Amy Kathryn Dahlia bag. The designer will be at the event.

Local shopping event Unique L.A. is back for the spring, and this time there are some new features, including food from trucks Coolhaus, Flying Pig and Fressers, and a pop-up store from Amoeba Music. And of course all kinds of vendors from clothing and jewelry to stationery and home decor. Check out some of the ones I liked from the last event.

California Market Center (110 E. 9th Street)
Saturday, April 24, and Sunday, April 25, 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
$10 at the door, which includes free drinks and hosted bar (IZZE, Honest Tea, water, beer and cocktails), unlimited re-entry for both days, a collectible tote bag designed by graphic designer Keith Scharwath, free workshops and handmade activities, and more!

This past weekend will go down in L.A. food history as The Weekend That Was The Clusterf*ck Known As The L.A. Street Food Fest. Don’t get me wrong — I thought it was a great idea, and I enjoyed myself while I was there. But as is the case with so many first-time events, there were problems, though I guess things could have been worse.

I actually got lucky with getting into this event, which featured 30+ food trucks and vendors and 30+ retail booths via Unique L.A. I had managed to secure a media pass, so I didn’t have to wait in the ridiculously — I mean ridiculously — long line to get in. This blocks-long line was most likely due to the extremely low entry fee of $5, payable at the door. (That is, if you could get to the door. A reported 10,000 people were turned away after the first 10,000 actually got in.) If I had to wait in that line, I definitely would have bailed.

The line stretched down the block...

...through the parking lot, and just kept going. Never saw the end, actually.

Once I got in, I had to contend with the long lines for food. Even at the beginning of the event, the lines for some of the most popular trucks were crazy long. I was looking forward to trying some of the trucks that have so far eluded me on the streets, including the Buttermilk Truck and the Grilled Cheese Truck, but the lines were prohibitively long. So here’s what I did get to try.

Louks to Go: This Greek food truck was pretty darn tasty. I tried a beef gyro, which came stuffed with tzatziki sauce and french fries, and some feta fries, which were just french fries topped with feta cheese. Both were satisfying, especially the feta fries because I loooove feta cheese. The fries weren’t anything special — I think they were the frozen kind — but the feta made up for that.

Beef gyro

Feta fries

LudoBites: It seemed like everyone and their momma was waiting in this line for Ludovic Lefebvre’s fancy fried chicken. As I have no patience for lines, especially when it’s 80 degrees out, so I decided not to wait for Ludo’s fried chicken. However, I ran into Fiona of Gourmet Pigs, who was kind enough to give me a bite of hers. It was very juicy and nicely seasoned with rosemary.

They waited in line for...

...Ludo's fried chicken

Monsieur Egg: This was one of the vendors I was looking forward to trying, having read the L.A. Weekly article describing it’s eggy goodness. First I tried the crab cake, which was a hand-me-down from Elina Shatkin, formerly of the Los Angeles Times’ Daily Dish. (I’m not too proud to turn down other people’s leftovers!) It was mostly crab, which I appreciated. Then I tried the croque madame, which is a croque monsieur topped with a fried egg. The ham and egg were awesome. Monsieur Egg normally sells via push cart, so if you see it, get something!

Croque madame

Mama Koh’s: Asian chicken wings. These would have been better if the skin were crispier. The sauce was good, sweet and tangy, but the sogginess of the skin was disappointing.

CoolHaus: I’ve had these ice cream sandwiches before, but at this event the truck was giving out mini tasting size sandwiches, which I actually liked better because the regular size sandwiches are too big for me. Anyway, my favorites were the Meyer lemon ice cream with ginger snap cookies and the brown butter bacon ice cream with…Who cares? There were candied bacon pieces in the ice cream!

To combat the extremely long lines, I would suggest raising the entry fee to $10 or $15 and having only presale tickets.

Ice cream sandwich from Coolhaus, which will be at L.A. Street Food Fest

I thought the L.A. Street Food Fest was just going to be a gathering of a bunch of food trucks (yum), but then I found out that a mini Unique L.A. will also be part of the event (score!). If only the event were held at a hotel, as my friend Fiona of Gourmet Pigs said, it would be the perfect ShopEatSleep trifecta!

Alas, the event isn’t scheduled to be at a hotel. Instead, it’s going to be at L.A. Center Studios just west of downtown. On Feb. 13 from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., more than 30 food trucks and other street food vendors, along with another 30-plus art/design/fashion vendors, will be selling their wares. Check out the list of participants here.

For an entry fee of $5, you’ll get a drink ticket and raffle tickets. For a $30 VIP pass, you’ll get access to a patio, indoor restrooms, a private bar, a gift bag and fancy food from a surprise guest chef. And there will be a bicycle valet for those of you who ride those contraptions.

Akasha food from Great Chefs of L.A.

Friday is the first day of Akasha‘s Hanukkah meals, which include slow-roasted brisket; potato pancakes made from Yukon gold potatoes with gravlax, wasabi tobiko and horseradish crème fraiche; and Israeli doughnuts. There will even be special cocktails, including the Winter Mary made with celery-peppercorn vodka, carrot juice and pickled carrot. The special holiday food is available through next Friday, Dec. 18, during happy hour (small plates and cocktails) and dinner.

On Saturday, join in the Loopt Holiday Scavenger Crawl, which is part pub crawl, part scavenger hunt that promises to take participants to speakeasies, galleries and coffee shops on a hunt to be the first to find a “VIP” party. Along the way, you’ll win prizes from the locations you’ll scurry to, as told to you by the Loopt iPhone/BlackBerry app that guides you. The top three players from each city (there are also scavenger hunts in New York and San Francisco) will $200 gift cards to the retailer of their choice, and the grand prize for the top player out of all the cities will get a round-trip ticket to Hawaii.

Wrap up your weekend on Sunday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Cynthia Vincent and Sid Vintage sample sale at Code C boutique, where there will be one-of-a-kind of pieces available only at this sale. Bonus: Bring an unwrapped toy to donate to L.A. Family Housing and receive a free Coolhaus ice cream sandwich. Shopping and ice cream? Yes, please!