Truck Food

Over the last year or so, gourmet food trucks have become all the rage here in Los Angeles.  These trucks have quite a following as their fans keep track of their locations via Twitter and Facebook.  My friend Mike has been talking about them for months now after having enjoyed some of the more popular ones like Koji (Korean Tacos) and The Buttermilk Truck (various pancakes include red velvet).  The food on these trucks sound tempting, but standing in long lines AFTER chasing them all over the Valley never sounded too appealing to me.

Last week was the Americana Street Feast in Glendale.  Some of the most popular food trucks parked inside the Americana (a fancy outdoor mall) for a few hours for all to enjoy.  Since there would be no chasing I joined Mike and a few other friends on a food truck field trip.

Upon arrival, the food trucks were just driving in or setting up.  We explored our surroundings and staked out the trucks that sounded most appealing.  While we came up with our game plan (grilled cheese, fries, and then dessert) we were tempted by the Willoughby Road food truck. 
They had a pulled pork quesadilla and four-cheese macaroni and cheese.  We were one of the first to place our order. 

While some of us waited for our Willoughby’s order, others waited and waited and waited at the Dim Sum truck. 
The Grilled Cheese Truck was at the top of our list, but on our walk through we didn’t see it.  While we enjoyed our “soul food” we asked a security guard where the Grilled Cheese Truck was.  He told us it was on its way and then showed us exactly where we should stand to start the line.  Woo Hoo!  We were first in line for the grilled cheeses!
    Enjoying our quesadilla, mac and cheese,
and dim sum while waiting for the TGC truck. 

We probably waited in line for The Grilled Cheese Truck for almost an hour.  It was a long time, but we were the talk of Street Feast because we were first in line!  We cheered, jumped up and down, and told others to “step off” when the truck arrived. 

Since we had an hour we killed time and used our phones to look at the truck’s menu.  We decided to each order something different and then share them.  

Our order – The Signature (mac&cheese, pulled pork, grilled onions, and cheese), the Cheesy Mac Melt (mac&cheese and cheese), Plain and Simple add bacon, and the Dessert Melt (Nutella, marshmallow, roasted banana). 
Oh, boy, they were good, well, all except the dessert one which just tasted like ripe bananas to me.  Nom, nom, nom.

At that point I wanted to sprawl out onto the grass and unbutton my pants, but there were more trucks to go.  We decided to pass on Frysmith, the french fry truck.  For one, we were stuffed, but also the line was wrapped around the street for that one.  It just didn’t sound as good of an idea as it did when we first arrived. 

However, we were still on for dessert.  The Coolhaus truck is an ice cream sandwich truck.  The sandwiches are actually cookies and the ice cream flavors range from typical to unique – red velvet or bacon flavored.  They are also wrapped in edible paper.  The red velvet ice cream was the only thing that got me off the grass and back in line.  We waited and waited and waited.  After about an hour, Mike walked over to the menu board, which is little magnates of ice cream and cookies.  He came back with bad news – NO MORE RED VELVET!!!  That magnate was gone.  I was ready to go, feeling full and grumpy.  The others shrugged like they didn’t care, and we continued to stand in line for another 30 minutes or so.  With about 3 groups left in front of us we checked the menu board again.  Just about all of the cookies and ice cream had been removed from the board and we decided to just call it a night. 

It was a fun night, but most of it was spent standing in line.  Good thing I was with fun people and the food WAS delicious!  The food truck craze isn’t completely lost on me, but the lines have the potential to make me very cranky. 

Have you had the chance to try one of these trucks?