In my experience, most taco trucks aren’t worth blogging about. It’s not that I feel like I am too good for them or that they aren’t interesting, but in most cases I have found that they all taste pretty much the same. This is not true of Tacos El Gallito. I stopped by here one night with no plans to blog, but just hoping to get a decent taco. Instead, I had one of my most legendary LA nights and wound up befriending a couple of their Mexican patrons named Toast and Reuben. I also fell in love with the truck and vowed to return to give them a proper unvegan review.

The truck parks in a lot at the corner of La Cienega and Venice, then sets up a table outside the truck with assorted taco toppings like salsa, onions, cilantro and limes. Then they charge 1.25 per taco, a steal! There is beauty in this for any unvegan, not just because of the price, but because it means you don’t have to ask for your taco without onions or other bothersome vegetables. Instead, they just give you the tortilla with meat and let you build your own tacos. I ordered myself two carne asada tacos and one taco al pastor, then I handed over my 3.75 and waited. The wait time surprised me, as the last time I visited the wait had only been a couple minutes. This time it reached about 10 minutes and I realized the culprit was the guy before me that had ordered fifteen tacos. Damn him!

But I wouldn’t let him spoil my tacos. When they were ready, I filled up on salsa, cilantro and lime, then hit the road. When I opened my bag of food, I found two foil packets. One contained my three tacos, but I had no idea what to expect in the other. I opened it up and found…onions! Huh? I never ordered these, but was taken aback by how good they smelled. But I would not be swayed by these Sirens of the vegetable world. The onions would have made a non-unvegan happy, but I was just as happy knowing that they were wrapped separately and made no contact with my real food.

I dug into my tacos and was reacquainted with the taste I fell in love with oh so recently ago. The asada had great seasoning and although it was slightly dry, the salsa quickly remedied that situation. The pastor was also delicious and was juicy as well. I was so happy to be able put on just as much salsa, cilantro and lime as I wanted.

Next time you roam the streets of LA looking for late-night Mexican food, Tacos El Gallito is worth a visit. The build-your-own taco concept is genius and the price is unbeatable. It makes all other taco trucks pale in comparison.

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.

Rather than making French food and putting it into tortillas and such, this truck went gourmet and uses French techniques to make really good food, then puts it into tortillas. The prices also reflected a bit of a gourmet markup, with tacos running for $2.50, rather than the average cost of $2. Their menu wasn’t really built for an unvegan, with almost every item featuring a vegetable of some sort. I settled upon the Grilled Beef Short Rib taco and the Tamarind Duck taco. The beef one came with oyster mushrooms and a mysterious “death sauce,” while the duck came with toasted almond and pickled beet salad. I asked for the beef without mushrooms, and was extremely disappointed to be told that the shrooms were mixed in with the beef. Thinking fast, I ordered the Smoked Chicken instead. This came with green curry and napa slaw. I ordered it without the nasty slaw and then ordered my duck without the absurd-sounding pickled beet salad.

When my food was presented to me, I must admit I was a little disappointed in the diminutive size of the tacos. Sure, they were the same size as a typical taco truck taco, but I was hoping that extra 50 cents might somehow translate into more food. I was also a little upset that the Tamarind Duck taco had somehow been topped with clovers. I really have no problem with clovers, as they are tasteless and textureless, but it is unnecessary to cut down these poor, defenseless plants as they do nothing to enhance food in any way.

After all this consideration, I bit into the duck taco. It was pretty amazing. The duck was nicely glazed and perfectly flavored. Each bite was slightly chewy, but gave pretty easily. The toasted almonds were a nice touch, too. After this great experience, I tried out the smoked chicken. One again, I was floored by how good it was. The chicken pulled apart quite nicely and curry, coupled with the juices, brought the taco together quite well.

These tacos were kind of a luxury in the food truck world. It was definitely worth it for the extra 50 cents, yet it will be hard to pull myself away from all the varieties of cheaper tacos.

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.

