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 ;)