Food Trucks Have Gone Gourmet in L.A. and We Love It!

If you live anywhere in Los Angeles, you have no doubt eaten off a “Taco Truck” in the past for a quick lunch or a late night grab after clubbing or working late, but chances are before 2010, you didn’t follow your Taco Truck on Twitter, Track who was eating there on Foursquare or FAN it on Facebook. With the invention of these new tools and the resurgence of Street Food Integrity, Food Trucks are making a huge comeback and lines are around the block!

As a kid I remember seeing the trucks parked in the neighborhood, silver or white usually with a name hand painted across the sides. They were usually surrounded by Men mostly; ordering food, eating. laughing, standing around. When I entered the work-force, the trucks were a lunchtime inevitability, people joked about grabbing a burrito or taco off the “Roach Coach” which left an indellible image in my mind that I needed to overcome to enjoy the new level of Street Food available now. This is not your Father’s Food Truck.

Follow That Truck!

With the invention and more importantly BOOM of Twitter, Street Food is now stalked down! A truck can park in Venice Beach, tweet/facebook it’s location and wait for the lines to begin. People from Downtown, Pasadena, Culver City even Long Beach will actually drive to find it after work, as a dinner treat! They will wait in a huge line with the threat of the food running out before they get to the window just to eat a magnificent GRILLED CHEESE! This is what happens every day for the Grilled Cheese Truck that boasts gourmet Melty Goodness.  Their website outlines their menu and features a lot of “cheesey” graphics! and of course gives a schedule of where you can find them. The Grilled Cheese Truck was the first of these new animals to catch my attention, mainly because I am a Grilled Cheese fanatic, but also because I saw it mentioned more than a few times on Twitter by people who are definitely NOT your classic “food truck” eaters. I decided, I must find this truck and taste the Cheese!

A short Google session later I was amazed to find more than 40 such Gourmet Trucks including, The Buttermilk Truck, The Kobi Truck, The Flying Pig, Taco Zone Truck, and more… and as I was bookmarking and adding to my Twitter Follows, I found findlafoodtrucks.com and realized... THIS IS A WHOLE NEW BREED OF STREET FOOD VENDORS, something is happening here! Making the most of the new Social Media tools and the Foodie Fusion Crowd as well as Los Angeles’ love for being in on something exclusive that you have to wait in a huge line for… these Rolling Gourmets have opened up a line of business that their parents never dreamed possible for their service.

A Social Phenomenon?

People who follow the Food Trucks use the opportunity to socialize with others in line and meet people they normally wouldn’t have a chance or reason to talk to. They use the trucks as a central meeting point with friends from different cities, so they can Eat and then move to other plans for the evening and some people bring folding chairs and sort of tail gate around trucks that have stationary locations like the Tacos trucks in Downtown who are always located in the Alameda/Traction parking lot.  Where is the party at? Just follow a food truck!

In an economy where companies are contracting and people are watching every penny, these small businesses have found a way to “sell out” their product on a regular basis and leave their audience begging for more! Much of the Social Media Advertising is bogus and annoying, intrusive and flat, but for these Small Business Owners, it has been a perfect fit and wisely used. BRAVO!

If you are thinking of starting a Gourmet Food Truck, now is the time, but make sure you are Social Media Saavy and offer something either in the Comfort Food arena, Ethnic Goodness or a Fusion that make mouths water. So far I haven’t run across a CUPCAKE truck! So maybe that is an idea!  A lot of my readers are out of state, so perhaps starting your own Food Truck Movement in town would be a fun idea!

A Quick List of Food Trucks:

Look here for Food Truck Reviews on YELP, to see what people are saying about them!

kogibbq

Korean BBQ Taco Truck

57,344 followers | Follow

Grilled Cheese Truck

Chef driven grilled cheese… ’cause that’s how we roll…

12,060 followers | Follow

sprinklesmobile

9,749 followers | Follow

COOLHAUS

Making Architecture Digestible! Roaming the streets of LA with gourmet, hand-made ice cream sammies.

7,768 followers | Follow

Nom Nom Truck

Banh Mi Food Truck serving Los Angeles!

5,965 followers | Follow

The Buttermilk Truck

Mobile diner bringing housemade breakfast favorites day and night!

5,837 followers | Follow

Border Grill Truck

Gourmet tacos, quesadillas, ceviches, and more from “Too Hot Tamales” Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger.

4,635 followers | Follow

Frysmith

Truck with fries that eat as a meal

4,439 followers | Follow

Green_Truck

Organic , vegan-friendly mobile food, and production catering.

4,429 followers | Follow

Marked5

Japanese Style Burgers

3,902 followers | Follow

The Sweets Truck

Taking Sweets (and coffee) to the Streets of Los Angeles!

