied to the way the beef was cooked and had nothing to do with extraneous vegetables such as kimchi. Nonetheless, she offered to give me a regular cheese steak to replace it and I accepted.

No flavor=no fun.

When it was ready, I repeated the ritual of unwrapping. When I made it through the wrapping, I found that the beef looked less seasoned than the other one, and when I bit in my fear was confirmed. The beef didn’t really have much flavor and the cheese also didn’t add much. It’s hard to mess up cheese and steak, so I am hesitant to say that there was anything wrong with this sandwich, but it certainly was missing a special something that bulgogi beef may have added. Instead, it was just an ordinary cheese steak that failed to satisfy my desire for delicious fusion.

Too Much Green at the Green Truck

The Unvegan — Tue, 18 May 2010 13:00:37 +0000

The "Money Truck" doesn't sound as good.

While trying to be environmentally conscious, my office invited environmentally-friendly Green Truck over for some lunch. At first I was frightened by this, since the term “green” has taken on a pretty anti-meat connotation. It’s a damn shame, too, since green is the second-best color in the world. The best, of course, being orange. But I digress, back to some truckery. Despite the frightening name, the Green Truck did have some unvegan choices, including hot dogs and hamburgers. Even before heading out to the truck, I checked out the menu and decided I wanted one of their hot dogs. What’s more environmentally friendly than hot dogs? Well I guess since they are Niman Beef, they are quite advantageous for the environment.

So even though I had decided what I wanted before hitting the truck, upon arrival I found something a bit more enticing. It was still a hot dog, but this special was called The Doberman. Unfortunately, it was not a real doberman, but a hot dog topped with cheese and hot sauce for 7 bucks, just a buck more than the normal dog. When ordering, I asked if it came with anything except those unvegan goodies, and it didn’t, so I was happy. To join my dog, I ordered some of their rosemary garlic fries for another 3 bucks, then waited with lukewarm expectations.

When my doberman was ready, I looked at it in disappointment. I don’t know what I had been expecting, but this certainly was not it. No, there weren’t any vegetables, but instead there was a hot dog topped with generic shredded cheese and a squirt of hot sauce. From the looks of it, this was more of a pug than a doberman. Then there were the fries. At first glance, they looked like leftover microwaved fries, which are usually pretty terrible. I hoped that this was one of those “don’t judge a book by its cover” situations and started eating.

The bun is weak with this one.

Before I even had the chance to take the first bite of the doberman, the bun began to fall apart. Had they used some sort of special environmental dough to make these buns? If so, it was a bad choice that made me struggle throughout my hot dog. And it tasted just how it looked. While the hot dog itself was pretty great, the cheese and hot sauce on top were a total waste and not at all worth the extra buck. At 7 bucks total, this hot dog should have cured rabies, but instead, rabies is still a huge global epidemic (wait, what?). Once I got over rabies, I took down the fries. These were actually much better than they looked. Despite being translucent, they had a nice crunch to them, but tasted a lot more like rosemary than potatoes. I like rosemary, but fries should still taste like fries.

So in the end, a flimsy bun, a sad attempt at hot sauce and high prices doomed the Green Truck for me. I’d save a million environments if I could, but I don’t feel like I have to sacrifice eating great food to do so.