Hope y’all are hungry — The LA Street Food Fest is back at the Rose Bowl June 29, from 3-9 p.m. Amoeba is proud to be a sponsor the stage this year, which will feature indie rock cover band Black Crystal Wolf Kids.

The fest features 90+ food vendors, beer gardens, wine tasting, cocktails, live music, a photo booth and more. VIP early admission is $75; general admission from 5-9 p.m. is $50.

Both tickets will get you unlimited food and drink. In addition VIP members get a $30 credit to ride serviceUber, while general admission ticket holders will get $20 in credit to the service. Parking is FREE at the Rose Bowl for this event.

A sample of some of the restaurants, food trucks and other food vendors from L.A. and Baja, Mexico that will be at the festival: Indian gastropub Badmaash; German sausage purveyors Currywurst; L.A. dining institution Fred 62; L.A. Mexican chain Loteria Grill; makers of veggie tacos and other non-meaty goodness Plant Food for People; and the aptly titled Grilled Cheese Truck. This is in addition to coffee from such providers as Handsome Coffee Roasters; liquor from Greenbar Distillery; a Singha beer garden; ice cream from Chunk-n-Chip, among others; and lots more.

A bit about the fest: street food fans Shawna Dawson and Sonja Rasula started the festival to fill a gap in the foodie scene as well as to provide support for local businesses. Every event benefits at least one local charity, and they sponsor some smaller vendors at each event who may not have been able to be there otherwise.

Find out more about the fest and pick up tickets at their official site.

http://www.amoeba.com/blog/2013/06/pst/la-street-food-festival-comes-to-the-rose-bowl-on-june-29th.html

Someone in LA has come up with a genius idea, combining two of our favorite activities, street food and movies.

Street Food Cinema has outdoor showings of movies like Stand By Me, Risky Business and Jaws in city parks, and at each event, there are from 5-10 food trucks, depending upon the size of the venue.

Ticket prices are in line with going to the movies, with $10 general admission, $15 reserved seating and there are group and family discounts. Food is pay-as-you-go.

We almost forgot, there’s live music before the movie too.

Ok NYC entrepreneurs, let’ see what you’ve got! It might be too late for this summer, but we expect to see this in our city next summer.

http://newyorkstreetfood.com/42640/street-food-cinema-the-perfect-summer-entertainment/

(credit: Yelp)

One of the lunches we had last week in LA was from Slider City. They have 14(!) different types of sliders to choose from on the menu, each named after an American city.

You get 3 sliders of your choice and a side of fries for $10. There are 5 different types of fries to choose from too.

We got New York (natch), Miami and New Orleans sliders, plus lemon pepper fries. Unfortunately, they were out of the garlic pepper fries.

We used to be against the concept of sliders, because who wants all that bread. These days, we like the idea of trying 3 different dishes instead of just one. Plus, sliders rolls are usually fairly light as bread goes.

Lunch took quite a while to come out of the truck. It turned out they were having trouble with the fryer, and it was a good 15 minute wait.

(credit: NYSF)

After getting our lunch, we started with the Miami slider. The chicken was grilled a little too much on one side, but overall it was good. There was a spicy, fruity sauce on the patty, but no sign of the advertised jalapeño and onion. Oops! Guess they got a little preoccupied with the fryer.

The New York slider was next, which was a beef patty. It came with relish, horseradish and cheddar cheese. The horseradish wasn’t too noticeable, but we always put relish and some type of cheese on our burgers, like this was done. Nice job on the New York slider.

(credit: NYSF)

We ordered the New Orleans slider because it was basically a Buffalo chicken slider. No idea why they called it a New Orleans instead of a Buffalo.

The chicken patty was topped with a nice buffalo sauce and shredded cheese. Once again, no sign of the advertised mushrooms.

(credit: NYSF)

Despite the problems with the fryer, the fries were very good. Long, thin and a little crispy, with a healthy dose of lemon pepper. It doesn’t look like there is much seasoning on the fries, but they tasted very good. Probably the best fries we had all week.

Hopefully we just caught Slider City on a bad day. The food was good, but the fryer problems proved to be a major distraction, between the wait and the missing toppings.

You can find Slider City on twitter here, and their website is here.

