Manila Machine
When The Manila Machine tweeted that they'd be serving lunch behind Decades and DecadesTwo - a mere minute's walk from my house - I knew I'd be a fool not to head over there. The truck had been summoned to the vintage designer clothing store for a Filipino fashion meetup. We arrived at the tail end of the party - only one guy remained, as well as a photo crew from the LA Times Style section, who promised The Manila Machine's Nastassia Johnson and Marvin Gapultos that their writeup would be in the paper next week.
Nastassia and Marvin are fellow food bloggers who decided they wanted to sling food as well as write about it. Nastassia writes at Let Me Eat Cake, while Marvin's blog is Burnt Lumpia. They launched The Manila Machine on June 10: it features Filipino street food. I'd been wanting to try lumpia - deep-fried Filipino egg rolls with vegetable, meat or fruit fillings - so I was especially excited that the Manila Machine had come to my neck of the woods.
Sadly, they were all out of sisig and veggie lumpia by the time we showed up. We got two Original Manila Dip sliders (two for $5); two longganisa sliders (again, two for $5); one beef tapa slider ($3); an order of lumpia Shanghai ($2); and turon ($3), which wasn't on the menu, but which Nastassia advised us to order. It consisted of two dessert lumpia stuffed with jackfruit and saba banana (a type of banana native to the Philippines), and drizzled with caramel.
The lumpia Shanghai were tiny and crispy, and filled with seasoned shredded pork, carrots and spicy ginger. Shredded pork can dry out pretty easily, but these stayed nice and juicy, and had a subtle bite to them without being so spicy that they set this white girl's mouth on fire.
Because of my husband's aversion to mayo, we got the beef tapa slider without its accompanying sriracha mayonnaise. We both agreed that it would have been better with the condiment. The beef was flavored with calamansi lime, a Filipino variety of the citrus fruit, and was tangy and chewy - it was delicious on its own, but a dash of something creamy and spicy would have complimented it beautifully. The pan de sal rolls -- on which all the sliders came -- were floury and drier than the average American burger bun, especially for those of us used to King's Hawaiian rolls. Because the beef, chicken, and sausage in the sliders was already sweet-tasting, pan de sal was a much better choice for these sandwiches than a sweet roll would have been.
The longganisa slider contained sweet pork and garlic sausage (like Filipino chorizo), caramelized onions, arugula and mango jam. The sausage was tender (that's what she said), with nary a piece of gristle to be found.
The Original Manila Dip slider came with a side of adobo sauce. "Make sure you dip it," advised Nastassia as she handed us the sandwich through the truck window. It was perfect: melt-in-your-mouth stewed chicken, caramelized onions and floury bun, all dunked in a sweet-and-sour sauce. I dipped and dipped again.
I managed to hold off on eating the turon till I was done with my "real" food. The texture of the jackfruit-and-banana filling was firm and custardy. My only complaint was that the portion was a bit large - or maybe it was just that I'd miscalculated how full I'd be by the time I got to it.
At the end of our visit, food-truck aficionado extraordinaire Joni Yeung showed up to grab a slider and a cupcake, and dispensed some of her wisdom regarding mobile eateries, including how best to navigate a multitruck event (when eating tacos, forgo the tortillas, so you'll have more room in your stomach to hit up other trucks).
I plan to have the veggie lumpia next time The Manila Machine comes round my way. I'm also curious about the Filipino fruit drinks the truck has in its soda area - a calamansi lime drink sounds very refreshing. I'll have to try it in the future.
Photos by Oliver Seldman
White Rabbit and Greenz on Wheelz
A couple of Wednesdays ago on Miracle Mile, I was pleased to spot some new trucks at 5700 Wilshire: the Yalla Truck, Hot Wing Truck, White Rabbit Filipino Fusion, and Greenz on Wheelz. Since I was with some friends, we could sample more dishes than I'd be able to stuff in my gob if I were on my own.
First, we visited Greenz on Wheelz, which featured sandwich melts and salads. It was their first week on the road. We opted for a Greek salad ($6.50), a tuna melt ($7) and a turkey melt (also $7). Both melts had a large Ortega whole chili tucked inside the deliciously buttery home-made parmesan sourdough bread. I wasn't sure how I felt about the chili, especially because it was canned. Now that I've been visiting food trucks for a while, I'm used to a completely made-from-scratch gourmet experience, and so I guess I'm a bit spoiled. The chili added a tiny bit of heat and crunch, but its size was unwieldy, and I ended up pulling it out of the sandwich. The tuna salad and melted cheese, however, were top-notch, and the barbecue sauce on the side was something special.
The Greek salad was a textbook version, with no new twists, but the quality of the produce made it excellent. The cucumbers were especially sweet and flavorful. The Kalamata olives packed the perfect amount of salty punch.
Next was White Rabbit. I was under the mistaken impression that there was only one Filipino truck in town - The Manila Machine - so I was happy to see another one. We got a three-taco sampler ($6.50), with chicken adobo, beef, and two kinds of pork: tocino and sisig. Adobo, in its Filipino incarnation refers to meat stewed in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, pepper and bay leaves. Pork tocino is sometimes described as the "kimchi of pork," because it's cured for three days with saltpeter, sugar, garlic and anise wine. It's then fried until it caramelizes, giving it a sweet and sour flavor.
