Los Angeles : Trend Watch

Food Truck of the Week: Marked5

BuzzEditor — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 20:17:00 GMT

Marked5 food truck

Photo: courtesy of the truck

In the U.S., we eat our burgers on fluffy, puffy, white-flour buns. Apparently in Japan, they prefer rice buns. Which are not so much "buns" as they are "patties" made from handfuls of long-grained rice, formed into White Castle-like squares. At the food truck Marked5, they're quickly cooked on a grill until they're tannish-brown, and then used to support slabs of Angus beef marinated in torraku ("truck") sauce – teriyaki with a fiery overlay of peppers – along with pork katsu, tofu burgers and piles of chicken curry. There are shrimp spring rolls and shrimp chips and fried lotus root as well as Japanese soft drinks (which look like bottles filled with melted crayons) to wash it all down. For dessert, there's Pocky – pastry sticks coated with sweet, crunchy things. The Marked5 truck journeys through the streets of LA – and in turn takes us on a journey to Roppongi and Shibucho. To find the truck, check www.marked5.com and twitter.com/Marked5.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: The Buttermilk Truck

BuzzEditor — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:02:00 GMT

The Buttermilk Truck

Photo: courtesy of the truck

The Buttermilk Truck may bring to mind images of buttermilk served in dozens of outré flavors, but, mercifully, its actual menu is a lot more conventional. The buttermilk biscuit breakfast sandwich piles on cheese, a fried egg and a choice of tocino, applewood-smoked bacon or chicken apple sausage, and comes accompanied by rosemary garlic hash browns. There are also breakfast sliders on Hawaiian bread, and an intimidating creation called the Buttermilk Brick (hash browns, two eggs over-easy, a buttermilk biscuit and housemade chorizo gravy). For the record, the smiling lad on the side of the truck is named "Klippy." You can figure out where he'll be by going to Twitter or to www.buttermilktruck.com.

– Merrill Shindler

Keep on Truckin' ... With Lists!

BuzzEditor — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 19:36:00 GMT

Green Truck on the Go

Photo: courtesy of the truck

With so many food trucks using Twitter these days, keeping track of all those tweets can make your head spin. But by utilizing Twitter's new lists feature, we've made the truckin' life a little easier. With 26 food trucks and counting, our LA Food Trucks list is your one-stop shop for street-meat tweets. Want a little more background about the trucks? Check out our Food Trucks of the Week.

Food Truck of the Week: Flying Pig Truck

BuzzEditor — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 19:33:00 GMT

Flying Pig Truck logo

Photo: courtesy of the truck

The truck is a shade of pink worthy of local billboard icon Angelyne, with a graphic of a happy, seraphic-winged porker sailing through the clouds on the side. The owners are "Cordon Bleu dreamers" who are working out their dreams in pork – sandwiches of braised pork belly with red onion escabeche and beef and pork sliders with "banana mustard" on soft buns. There are tacos filled with grilled beef short ribs with "death sauce," spicy pork with cilantro cream sauce, tamarind duck with pickled beet salad, smoked chicken with green curry and crunchy tofu with kimchi. Oddly, there are crab balls. Not so oddly, there are "Flying Pig Fries" with a black-garlic aioli sauce. In this case, pigs really do fly. Go to http://flyingpigtruck.com and Twitter (natch) for details.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: Border Grill Truck

BuzzEditor — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 19:21:00 GMT

Border Grill Truck

Photo: courtesy of the truck

It was inevitable that the Too Hot Tamales – Susan Feniger and Mary Sue Milliken – would hop on the food-truck bandwagon. Their Border Grill Truck serves the modern Mexican/Pan-Latino cooking of their Santa Monica and Las Vegas Border Grills and, not surprisingly, does it in a sustainable manner, using seasonal, locally grown ingredients, organic long-grain rice and beans, and seafood approved by the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch Program (which means no tuna or swordfish). And though it mostly offers upscale versions of the dishes long served by the city's many Mexican food trucks – tacos, quesadillas – none of those trucks offers cumin-flavored fries with chipotle ketchup. See a sample menu here. Follow the truck on Twitter or Facebook.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: Skewers on Wheels

