New York Street Food

Nearly everyone who follows food trucks has heard of the Kogi BBQ truck.  It was one of the first “gourmet” food trucks in the country, and a visionary in the Korean BBQ taco movement.  They are so successful, there are now 4 Kogi BBQ trucks serving food around the LA/Orange County area, and I believe they have a storefront now too.

Kogi BBQ was on the “must try” list for this trip, and I had a chance to try them last night when they were parked by the Amoeba Music store in Hollywood.  I found parking a couple of spaces behind the truck, and walked up to check things out.

Kogi BBQ is best known for their Korean BBQ tacos, so that was my focus, with a small detour for a Kogi dog.

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I went over to the Universal Gate 2 spot on Valleyheart again for lunch, and this time, there were 2 trucks to choose from – Knockout Tacos and Streets Of Thailand.  Since I’ve already had tacos on this trip from Don Chow Tacos and Lee’s Philly, I decided to go for the Streets of Thailand truck.  It is certainly one of the more visually striking trucks around.

There were a lot of good looking dishes to choose from, but I ended up getting the basil beef over jasmine rice ($7), a chicken bbq stick ($2 or 3 for $5) and Thai iced tea ($3).

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(left to right) Crepe'n Around, Canter's Deli, Lomo Arigato, Mandoline Grill

I definitely wanted to check out the Canter’s Deli Truck on this trip, and I saw they were going to be in the parking lot of The Other Door bar in North Hollywood with 3 other trucks.  Unfortunately, my strategy of trying samplers and small items wouldn’t work tonight because Canter’s specializes in big deli sandwiches – and they don’t serve halves.

I’ve been coming to L.A. for many years but hadn’t been to Canter’s Deli on Fairfax Ave in quite some time.   The Canter’s Deli Truck was the perfect alignment for this trip – deli food and food trucks.

One time around 10 years ago I was in L.A. on business and got food poisoning from a pretty high-end restaurant.  When I was starting to feel a little better the next day and wanted some food, I went to Canter’s Deli for their matzoh ball soup.  It was delicious, and really helped me get back on my feet.

Since Canter’s specializes in big sandwiches, I went for the biggest one – a Reuben ($10.50).  It comes with a pickle and either cole slaw or potato salad.

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When I got back to my hotel before dinner last night, I was checking out which food trucks would be where for dinner.  I saw that a bunch were together in West LA at something called West LA Din-Din-A-Go-Go.

I found out it was held every Monday from 5-9pm at 10601 Washington Blvd in Culver City, right across the street from Sony Studios.  When I got there, 10 food trucks were in a rectangular parking lot, with some tables and chairs in the center.

I was told the truck lineup varied from week to week, but tonight there were (clockwise as I entered) Fishlips Sushi, Tastyment (Turkish wraps), Vesuvio (Italian), Tapa Boy (Filipino), Chef Che’s (Argentinian), The Greasy Weiner (deep-fried hot dogs), White Rabbit (Filipino fusion), Don Chow’s Tacos (Chinese-Mexican), Boba Tea and Lee’s Philly (cheese steaks and Korean tacos).

There were so many trucks to choose from, where should I begin?

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On my first day in L.A. (yesterday) the guys here told me about a spot where a food truck usually parks.  I’m working in Universal City where there aren’t a lot of food trucks around, but there was a truck called Clean Street Food at the spot today.   Now that I know the truck, I went to their site and reverse engineered the location – Universal Gate 2, Weddington Park & Valleyheart (just off Lankershim Blvd), in case you’re interested.

The truck was founded by Chef Jack Harding, who has 25 years of cooking experience in some of the most prestigious kitchens on both East and West Coasts (according to their website).  I went for the grilled pork, pickled onions, cilantro, romaine and chipotle sauce on a roll ($7.25).  I also ordered french fries ($3.50) – and then I received a special surprise for dessert!

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