I guess you could say that the food truck culture has officially taken its grasp on LA and is here to stay. It seems like every bar you go to in this town, right outside a food truck is waiting to tempt you with menus that easily compete with any brick and mortar restaurant around. No longer does a food truck mean a roach coach serving up scary meat that you don’t want to think about. Now it means breakfast at all hours of the night, or grilled cheese, chinese peruvian food, and of course, the founding father of the truck food: Korean tacos from Kogi BBQ.
I mean, it shouldn’t surprise anyone. There’s a ton of culinary talent in this town; food trucks have given those talents, who lack huge start-up money and a year get it off the ground, an opportunity to shine.
I first heard about the popularity of the Banh Mi from a friend living in New York. And then soon after read an article in the New York Times about them. So when I heard there was a Banh Mi truck in LA called Nom Nom, I was lured quite easily, and kinda smitten by the name.
When I mentioned going to the truck to Caroline, she suggested I watch this video. I can SO get down with watching animals eat. I wish I ate that cute. I guess there IS something I could learn from hamsters.
Anyway, when I saw they’d be near where Ryan and I work, we decided to head over there. We’re both mildly terrible with directions so it took a lot longer than we had initially anticipated, and since it was lunch they were parked in the back of Playboy Enterprises. We didn’t let the weirdness of the location stop us and were actually psyched there wasn’t a long line.
(Instant Pho gets me pretty excited)
Right when we got there I noticed that they were sold out of tofu and was scared for Ryan, and felt kind of bad for taking my temporary vegetarian friend (he gave up meat for the month of November) to a temporary non-friendly vegetarian truck. They ended up being very accommodating and made an all vegetable Banh Mi for him. Sounded kinda lame to me, but I’m a omnivore so whatever.
I got their lemongrass chicken Banh Mi and it was amazing. I actually got so into eating it that I forgot to take a picture of it. It had all sorts of textures and flavors going on, like any good sandwich does. But the star of the sandwich was the bread. While it looks like traditional french bread, the roll is quite different in texture; it’s much softer and airy. I also ordered the pork tacos and those were pretty good…just not as amazing as the basil lemonade, which totally stole my heart. It wasn’t too sweet, too sour or too basil like. All of the flavors were balanced and the crushed ice made it even more awesome. I LOVE crushed ice; not sure why, but I think it might have something to do with my love for snow cones. Anyway, Ryan and I on the way home couldn’t stop talking about the lemonade. Really I would make a special trip JUST for the lemonade; it’s seriously that good, people.
