LA Street Food Festival

Oh, LA Street Food Festival. I have waited so long for you. Today, over 30 trucks, street food vendors and local designers and artists gathered at LA Center Studios for one day of extreme gastro-nomming.

After the Haiti Food Truck debacle, J and I decided to get there sooner rather than later. The two of us plus my friend Josh and his buddy Aaron arrived at 10:45 (15 minutes before the scheduled opening) and found ourselves at the end of a line that weaved down the block and through a parking lot. I stopped complaining, though, when I saw how quickly the line behind us grew (and, boy, did it grow). The line started moving at about 11:30 (after people had already begun deserting), and we got in at about 11:40...starving and ready for some serious nomz.

Because none of us had eaten yet, our group went to Mama Koh's Chicken first, which had almost no wait time.

The wings were really sweet and tasty. I didn't know that such little bites could have such flavor.

Next up, The TastyMeat Truck. J has had his eye on them for a while, and we were all glad to see that they were here today. Inspired by the doner kebab, The TastyMeat Truck aims to please your inner carnivore.

The TastyMeat truck had some dishes that aren't on their menu online. One of them was Feta Fries with tzatziki sauce. I wish that these had been topped with crumbled feta, but, none the less, I really enjoyed the tanginess of the sauces and loved these fries.

The TastyMeat truck, like most of the other trucks, changed its menu for the day to be more of a tasting/sampling menu. We ordered their "Just the Meat" dishes with beef/lamb and falafel. All four of us were impressed and would definitely like to try their wraps in the future.

Afterwards, J got into line for LudoBites from Chef Ludovic Lefebvre, who has previously set up pop-up restaurants at Royal-T and Breadbar. Angelenos love their LudoBites, and its line was already winding around the area.

J was clearly going to be there for a while, so Josh, Aaron and I decided to head elsewhere.

First up was the Sweets Truck. I was almost shocked by how many sweets they had! They were definitely not going to have a repeat of the Haiti Festival.

I decided to branch out from my standard red velvet and ordered a Banana Shooter. It was yummy, but a little thicker than I thought it was going to be. Thank goodness for the free water tent!

Josh wanted to try one of their Red Velvet Cookies and, judging by how quickly it was gone, he really enjoyed it.

Aaron and Josh then headed to Yum Yum Bowls for some Thai food.

I recommended the Panang Curry, which is impressively good and is definitely of restaurant quality. Luckily, isn't too spicy because it was a really hot day.

By this point, we were all melting and decided to leave poor J behind and brave the crowd to visit the other side of the festival.

Nothing beats shaved ice on a hot day, and Get Shaved came to our rescue! In addition to their normal sizes, Get Shaved was offering shaved ice shooters for $1 and "UFO's" for $2 but, hey, it was hot! I ordered a medium, and Josh got a large.

I branched out this time and tried the Melona flavor (ok, so maybe one new flavor out of three isn't really "branching out"), which was awesome. I think this may replace Pog as one of my regular flavors...

The plan was to take them back to the LudoBites line, but mine didn't quite make it that far. Woops.

Eek! Think we can make it back?

By the time we got back with our shaved ice, J was almost to the front of the LudoBites line...which was when we heard that it would be another hour wait after ordering to get the food. Apparently, two of their burners were out. OY. Some people bailed after hearing this, but, after waiting an hour and a half...was another hour really that much more?

LudoBites number in hand, the four of us then made our way to Uncle Lau's BBQ, which used to be Chef on Wheels but is rebranding and revamping its menu. They didn't have their signature shrimp scampi (which is second only to the famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck, in my book) but were serving Pulled Pork, Brisket and Kal-bi Sliders on Hawaiian sweet bread.

The pulled pork slider topped with coleslaw was a pretty bland. I was not a fan. The kal-bi slider was topped with kimchi and had a delicious flavor, but the meat was way too tough. I hope that Uncle Lau's can figure everything out soon because 1) I looove their shrimp and 2) because everyone who works there is really friendly.

And then, the moment we had been waiting for arrived. LUDOBITES! The truck was serving chicken fried into balls and flavored with rosemary. The chicken was incredibly tender, and the crust was sweet and flaky. The rosemary and the sweet and spicy dipping sauce added wonderful flavor. This was my favorite dish of the day (although maybe the ordeal to get it is influencing my decision).

I couldn't pass up the chance to snap a pic with Chef Ludovic. When I told him that we'd waited for a total of about three hours, he apologized profusely and said, "These had better be worth it, then!" What a sweetheart!

I really wanted to try Fresser's and The Grilled Cheese Truck, but those lines were completely out of hand. I also really wanted to try QZilla, which was serving its meats on Texas Toast. NOM. I guess those will have to wait til another day!

Having a group of four at the festival definitely worked in our favor. I don't know what we would have done if we had to focus on one truck at a time. Well, actually, I do know; we would have spent a lot of time at LudoBites and not eaten as much as we did...

What a fun day with great friends and yummy food! Yes, it was a day full of waiting in lines, but this definitely didn't detract from the experience since we we came prepared to wait. I'm still thinking about all the great things I ate today!

Mama Koh's Chicken

www.twitter.com/mama_kohs_chkn

The TastyMeat Truck
www.twitter.com/tastymeat
www.tastymeat.org

The Sweets Truck
www.twitter.com/thesweetstruck
www.thesweetstruck.com

LudoBites
www.ludolefebvre.com/ludo-bites

Yum Yum Bowls
www.twitter.com/yumyumbowls
www.yumyumbowls.com

Get Shaved
www.twitter.com/getshaved
www.getshavedice.com

Uncle Lau's BBQ
www.twitter.com/unclelausbbq
www.unclelausbbq.com