(credit: NYSF)

http://newyorkstreetfood.com/41956/nysf-in-la-miami-new-york-new-orleans-sliders-from-slider-city/

You can’t go wrong with the combine food, music and movies; that’s why when I heard about the Street Food Cinema festival, I was thrilled to learn more about the event. Produced by TIL Lifestyle Marketing and Events, an event marketing company dedicated to the film industry, the festival includes a variety of unique experiences for its diverse audience. The idea—a joint effort with CommCinema and a team of other contributors—was to blend an outdoor movie-watching experience with live music and food from participating food trucks leading up to the screening.

How does it work? Just as summer gets underway, around May-August, movies are projected in designated outdoor spaces. You can get tickets at the entrance, ranging from $5 for 6-12 year-olds and $10 for adults. You can make reservations for $5 extra. Also, you can save a few bucks if you buy group tickets (4 tickets for $32). Doors open at 5 p.m., when you can enjoy delicious food truck goodies throughout the venue. In previous years, participating food trucks included Kogi and its famous tacos, Good Greek Grub, After School and No Jodas Kitchen. There’s food for all ages and tastes.

For the first hour-and-a-half, music bands take center stage. Every day features a different line-up of artists, just as every day presents a differnet movie.

This year, the first movie, Stand By Me, will be shown on May 25, with Corey Feldman as the special guest. We still don’t know which food trucks will be present that day, so stay tuned and get your tickets before they sell out!

Movies, food, action!

http://www.quericavida.com/en/inyourcity/street-food-cinema-festival/

(credit: NYSF)

There are a lot of great savory food trucks out there, but there are just as many great dessert trucks. You generally don’t need as many ingredients or as much equipment for dessert as you need for lunch or dinner.

The Churros Calientes Truck is bright and colorful, but has that homey feel. It’s almost like a Mexican version of the Old Traditional Polish Cuisine Truck, with pictures of windows with shutters and curtains.

Our friend got two big, overstuffed empanadas, but we were looking for dessert.

That meant a Churro Grande for $5. There are 7 different toppings and fillings to choose from. One goes on top and one goes into the middle of the churro. We got a chocolate filling with dulce de leche on top, but there was also nutella, sweet condensed milk, guava, and a few other options on the menu.

(credit: NYSF)

It took a few minutes for them to prepare it to our specifications, but only 3-4 minutes, and it came out piping hot.

The churro was about 10″ long, was coated with sugar, had dulce de leche on top, and chocolate sauce oozing out the sides. We cut the churro in half to share with my friend, which made it ooze out even more.

This was a delicious dessert. The churro was crispy, even with the dulce de leche softening things a little, but the inside was still soft. That probably had to do with the gooey chocolate sauce in the middle.

(credit: NYSF)

The Churro Grande was big and rich, and half was plenty. If you have someone to share it with, half of one should be enough. If not, enjoy!

The Churros Calientes Truck can be located on twitter here and their website is here.

Our friend, who is an American of Mexican descent, said the empanadas were excellent too.

(credit: NYSF)

http://newyorkstreetfood.com/41943/nysf-in-la-churro-grande-from-churros-calientes/

(credit: NYSF)

One thing we don’t have in NYC is a Brazilian food truck (or cart). That’s an awfully big country not to have representation on the NYC streets. Sure, there’s Little Brazil, a block of West 46th St, but we need something like Ta Bom.

Ta Bom means “It’s Good”, which is an appropriate name for this truck.

The menu had some things we recognize like a veggie bowl, “straganoff”, and a “hamburgao”, which is a hamburger with some pretty funky toppings.

Searching for new things, we decided to get a bauru sandwich for $8 and a brigadeiro for dessert for $1.

(credit: NYSF)

You can get bauru with either steak or chicken breast. We’ve had a lot of chicken lately, and decided to get steak, which turned out to be a great choice.

Bauru was sort of a cross between a steak sandwich and a Cuban sandwich. There was steak, caramelized onions, mozzarella cheese, plus tomato and pickle slices on the bottom of a soft baguette.

(credit: NYSF)
Bom

The beef was flame-grilled, with nice charring, and every piece was tender and tasty. There were plenty of onions and melted mozzarella, although most of the cheese was in the back of the sandwich.

Can you tell we really enjoyed the bauru? Even the bread was soft and excellent.

Time for dessert, and a small brigadeiro was perfect.

The brigadeiro was like a truffle with chocolate sprinkles, but inside was fudge. We think there might have been a little caramle mixed in too.

There were about 3-4 bites in total, and we enjoyed every one.

You can find Ta Bom on twitter here, and their website is here.

If anyone wants to open a Brazilian food truck in NYC, we’ll be first on line, as long as it’s as good as Ta Bom.

