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This is an example of typical conversation when I take a friend to Pitfire Pizza for the first time:
Friend: “What’s good here?”
Me: “The Burrata Pie.”
Friend: “What else is good?”
Me: “No idea. That’s the only thing I’ve ever had.”
Friend: “Well, do you want to split something?”
Me: “ Err…no. I want my burrata pie. And I want all of it.”
I guess you could say that the food truck culture has officially taken its grasp on LA and is here to stay. It seems like every bar you go to in this town, right outside a food truck is waiting to tempt you with menus that easily compete with any brick and mortar restaurant around. No longer does a food truck mean a roach coach serving up scary meat that you don’t want to think about. Now it means breakfast at all hours of the night, or grilled cheese, chinese peruvian food, and of course, the founding father of the truck food: Korean tacos from Kogi BBQ.
I mean, it shouldn’t surprise anyone. There’s a ton of culinary talent in this town; food trucks have given those talents, who lack huge start-up money and a year get it off the ground, an opportunity to shine.
It’s chilly and rainy in LA right now. Yes, contrary to popular belief, it does actually rain here. Truth be told, I love nothing more than being at home on a dark, rainy day, curled up in a blanket on the couch.
On days such as these, one of my guilty pleasures is the show “Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives” on the Food Network. It wouldn’t normally be the first choice of most vegetarians to watch a show that focuses on greasy spoons, but every now and then I discover a gem like Polka. It’s a family-run Polish restaurant in a tiny strip mall on the outskirts of LA and although it may be a bit of a distance for most people living here, I promise it’s worth the trek.
When I was nine, my dad was really into making Coke floats and naturally my brother and I were his partners in crime, because to kids there’s nothing better than soda and ice cream in the same cup. But then you grow up and go to college and trade in Coke for cheap beer, and then you grow up a little more and realize that Bud Light is closer to urine than “real beer”. And soon after that you develop this weird beer snobbery and scoff at the idea of drinking anything but some fancy schmancy IPA. Then someone recognizes your new sophisticated taste and thinks to themselves, Man, under all that beer snobbery what you really are is a nine year old in a twenty-something year old body, and what you really need is something that’ll make you feel like the grown-up kid that you are…hmm…I’d say a beer float might do, does that sound right? Well if it does then The Golden State is your place.
Like any kid, I had a sweet love affair with ice cream. It all started with my dad, whom would invite me over, at the ripe age of one, to join him with carton in hand. I, of course, would quickly crawl my little self over there awaiting a massive spoon of chilly chocolate ice cream. When I couldn’t eat anymore, I’d sit with a chocolate covered face, totally content… But really the flavors of my childhood only consisted of the typical chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, pistachio, etc.–nothing too exotic. It wasn’t until I went on a family vacation to San Francisco and visited a little ice cream shop near my aunt’s house called Mitchell’s. Hands down it totally changed my expectations with ice cream. It wasn’t a fancy shop–just a little hole in the wall with a make-shift menu which listed out the most exotic ice creams I’d ever heard of. My brother and I would always get the thai ice tea ice cream on a waffle cone. We thought it was the most genius thing ever.
When I think of trends, what usually first comes to mind is stuff like Von Dutch trucker hats, faux hawks…and, uh, wearing your pants backwards (for all my 90s kids). Basically, stuff that I want nothing to do with–so when I heard about the lines spiraling around the block for this Korean taco truck, I was a bit reluctant to check it out. But it’s a relentless little truck and seeing it EVERYWHERE–including last month’s Bon Appetit and Food and Wine– started to whittle me down and soon I couldn’t deny the take over of Kogi. So I decided it was time.
A few weeks ago Caroline and I competed in the 7th Annual Grilled Cheese Invitational. Our sandwich didn’t win but the real treat was getting a look (and mostly just a look) at the hundreds of delicious grilled cheese variations. After our portion of the competition we strolled around in hopes of getting our hands on some samples. Quick tip: If you plan on attending the GCI in 2010, be sure to get there early. The line to get in can be brutal. And be prepared to muscle your way through a small mob to get your hands on a competing grilled cheese…Needless to say, I wasn’t having much luck scoring a sample slice. After an hour of watching by bigger and buffer attendees take down one gooey sandwich of goodness after the other I needed to resort to Plan B.
