LA Street Food Fest 2: July 24
It's coming up soon - the second installment of the LA Street Food Fest. For round number 2, the Fest has moved from LA Center Studios to the Rose Bowl. This time, the good eats won't be marred by long lines and sold-out noms - there are only a few thousand presale tickets available, you can only purchase them online, and one price gets you all you can eat, rather than your having to wait - and then pay - at the trucks and carts once you get in. The event's also in the evening (from 5:30 to 9 PM), so there's less chance of frying in the hot sun, as queuers and eaters did at the last LA Street Food Fest in February. While you eat, you can watch a concert, vote in the Vendys-style cook-off, and hang out in the beer garden. Ooh, and the entry price includes free parking, a boon at any festival-type event.
Food truck-wise, all your favorites will be there: here's the complete list. Top three trucks I'm most excited about hitting: The Manila Machine, to try their lumpia (Filipino egg rolls); the Fox Pizza Bus, to get some wood-fired pie from a double-decker; and The Mighty Boba Truck, because I'm always up for some milk tea. Top three trucks I already love and will be hitting at the Fest: the Gastrobus, for their awesome daily specials like the plum juice they had recently; Louks, whose pitas I just cannot praise highly enough; and Coolhaus, because even though their free-ice-cream-sandwich days appear to be over for now, I will gladly pay full price for their balsamic fig and mascarpone ice cream.
Visit the LA Street Food Fest website for more information.
Quickfire Review: The Gastrobus
Photo by Oliver Seldman
Recently I've been hitting the food trucks hard, so hard in fact that I have a backlog of reviews to do. Rather than do up a full review of each truck, I thought I'd experiment with a quickfire review format. This is the first in a series of 5 mini-reviews.
Truck: Gastrobus
What I ordered: Skirt steak sandwich with onion, tomato and chimichurri ($6); sweet potato fries with honey mustard dipping sauce ($2.50); potato soup; beet greens.
Photo by Oliver Seldman
Was it good?: Hells yes. The steak was smoky and juicy. Honey mustard added a delicious tang to the mellowness of the fries, making the flavor multidimensional. I expected the soup to have a cream base, but it tasted like it was made with chicken or vegetable broth instead: it was interesting to eat a potato soup that was so light. The beet greens tasted like chard; they were very tender, and their crunchy stems were a beautiful shade of hot pink.
Overall experience: On a hot day outside MySpace, the line wasn't long at all, and the food came out fast.
Photo by Oliver Seldman
Vegetarian-friendly: There's a veggie sandwich on the menu featuring yams, zucchini and balsamic onions ($6). Also, check their daily specials when you visit the truck.
Vegan-friendly: The veggie sandwich is good for vegans too.
