Maine Lobster Roll #2: Bite Into Maine (Cape Elizabeth, ME)

When I was looking for lobster rolls near Portland, I had bypassed Bite Into Maine food truck because I thought it'd be harder to find. Little did I know I would come across it anyway, and so might most of you. It said that the truck parks at Fort Williams Park. I didn't know where or what that was, but apparently it's the park where Portland's most famous landmark resides: the Portland Head Light. You would've come across a photo of the lighthouse while reading about Maine.

Most of you will visit this lighthouse, and when you do, be sure to try Bite Into Maine. So far (and I know I have many left to go, but still), it is my favorite lobster roll in Maine!

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Trotter's Protege Meets Chinese Bao at The Chairman Truck

Fine dining chefs jumping ship to sell casual, comfort food is not just a trend that started in the past year. Chef Hiro Nagahara, formerly chef de cuisine at Bar Charlie (Charlie Trotter) in Las Vegas worked with Mobi Munch to start The Chairman Truck in 2009, selling chinese steamed buns with unique, high end fillings like spiced duck confit in San Francisco.

(The Chairman was originally named The Chairman Bao, but then they got sued by Baohaus in NY since "chairman bao" was apparently the first item on their menu. Gotta admit, it's such a catchy name.)

Mobi Munch is actually an LA-based company, and when they outfitted The Chairman's second truck, they decided to hold a tasting for friends and media before sending it off to SF. The tasting was held at Mobi Munch headquarters in downtown LA, where I tried five of their offerings. The buns are usually $3.25 each for steamed bao ($6.75 for baked - not sure how big these are), $3.75 for duck confit and pork belly.

1st bao: Tender Pork Belly with Pickled Daikon

First, let's talk about the bao itself. The bao is made using a 40 year old yeast brought from China 20 years ago by  the SF truck operator, Curtis Lam's uncle who was the executive chef of Yank Sing. The warm bao was great, neither too thick nor too doughy.

The pork belly was tender, not overly fatty, and the crunchy, tart, pickled daikon was the perfect accompaniment to cut the richness. The daikon is, of course, pickled in-house ("in-truck"?)

The 2nd bao is a spinoff of korean spicy chicken: Spicy Red Sesame Chicken with pickled cucumber and carrots

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Get On the Lobsta Truck!

I'm not one to chase down food trucks, but I've been curious about the Lobsta Truck for a while since all my friends and fellow food bloggers seem to love it (one Boston transplant says that it's legit). My chance to try it came when they parked outside of Scoops Westside one Tuesday evening.

They were already out of the crab roll by the time I got there, so my companion and I got one of each lobster roll: with mayo or with butter. Apparently, for Bostonians, the proper way to eat a lobster roll is with mayo (celery and pepper optional).

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Heirloom LA Launches Food Truck

Heirloom LA is not just any food truck. Matthew Poley brings his experience working for Gino Angelini into his homemade pastas, his famous lasagna cupcakes, and everything else from a braised brisket to pork belly. Tara Maxey, in charge of the sweets, honed her skills working at Cake Monkey Bakery.

Heirloom LA started off as a catering company, so their food so far might have eluded many people, except for a somewhat brief stint at Intelligentsia Pasadena, but now you can find them roaming the streets of LA with their new truck, powered by Windows Phone. They held a preview party last week at Bar Covell, which I happily attended (lasagna cupcakes!)

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Taste of FPAC and Manila Machine: My First Tastes of Filipino Food

The 19th Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture kicked off with a reception called Taste of FPAC, which benefited FilAm Arts (The Association for the Advancement of Filipino American Arts and Culture)

The Taste of FPAC was held at Oinkster (the chef/owner Andre Guerrero, is a Filipino) and also featured the first Filipino truck in SoCal, Manila Machine.

Besides some pancit my aunt's friend liked to make, this is the first time I've really had a Filipino meal. Sure, I've tried a couple bites of Manila Machine's pork adobo at the LA Street Food Fest, but this time I got to taste a slew of items.

I first started with Chef Andre Guerrero's plate of Filipino food, complete with BBQed pork skewer, pork bicol express (pork, coconut milk, potato), and inihaw (roast pork).

