Mobile food vendors have been around for decades, and yet in the past few years they have again captured the imagination of our nation. LA has been on the forefront of this movement with the many food trucks that are daily twittering their wares to a very hungry city. In a state that most people consider to be a culture of salad eaters and general health nuts, you are seeing people who want some haute street food with meat and spice. Not what one would usually consider "healthy".
DC is following suit with many food trucks now gathering a following, but since I am currently in LA it only made sense to try some of the originals. With my brother in law playing tour guide we made our mission, and that mission was tacos. With the help of http://www.ilovestreeteats.com/la we were able to check out all the different food trucks twitter feeds at once which made it super easy to find which truck we could get to quickly. The Flying Pig was heading to Downtown LA and with pork belly buns as a prospective edible delight we hopped in the car and headed to the freeway.
On a side note, can I just say how much I miss California driving. It just makes so much more sense to me then the craziness that is NoVA and DC. Driving around the district with friends can be quite stressful and I'm not even the one driving. Thank god I can walk and metro to everywhere that I need to go. But how I miss the buzz of driving with the windows down, warm sun coming down, and the landscape of mountains and ocean surrounding me.
Now back to the Flying Pig......
We found the truck around 12:30 and there already was a pretty decent line. We were all set to split a few things, but were a bit disappointed they were already out of the shrimp burrito. Oh well! We ended up order 2 pork belly buns, 2 duck tacos, and 2 spicy pork tacos.
As time passed we realized that this order seemed to be taking much longer than it should be. By the time 30 minutes had passed we began to wonder what was up. "Hanger" was beginning to creep in on both of us as well as all of the other customers. Trucks are supposed to quick lunch spots to grab in a few minutes and run back to the office. As another food truck passed promising delicious burger sliders, and the smell of beef wafted past, everyone seemed to surge forward on the truck with the intent of making these tacos appear.
An hour passed. You read that right. One Hour! Utterly ridiculous, I know. Why did we wait? Who really knows. We could have cancelled our order and moved just down the block to the next trick. But I was determined and kept thinking that we would soon have our food. It turns out that 2 very rude girls ordered enough tacos to feed about 20 people, which held up everything up for everyone. First of all, a mobile food truck is for quick eating not catering. Second, the people who run the Flying Pig should have a policy of what is an appropriate amount to order to keep their "kitchen" moving so as to benefit the lunchtime crowd. Needless to say, once we finally received our food we were a bit perturbed. I wanted to hate it, to have my anger justified but damn, it was so freakin good!
The pork belly bun was my favorite of the three things. Fatty pork belly with pickled cucumbers and onions in a soft pastry bun. The tacos were also delicious, though the spicy pork was my favorite. I do think that the wait was most likely an anomaly due to the those girls that ordered for an army, but I would hope that the Flying Pig would learn a lesson from this as well.
Here is the thing, I was still hungry and 2 small tacos and a pork belly bun were not going to fill me up. After an hour of waiting and smelling the burger truck down the way, it just seemed right to check it out. With only a few dollars left we headed down to the Pattywagon which sells organic grass fed beef mini sliders. We were able to order 2 mini sliders, a regular burger and another with sauteed onions and peppers. The meat was flavorful that we did not even to add any sauce or condiment. This was the ultimate burger and I would definitely love to check them out again and try some of their specialty burgers.
Can anyone please tell me why the paragraphs above were all underlined and how to remove said underline? I am too lazy to figure it out, so sorry for the inconsistency. But I will leave you with this, if you are in LA it is worth finding one of the many food trucks that drive around the county. Just remember to have some cash on hand and to have your twitter account. To close I must share the cutest little dog ever that should leave you with a smile. My aunt's dog Gigi who was saved from an animal shelter. She had some teeth problems and had to have a few of them removed, thus her tongue is always hanging out of her mouth. Awwwww! Have a wonderful week!