The White Rabbit's menu describes pork sisig as "slowly sauteed and fried pork, mixed in a medley of onions, garlic and jalapeno." It was amazing - the meat was crispy and tasted of salt and lime. The chicken and beef were tasty, too, but the sisig was the standout. We also got a mango drink, which was disappointing: it tasted like a watered-down mango lassi. I dipped White Rabbit's fries into Greenz on Wheelz' awesome barbecue sauce - it was an instant inter-truck food romance!
We didn't make it to Yalla and Hot Wing Truck, because we were so full: next time.
Photos by Oliver Seldman
Grill ‘Em All: Food Truck Racers
Want to see seven trucks from around the US - well, 6 trucks from Cali and one from Texas - battle it out to see who can cook the best noms under pressure? You're in luck. "The Great Food Truck Race," a new reality show which is like "The Amazing Race" but with food and trucks (go figure), premiers on August 15 on the Food Network. Tyler Florence hosts the show, which features seven truck-riding teams: Austin Daily Press, based in - you guessed it - Austin; Crepes Bonaparte, from Fullerton, Orange County, California; Ragin' Cajun, another OC truck, from Hermosa Beach; Spencer on the Go, out of San Francisco; and three LA-area trucks - Nana Queen's, Nom Nom Truck, and my personal favorite, Grill 'Em All. The trucks and their crews race across the US, stopping in cities and scrambling to prepare the most delicious food they can, as fast as they can. The show's tagline is "There will be breakdowns." Of the truck variety - and of the emotional variety.
We caught up with Matt and Ryan from Grill 'Em All as they recovered from their "Great Food Truck Race" experience. Joel Brown is the third man on their truck (each "Race" team has three contestants). We tried to get them to give away juicy show spoilers, but to no avail.
Find LA Food Trucks: You’ve said you often work 16-18-hour days. Can you describe an average day in the life of the Grill 'Em All truck and its resident dudes?
Ryan: Wake up, get to the truck, see what prep we have to do, roll out, do service, prep more, maybe another service, prep more, then prep more. We are a really prep heavy truck, everything on the beast is made from scratch, no frozen or pre-made stuff.
Matt: A day in the life? More like "Welcome to our Nightmare." Let's see...wake up, prep, drive, serve, drive, prep, drive, serve, go home...drink away the stress.
FLAFT: The Dee Snider is an insane creation, with peanut butter, jelly, bacon and sriracha. Who came up with it, and was it a gamble for you to put it on the menu?
Ryan: I come up with all the burgs on the truck. Its simple, I love peanut butter and jelly. I love it so much that it's tattooed on my right arm, with a jug of milk on my left! It wasn’t much of a gamble, the flavors work, and they make for a really intense, amazing burger! Don’t be scared, try one...
Matt: Our resident burger genius is Ryan W. Harkins. He came up with the Dee and, no, it was not a gamble, because gambling does not always pay off, but eating burgers always does.
FLAFT: "The Great Food Truck Race," the Food Network show you’re taking part in, sounds a lot like "The Amazing Race." Did you guys (the three of you on the truck) fight because of the pressure of the competition, or did it bring you closer?
Ryan: Not really. The three of us have all been in touring bands before, so we know the stress of the road and we know each other so well we know what buttons not to push. We had an amazing time and made some really incredible friends out of this show!
Matt: I've always been a loner, a nomad, a stranger in the night. That said, I have never felt closer to two weird-looking men before. Blame it on the road or Bon Jovi songs, but, in the end, I feel like we've all been bonded by buns.
FLAFT: Did you get to mingle with the other food-truck teams on the road, and if so, who did you get along best with?
Ryan: We got along with everyone really well, we love all those guys. but especially the Austin Daily Press gang, those dudes were long-lost brothers and sisters! We even got ADP tattoos and they got Grill ‘Em All tats! Pretty rad!
Matt: Ready for a cliche? Well, here she is: after the dust settled, everyone was just so great. The kids from Austin Daily Press and the lovely gentlemen from Spencer on the Go will remain some of our best food truck buddies for years to come. Drinking beers on treadmills in random hotels across America? Ohhh, the priceless memories.
FLAFT: Give us a little sneak peek at one Truck Stop Challenge that was particularly memorable for you.
Ryan: I wish I could. They were tough, but it would give away the show!
Matt: The truck stop challenges were nothing short of nerve-wracking and annoying, but they could, truly, make or break a team. That said, I don't remember any of them.
FLAFT: There are basketball groupies, hockey groupies, police groupies – have you ever, uh, “encountered” any food truck groupies?
Matt: Groupies? Um, we sell really big burgers, dude. The taste is the best groupie because it sticks around.
Ryan: We get a lot of people who love our truck, and how could you not? I mean, it rules! We have loyal fans we dubbed "ghouls" (in honor of the late/great Ghoulardi [a Cleveland legend]) and we love our ghouls!
FLAFT: Do you have a Number One Fan? If so, describe him or her.
Ryan: Every customer is our #1 fan. We love everyone who comes to our truck and hopefully that love is reciprocated!
Matt: My mom, Barb, is my biggest fan. She came all the way to Los Angeles from Cleveland to eat our food AND she did our taxes.
Catch "The Great Food Truck Race" beginning Sunday, August 15 at 10pm/9c on the Food Network.
