This past Saturday Mr. Borscht, Brother Charlie and Tummy piled into the car and headed west on Wilshire towards La Cienega Park where we were to meet my sister (the Energizer Bunny), her husband and her two kids Mr. Fidgets and Little Dumpling. There at the park enclosed in the baseball field along the fence was a long line of food trucks and on one end a huge blow-up screen, tonight aside from the music entertainment to start the event was to show Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Arc. Were most of these people here to eat from the food trucks or were they here to camp out and watch a film? I was here, of course to eat from the food trucks.
There were Korean food trucks, Mexican food trucks, Canadian food trucks, American food trucks, food trucks for Deserts, food trucks for Snacks, food trucks for the healthy! And of course they wouldn't be serving food truck food if each and every one of them didn't have a twist to the menu, there were sashimi burritos and dirty spaghettis to name a couple.
I always tell people whenever I get the chance, and here's my chance to tell you what I tell them, "a lot of the time when you can't make a decision it has very little to do with your options and has more to do with having too many options." My saying was proven this Saturday at the Outdoor Cinema Food Truck Festival when I saw Brother Charlie from across the park aimlessly trying to figure out what to have for dinner, he had been looking at all the food trucks for over thirty minutes and walked the line of food trucks TWICE! Finally he decided on the Burger Bus, a big fat burger with guacamole and bacon as well as all the usual trimmings, and though the burger did look absolutely delicious he was less than enthused by the dry meat patty and stated with a disappointed look, "it's not that good" - and somehow I wasn't at all surprised, I had yet in my life to come upon a food truck with actual good food.
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| Can you spot Brother Charlie? |
I already knew that eating something healthy was out of the question, so I went ALL OUT and got a Mac 'n Cheese topped with Chicken and some kind of BBQ sauce from the food truck called Barbie's Q. I have this preconceived notion that food from food trucks are overly flavorful as a result from all the oil, cheese, butter and fat being used, the mac 'n cheese I had from Barbie's Q proved me completely wrong and taught me a life long lesson... food can very well taste like NOTHING! How can I say this, the mac 'n cheese tasted of nothingness, I tasted no cheese nor pasta (which I have to say was the worse texture: mushy). All I was able to taste was the BBQ like sauce, which by the way also had a funny texture, not a creamy BBQ sauce but a grainy BBQ sauce! Needless to say all I had was about five bites which already was five bites too many and threw the rest away.
From the same truck Mr. Borscht ordered a BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich, this was many times better than my soul-less mac 'n cheese but still... not quite. The lesson learned here for us is quite simple, no go on Barbie's Q food truck.
I do believe my sister's husband had better luck with food choices, he went ahead and ordered himself a grilled cheese sandwich with bacon from the food truck Rebel Bites who specialize in dirty spaghetti (whatever that is) and grilled-cheese like sandwiches. It was cheesy, the bread toasted, the bacon salty and of course oilyyyyy- none the less however, tasty, for food truck food.
From the Cheeseball Wagon we snacked on cheeseballs that was served with a side of ranch. You could barely taste the cheese but they did have quite a nice crunch to them and really, who doesn't love the thought of eating fried cheese dipped in ranch? As for me, I'm still trying to figure out whether I really liked it or if it was simply the idea of eating fried cheeseballs.
I'm convinced however that the only individuals that really loved the food from the food trucks were the little ones.
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Mr. Fidgets gave his pepperoni pizza a thumbs up
while Little Dumpling simply said "Awww- I wants more!" |
In a city like Los Angeles where food truck businesses thrive due to the busy city life there are indeed many to choose from. I don't usually frequent food trucks and the couple times that I have I found them to be generally too oily, too fatty, too salty... too over-the-top. And even though I know this to be generally true of food trucks, I was still surprised that I was unable to find even one food truck at this event with food that I could stand behind.
There are two lessons I can pass down to you from this experience:
1. If you're going to be eating at the food truck get what the food truck specializes in. If the food truck is called the Burger Bus get a burger, not a salad, besides, your not eating at the food truck for your health.
And...
2. You will always get better tasting and better-for-you food at a food establishment, so if you can help it, avoid the food trucks. (Instead, trying getting a sandwich at a deli which will roughly be about the same price anyways!).
Lastly, the Outdoor Cinema Food Fest will continue on for two more Saturdays (August 27th and September 3rd), showing different films and with a different line up of food trucks, go check it out. If you're not a fan of food trucks that's absolutely fine, your own food and drinks are allowed, I will make sure to bring my own next time! The festival is held at different locations so please check in with
their official site if you're interested... and have fun!
