The Poutine Truck

For lovers of french fries doused in gravy and topped with cheese curds, there’s a gourmet food truck just for you — The Poutine Truck, purveyors of that north-of-the-border delicacy that French Canadians hold so dear to their hearts.

Owned by Hollywood makeup artist James MacKinnon with a menu created by Chef Debbie Lee (Ahn-Joo Truck, Food Network Star), The Poutine Truck offers a focused menu featuring hand-cut Kennebec potatoes fried fresh to order topped with a variety of gravies and meats. Diners can choose from a traditional brown onion gravy, or a chicken or vegetable broth veloute. There are also plain, garlic herb and firehouse cheese curds, as well as thyme- and garlic-rubbed steak, Dijon chicken breast and apple-smoked bacon to pick from.

Steak & Frites

Poulet & Frites

Lardon & Frites

And to top it all off, you can order some fried cheese curds, which are served with an herb aioli.

Fried Cheese Curds

I’m neither French Canadian nor Midwestern, so while I had heard about both poutine and cheese curds, I hadn’t experienced either until this day. And after four courses of gravy- and meat-covered French fries, I was so full I couldn’t really tell what was going on anymore! I did like the brown onion and veggie gravies best, though. I’m not as big a fan of the squeaky cheese curds, but I’m sure Midwesterners would disagree with me. I’m sure poutine would make a great post-drinking snack, though!

Further Reading:

Would You Like Fries With That? Meet The Poutine Truck by LAist

Note: This meal was hosted.

Fire-roasted tomatoes with burrata and black mint pesto. Fire-roasted sweet potato, honey and serrano chili sauce. Both from the Picca menu by Ricardo Zarate.

Los Angeles’ biggest and most epic food festival, the L.A. Street Food Fest’s Summer Tasting Event, pops back up at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on July 16. This year’s event will feature a curated selection of street-inspired food from all kinds of vendors, including gourmet food trucks, old-school carts and stands, celebrity chefs, and restaurants, serving up everything from tacos to ice cream sandwiches. You’ll taste favorites from the Naan Stop, Grilled Cheese and Flying Pig trucks, Starry Kitchen and Guelaguetza restaurants, Food & Wine‘s Best New Chef Ricardo Zarate of Mo-Chica and Picca fame (who is creating something special just for this festival), and many, many more. There will also be a group of Baja chefs, including Javier Plascencia and Diego Hernandez, who will be cooking together for the first time. This feat was accomplished by none other than L.A.’s most-knowledgeable Mexican food aficionado, Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet L.A. There will also be ice cream, cocktails, beer and a special tequila tasting tent. It’s too much to list; here’s a list of L.A. Street Food Fest’s participants.

Naan Stop truck's samosa, which will be served at the L.A. Street Food Fest

Festival vendor Beachy Cream's Ginger Wipe Out with candied ginger ice cream and molasses spice cookie (left), Key Lime Cowabunga with key lime ice cream and coconut oatmeal cookie.

A portion of every ticket sold will benefit a local cause. This year it’s the Downtown Womens Center, which works to end homelessness among women.

To avoid long lines and overall craziness that has plagued the festival in the past, this year’s event is only offering a set amount of tickets. All tickets will be sold on a pre-sale basis only; tickets will not be available to purchase at the door. A $60 ticket gets you everything — food, drinks, cocktails, beer, music and parking.

For those of your concerned about Carmageddon, AKA the complete shutdown of the 405 freeway from late July 15 to early July 18, the Street Food Fest folks have come up with a whole staycation plan, with a free shuttle to the Gold Line, bicycle parking and hotel deals.

I’ve found my new favorite food truck — Manila Machine!

It’s a surprise to me that I enjoy Filipino food so much considering my only real experiences with it have been lumpia, or the Filipino version of egg rolls, and few tastes of other dishes here and there. But Manila Machine has continued to pleasantly surprise me each time I’ve eaten at the truck; I have yet to taste a dish that I don’t like.

I recently had a couple of the pan de sal sliders (thanks for coming to USC at lunchtime!), made with pan de sal, a bread similar to Hawaiian bread but with more substance. The Original Manila Dip, with shredded chicken adobo and caramelized onions served with an adobo dipping sauce, was my favorite. The chicken was tender and flavorful, and the sauce was a nice touch. The longganisa slider, with a sweet pork and garlic sausage, caramelized onions, arugula and mango jam, was also good, though it was much sweeter than the Original Manila Dip. I preferred the savory sandwich, but that’s just my personal preference.

