The Unvegan » food trucks

A Bite of The Ludo Truck

The Unvegan — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:00:58 +0000

We're just doing the Ludo Shuffle.

From the casual diner to the most ardent foodie, everyone who enjoys eating out in LA has heard of Chef Ludo Lefebvre and his LudoBites pop-up restaurants that appear from time to time. Yet, while the LudoBites are impossible to get reservations for (and even when you get reservations, you don’t even pick the times), there is a Ludo Truck that roams around town dishing out Chef Ludo’s fried chicken with no reservations (thinly veiled Anthony Bourdain reference) necessary. During a time in which I was eating a lot of fried chicken, the truck came around my office.

Keep on frying!

I had heard the Crispy Chicken Sandwich was a dream, and I wanted badly to take a bite out of one. But I found that the sandwich was topped with pickles and slaw, neither of which were to be found in the regular Buttermilk Chicken Strips. When I told the woman in the truck of my conundrum, she was quick to tell me that the sandwich was straight up the best thing on the menu and not just because of the fried chicken, but the bun as well. So I listened and ordered without the greens. I also ordered a side of fries for company.

I must say that the sandwich did a pretty good job of living up to the hype. Or, more specifically the chicken. This was no mere hastily concocted mix of batter, but rather a delicately crafted and perfectly balanced mix of spices and heaven. Coupled with Bearnaise sauce and a toasted brioche bun, I was one happy eater. Yet, while the sandwich contained two strips of chicken, it was the same price as three sandwich-less strips. While I enjoyed the bun, it didn’t taste nearly as good as another strip of chicken would have. Unless, of course, the balance of batter flavor was dependent upon a bun buffer. I didn’t think that was the case, but I was still very happy to have eaten the sandwich.

Look how small and shriveled they are.

The fries, on the other hand, were pretty much a waste of money. They were over-salted and simply not cooked in a way that made me want to keep popping them in my mouth. Rather than a crispy outside and soft interior, they felt as though they had been left under a heat lamp for a few hours. Plus, I felt like I should gotten more fries for the money.

Yet, the fried chicken was enough to move me past the lackluster fries. Next time the Ludo Truck rolls around, you will find me in line for some chicken.

Pickled by The Greasy Wiener

The Unvegan — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 16:00:19 +0000

Hot dogs lurk in this Brisk truck.

On the way to basketball one night, I stumbled upon what appeared to be a food truck festival in a high school parking lot. I am nothing if not a man who takes advantage of such opportunities, so I pulled up and saw what they had to offer. A few of the trucks I had seen and eaten before, but some were new to me. One of these, freakishly painted as a Brisk iced tea ad, had just what I was looking for. Called The Greasy Wiener, this trucked dished out…well…hot dogs, with a side of sexual innuendo.

The dogs were apparently made with a home recipe and were all beef. They came with some pretty basic options and I went for The Berkowitz. This was a bacon-wrapped dog topped with chili and cheese. For good measure, and in a veiled attempt to sabotage my basketball skills, I also got chili cheese curly fries.

Where's the hot dog in here?

Within a few minutes, my name was called and my meal was ready. I took one hard look at my hot dog and nearly vomited. Not only was my hot dog topped with onions, but an entire pickle spear threatened the very existence of my dinner. There had to be some mistake, and in fact the mistake was completely in me, because the menu clearly stated that every dog was served with a squirt of mustard, onions and a pickle. I was sad, but undaunted as I set to work undoing the wrong that I had unknowingly committed against myself. I was mad at the truck, but mostly I was mad at myself. Eventually, my hot dog emerged from the vegetable carnage and I set to work.

I quickly realized that this hot dog was awesome. In the New Jersey style, the hot dog had been fried, which made it a bit wrinkly, but also juicy. It had that snap I’m always looking for in a good hot dog and the bacon was beautifully crispy. Although I had lost a fair amount of chili and cheese in removing the veggies, I could still taste them both and they made me happy. Surprisingly, they had a very good salt balance and had just enough flavor to complement the hot dog rather than overpower it.

Stay stiff, my fries.

The same went for the fries. Although they hadn’t been ransacked by veggies and pickles, the cheese and chili worked great together. The use of curly fries was a nice touch for a couple reasons. 1) Curly fries are awesome. 2) Curly fries are typically crispier than normal fries, and this held true here, so they were able to contain the chili and cheese without getting soggy. The cheese sauce was also not your usual nacho cheese, but a “truck made” mix that was a bit cheese wizzy, except as I said before it wasn’t too salty.

So once I got over my huge ordering mistake, The Greasy Wiener served me well. I don’t support the whole onion and pickle thing, but I do support the rest of what they are doing. I also don’t know if I support the fact that the truck seems to be sponsored by Brisk, but I suppose you do what you have to in order to keep slinging fried hot dogs in the streets of LA.

Holy Donut Buns at Da Burger Boss

The Unvegan — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 17:00:21 +0000

Oh my God the bun is on backwards!

Da Burger Boss is part of the newer wave of food trucks and while they aren’t brand new, they’re still plenty new to me. Their schtick is naming burgers after mob terms like The Strongarm, The Collector and so on. It’s an interesting schtick that has produced some interesting-looking combinations, but the sole reason I found myself waiting for Da Boss was to partake in The Patrolman.

You see, The Patrolman is no ordinary burger. Sure, it’s filled with a half-pound patty, bacon and blue cheese dressing, but after that the burger goes in a frightening and exciting direction. First is the cran-apple reduction, which is not crazy on its own, but when you throw in the grilled glazed donut bun, things get goddamn nuts. Yes, I said a grilled glazed donut bun. I was unsure of how any degree of this would be pulled off and figure it was worth the 9 bucks to find out.

A nice medium rare cook also made me happy.

And find out I did. The first thing I wondered was how it would stay together. For starters, this wasn’t some soft, melty Krispy Kreme donut, but a thick grocery store-style breakfast sweet. It was still wildly inadequate at holding together a burger, especially when you throw the donut hole in the mix, so the make up for it the burger was wrapped in paper. Nonetheless, this was nothing less than a mess to eat.

The next thing I wondered was how I would handle the sweetness. Not only was there donut, but also fruit reduction to consider. And the truth is that the sweetness was a bit much. There was certainly a lot of savory between the bacon, patty and blue cheese, but this was not enough to counter the fruit and donut punch. My suggestion is to either swap out the glazed for old fashioned donuts or to drop the fruit. I can’t say whether either would work, but I do know that either way would be less sweet.

I had to move it from a tray to a plate because IT COULD NOT BE CONTAINED.

But who am I kidding here? Is The Patrolman really seeking out the perfect blend of burger balance? Oh dear I hope not. This burger represents America and our undying dream of gluttony and excess. In that regard, this burger is a major success. Yeah, I can get finicky with the details, but in the end, Da Burger Boss delivered a pretty good, juicy burger and topped it with an obscene bun. And I annihilated it. In other words, it was glorious.

I should also point out that Da Burger Boss in no way invented the glazed donut bun. This was something I had heard about before and Da Burger Boss is simply the first I had ever actually seen.

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.