dogtown dogs makes me go nutty for shrooms and tubers

i don't chase food trucks anymore. my knees aren't what they use to be and it's kind of cumbersome running after one with a big ole fish net. besides, what you catch ain't always that tasty and making the efforts to hunt one down and getting disappointed by the food is like walking around with a tiny pebble in your shoe...just plain annnnnnoying.

that's why, the best kind of food trucks nowadays are the ones that i stumble upon. the serendipitous kinds that just happen to be waiting for me when i just so happen to have a rumbling belly. finding out that the food is tasty to boot is like finding a mint on my pillow...a nice, refreshing "oh yeah baby...." mint that sets it apart from the ever multiplying trucks that we find roaming about our streets nowadays. yes, dogtown dogs, you are delicious. whew.

although their menu choices seem limited, all the major grease groups were represented.

i decided against ordering a dog and ordered a fungus instead, the portabello cheese steak ($7). WOW. just plain wow. eating this meaty mushroom sammich made me forget that i craved things that walked on four legs or things that mooed in the night. it was quite satisfying, a gustatory orgy of swiss cheese, red and green peppers, caramelized onions, and mushroom...ooey, gooey cheesey and pleasing to the palate...hubba hubba. thinking of it just makes me want to lick my computer screen. so dang good.

the tator tots ($3) were nothing short of a masterpiece as well. the addictively crunchy, crispy shells protected a tender, starchy middle. if these tator tots had wings, given how light they were in my mouth, i would not be surprised if they can fly. dangerously delicious.

so there you have it, a food truck done right. although i can't vouch for their dogs, i sure will be running after this one again when i crave anything remotely fungal and tuberous.

Dogtown Dogs
(310) 663-2911

dogtowndog.com

price: $
verdict: tasty, try it

world fare bustaurant parked in the middle of serious jubilation

from junction to jubilee, i think silverlakers are always ready for some sort of celebration, whether it be for music, art, diversity, or eco friendliness. never the party pooper, i took my usual suspects which included my ultra cute four legged doo doo, to the silver lake jubilee today. it was a rather mellow affair, being less crazy than saturday (so i heard) which was fine by me cuz the last thing i wanted to do is to set charlie down in the middle of a clusterfuck (<--my new favorite word. i want to use it all the time!). trust me, he can't handle it. although it was rather tame, there was more than enough people at the jubilee to keep it hopping.

one of the best parts of the jubilee were the zero waste initiatives and the emphasis on eco friendliness because being aware of your environment and what you can do to be greener in your consumption choices is a cause for serious jubilation. come on peoples, our planet is CHOKING.

i made a cool little planter out of a sprite bottle while i was at the eco village. what a great project for kids and big kids like me to remind ourselves to reduce, reuse, and recyle. it's hanging out on the porch of my wee house as i type. hope the basil seeds take root and i can harvest it for my pesto.

the jubilee also had a ton of food trucks, though the lesser known ones outnumbered the more noteworthy ones. i did spot a few that i recognized; frysmith, coolhaus, world fare bustaurant...ohh, world fare! gotta try it!

i decided to order the "bunny chow" combo ($10) which gave me a choice of two bunnies (short rib, bbq pork, curry chicken, or vegetarian chili). being the carnivore that i am, i opted for the short rib and bbq pork. the combo also came with a cookie and i was able to substitute the side of fries for the mac & cheese balls. oh score!

we went to the top level of the bus to eat and dogs were welcomed (i promised i asked for permission).

so bunny chow...it is definitely not chow for bunnies.

it's more like a small loaf of hollowed out bread that's subsequently filled with meats and curries (origination of this dish has been linked to migrant indian workers in south africa per wikipedia). think of it like a clam chowder bread bowl if you will...except that it's totally not :)

both the short rib and bbq pork gave great meaty bites with a suprising kick of heat, but the bread was rather disappointing. although i normally discard the bread bowl when i heif down clam chowder, in this situation it was a bit silly to eat only the meat and discard the carb shell because it's small so you eat it all damnit, you just do. i wish world fare would look into other breads since it's such a critical part of the chow and these current ones were stale and unappetizingly dry.

the mac and cheese balls on the other hand were sheer yum...particularly the ones with the truffle oil. i LOVE me some truffle oil and the truffle aroma hits the back of your throat and rises to your nose in the most delicious way. mmm, i would get these again for sure!

so all in all, it was a good day at the jubilee and now for my rant....

(insert rant)

i check out yelp once in a while and i find it hideous when folks try to correct people in how to spell "silverlake" by emphasizing that it is two words even though i and many long time residents continue to spell it SILVERLAKE...i've lived in SILVERLAKE for over 25 years and went to elementary school in this neighborhood. i grew up seeing business signs and print spelling "silverlake" as one word. is it spelled correctly according to the city? nope. is it spelled correctly according to the long time residents of this area? you bet. so if you see/read me, don't correct my spelling because i've lived here all my life and know this is how it is before spellcheck and bitchy folks that want you to divide silver and lake.