BuzzEditor — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 21:39:00 GMT

Skewers on Wheels logo

Photo: courtesy of the truck

When you get down to it, skewers are about as food truck–friendly as food can be. They can be made in massive quantities and cooked quickly and easily. Nor is serving them labor intensive – none of the careful, slightly obsessive assemblage of a sandwich or burrito. When they're done, they're done...and when they're ready, they're ready. In the case of Skewers on Wheels, there's a collection of nearly two dozen skewers, about half of which are on the truck at any given time. It always has carne asada, chicken breast with green bell peppers, chicken thigh with green onions, meatballs and sausage skewers. And it may (or may not) have chicken curry, balsamic butter chicken, pesto chicken and other specialty renditions. For those who need more, there's also a salad bowl, Spam musubi (Spam sushi, for those who haven't encountered it) and vegetarian hand rolls. You'll find the truck's daily locations on Facebook, Twitter and on its website, www.skewersonwheels.com.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: India Jones Chow Truck

BuzzEditor — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 20:04:00 GMT

Sumant Pardal in front of India Jones Chow Truck

Photo: courtesy of the truck

When you consider that the streets of India are packed – jammed! – with food carts selling dozens of fast food items, the appearance of a food truck specializing in the cooking of the subcontinent isn't much of a surprise. It's also not surprising to find that the chef behind the India Jones Chow Truck is the ubiquitous Sumant Pardal, creator of Cal-Indian cooking and a restaurateur with a dozen former locations on his resume – remember East India Grill? In this case, he's specializing in the cooking of the Punjab region, including the Indian equivalent of the burrito – the frankie – a paratha wrapped around a variety of meats, cheeses and sauces. He offers plenty of curries as well. But do be warned – if you spill the food on your clothing while doing your street eating, it may leave permanent stains. Indian food is like that. For more information, go to www.indiajoneschowtruck.com or Twitter.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: The Gastro Bus

BuzzEditor — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:53:00 GMT

The Gastro Bus logo

Photo: courtesy the truck

The closest that rolling gastropub The Gastro Bus comes to beer is its root beer float. Otherwise, it's BYOB for fans of this farmer's market driven food truck. Created by caterer Antonio Medina and his wife Lana, the Bus is a regular at the Sunday Los Feliz street market, where crowds line up for sweet potato fries with honey mustard ($2.50), shoestring fries with garlic aioli ($2.50), pulled pork sandwich with pickled red onions ($6), smoked bacon sandwich with herb aioli ($6) and more. They're also the caterer for The Gogol Project at the Bootleg Theater during the run of the play (2220 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles). For information, go to www.thegastrobus.com, and to Twitter.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: South Philly Experience

BuzzEditor — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 19:56:00 GMT

South Philly Experience

Photo: courtesy of the truck

As our population of food trucks continues to grow, it seems as if every regional dish and cult object of culinary desire will have a rolling outlet of its own. The latest to hit the streets is the South Philly Experience – the creation of South Jersey cousins Jonathan Salvatore and Scott Springfield. Hitting the streets in a truck decorated to look like a brick wall with the Philly skyline on it, the duo offer iconic cheesesteaks with topping options including grilled onions and, yes, Cheez Whiz. Other items include chicken cutlet sandwiches topped with broccoli rabe and roast peppers, roast pork sandwiches, chicken parm and a meatball sub. But it's really the cheesesteaks that keep them truckin'. Oh – and their supply of Tastykakes too. Go to www.southphillyexperience.com or Twitter for info on their whereabouts.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: The Grilled Cheese Truck

BuzzEditor — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:44:00 GMT

Photo: courtesy of the Grilled Cheese Truck

As of this writing, The Grilled Cheese Truck hasn't yet hit the streets. But the blogosphere's food-truck obsessives have been going into a gooey meltdown anticipating the arrival of…melted cheese…on bread! Its website (www.thegrilledcheesetruck.com) promises diet-busters like sammys made with "macaroni and cheese, house-smoked BBQ pork and caramelized onions" and another with "Brie with brown butter apples and fresh herbs." Also on the menu: tomato soup, butter pickles and tater tots. The mind – and the appetite – reel with anticipation. Updates can be found, of course, on Twitter and Facebook.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: Green Truck

BuzzEditor — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 22:12:00 GMT

Green Truck on the Go

Photo: courtesy of the truck

Yes, we know that the notion of an ecologically conscious catering truck seems a bit... oxymoronic. But the service called Green Truck on the Go has managed it thanks to its solar powered commissary (with extra energy donated to the City of Los Angeles), environmentally friendly cleaning products, and a menu of good, and good for you, dishes. Options include banana pancakes with coconut-agave syrup, vegan breakfast burritos, meatless burgers with goat's milk feta and grilled sesame tofu skewers – there's grilled flank steak, too, for those who fear vegetables. The Green Truck has been used for catering by local media powerhouses like HBO, MTV, CBS, Fox, Sony and CAA. And yes, they've expanded to New York as well. For more info, visit www.greentruckonthego.com.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: Fishlips

