So for my final truck on the Haiti Fundraiser day, I decided to visit an old truck that I still haven’t gotten the chance to try out. This was Barbie’s Q, “A Rollin’ BBQ Joint.” The idea of getting BBQ from a truck has always sounded kind of suspect, but my buddy told me it was pretty good, so I trusted him. I also trusted the looks of the man taking orders outside the truck that looked like he had just walked out of a Willie Nelson concert or a shootout at the OK Corral. Or both.

I toyed with getting ribs or a chicken, but my eyes kept drifting to the BBQ Beef. The eyes also kept drifting to the “Cheezy Grits.” The menu said I could order BBQ over the grits, so that’s what I decided to do. This ran me 10 bucks, but good BBQ is never cheap. Unfortunately, I soon found out that this was not good BBQ. I’m not sure if I just got a bad batch or what, but this was truly some of the worst BBQ I’ve had in a long time.

To start off, the BBQ sauce was ice cold on the beef and it sure was loaded on it. This brought the core temperature of each bite way down. I usually prefer BBQ sauce over the dry rub method, but this left me craving some dry rub beef. Then there was the beef itself. Stringy, chewy and dry would be the nicest way to describe it. Sure, it had some decent flavor, but that was mostly covered in freezing sauce and hard to enjoy while battling arid beef. Finally, below the beef was the cheezy grits. I’m no grits expert, but I know enough to say that they shouldn’t be spongy. Sadly, these grits were.

This experience saddened me and further emphasized the fact that these food trucks are not meant for selling food you can buy in a restaurant. Especially food like BBQ, which requires some good smoking that I just can’t see outfitted into a truck. Although Barbie’s Q left me disappointed, the overall fundraiser seemed to be a great success and at least I know some of that money I gave to Barbie’s Q will be heading towards Haiti.

Joining the flashy and stylish trucks at the Haiti Fundraiser was an old-fashioned looking truck called Kabob Express. Fusion is a pretty big part of these trucks and Kabob Express has embraced that with their Mexi-Terranean fusion. Mexican and Mediterranean food is kind of a fusion match made in food heaven. Schwarma is awesome and that succulent meat can be thrown in pretty much anything to make it taste better. Kabob Express knew that and took advantage of it by offering schwarma in tacos and burritos. Hoping to save room for more food, I ordered myself a Mexi-Terranean taco.

This fused food came with chicken schwarma, hummus, cilantro, spicy tahini sauce, tomato and onion. I ordered it without those last two unvegan offenders and waited a minute for the taco. When it came, the thing was loaded up. It came with a fork shoved in it, which was nice, because the insides kept flowing out. It also came with some tzatziki sauce for some extra flavor if necessary. I started eating and realized that yes, this was some awesome fusion. It was kind of like a bite-sized chicken schwarma sandwich, but with a great little kick of sauce. Perfect for street-eating.

Only after finishing the taco and getting in line for the next truck did I realize that I had never paid for my taco. The thing was only $1.75 and all this was for a fundraiser, so as soon as I could, I headed back and paid up. The guy inside was certainly happy, and so was I, because it was certainly worth the money.

So first off, I had never even heard of a food truck called Vesuvio. Aside from raising money, this Haiti fundraiser at T-Lofts was awesome for introducing me to some new trucks like this one. I decided to try this place out first, since my buddy was grabbing some pizza from the Slice truck right next door. The Vesuvio truck offered some Italian-style sandwiches, but I was looking for something less filling so I could eat from more trucks. Luckily, they had a solution, called Arancini.

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Also, Arancini are Italian Rice Balls, but like nothing you would expect. They are a mix of white rice, Italian sausage, parmesan cheese, egg, parsley and smoked mozzarella. After rolling all this together, they are breaded and deep fried. I walked up and for fear of mispronunciation I simply ordered the “balls.” The woman in the truck knew what I meant and put my order in. As I waited, I prayed that the parsley would be minimal and used as an herb rather than a vegetable. After about five minutes, the balls were ready.

I sliced one open and found no traces of parsley. Hooray for herbs! They were pretty hot, so after a few seconds of cooling, I dipped them into the marinara and tasted. These were damn good balls. Some of the best balls I’ve had in recent memory. I could taste every flavor, from the Italian sausage to the smokey taste of mozzarella. Each ingredient blended perfectly with the other.

As I ate, I once again reflected upon how cool the food truck craze of LA is. Sure, I could have gone to the Slice truck and grabbed a slice of pizza, but I can get pizza from a real restaurant if I want to make sure I get something good. With Vesuvio, though, I got to try a food that I had never heard of and I couldn’t tell you any place that has them other than that truck. That is the beauty of food trucks, giving people things that you can’t find in a restaurant.

As I perused the rest of the food trucks at the fundraiser, I had one truck that met that call of uniqueness and one that certainly did not.

As everyone knows, almost two weeks ago, Haiti was hit with a devastating earthquake. Other than donating by text message or contributing in other small ways, a bunch of the food trucks of LA banded together for a huge fundraiser at T-Lofts in West LA. I headed out there with a buddy on Saturday to check them all out and to do our part to help the Haitian cause.

After a week of rain, the clouds had broken for a beautiful day of truckery. There were a ton of trucks represented there, including many I have already reviewed. The Grilled Cheese Truck and Buttermilk Truck were by far the most popular trucks there, drawing huge lines that might be worth waiting in if there didn’t happen to be another 20 trucks with great food right next to them. Some other trucks there were the Nom Nom Truck, Flying Pig, South Philly Experience and Don Chow Tacos, who was sporting a stylish new paint job. You might think those trucks would be plenty to keep the fundraising masses happy, but you would be wrong. Rather than grabbing food from these trucks that I have already reviewed, I had the opportunity to try out three new trucks, which mostly left me satisfied. Check out those reviews here:

Getting Balls with the Vesuvio Truck

Further Fusion at Kabob Express

Subpar-BQ at Barbie’s Q

And if you’re looking to donate to Haiti, text the word “Haiti” to 90999. It’s the easiest thing in the world to do and will automatically bill 10 bucks to your cell phone bill. The money goes to the Red Cross, so you know it’s good.

***Update: According to Lisa Redmond, one of the organizers, over 5,000 people attended and more than $7,000 were raised. Hooray for food trucks!