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Westside Food Fest Benefits Individuals with Developmental Disabilities

It seems like there are plenty of food truck events popping up these days, but since they're still lacking on the westside and it benefits a good cause, why not?

The Westside Food Fest will feature a dozen food trucks (including India Jones, Manila Machine, Ahn Joo, Del's Lemonade), live music, and even raffle prizes!

100% of the ticket proceeds (a mere $5 entrance fee that may get you a raffle prize) goes to Achievable, a non-profit organization which helps individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism.

Westside Food Fest. Saturday, July 31, 12-4 pm. Venice High School (13000 Venice Blvd)
$5 entrance

Sneak Peek of Debbie Lee's Ahn-Joo Truck: Korean Pub Grub, Minus the Pub.

Seeing Chef Debbie Lee's Korean-Soul food on America's Next Food Network Star was intriguing. So far I haven't gotten the chance to try it, but now Chef Debbie Lee just launched a food truck touting "Korean Pub Grub" and a soon-to-open restaurant.

Starting tonight, the Ahn Joo truck will be at the LA Film Fest serving filmgoers who don't feel like patronizing the LA Live establishments.

Two days ago Chef Lee held a sneak peek for their truck, Ahn-Joo, for some bloggers (and random passersby) near their office in Hollywood.

She was on hand taking care of customers, and at least in the early days you can probably count on finding her inside the truck.

Ahn-Joo will also be selling some Korean sodas, like the grape coco palm and aloe vera.

All the robata skewers are $3 for an order of 2-pieces. Here's the Salmon, Scallion, Korean miso honey.
I also tried the chicken skewers and both were good with moist and tender pieces of chicken/fish and good flavors. They're also easy to eat on your feet.

Korean Fried Chicken (garlic glaze): $7 for 3 LEGS! By the time I got there, there was one piece left from a previous order, so I just grabbed that one.
Yes, I love that she gives all legs. Dark meat FTW. Moist, tender, and flavorful with crisped skin glazed with a sweet sauce (although I could use more garlic flavor personally), like a proper korean fried chicken should be. Minus the heat of a spicy sauce. And the beer.

The most notably different dish was the Korean Nachos ($7). These are fried rice cakes with smoky chile queso, soy braised pork, and kimchee salsa.
Sorry that it got mutilated before I took a picture of it.
A fun use of the chewy ddukbokki here as "nachos". A lot of bold and heavy flavors going on, making it a tasty bite and both a good drunken/hungover food.

Mama Lee's Meatloaf ($7) is made with ground rib-eye, soy onion demi, and topped with crispy shiitake.
The meatloaf was very moist, and her use of rib-eye meat gave it quite a nice flavor.
I would've liked something to go with it though, or perhaps less sauce as it was a little salty for me. I liked the crispy shiitake because it provided a much needed textural contrast to the tender and moist meatloaf - while I liked the meatloaf itself quite a bit, I needed to balance the texture if I were to eat 2 pieces of it. Personally I'd like to see more of the crispy shiitake here, or some carrots perhaps?

There are only two desserts on the menu right now: Grilled Nutella Bhang which looked like nutella toast (didn't try it) and Fuji Apple Eggroll with ginger mascarpone. Both are $5 per order.
Still warm and crispy, I enjoyed this dessert although it was a little hard dipping it into the ginger mascarpone - since we were sharing and I didn't want to double dip. Also, I could barely taste the ginger in that mascarpone. Being a ginger lover: more ginger, please.

I also got to take home the Spicy chilled buckwheat noodles with fuji apples and korean veggies ($5). This was a nicely portioned buckwheat noodles with spicy gochujang sauce and sliced hardboiled eggs, fuji apples, carrots, pickled onions, and cucumbers. Perfect for the summer, really.

I felt that I got a glimpse of Chef Debbie's Korean soul fusion, though I'm still waiting for my chance to try that galbi pot pie. Of course, the truck was meant to be "Korean Pub Grub" so I shouldn't be complaining that most of the dishes I tried leaned strongly Korean instead of the fusion that I was curious about. Some of the items are fairly priced but a couple I felt were a bit more than I would expect from, well, a truck. The food we tried was quite good, but since I did feel a glass of cold beer would go well with some of them, I'll be looking forward to the restaurant.