3,689 followers | Follow

Calbi BBQ

Beef, Pork, Chicken or Shrimp?

3,602 followers | Follow

Get Shaved Shave Ice

SoCal’s Finest Shave Ice…You Bet Your Ice It Is!

3,506 followers | Follow

Fish Lips Sushi

REAL SUSHI MAN INSIDE!

3,421 followers | Follow

dosatruck

Brooklyn Born Street Urchin Grew Up Eating STREET FOOD off TRUCKS NOW Bringing You DOSAS my FAV South Indian Street Food But Now I’m Driving The Truck

3,118 followers | Follow

Don Chow Tacos

Where Mexican and Chinese food get together. Home of the Chimale, Ultimate LA Taco, and Carne asada Chow Fun!

3,075 followers | Follow

Babys Badass Burgers

2,983 followers | Follow

SouthPhillyExp

Food truck roaming the streets of L.A. slinging Cheese steaks, Tastykakes, and Herr’s chips.

2,950 followers | Follow

India Jones Truck

Gourmet Indian street food truck !

2,684 followers | Follow

BarbiesQ

A Rollin’ BBQ Joint

2,679 followers | Follow

Flying Pig

Mobile Food – Asian Fusion with French Technique

2,603 followers | Follow

LetsbeFrankLA

Dogs Gone Good, Grass Fed Beef Hot Dogs from our trailer

2,535 followers | Follow

Lomo Arigato

2,494 followers | Follow

Dainty Cakes LA

We’re a cupcake truck but we serve more than just cupcakes! We carry items that cafes have and only use fresh local ingredients & recyclable paper supplies.

2,002 followers | Follow

Bool

Just Awesome Fusion Food!
Email us: BoolBBQ@gmail.com

1,982 followers | Follow

Asian Soul Kitchen

Peace, Love and Asian Soul

1,892 followers | Follow

The Gastrobus

Roadside bistro

1,818 followers | Follow

Grill Em All

GRILLING IS OUR BUSINESS AND BUSINESS IS FINE!!!

In a battle of cheese and sauce, finally burgers and heavy metal unite in harmony.

1,765 followers | Follow

Adam Fleischman

1,550 followers | Follow

Komodo Food

Dangerously Good Food. Not your average taco truck.

1,546 followers | Follow

Mandoline Grill

Traditional and Vegan-Friendly Vietnamese Food Truck

1,537 followers | Follow

Franken’s

Spooky -Theme Mobile Cuisine. Taking Plant-Based Food to the Streets!

1,475 followers | Follow

La FuXion

Latin Asian FuXion

1,371 followers | Follow

Little Spoon Dessert

Little Spoon Desserts is a boutique dessert company that showcases the talents of Los Angeles’ finest pastry chefs, bakers, and chocolatiers.

1,239 followers | Follow

Louks

Greek Gourmet Truck hitting the streets of LA & OC.

1,201 followers | Follow

King Kone

King Kone is a mobile ice parlor providing treats out of a sweet butter yellow truck!! mmmmm

1,190 followers | Follow

Fresser’s Pastrami

Food truck offering fresh hot pastrami and other deli favorites throughout the Los Angeles area.

1,018 followers | Follow

Chris at Mattie’s

Southern Food For All Y’alls

1,014 followers | Follow

SliceTruck

Pizza Truck in L.A.
Deliver 310-944-2474

974 followers | Follow

Gabino

Meat on a STICK/ @Marked5 partners

954 followers | Follow

The Burger Bus

894 followers | Follow

la bbq guy

The BBQ truck is on the move. If you can’t find us or want great bbq any time stop by our restaurant sssmokehouse.com

850 followers | Follow

Uncle Lau’s BBQ

Genuine Smoked BBQ with an Island Flair! Great pulled pork, beef brisket, smoked ribs, shrimp scampi and more. Come find us in Santa Monica, CA.

795 followers | Follow

Crepes Bonaparte

French Crepe Catering + GASTON the Crepe Truck

785 followers | Follow

Vesuvio

LA’s first and only Italian specialty food truck.

774 followers | Follow

bullkogi

633 followers | Follow

The PupusaMobile

mobile pupuseria! still in the works…

609 followers | Follow

Panini On Wheels

Delicious Gourmet Italian Panini

550 followers | Follow

Grill Masters

Best Rotisserie Chicken by Jonathan Gold, L.A. Weekly

484 followers | Follow

Qzillabbq

Qzillabbq truck delivering southern style wood fired bbq.

