Food Truck Invasion in So-Cal
Roaming Hunger, say hello to San Diego.
Just so you know, the Roaming Hunger is a website that tracks cities’ events on the gathering of several food trucks where attendees are sent to foodie heaven.
For the past few years, the City of Angels has been thriving on the rise of the restaurant on wheels, adequately known as the food truck—the answer to street food stands found worldwide.
Lineup of San Diego's Food Trucks
You will find a variety of food trucks making their routine stops out in areas like Venice Beach, the San Fernando Valley and Orange County. By variety, I mean a full multi-cultural experience. Got a late night sweet tooth? No problem as Buttermilk Truck’s mini-stack of red velvet hot cakes should fulfill your cavity inducing needs. Are you in the mood for Asian? There are trucks for sushi, Korean tacos, Chinese bowls and even pho (yes pho) at your hunger disposal. My personal favorite among the Los Angeles food trucks would be Frysmith. Their Rajas Fries topped with sharwarma-marinated steak, caramelized onions and fire-roasted chiles is a concoction of deliciousness any French fry lover must try once.
Since relocating to San Diego, I resigned myself into believing that I would have to make special trips up for a food truck run; that is, until now.
The truck craze has finally made its way down south with several festival gatherings as of recent. I had the chance to partake in one of the festivities on June 17 set on the parking lot of 57 Degrees in Mission Hills. The goal was to sample a dish from as many food trucks as possible—a goal nearly accomplished.
While not having as many cultural options on the Asian side, barbecue and beef lovers could rejoice. We are talking about selections like gastro-busting brisket sandwiches and perogis here. The briskets were surprisingly tender considering San Diego’s reputation, or significant lack thereof, of decent barbecue. The Korean beef tacos from Tabe BBQ were standard fare, but lacked the flavor kick. Honestly, if you’ve had Kogi’s in Los Angeles, then every other Korean beef tacos are either on par or subpar.
In Los Angeles, there is the Lobsta Truck where their specialty is the Lobster Roll. Well, San Diego had their answer to that coming from a truck with the tagline, “Food so good it’s bad!” The name of the truck is Devilicious. Having their version of the lobster roll, the fondest memory I have from every bite was lobster and lots of butter. We are talking at a level where I felt like I was taking bites out of a stick of deep fried butter from a fair. Never actually had deep-fried butter, but it sounds like it would be just as evil.
57 Degrees plans to host these events every third Friday of the month, which should further aid the growth of the food truck industry in San Diego. Hopefully through its growth, the variety will expand with the kinds of food to attract all comers.
