Food Trucks

Tuesday, 26 January 2010

It started innocently enough; On our first day in Venice, a large truck pulled up across the street from us advertising "Tacos y Burritos y Mariscos" and we wandered across over to check it out. $1.50 tacos? Sure, we'll try a couple. From that moment on, I was hooked.

truck_laisla

I don't know how I missed out on the whole food truck culture when we were out here last year, but this year it's been unavoidable; La Isla Bonita, with its tasty tacos, burritos, and quesadillas, is parked directly across the street from us five days a week. On Abbott Kinney Boulevard, the hip and trendy section of Venice a few blocks from us, gourmet food trucks line the streets offering everything from mexican and vietnamese to waffles and hot dogs. If you've never eaten from a food truck before, you'd be surprised at how good food cooked in a truck can be.  This past weekend, dozens of the areas most popular trucks gathered in West Hollywood for a Haiti relief benefit. The moment I looked at the list of trucks in attendance and saw "The Grilled Cheese Truck," I was out the door with my wallet in hand.

truck_all

Seriously, there were dozens of trucks, all parked along both sides of the street. Nearly all of the trucks are brightly colored with really interesting artwork. They all sounded delicious, but I had my heart set on grilled cheese. The Grilled Cheese Truck turned out to be the favorite of the group; I waited in line -- I'm not even kidding -- for 50 minutes to get a sandwich and tater tots. Was it delicious? Absolutely. Was it worth a 50 minute wait? Definitely not. However, I am still extremely interested in their dessert option (banana puree with nutella and marshmallow sandwich) so I may have to hunt that truck down again.

From what I can tell, there are two distinct food truck "scenes" in LA: The hipster, gourmet food truck variety and the old-fashioned, good-but-cheap trucks.  Some trucks, such as La Isla Bonita that parks across the street from us, can be found in the same place every day and offer a consistant and standard menu. They don't have Twitter feeds or Facebook pages, but they do have really good food at a really cheap price.

The hipster trucks on the other hand tend to be a bit more mobile; If you want to know where the Flyng Pig BBQ truck is, you should check out their Twitter Feed.  They also tend to be a little more out of the ordinary in their menu offerings. The Dogtown Dogs truck, for example, sounds pretty typical in their offering of hot dogs, but they eschew the standard ketchup and mustard toppings in favor of chili, fritos, cole slaw, and other more quirky options. They're also definitely on the pricier side. After my nearly hour long wait in line at the Grilled Cheese Truck, I shelled out $10 for a sandwich and tots. For that same $10, I could have gotten a cheese quesadilla, a burrito, and two tacos at La Isla Bonita!

Checking out these food trucks has definitely piqued my interest, and I'm looking forward to hunting down the few food trucks that Columbus has to offer when we get back to Ohio. I doubt I'll be able to find a shaved ice truck, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time.


Tags: LA 2010  daily 

Recent photos

Recently Listened

Wishlist

Search

Profile Information

Application afterLoad: 0.000 seconds, 0.44 MB
Application afterInitialise: 0.048 seconds, 4.78 MB
Application afterRoute: 0.064 seconds, 6.24 MB
Application afterDispatch: 0.192 seconds, 16.86 MB
Application afterRender: 1.936 seconds, 26.12 MB

