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

‘Mobile’

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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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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9/11/2009 Mobile

The Next Level of Fusion at the Marked5 Truck (CLOSED)

A pleasant surprise
A pleasant surprise

Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised to find that Marked5, one of LA’s multitude of food trucks, was making its way down to El Segundo, just in time for my lunch hour. I looked up Marked5 online real quickly to make sure I knew what I was getting into and saw that their menu consisted of a sort of American and Japanese fusion. They made burgers, but instead of regular buns, they used rice. I had no idea how this would work without the rice falling apart, but I was eager to find out.

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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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7/20/2009 Mobile

A Crunchy Treat from Let’s Be Frank

Nice, simple, and not cheap.
Nice, simple, and not cheap.

Tucked into a little corner in Culver City, right around the Helms Bakery, is a hot dog cart called Let’s Be Frank. I’d heard some great things about the place, so one day as I was wandering around Culver City, I decided to stop by and have a try.

According to their signs, they don’t mess around with their hot dogs. By that I mean they don’t do the things that most hot dogs do. They use all all-beef hot dogs from grass-fed cows, with no steroids, hormones, nitrates and nitrites (although they probably should start putting the latter two in since they are healthy by my standards). At five bucks a piece, I was ready to be shown an entirely new hot dog world.

Onions were an optional topping for the hot dog, and I politely declined. There was also a sauce available called Devil Sauce. It looked and smelled really good, so I decided to try some out.

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6/2/2009

A Break from the Norm at Coolhaus

A sandwich of ice cream!
A sandwich of ice cream!

Although this doesn’t quite fit into my typical unvegan reviews, I wouldn’t be a real LA food blogger if I didn’t talk about the Coolhaus ice cream sandwich truck at some point. Besides, if you think about it, ice cream is an animal product that vegans can’t have, so I really am sticking to my unvegan principles here.

While being an art connoisseur at the Culver City Art Walk, I happened to be walking down La Cienega when the Coolhaus truck pulled up to the sidewalk right next to me. I had heard this truck would be at the art walk, but I assumed wherever it would be, it would have far too long of a line for me to deal with. I felt pretty lucky that the truck essentially landed in my lap, so I decided to give it a try.

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2/18/2009 Mobile

Taco Truck at Venice and Centinela

"No onions" got lost in translation...
“No onions” got lost in translation…

When eating at a taco truck, I am typically drunk and there are few demands that have to be met. One of those demands is that my food have no vegetables, the other is that the food is edible. When I recently ventured out to the Taco Truck at Venice and Centinela, I was in for a rude surprise.

I stumbled up to the window to place my order. When I inquired about the ingredients in the chicken quesadilla, I was told that there were no vegetables. Then, I asked about the carne asada taco, which I was told came with onions. I asked the lady for no onions, and to make it offensively clear, I also said, “no cebollas” (cebolla being the spanish word for onion).

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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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