(rant over)

World Fare Bustaurant
http://worldfare.com/

price: $
verdict: it's aight

frysmith truck: bringing in the new year with delicious grease bombs

it didn’t take but two days for this belly to break her new year’s resos. seriously, my “eating healthy” resolution was shattered by a plea from my sister to try out the frysmith truck. yes, another twitter truck…but this one is dedicated to fries!! omg, whut?! i loveeeeeeee fries. darn! after some hemming and hawing on my part, we booked ass to intelligentsia near sunset junction where they were located for a few hours. no line either.

the game plan was to order 3 different kinds of toppings and stuff face. that was a good game plan because they only have about five regular fries choices plus one special so we pigged out on half of their menu...oink! we settled on rajas fries ($6) which had a topping of shawarma-marinated steak (it had a nice tartness to it), caramelized onions which added some sweetness, poblano chiles, and jack cheese. YUMMY! surprisingly, the fries were still super crispy even though we had to transport it back to my wee house to grub. in fact, they might be slightly TOO crispy for some of you folks, but for me, it was divine. it was like a long chip...a lincoln log chip.

we also ordered the sweet po fries ($6.50) which were sweet potato fries topped with chicken in tomatillo-tamarind sauce with chopped cashews. now THAT was crave worthy. the sweet potato fries got soggy the quickest out of the three, but the flavors were excellent and on the sweeter side of the palate. i also enjoyed the texture of the chopped cashews against the melty cheese. would totally order these again.

here it is, looking like a block of cheese.

here it is, with all its layers.

the last order of fries were the kimchi fries ($6.50). the fries were topped with kimchi and shredded kurobuta pork. the pork were a bit on the scarce side, and the kimchi wasn’t at all spicy, but the fries were delicious nevertheless. i would totally order these again! loveeeeee me some kimchi!

trio of fries ready for some hard eating and new year's reso breaking!

we washed everything down with some tea which i was told would ease the heart clogging effects of fatty foods like fries. tasty tea, but it didn't ease the guilt of starting the new year with grease bombs though....now ask me, would i seek frysmith out again? OH HELL YEAH! the fries were really delicious!

Frysmith

http://www.eatfrysmith.com/

price: $

verdict: omg, i love it!

once in a while, i shave :0

Get Shaved
(818) 439-1053
http://www.getshavedice.com/

price: $
verdict: it's aight

when i see a kogi truck, i think of the movie "joe's apartment," not cuz it's a roach coach, but because a swarm of twitter trucks usually tries to follow it which leads me to think of a swarm of roaches. i know, i make the weirdest connections. since the kogi truck has a bigger following amongst nomadic feeders, it's advantageous for other twitter trucks to go where the crowd goes especially if they have problems drumming up business on their own. at least then, they can sell some of their wares to some kogi fans. yup, that's what i think.

today kogi showed up at the silverlake flea market. my sis said they had a great tres leches dessert and charlie needed a walk anyways so we headed in that direction. oh my, what did we see?! three twitter trucks in a row: get shaved, kogi, and coolhaus ice cream truck. it was such a bizarre sight.

anyways, kogi ran out of dessert (boo!)...since last night. OH COME ON NOW...lame. since i didn't want to eat any savory items from them, we decided to check out "get shaved" instead. a-ha! another twitter truck to check off the list. this truck specializes in hawaiian style shaved ice.

hi there lady! she works for the dude that you see in the 1st pic wearing shorts. he was being interviewed by a usc student about the twitter truck phenomenon. i do not want to project my own feelings about this, but i thought he sounded a bit annoyed. kudos to him for answering her questions even though intermittently, i heard her say "oh, i forgot what i was going to ask you....." fail.

my sis decided to get the "root beer dream" ($3.50) which was root beer syrup over soft (FREAKIN' SOFT. SOFT LIKE A NEWBORN BABY'S BUTT SOFT) shaved ice with vanilla ice cream and condensed milk. she didn't think it tasted root beerish enough and everything overall tasted too sweet. when i took a bite, i concurred. too sweet!

i ordered "monkey brains" ($3.50) which was strawberry and banana syrup over soft shaved ice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and condensed milk. this one tasted A LOT better though STILL way too sweet. once it was mixed with the vanilla ice-cream, the sweetness diluted a bit, but methinks not enough.

they also had a mysterious brown bottle of powder at their counter. i did not know that cocaine went well with shaved ice. after some inquiry, i found out that "LHM" stood for "Li Hing Mui" which in chinese means "white people you're not going to like this."

it has a very distinctive sour preserved plum taste to it like japanese umeboshi so unless you like those taste profiles, i strongly suggest you don't do it. perhaps you can squeeze some on your palm and give it a lick before you dump it on your shaved ice like i did. *squeeze* actually, i love umeboshi so i enjoyed the sourness on this mountain of sweetness. not the greatest combo ever, but the sweetness needed to be cut with ninja swiftness and LHM was called upon to do the trick.