Memory Usage

27520976

19 queries logged

  1. SELECT *
      FROM v2_session
      WHERE session_id = 'caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f'
  2. DELETE
      FROM v2_session
      WHERE ( time < '1328539116' )
  3. SELECT *
      FROM v2_session
      WHERE session_id = 'caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f'
  4. UPDATE `v2_session`
      SET `time`='1328540016',`userid`='0',`usertype`='',`username`='',`gid`='0',`guest`='1',`client_id`='0',`data`='__default|a:9:{s:15:\"session.counter\";i:18;s:19:\"session.timer.start\";i:1328539142;s:18:\"session.timer.last\";i:1328539950;s:17:\"session.timer.now\";i:1328539983;s:22:\"session.client.browser\";s:48:\"CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)\";s:8:\"registry\";O:9:\"JRegistry\":3:{s:17:\"_defaultNameSpace\";s:7:\"session\";s:9:\"_registry\";a:1:{s:7:\"session\";a:1:{s:4:\"data\";O:8:\"stdClass\":0:{}}}s:7:\"_errors\";a:0:{}}s:4:\"user\";O:5:\"JUser\":19:{s:2:\"id\";i:0;s:4:\"name\";N;s:8:\"username\";N;s:5:\"email\";N;s:8:\"password\";N;s:14:\"password_clear\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"usertype\";N;s:5:\"block\";N;s:9:\"sendEmail\";i:0;s:3:\"gid\";i:0;s:12:\"registerDate\";N;s:13:\"lastvisitDate\";N;s:10:\"activation\";N;s:6:\"params\";N;s:3:\"aid\";i:0;s:5:\"guest\";i:1;s:7:\"_params\";O:10:\"JParameter\":7:{s:4:\"_raw\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"_xml\";N;s:9:\"_elements\";a:0:{}s:12:\"_elementPath\";a:1:{i:0;s:69:\"/var/sites/teamsoell.com/root/libraries/joomla/html/parameter/element\";}s:17:\"_defaultNameSpace\";s:8:\"_default\";s:9:\"_registry\";a:1:{s:8:\"_default\";a:1:{s:4:\"data\";O:8:\"stdClass\":0:{}}}s:7:\"_errors\";a:0:{}}s:9:\"_errorMsg\";N;s:7:\"_errors\";a:0:{}}s:13:\"session.token\";s:32:\"48d5bcedf3f53d6c32e1bfb80346fe41\";s:23:\"gantry-current-template\";s:12:\"rt_juxta_j15\";}BF________com_tag|a:1:{s:7:\"default\";a:14:{s:4:\"page\";s:1:\"1\";s:5:\"limit\";i:10;s:6:\"filter\";s:0:\"\";s:10:\"boxchecked\";s:0:\"\";s:12:\"hidemainmenu\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"task\";s:0:\"\";s:5:\"total\";s:0:\"\";s:4:\"view\";s:0:\"\";s:8:\"returnto\";s:0:\"\";s:32:\"4922f8d610dcf1a2bd203ec6f0f4578e\";s:32:\"caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f\";s:6:\"option\";s:7:\"com_tag\";s:6:\"Itemid\";N;s:3:\"tag\";s:14:\"breakfast.html\";s:9:\"lastModel\";s:7:\"tag_map\";}}'
      WHERE session_id='caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f'
  5. SELECT *
      FROM v2_components
      WHERE parent = 0
  6. SELECT folder AS type, element AS name, params
      FROM v2_plugins
      WHERE published >= 1
      AND access <= 0
      ORDER BY ordering
  7. SELECT *
      FROM v2_redj
      WHERE ('/home/34-blog/231-foodtrucks.html' REGEXP BINARY fromurl)>0
      AND published='1'
      ORDER BY ordering
  8. SELECT m.*, c.`option` AS component
      FROM v2_menu AS m
      LEFT JOIN v2_components AS c
      ON m.componentid = c.id
      WHERE m.published = 1
      ORDER BY m.sublevel, m.parent, m.ordering
  9. SELECT *
      FROM v2_rokcandy
      WHERE published=1
  10. SELECT template
      FROM v2_templates_menu
      WHERE client_id = 0
      AND (menuid = 0 OR menuid = 56)
      ORDER BY menuid DESC
      LIMIT 0, 1
  11. SELECT `option`
      FROM v2_components
      WHERE parent=0
      AND iscore=0
  12. INSERT INTO `v2_rokuserstats` ( `user_id`,`ip`,`session_id`,`page`,`referrer` )
      VALUES ( '0','38.107.179.210','caba908eba5b9f80ed5427d32dd4af4f','/home/34-blog/231-foodtrucks.html','' )
  13. SELECT a.*, u.name AS author, u.usertype, cc.title AS category, s.title AS section, CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH(a.alias) THEN CONCAT_WS(":", a.id, a.alias) ELSE a.id END AS slug, CASE WHEN CHAR_LENGTH(cc.alias) THEN CONCAT_WS(":", cc.id, cc.alias) ELSE cc.id END AS catslug, g.name AS groups, s.published AS sec_pub, cc.published AS cat_pub, s.access AS sec_access, cc.access AS cat_access 
      FROM v2_content AS a
      LEFT JOIN v2_categories AS cc
      ON cc.id = a.catid
      LEFT JOIN v2_sections AS s
      ON s.id = cc.section
      AND s.scope = "content"
      LEFT JOIN v2_users AS u
      ON u.id = a.created_by
      LEFT JOIN v2_groups AS g
      ON a.access = g.id
      WHERE a.id = 231
      AND (  ( a.created_by = 0 )    OR  ( a.state = 1
      AND ( a.publish_up = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' OR a.publish_up <= '2012-02-06 14:53:36' )
      AND ( a.publish_down = '0000-00-00 00:00:00' OR a.publish_down >= '2012-02-06 14:53:36' )   )    OR  ( a.state = -1 )  )
  14. UPDATE v2_content
      SET hits = ( hits + 1 )
      WHERE id='231'
  15. SELECT *
      FROM v2_tag_layouts
  16. SELECT count(id)
      FROM v2_tag_hideshow
      WHERE scope = "com_content"
      AND idnumber = "231:foodtrucks.html"
  17. SHOW FIELDS
      FROM v2_tag_category_map
  18. SELECT m.tagid AS id, tag_tags.tagname AS tagname
                   
      FROM v2_tag_category_map AS m
                   
      LEFT JOIN v2_tag_tags AS tag_tags
      ON m.tagid = tag_tags.id
                   
      WHERE m.contentid='231'   
      AND tag_tags.published='1'
                   
      AND access <= 0
      ORDER BY tagname
  19. SELECT id, title, module, position, content, showtitle, control, params
      FROM v2_modules AS m
      LEFT JOIN v2_modules_menu AS mm
      ON mm.moduleid = m.id
      WHERE m.published = 1
      AND m.access <= 0
      AND m.client_id = 0
      AND ( mm.menuid = 56 OR mm.menuid = 0 )
      ORDER BY position, ordering

Language Files Loaded

Untranslated Strings Diagnostic

None

Untranslated Strings Designer

None