BuzzEditor — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 21:25:00 GMT

Fishlips Truck

Photo: courtesy of Fishlips

When I mentioned to my wife – a cautious woman who's a big part of Purell's burgeoning bottom line – that there was a sushi roll truck plying its trade on the summer-hot streets of Los Angeles, she almost screeched with fear. That may not be a particularly abnormal reaction: making sure the fish we eat is properly refrigerated seems deeply entwined in the survival section of our DNA. And yet, there's no reason that modern technology wouldn't allow the fish kept aboard a rolling sushi truck to be as fresh as it is anywhere else – a point proved by the Fishlips Sushi truck.

The truck doesn't offer classic nigiri sushi but, rather, specializes in the wonderful world of rolls – there are 17 to choose from, including exotica like the Spicy Rainbow and the Red Crunchy Dragon. There's also a variant called temari sushi, in which the rice and fish and pressed together into what's essentially an edible golf ball. Prices are admirably low, and the online menu offers the calorie count – in case you wanted to know that the Shrimp Caterpillar Roll has 34.3 calories per piece. For more info, go to www.fishlips-sushi.com or follow the fish on Twitter.

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: Coolhaus

BuzzEditor — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 17:34:00 GMT

Coolhaus

Image: courtesy of Coolhaus

For those of us who grew up waiting for tanklike refrigerated trucks selling Bungalow Bars and Good Humor Bars (and, later, Carvel and Mister Softee), the Coolhaus truck is proof that everything comes full circle. It made its debut back in April at the Coachella Music and Arts Festival, and now this truck (the creation of architecture obsessives Freya Estreller and Natasha Case) can be found roaming the streets of Los Angeles, offering five flavors of pun-heavy ice cream sandwiches – the Frank Behry, the Mintamalism, the Mies Vanilla Rohe, the Richard Meyer Lemon and the Oatmeal Cinnamoneo. You can find the truck at www.eatcoolhaus.com – and, of course, Twitter...

– Merrill Shindler

Food Truck of the Week: Baby's Badass Burgers

BuzzEditor — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 20:08:00 GMT

Baby's Badass Burgers

Photo: courtesy of the truck

Just as the Fro-yo Fad began to fade away, along came another (perhaps even more maniacal) culinary trend. Los Angeles is now a landscape covered with what can only be described as upscale roach coaches. It all began with the Korean-Mexican phenomenon called Kogi. And in less time than it takes a summer replacement on The CW to disappear, there were food trucks everywhere. In an effort to give this new wave of trucks a certain semblance of order, we'll be offering our Food Truck of the Week. Finding it on Zagat Buzz is easy. Finding it on the street…not so much.

Baby's Badass Burgers

They serve burgers with names like "Original Beauty," "Cougar," "Mamacita" and "Man Eater." If you want double meat on your bun, it's called a "Man Up." Not surprisingly, there's a chicken sandwich called a "Hot Chick." The hot dogs are "Teenie Weenies." Is the food any good? Does it really matter? That's because the outfits worn by the servers – the shortest of short-shorts, skimpy tank tops and high heels – make the dress code at Hooters seem downright nunlike. To find Baby's, go to www.babysbadassburgers.com or, of course, Facebook or Twitter.

Matzo Balls and Baseball

BuzzEditor — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 22:20:00 GMT

Like most Dodger fans, I go to the games to cheer on the Boys in Blue, to check out the celebrity quotient ("Look! It's Hef and the girls!") and to eat a Dodger Dog. Indeed, like most Dodger fans, it's the Dodger Dog that comes first – I can always catch a double play on the instant replay. And in fact, more hot dogs are sold at Dodger Stadium than at any other stadium in America. But in recent years, the culinary options at the stadium have expanded logarithmically. These days, you can get a slice at California Pizza Kitchen, some kung pao at Panda Express, a burger at Ruby's Diner, nachos at Camacho's Cantina, cookies from Mrs. Beasley's and, starting this year, mile-high corned-beef-and-pastrami sandwiches at the newly opened Canter's delicatessen stand. It sits on the stadium's field level, on the third-base side. Along with deli sandwiches, there's matzo-ball soup, coleslaw, potato salad and kosher pickles. Which may necessitate a rewrite of the line in "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" about "peanuts and Cracker Jack"; these days, it's "BBQ chicken pizza and corned beef sliced lean."