Longganisa (left) and Original Manila Dip (right)

I also had an order of the lumpiang Shanghai made with seasoned pork, carrots and spicy ginger wrapped in thin eggroll skins and deep fried. These were tasty, and even though they were mini-size, they were more than enough served alongside the sliders I had. Next time I’ll try the vegetable lumpia for a comparison.

Lumpiang Shanghai

I’ve also had the sisig over rice, made with spicy calamansi-marinated pork cheeks, onions and chicharon over steamed jasmine rice. There was also a tiny lime or kumquat that came with my dish; it was so cute and lended the perfect citrus note to the food. This was delicious! If you like pork, this is the dish for you.

And for dessert, the ube cupcakes are a great treat. The purple yam cake topped with coconut frosting is a complementary combo, even though I find the frosting just a tad too sweet for my taste. But many of my friends haven’t complained, so I think I’m just sensitive. In any case, the cupcakes are delicious.

My only real complaint is the prices. I find them a little high for the portions given. The sliders are $3 each, though you can get two for $5, which is a much better deal, considering their small size. And the cupcakes, which are also on the small side, are $3. Nevertheless, I have to give props to Nastassia Johnson (Let Me Eat Cake) and Marvin Gapultos (Burnt Lumpia) for starting their own business and serving up good food. Kudos!

South Coast Plaza. From Examiner.

This is interesting…A party at Saks Fifth Avenue‘s South Coast Plaza location tomorrow, Aug. 21, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., with the Kogi truck, a steel drum band, live DJ, photo booth fun, Guitar Hero, models and champagne. The event will span all three levels of the store, too. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of Saks — at the fancy-pants South Coast, no less — Kogi and Guitar Hero aren’t the first things that come to mind. Models and champagne, sure, but food trucks and video games, no. But who am I to say it’s not a good thing? If you stop by, let us know how it went!

The Dim Sum Truck is perhaps the gourmet food truck that makes the most sense: Dim sum already comes to you on wheels in a restaurant — why not come to you on wheels in a truck?

Now, I have to admit that I don’t like a lot of traditional dim sum foods. Luckily my co-workers do, so between all of us, we’ve probably had most of the Dim Sum Truck’s menu. Here’s my take on what I’ve tasted.

Hands-down my favorite dish, from the truck and from dim sum in general, are turnip cakes. Made from shredded daikon, which is really a radish and not a turnip (obviously lost in translation), rice flour and water, the truck’s version also contains what I believe are bits of Chinese sausage. I usually eat these with hoisin sauce in restaurants, but I haven’t seen any such sauce at the truck and eat them without the sauce. They’re really good on their own, so the lack of sauce doesn’t bother me. Thanks for getting my favorite dish right!

Turnip cakes

The sticky rice is another favorite of mine from the truck. The dish is made with glutinous rice, shrimp, Chinese sausage, mushrooms and chicken (and possibly peanuts, but I can’t remember) all wrapped up in a lotus leaf and steamed.

Sticky rice

The traditional sesame balls are true to form and don’t skimp on the lotus paste filling. The truck’s version may be a tad sweeter than I’m used to, but only in the slightest. There are many other dim sum standbys on the menu, including BBQ pork buns (fried and steamed), har gow and shau mai. These aren’t dishes I normally go for, but I’ve tried the steamed chicken and mushroom buns, which were decent though the dough wasn’t as soft as I’d like. I figure it must be hard to keep steamed buns consistent if you’re making them ahead of time. However, my co-workers liked the dumpling-type dishes a lot.

Chicken and mushroom buns

While most of the menu is traditional, sometimes fusion food shows up, such as duck tacos. Filled with duck, duck skin, cucumber and red onion and served on a corn tortilla, it’s a cross between a taco and those Chinese steamed taco-like buns you eat Peking duck with. It was pretty darn good.

Duck taco

Full disclosure: Dim Sum Truck owner and founder Alex Chu is a USC alumnus, and I work for USC University Public Relations. While I’m sure there are many USC alumni who I will cross paths with during the course of my reporting, I mention this affiliation now because I am actively working on a story about food trucks started by USC alumni for the USC Chronicle/USC News Web site. The views presented here do not reflect the views of USC, and vice versa.

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.