Fatty Shaddy: OC Foodie Fest 2010

We were in LA this weekend instead of our original plans to be at the Real Eats festival in Oakland but happen to luck out since inaugural food truck fest was occurring at the Honda center of Anaheim. The event was slated to start at 11:30, a half hour earlier for VIPs ($50 ticket vs our $12 general admission) so we arrived promptly at 11. Well, that didn’t make much of a difference since there were literally hundreds of people lined up eagerly awaiting the opening.

Despite the long initial line to get in, the event seemed fairly well organized with adequate spacing between trucks and a large number of tables aligning the gated area of the parking lot. It was leaps and bounds better from a organizational standpoint than that of the SF Mission Street food festival the weekend prior. Later on that afternoon we’d soon discover despite the well-organized setup, the long lines make no difference to how well an event is managed.

Since we were amongst the first couple hundred or so people to enter from the general admission, we prioritized our first stop to try the menu item at Ludo Bites. The $5 chicken coop came with a chicken ball (think the size of two chicken nuggets), a handful of fries, a biscuit or slaw (we chose biscuit) and a choice of BBQ, Béarnaise (ours) or Mustard dipping sauce. Despite its small size, the chicken bite was excellent, extremely moist and tasty, lightly battered with an exceptional combination of spices. The fries were average, well salted and the biscuit was dry and covered with honey. We only waited five minutes in line which we later appreciated given this cart was the first to close up shop, running out of food about three hours into the event.

Ludo Bites

Chicken Coop

Rating 7/10

Our next stop was for breakfast items at Buttermilk, an extremely popular stop where the line was already 50 people deep. We waited a good half hour to try the red velvet chocolate chip pancakes ($3) and Hawaiian breakfast sliders ($4), using Hawaiian sweet rolls filled with Portuguese sausage, free range eggs and cheese. As we waited, it started heating up and we purchased a watermelon juice drink ($3) at the empty Uncle Lau’s food truck next to us. When we finally did receive the breakfast items, both were good, but not really worth the wait or hype. The pancakes were extremely sweet, and although creative, nothing I would ever crave. The sliders are something simple I could make at home with the same flavor combination.

Buttermilk Truck

Red Velvet chocolate pancakes

Hawaiian breakfast sliders

Watermelon juice from Uncle Lau's

Rating 5.5/10

The next stop was at Frysmith, a French fry truck offering gourmet toppings including free range chicken with tomatillo salsa, steak, chili and kimchee with pork belly. I long debated our selection during the 40 minute wait and Chu-Toro had time to order us a Mango, Orange Peña Colada Smoothie ($4) at Maui Wowi. As we sipped our drink, we finally decided to go with the unique Kimchee fries with pork belly ($5). The topping went well with the over-crisped fries, combining a sweet and spicy element to the dish. Had we wanted to wait in the Fresh Fry line, we could’ve compared the two most popular fry trucks in LA.

FrySmith Truck

FrySmith Menu

Kimchee and Pork Belly Fries

Mango, Orange Pena Colada from Maui Wowi

Rating 6/10

We waited in the Cool Haus ice cream sandwich line next. The small pink ice cream truck had been featured on Food Network for their popular ice cream sandwich combination ($4) in which you select the cookie and variety of different ice cream fillings. Large crowds gathered around the small truck with two people assembling ice cream sandwiches as quickly as possible. At one point, they stopped taking orders for twenty minutes to catch up with the mounting list of orders. Adults lined up like children anticipating their name being yelled from the back of the truck to receive their cold treat.

Cool Haus Truck

The arrival

Despite the long wait, we still couldn't decide on our cookie combination but knew we wanted the brown butter and candied bacon ice cream and roasted pear and nutmeg. They recommended a oatmeal cookie for the pear and chocolate chip with the bacon.

Our ice cream sandwiches!

So was it worth the 45 minute wait? Well one of them was. The roasted pear was really really good, tasting like a cool creamy pear jelly belly and the oatmeal cookie was the perfect pairing. The brown butter with bacon had zero bacon flavor and truthfully tasted like regular vanilla with the chocolate chip cookie. So we had one standard and one awesome treat after a 45 minute wait, but I guess thats what happens at food festivals.

Rating 6.5/10

Our last stop was at Get Shaved. Chu-Toro had been yearning for this since our honeymoon two years ago in Hawaii and has long tried to convince me that the powdery, finely saved ice makes all the difference. So we waited in our longest and last line of the day for nearly an hour.

The long line for Get Shaved

The arrival

Watermelon, Mango, Pineapple and Strawberry, Hawaiian Blue and Melone

It was pretty good shaved ice, but at this time I was dizzied by the long wait. I guess its like any event, carnival or theme park, it just takes a long time to get to the front of the line. But it should curb Chu-Toro's fix for at least another year.
Rating 6.5/10

All in all, it was a pretty fun day and a good event. They pre-sold out tickets and limited the number of people, but it was still packed. Many of the popular trucks ran out of food midway through the event and it was difficult to get full since there were massive breaks between eating. I guess I am a bit surprised by the national attention the food truck craze is receiving and was hoping for a better product. I will continue to try food trucks, but probably wouldn't go way out of my way to hunt them down via twitter.

Here are some additional photos from the festivities including the lime truck and the long, long, long line at Nom Nom for banh mi, contestants on the great food truck race currently airing on food network.