i'm definitely impressed by how finely shaved the ice was, but in general, the sweetness of these syrups just KILLS ME. ack! i don't plan to follow "get shaved" on twitter nor will i patronize it again. but if you like sweet shaved ice and have gone to hawai'i recently, then perhaps this will bring back fond memories of coconut bras and tropical island nights. i've read that their shaved ice is as close as you can get to the real deal back on the big island. anyways, aloha food fans.

the ice cream hunt

Coolhaus Ice Cream
http://www.eatcoolhaus.com/

price: $
verdict: it's aight

ah yes. the hunter and gatherer roots we had back when food use to run away from us is so passe. the thought of chasing after my food never ever crosses my mind. when i'm hungry, i go to a restaurant. if i'm highly motivated, i might go to a grocery store, buy the right ingredients, and then cook my own meals. i have never been denied a full belly just because i can't outrun my meal and then kill it dead. the hunting days are long gone....or is it?

for the past few months, the hottest kinds of eats are those that i term the "twitter trucks." the procedure is as follow:

1) you twitter their location
2) you find that they will be in your area
3) you get kinda excited because you like hyped up anything and hyped up food is all the rage right now.
4) you find them..but sometimes they don't get to the said location on time or change locations last minute, HENCE twitter is CRITICAL for the timing of it all lest you want to beat your head in frustration.
5) then you stand in a line for an hour
6) only to be able to buy one taco because they ran out of food.

this was not my experience with kogi, but for some of yous, it was....sucka! i mean awww....

why are so many people nowadays hunting their food? why has it spawned so many copy cats? after hunting down kogi, perhaps you now want to hunt down your dessert? hello, meet coolhaus ice cream truck. the dude hanging by the truck window isn't one of the founders. i think he's one of the amigos.

this one is. her name is freya estreller, the co-founder. she likes to say "fuck" a lot.

the coolhaus "hook" is selling all natural, homemade ice cream sammiches. no tacos or hot dogs...just straight up ice cream sammiches. i found out they were at barnsdall so i drove there to check them out. once you've successfully hunted them down, you:

1) choose your cookie. the choices are sugar, chocolate, chocolate chip, ginger, and oatmeal cookies. i got the oatmeal cookies...mmm.
2) choose the ice cream. the choices are strawberry, mint chip, vanilla, lemon, and cinnamon. i got the mint chip one.
3) decide whether you want the edible rice wrapper. i did because i'm a sucka.

an ice cream sammich is $3. if you include the rice wrapper, it goes up a whopping 50 cents. due to lack of change on their part, i told them to keep my $4 so the rest went towards tip.

the cookies were good, but not extraordinary. sweet, chewy, with some crunchy parts. the mint chip ice cream was sweet and smooth and pretty yummy. definitely better quality than what you might pick up at ralphs, but it is by no means awesome. and the size of this sammich is slightly bigger than a slider at a (insert fast food chain name) restaurant. but for $3 and the legwork you have to do to get it, i would not hunt this ice cream truck again. ...

the ice cream trucks you're used to chasing down back in da days when it meant running up or down the street to buy your pac man ice cream with the bubblegum eyes might seem outdated, BUT i still think that kind of ice cream truck is far cooler than this one. don't get me wrong, the sammich was tasty, but the price tag and the hassle to get it was not worth the effort. if you chance upon it, do try it, but don't go on a hunt for it you silly wabbit!

will tweet for food

Kogi

http://www.kogibbq.com/

price: $

verdict: tasty, try it!

i donned my camouflage hoodie and strapped on my mk 16 rifle. tonight, i went on a kogi truck hunt. boo yah!

first off, i see why you need to be on twitter. their original location on sunset was changed last minute to another silverlake location, the 4100 bar. so if you weren't twitting like i was, you would have driven around like a dumbass, a real twit. thank god i was able to save myself from some unnecessary frustration tonight. *high five* anyways, once i locked my eyes on the kogi truck, i was ready to go in for the kill.

kill we did. we were lucky too because the line was short so the anticipation wasn't as agonizing. i ordered their bbq chicken, tofu, short ribs, and spicy pork tacos. for $2 a pop, i had a gustatory experience that pleasured my nose as well as my tastebuds. i absolutely loved the fusion of spices and the savoriness of the meats. and the slaw combo...man, what a perfect example of savory goodness. unfortunately, i do not have a belly of a whale and did not try to order the kimchi quesadilla or their burritos on top of the tacos. i must admit, a part of me was sad that i couldn't eat more. ahhh, next time.

after this kogi truck kill, i'm still reeking of their unforgiving onions. but before the smell fades, i am already planning my next kogi truck hunt. it turns out the hunt is just as addictive as the kill.

the infamous truck.