Brigadeiro
(credit: NYSF)

http://newyorkstreetfood.com/41911/nysf-in-la-brazilian-deliciousness-from-ta-bom/

(credit: NYSF)

We’re back in LA again this week, for the 2nd time this year. Good thing there are tons of great food trucks around.

When we were here back in March, the Santa Monica Food Truck Lot was only in its 2nd week of existence. Now it’s getting seasoned around the edges, and there were even more trucks squeezed into the lot behind the California Heritage Museum.

One truck we’ve heard great things about, but hadn’t had a chance to try yet is Komodo. Time to rectify that situation.

Komodo serves tacos and fries, but with a much more interesting menu. Tacos are $3 each, but you can get a Killer Combo with 4 tacos for $10. Well, it was dinner time!

(credit: NYSF)
Komodo 2.0 & Java tacos

As we always say, when a vendor names a dish after themselves, try that dish first. Following our own advice, we started with the Komodo 2.0 taco. Smartly, they used 2 tortillas for each taco because they was stuffed to the brim…and beyond.

Komodo 2.0 had bite-sized pieces of sirloin underneath all that Southwestern salad. The beef was marinated and had a green jalapeño aioli sauce, which you can just see at the bottom of the photo.

The Southwestern salad was an excellent topping for the beef and jalapeño aioli. Corn, marinated red peppers, onions and cilantro made up the salad.

Even though the Komodo 2.0 taco was very good, our favorite was the Java taco. There was pulled pork under those veggies that was incredibly soft and tender because it had been braised in coconut cream. There was an indisputable coconut flavor, but it was mild, not overpowering.

The pulled pork was topped with a cool and fresh tomato and cucumber salad. In addition to scallions, there were little crunchy bits that were reminiscent on those french fried onions that come on a can, but much better.

(credit: NYSF)
Fish ‘N Grapes & Blazin’ Shrimp tacos

Whenever there are fish or shrimp tacos around, we usually order them. At Komodo, they were done in a manner different from what we’re used to, but were still enjoyable.

The Fish ‘N Grapes taco had what can be described as a cod fish stick, but was one of the better fish sticks we’ve had. It was obviously fresh, not frozen.

The name of the dish was a spoiler alert, but we didn’t care. The taste of fruity grape slices went well with the breaded, mild fish.

Blazin’ Shrimp tacos gave it all away in the name too. This was the spiciest dish of the meal, with a nice burn all the way through, but not so much that you couldn’t taste the shrimp.

Komodo was as good as we had heard, but not in the expected way. NYSF readers know how much we love seafood, but our favorite tacos from Komodo were the pork rendang and the beef, not the fish and shrimp. Not that the fish and shrimp were bad, far from it, but we thought the pork and beef were much more interesting.

You can follow the Komodo food truck on twitter here and their website is here.

We had to save room for dessert, but the fries from Komodo looked pretty awesome too. Check these babies out! They have garlic fries and truffle fries, and both are sprinkled with parmesan cheese, too.

(credit: NYSF)

http://newyorkstreetfood.com/41853/nysf-in-la-komodo-food-truck/

(credit: NYSF)
Tainamite

The second place we tried on this LA trip was Tainamite. The menu is Southeast Asian, with wraps, salads and rice and noodle dishes, but what caught our eye were some of their appetizers.

Yes, there were egg rolls and chicken wings, but the mango shrimp spring rolls ($6) and the bao with a hard boiled egg in the middle ($5) got our attention.

(credit: NYSF)
mango shrimp-spring rolls

When we picked up our order after a few minutes, the proprietor told us to be careful because the bao was very hot. No problem, we’ll start with the mango shrimp spring rolls.

In our experience, spring rolls are deep fried and served hot, and summer rolls are served cold in a translucent wrapper. At Tainamite, they called the cold, translucent rolls spring rolls, and the deep fried rolls are called egg rolls. Hey, as long as we got what was on the menu photo, that’s all we care about.

The first taste to hit our buds was fresh mint, followed by the eponymous shrimp and mango.

Also inside the rolls were shredded daikon, carrots and cucumbers, which were cool and refreshing.

On their own, the rolls were like eating a salad, but the peanut sauce that came with the dish added a very nice flavor to the rolls.

(credit: NYSF)
bao

We moved onto the bao, which was still pretty hot. You can’t tell from the photo, but this bun was actually larger than a softball.

The bao was stuffed with Chinese sausage meat, a few veggies, and a full hard boiled egg!