Don Chow is a fusion of Mexican and Chinese, which means they have have Kung Pao Chicken, Chinese BBQ Pork, Soy-Ginger Tofu and Soy-Ginger Shrimp to throw into their tacos and burritos in addition to regular Mexican meats. They were out of regular chicken, but I wasn’t there to get anything basic. I had heard the Kung Pao Chicken was a great way to go, and since Kung Pao is already one of my favorite Chinese foods, I decided to order it in burrito form. The Don Chow man asked me if I wanted mild, medium or hot, and I chose to go the hot way since Kung Pao is meant to be spicy. I also asked about what came in the burrito to ensure there wouldn’t be any vegetables. The only offensive food inside would be onions, so I ordered without.

In a few minutes, my burrito was ready. I dug in and was pretty happy with what I tasted. The chicken was nice and spicy, but with an Asian flare more than a typical Mexican spice. I was a little disappointed that there weren’t any peanuts involved in the burrito, though. Peanuts are key to regular Kung Pao chicken and they do a good job of making a lot of things taste better. Without peanuts, I felt as though the burrito was missing something small that could have easily launched Don Chow into the upper echelon of taco trucks.

Even without said peanuts, Don Chow made a pretty good burrito. The food didn’t blow my mind (please add peanuts!), but was certainly worthy of further visitations from a hungry unvegan.

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.

I arrived before the truck and was happy to find only a short line had

formed. When the truck did arrive, it took about fifteen minutes to get the thing parked correctly. While this was happening, the Fishlips sushi truck arrived to crash the Nom Nom party. Apparently this wasn’t an exclusive event and Fishlips knew there would be a lot of hungry people waiting in line at The Brig. Undaunted by Fishlips, the truck found its place and started preparing for the hungry horde of foodies that had gathered. I glanced back to see that Elijah Wood had taken a spot in the ever-growing line

behind me. This only made me more excited, for it isn’t every day you get to eat the same dinner as Frodo Baggins.

Although the menu on the truck had been placed far from the ordering window, I had determined what I would eat by the time I made my way to

the front of the line. I decided on the Lemongrass Chicken Tacos and made sure to mention Thrillist, since they were giving away either a free taco or spring roll to the first fifty people to mention Thrillist. I asked the nice lady what came on the tacos and she said “Chicken, carrots, jicama, some sort of pickles and cilantro.” True to myself, I asked for mine without the veggies or pickles, then waited to see the result.

When my tacos were ready, they appeared a little bare. I know I ordered without the veggies, but I expected some sort of sauce on it all. That said, there was no lack of chicken. I started eating and was pretty happy. The chicken was pretty good and the cilantro was just kind of there. Luckily the chicken had a little kick, which made sauce a little less necessary. I just couldn’t escape the feeling that without those strange

vegetables on the taco, I was eating something all-too similar to a regular taco truck taco. Perhaps for people who don’t follow the unvegan way, the taco with veggies will be an eye-opening experience. Unfortunately this was not so for me. Perhaps I will have to try again and order one of their Banh Mi sandwiches, but unlike when I first tried Kogi, I don’t feel an immediate need to return to the Nom Nom Truck.

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.

The truck offers three different kinds of meat, short ribs, BBQ chicken and spicy pork. There may also be tofu, but it was invisible to me. These meats can come in taco or burrito form. In line, I heard that the short rib is the best, so I ordered one short rib and one chicken taco. I asked the nice woman taking the orders what came on the taco. She said it was cabbage, lettuce, onions, cilantro and meat, so I made sure to go with just cilantro and meat. Within a couple minutes, my tacos appeared, looking just as I had ordered them. At the truck, they also had a mystery unlabeled Korean sauce that I tasted, loved, and proceeded to douse my tacos with. For all I know, it could have been made with tiger milk, but it was just too good. The tacos were a great change of pace from the typical taco truck, introducing my mouth to a variety of seasonings that I had never before thought possible in taco form.

After destroying the tacos, I needed more. I chose the burrito this time, which I found out was a breakfast burrito. Once again, my mind was blown. I ordered it with the short ribs and the lovely order lady asked, “No greens or onions?” and I said, “Wow, you are amazing.” The burrito was even better than the tacos, and with the mystery sauce, it was the perfect fusion of Korea and Mexico.

I would imagine that if Korea and Mexico were ever in a conflict, both sides could eat this breakfast burrito and be at peace. Perhaps more of the world’s problems could be solved this way. Conflict between US and Japan? Sushi burgers. Between Germany and Lebanon? Chicken Schnitzel Schwarma. The possibilities for peace through food are endless.