Ahn-Joo
@AhnJooLA
http://www.ahnjoo.com/

This Weekend: Do Good, Eat Well

There are two delicious fundraisers this weekend! On Saturday, June 19th Eat My Blog bakesale is back with even more contributors/bakers than last time! Then on Sunday, June 20th Nina's Foods, Vendy Awards winner, will be serving up some pambazo, pozole and more at Angeli Caffe in order to afford their own food truck!

Saturday, June 19th

This bakesale benefiting the LA Regional Food Bank is an epic one. With 85 bakers from foodbloggers to local bakeries including Plaisir and BakeLAB pitching in, the menu is looking mighty attractive. Momofuku crack pie or Kahlua cheesecake brownie, anyone? Or for the non-sweet-toothed, there are always bacon-wrapped breadsticks!

Come early so they don't run out!

Tender Greens, 8759 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Hollywood. 10am-4pm.

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Sunday, June 20th

Ever since winning the Vendy's Awards, Nina's Foods has become popular. Too popular. Because of their popularity, they've been getting hounded by the authorities because ... well, they're not supposed to be selling on the streets.

But it would be such a shame to lose Nina's, one of LA's culinary gems! So Evan Kleiman from KCRW's Good Food wants to put Nina's in a truck. To do so, they're holding a fundraiser at Angeli Caffe this Sunday. So why not take your dad out for a pambazo on Father's Day? He'd probably like that better than frou frou brunch, no?

On the menu will be pambazos, gorditas with huitlacoche, pozole, Nina's salsa seca, and more! Drinks like agua de sandia and some beers will also be available.

Angeli Caffe, 2533 West 3rd Street, Suite 101, Los Angeles, California 90057. 11-3 PM

Reminder: Tomorrow Eat a Baco, Feed a Senior

The food truck fundraising, Cart for a Cause, has been in full gear for a few weeks now. Tomorrow (Tuesday June 1st), the food truck benefiting St. Vincent Meals on Wheels will be back at 5900 Wilshire around 12-2pm tomorrow, serving food from Lazy Ox Canteen's Josef Centeno.
Not only is each $10 meal you purchase comes with delicious food made by chef Centeno himself (he was actually in the truck when I visited!), a POM drink, pistachios, and a Miss Lilly cookie, but each purchase will also deliver a hot meal to one home-bound senior!
If that's not enticing enough for you, know that Chef Centeno will be serving up the famous "Baco", his flatbread-meets-taco signature dish made with pork belly, beef carnitas, caraway pepper, and salbitxada.
Yeah, you know you want it.

Next week they'll roll in Chef Susan Feniger from STREET. To get updates and schedule details, check out their twitter page @CartForACause.

Cart for a Cause: Eat off a Truck, Feed a Senior

"Meals on Wheels." What do these words mean to Angelenos these days?

Taco trucks, cupcake trucks, banh mi trucks, bustaurants?

But that's not what the term used to mean, is it?

Meals On Wheels Association of America. Provides home-delivered meals services to people in need.

That's what the term "Meals on Wheels" was all about. But now, with Cart for a Cause the two come together.

Cart for a Cause is a food truck-based fundraising where every Tuesday brings gourmet meals from a different famed Los Angeles chef to the LA area.

All the proceeds will go the St. Vincent Meals on Wheels.
In short: you buy lunch from this truck, one homebound senior gets a hot meal delivered.



Sounds good enough? It gets better. This truck isn't playing around food-wise. They've got quite the chef lineup to feed all you hungry, picky folks:
Alex Becker (Nobu West Hollywood), Susan Feniger (STREET), David Myers and Dong Choi (Comme Ça), Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook (Animal), Josef Centeno (Lazy Ox Canteen), Eric Greenspan (The Foundry), John Cuevas (Montage Beverly Hills) and Sal Marino (Il Grano).

We don't know yet what they'll be offering, but the possibility of eating kaya toast or poutine or pig trotters while knowing you're feeding a homebound senior is high.

So stay tuned for their menu and locations via @CartForACause or their Facebook page.

LA/OC Food Trucks

Ahn-Joo 
Border Grill Truck 
El Taquito (Pasadena)
Get Shaved 
Heirloom LA
Kogi
The Lobsta Truck
Manila Machine
Mariscos El Teto's
Rambo's Taco Truck
SoHo Taco