‘Mexican’
Larchmont in Hollywood is a delightful little street that is a nice change from what you would typically consider Holywood to be. There are some great restaurants and shops that usually treat me pretty well. My most recent visit to that street, however, only led me to a meal of disappointment. This came at the hands of the Avocado Grill, a pretty simple Mexican place that reminded me a bit of places like Qdoba.
Eva Longoria-Parker busted onto the scene a few years ago with Desperate Housewives and back then she didn’t have that pesky “-Parker” attached to her name. Since then, though, she has managed to retain her beauty by keeping a steady diet of meat products.
Finally, I feel like I’ve been to just about all of the food trucks in LA that I have any desire to visit. Yes, I know I haven’t been to all of them, but I think I’ve been to enough to justify paying a visit to the Border Grill Truck, despite the fact that the Border Grill is already a restaurant I have been to. I guess I just wanted to see how an upscale Mexican restaurant could translate into a truck. People seemed to be enjoying their food outside of the truck, so I went to see if I could partake in their enjoyment.
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.
Heading into La Sirena Grill in Laguna Beach, I really had no idea what to expect. I had followed a friend there and hoped for the best. Walking in, we were somehow immediately in line to order from the counter. The line wasn’t terribly fast, though, so I had some time to figure out what to order. I was pretty impressed to see that the place used only grass-fed beef and free-range chicken. I don’t usually go out of my way to find restaurants like these, but I’m always happy when I do. Most importantly, though, the price of the food hadn’t been jacked up like it usually is when something is green or organic.
Last week I was invited to an event called TOAST N’ TASTE, presented by Urban Daddy. The event was by invitation only, so first off, thanks to Dana for the invite. Not only did I feel awesomely elitist for being invited, but the event was free and featured the launch of the Komodo Truck. This newest truck in LA has confirmed the trend that many food trucks have been leaning towards. Basically they make some good food and stick it in tacos (and burritos in Komodo’s case, although on this night they were only making tacos). I suppose the idea is to keep withe the concept of street food and to make it easy to eat. Fine by me, as long as it tastes good.
I few months ago, one of the dirty old Taco Bells near me was knocked down. At first, I was upset, but considering the fact that this Taco Bell was only open ’til 11:00 pm (even on weekends!), it wasn’t a huge loss. Then, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, construction began on a new Taco Bell in the same place! For months I have waited with bated breath for the grand opening. Driving by it every day, there was no sign as to when it would open, other than the increasing amount of lights and paint. Finally, I passed the new Taco Bell last week and saw patrons inside! A grande opening indeed! I took this as a sign that I needed to stop in and test out their new Beefy 5-Layer Burrito.
One day I received a random Twitter follow from @derbsgourmet. It piqued my interest so, I decided to follow them and found out that they were a new food truck called Derb’s Gourmet and set to launch in a couple days. Not only that, but they were launching at a bar right down the street from me, Bigfoot West. The sheer convenience was a sign that I had to try them out.
I arrived at 10:00, since that was supposed to be their launch time and saw that this was no normal food 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.
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.