Even though it was dinnertime, this would have made a good, hearty breakfast. It’s not the sausage and eggs we usually get, but we could easily get used to this for breakfast.

You can check out Tainamite’s website here, and find them on twitter here

http://newyorkstreetfood.com/41883/nysf-in-la-mango-shrimp-spring-rolls-bao-from-tainamite/

Natalie Diaz/The Poly Post
Trolley 2
The Cal Poly Pomona Foundation Dining Services has brought a food truck to campus. The Poly Trolley will make its official debut on campus on May 27 and will serve Asian and Southwestern fusion breakfast, lunch and dinner to the campus community.

Soon, students can expect a new dining service rolling around campus delivering a blend of Asian and Southwestern cuisine.

According to a press release, in June, the Cal Poly Pomona Foundation, Inc. Dining Services will officially be launching the Poly Trolley, an innovative food truck that will serve a variety of appetizing items to the CPP community.

The Poly Trolley’s first expected day of service is May 27. However, there have been earlier on-campus appearances, such as at Sunday’s Southern California Tasting and Auction.

The Poly Trolley will serve breakfast, lunch and dinner at various locations on-campus. While the location during lunch hours is still to be determined, the truck will park in front of the CLA building for breakfast and will make its way to the University Village for dinner.

The truck will also be serving Starbucks coffee. Drinks will include Frappuccino and espresso-based drinks.

“The Poly Trolley will be featuring the first mobile Starbucks operation in the world,” said Aaron Neilson, CPPF interim director of dining services. “We are all incredibly excited to introduce such a groundbreaking food truck to the campus.”

Einstein Bros Bagels Manager Jennifer Waggener, Los Olivos Executive Chef Arnold Zavalza and other CPPF Dining Services personnel developed the menu.

According to Neilson, the truck will be serving items such as breakfast burritos and baked goods for breakfast as well as BBQ pork tacos and Angus beef sliders in the afternoon and evening. Their specialty will be fresh-fried russet potato chips with a variety of toppings.

Natalie Diaz/The Poly Post
Poly Trolley takes food to CPP streets
The Cal Poly Pomona Foundation Dining Services has brought a food truck to campus. The Poly Trolley will make its official debut on campus on May 27 and will serve Asian and Southwestern fusion breakfast, lunch and dinner to the campus community.

The truck is reminiscent of CPP’s dining services in the 1980s when the campus had a similar truck that served items such as burgers, burritos and pastries.

“There was a truck introduced in 1986 that was called the Poly Trolley,” said Amanda Mattox, marketing assistant for CPPF. “This new truck is kind of a reinvention of the old with a new design, menu and technology.”

According to a press release, the design of the Poly Trolley will reflect the essence of CPP with silhouettes of the campus’ iconic Arabian horses and the University Union Plaza.

The design pays homage to the campus community, history and heritage.

“I think that’s what students and staff want,” said Edwin Santiago, CPPF director of marketing and one of the designers of the truck. “To do something fun, modern, yet something that represents them. I think, listening from the feedback, that’s what we got. When people saw this they were like, ‘Wow that is Cal Poly [Pomona].’”

According to Santiago, prices will be competitive and inexpensive even with the quality ingredients that are being used.

The money made from the truck will pay for services and stock for the truck and the excess will go back into the Foundation which in turn gives it back to the university.

The truck will serve the CPP campus only and will be available for catering and athletic events. Because the campus is so large, the hope is that it will now be easier for people to have access to food when they are at events on campus that are far away from the dining services.

According to Neilson, the food truck concept was originally brought up by Dining Services Management and the Foundation Board several years ago and had been a topic of ongoing conversation. The idea was finalized in April 2012.

In November, the Foundation Board approved the use of funds to build the truck.

To find out when and where the truck will be, it can be followed via Twitter.

http://www.thepolypost.com/news/poly-trolley-takes-food-to-cpp-streets/article_ccf1b572-b6ab-11e2-9b36-001a4bcf6878.html

Kogi BBQ has long been known for peddling delicious and drool-worthy Korean-Mexican fusion out of their multiple Southern California-based food trucks, and their latest featured item, a Kogi Wet Burrito, is no different.

What we’re looking at is the truck’s shortrib burriro with slices of spam inside, smothered with Kogi Molé, cheese and onions. You can find this beast by catching the truck at one of its stops — a full schedule is available on the Kogi website.

http://foodbeast.com/content/2013/05/04/look-spam-shortrib-wet-burrito-from-kogi-bbq-truck/#.UYW0WqJmiSo

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