LA Street Food Festival

My rationale for paying $45 to sample 50 food trucks is that it takes a lot of freaking money and time to chase one down on a given night. So might as well know what I like before I go hunting for LA's many foodie trucks. So here I was at the Rose Bowl waiting in line an hour early with my labmates. because the line went on like this.. through the parking lot and winding around the stadium. So we were among the first people in after the VIP crowd. There was beer and tons of food. Mexican, American, Asian fusion, Brazilian, French, Malaysian, Thai, you name it. I could hardly take pictures of everything we ate because we were working the system, from back to front :) Here's a hot dog with tater tots. Not too much going on until I bite into it and see a bed of mustard seeds under the dog. Haha, what a pungent surprise. Pretty things are allowed as chefs try to bring gourmet to the streets. Just look at it! So cool. I warn against this one, Thai Explosion: peanut sauce, citrus, sour... what was the point? The stadium definitely filled up with people, all oggling each other's food "Where'd you get that? What is that?" Tequila companies galore. This guy deserved to be in my pictures because ..

The Grilled Cheese Truck was serving up cheddar sandwiches and mac n' cheese sandwiches with gaspacho (cold tomato soup). Absolut yum but they are more famous for their special sandwiches--like brie on walnut crandberry bread, or grilled bananas with chocolate--which were not showcased today. Will have to track them down someday ;) Some places let you take lots of samples hehehe, ~what gooooood ribs you have! Here is some Brazilian empanadas (like fried dumplings) with salsa and a teardrop-shaped gooey dumpling filled with chicken and cream cheese. Interesting but not my fav

The Fry Girl was there too! They came to Caltech campus for Midnight Madness once a term with mini donuts, fried to crispy perfection with powdered sugar (colored for any occasion). I didn't know they did non-donut items--they make fried candy bars. They were as good as ever and definitely did my recommendation good. Further along in the dessert section, there was lots of ice cream to be had. But I was interested in the shaved ice because there wasn't any water to be had...anywhere There was rainbow, fresh strawberrries w/ condensed milk, but I chose to have coconut/guava/passion fruit ;) good choice But there was more to this food festival than just the eats. They also brought in organic and/or independent lines of fashion, body care, tea. A creepily owl-like purse I had too much fun and tried everything on my hit list:
The Grilled Cheese Truck
Cool Haus (ice cream sandwiches!!)
Frysmith (rajas fries rule)
The Fry Girl (for nostalgia and because they are scrumptious)
Cupcakes Agogo (picture perfectly cute and moist?? Nice job)
If I didn't take enough pictures it's because I scarfed down the things I thought were tastiest before I got to take a picture, but they look pretty much the same as on their websites really. The Frysmith won my taste buds over tonight with their rajas fries. At The Breek Truck here was a Tunisian fried ravioli with quail egg (raw) inside, and it was definitely amazing.

I definitely collected cards, hehe

Oh LA trucks. Too funny. I will stalk you soon.


*I also discovered that Canter's Delicatessen took to the streets in their own yellow/orange truck selling basically pastrami sandwiches (but that is fine with me ;)

Sometimes I bake

Today I felt like using my leftover eggwhites. Decided to rely on allrecipes for a moist chocolate cupcake recipe with a vanilla frosting.

It sounded like such a good idea.

Look how much frosting was made!
And they turned out very cute.

But tasted horrible to me. I don't like cake that is dense like hostess and tastes like unsweetened cocoa. It made it no better that I thought I could still taste the mayo (yup, it was one of those recipes...). Plus, I don't like remembering that the egg whites have not been cooked.

So this was not a good recipe for me. I hope someone eats them.

Downtown LA Artwalk

Downtown LA Artwalk gives everyone a chance to appreciate the art made in LA. Galleries are open all over downtown along with bars and live music gigs on each block. I'm so happy I finally got to go (it happens once a month...). A crowded night. I've never seen the streets so full of LA pedestrians before.

"Fashion is art" gallery gave out free tank tops, lip gloss and blush.
The trucks were about too! At the dimsum truck, I had the Peking Duck taco--a heavy sauce on juicy duck with cucumbers. yum but not my fav :)
Also tried beef fried rice cake. They took the dduk from ddukbokki and fried it, putting a heavy soy based sauce on jangjorim style beef. Surprisingly good fried but so soy!

Lastly, the best dish of the night came from the India Jones truck. The paneer Frankie: a roti (like a tortilla/naan bread) wrap with tamarind cilantro chutney, onion, one fried egg, and whatever filling. Not to sweet, not too salty, just right! And the cheese was so good. A pleasant surprise, this combo.

More galleries with color
Hmm I don't get this one..

Tuesday was Frida Kahlo's birthday!

I like this artist's take on her portrait.

More colorful galleries.

Oh LA.




More pictures below. Enjoy :)

My room! And orange food

My humble abode! Still settling in but done with unpacking. A desk is the next addition and it is on its way.
My plants actually get watered this time and get plenty of good light.
Orange food- Mexican orange soda and a grilled pork Viet sandwich with way too many carrots.

I also made a ton of food for the 4th of July ... the highlight of which was lemonade made with lemons from the backyard ;)

Canter's Delicatessen

The Jewish restaurant that became more of an LA novelty served up a mean corned beef and pastrami sandwich on sourdough. The meat was literally 3.5 inches thick. Known for their New York style meats, sandwiches, bagels, locks and everything else on their 2'x2' menu, they also have a cute looking bakery up front with equally ginormous cakes and cookies. We also had the matsaball soup and salad (awesomely balanced bleu cheese balsamic vinaigrette). But I fail--I forgot to take pictures before we started eating the good food.

Don't worry, there will be a "next time" at this spot. I'll snap it then.. instead of having Ram conspicuously shooting the next table's food with the waiter's a** in the way ;)

First dinner

Keep up with me in my continued LA days. I hope to hit up a lot of uniquely LA food spots ;) yum

First dinner as a solo in Baldwin Park. Azusa truck tacos. Mulatos al pastor with lots of cilantro onions and lime. I was skeptical but it was amazing! Meat between [mozzarella] cheese and corn tortillas. Washed down with sugared up jasmine tea (an Indonesian fav) provided by Rand.

And this is their (Joyce and Rand's) dog--a chow mutt--Joey :)