403 followers | Follow

tacos sinaloa

178 followers | Follow

LA Fuxion

89 followers | Follow

Chefkoch

Hello friends of German food. We will update here our Food Truck schedule and have news about German food and where you can enjoy it!

48 followers | Follow

Credit: List from Listorious / FOR FULL FOLLOW FUNCTIONALITY OF THIS LIST, YOU CAN GO HERE!

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Tonight I visited an old stand by for dinner, a little place called “In N Out Burger”. If you aren’t from the West Coast and you have not been to Vegas, you are probably not familiar with the Classic Double-Double, Fries Animal Style, Ice Cream Shakes in those cute little palm tree cups and drive thru lines that wind through parking lots and out into traffic, so let me give you the low-down on this local gem for the next time you are in town!

Number One! You DO want to visit this place if you are in California for any reason and you enjoy an honest-to-goodness burger! (no tofu, chemical meat or pre-frozen stuff here!) everything they make is created from fresh ingredients and prepared in a glass side kitchen for you to watch. I love seeing them cut the fries, actually! :p

Number Two! Expect a wait… In N Out is extremely popular and whether you go inside or brave the drive thru, (some locations have two drive thru lines and there is still a huge line at both) you will wait a while. The upside is that the staff is always cheerful and professional and in order to accommodate the long lines, they have added “car hop” style order takers, who walk to your car, even if you are the 10th one in line and your tail end is blocking the intersection! As you can see, even Janice Dickinson cannot resist a burger (even if she doesn’t keep it down- ahem).

Number Three! The menu is simple, see here:

and delicious, I might add… but there are unwritten options you might want to think about before you go, so you can order like a local.

Here are some options that you won’t find on the menu:

The Three-b-Meat Burger has Three patties and NO cheese. It is true that you can ask for as many patties as you want.. (please don’t tell me you go more than four, I don’t want to know!) Not sure why people wouldn’t want cheese… but there you are…

My favorite secret option is The “Animal Style” Burger is has a Mustard-cooked beef patty (whatever that means) more pickles and extra sauce/dressing with grilled onions piled on top. It is just something you have to experience to understand… (note, you can also get FRIES Animal Style!)

The 2×4 Burger is just that, a “2×4? burger with two beef patties, four slices of cheese and anything else you want to add. I have heard that you can also order a “4×2? or a “3×3″ or many other sizes if you want to get creative! Perhaps if you are a lumberjack, the 2×4 makes perfect sense for you!

AND remember the Atkins Diet? Now the South Beach for more conservative dieters… well, for those BUNless burger eaters, they offer “The Flying Dutchman” which is basically just two beef patties and 2 slices of cheese.. the less serious version of this is called “Protein Style” and you can get any burger this way, it means they take off the BUNS and use Lettuce to wrap it up.. You can have all the toppings, onions, etc..

Some other options are a basic Grilled Cheese, pretty much the burger without the meat.. good option for kids and people who don’t eat ze meat! (Vegans, you can also get “Veggie Style” which will mean that you will have all the veggies with no cheese or meat in a bun, so when your Carnivore friends ask you to join them at In N Out.. know, you have choices!)

The SHAKES are amazing, but remember that you can combine any of the flavors, they have Chocolate, Strawberry and Vanilla… ask to have it “Swirled” or “Blended” from any or all of the three flavors. YUM!

An odd thing you can get is “Lemon-Up” or “Tea-Up” which is 7-up mixed with Tea or Lemonade, as you might have guessed. Refreshing in the summer and a change of pace from Coke or for those who cannot have too much Caffeine.

One thing that is important to remember about In N Out, is that they will make the food into anything you want. So once you learn the ingredients they have on site, you can ask them to concoct your special creation and they will do it, if you are specific enough.

Start out with the Classic Double-Double, Fries and a Shake before you get too adventurous though, being a purest never hurt anyone!

There are rumors of a 20×20 patty burger they make, but I have been afraid to google it because I actually might see one and the thought of it makes me dizzy. Too much of a good thing… ummm YEA!

A little known fact about In N Out is that on the rim of the bottom of every drink cup is a very small “John 3:16″ – check it out next time you visit a location… even in Vegas!

Check out their website at http://www.innout.com/

IN AND OUT, IN AND OUT, THAT’S WHAT A HAM-BURGERS. ALL ABOUT!

Great! Now I have that jingle stuck in my head!

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• As you may know from my last blog, I took a little jaunt down to San Diego last month to meet some friends from out of state at a Conference.  Well, I discovered some new favorite hang outs, hotels, restaurants and bars and of course my stand by favorite – NOBU! YAY!

One of my friends was staying at The U.S. Grant, so I popped over to join him for lunch at the GG Lounge, which was absolutely adorable with a mixture of old world grandeur and modern flair. I especially loved the lighting. I had Caesar Salad and a glass of Rose’ and it was delish followed by a yummy cappuccino with plenty of foam.

The hotel is rather pricey, but it is gorgeous! Huge chandeliers in the lobby and a plethora of lush seating make it a charming space to spend time in if you happen to have to wait for someone who is perpetually late, like my friend DJ, who kept me waiting while he shopped at the Louis Vuitton store across the street!

After lunch, I took a peek at the guest rooms and learned that they all feature original artwork, large bathrooms and duvets – not that I saw them all, but I asked. Duvets are a must must must anywhere I sleep, by the way… Anyway, the rooms were luxurious and well appointed.. well worth the high price tag.

but I wasn’t staying there, so after lunch I headed over to meet my other pal where we were staying, The Ivy! Another really cool hotel with a total eclectic and modern décor and a signature scent known as Ebony… no, you cannot buy it.. (as the kind’ve rude concierge let me know) The lobby features Viao laptops for guests and modern- almost too modern recliners (you feel a little like you are a the dentists office, LOL) but they do have some super hot bars, one with over 300 wines by the glass, this feat is achieved using the new wine station technology that is all the rage at wine stores.

YUM! A nightclub that is open from Thur-Sat. I didnt get to go to that sadly, it looked pretty fun though.. very “look at me” kinda place, so if you are in San Diego and want to dress up and show off, ENVY might be a good place to hang out…

If you are more like me these days though, you want to have a cocktail and chill on sofas with friends while taking in a view, so that is what we did at the IVY ROOF TOP -

It has a modern firepit.. lots of comfortable seating, couches, divans, and of course heat lamps over large outdoor beds.. my friends and I bogarted a bed with a great view and hung out with some wine and talked under the stars, it was a nice relaxing time and I recommend it to those of you who dont like to have to scream over pounding techno to be heard by your friends (well, not all the time anyway) – During the day the rooftop has a great dipping pool (3 feet all around) with cabanas and lots of poshness.. if you are at leisure, it has a great view of the city and the marina… lay around, get tan in the most perfect weather on the planet and the best thing, they have pool side bar service by a great staff.. say hi to Nick! This location is really is worth a look even if you are not staying at The Ivy..

As for the rooms and the stay.. I am of two opinions.. it is really unique and fun… Sexy views, loft style with lots of woods and glass.. a unique ambiance, very modern and edgy. At the same time, the room I had was a little oddly laid out.. as cute as it was, I kept running into this glass panel that separated the sink area and the bedroom because there was an odd angle to the way the door was in relation to the panel and the bed.. it was like you had to make a sharp turn to get in – the shower had a limited sort of shower head and you had to reach in through a glass cut out to turn it on with out getting wet.. as adorable as it is, if you are into functionality and convenienceversus sexy and design heavy, you wouldnt like this location for a stay.. however, if you are looking for a place to impress a lover.. perhaps this is the one :LOL..

The restaurant in the hotel is called The Quarter Kitchen and carries over the modern style of the hotel in a much more functional style with very comfortable chairs – everything is rather square and low – allowing lots of light and a good view across the room. I had the Turkey Club and Truffle Fries (TRUFFLE FRIES I SAID! YUMMMMY – here is a recipe for Truffle French Fries in-case you want to make me some!) quite a lovely little place and if you have a seat by the window, you can watch the city activity which I love, a bit slow on service, but the server was very cute… so I forgave him.

The hotel does provide an Escalade to drive you here and there, which my friend and I made good use of to get down to Seaport Village where we enjoyed a walk along the marina and some coffee and cookies from a little cookie shop, I have been to the seaport before and recommend the Harbor House for yummy dinner and a pretty view or Busters for something more sports barish.. wings and a beer. We were flirted with by the Irish horse carriage driver and spent some time just enjoying the view. A nice place to relax, shop, hang out.. etc…

Now the best time of all was at one of my favorite places to eat when I have the funds or someone to treat me (which was the case this time) NOBU! I have eaten in the NoBu’s in Malibu, Beverly Hills, Hawaii and Las Vegas – my dream (one of many) is to eat at the one in Japan. Some things to try when you want to be WOWed:

• NoBu Ceviche Tacos

• Yellowfin Tuna With Spicy Miso Chips

• Yellow Tail Sashimi with Jalapeno

Some locations have this Kobe thing that you sizzle on the rock.. totally yummy…

I love it with Conundrum, a light blend of white varietals that are crisp and a tad sweet…

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he Bahamas
Current mood:  calm
Category: Travel and Places

Currently reading: Forensic Pathology: Principles and Practice By David Dolinak Release date: 20 April, 200

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