Yes, I Really Do Like SPAM! - @KogiBBQ

Just got back from our vacation to Scotland and we really missed being able to eat at a gourmet food truck.  Today at lunch I ran over to @kogibbq Naranja in Irvine for a quick fix.  

I picked us up a few of our normal items like there kimchi quesadilla, chicken taco, tres leches, and korean short rib burrito.  I also picked up their special of the week, Daisy Dukes and Flip Flops. These are sliders with double stacked spam, kimchi, cheese, salad, and creamy coconut milk mayo.  Yes you read that correctly, there is SPAM in these sliders!  They were very good.  The ingredients all played very nicely together.  The spam and the kimchi were the big flavors while the cheese and coconut milk mayo rounded them out perfectly.  

Daisy Dukes and Flip Flops

Close up picture of the inside

These should become a regular menu item, but I hear great things about all of their specials so that would get to be huge.  


Great work Kogi team, keep it up!

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Last Stop on First Friday - @LeesPhilly - Venice, CA

This May we had the pleasure of checking out First Friday in Venice. First Friday happens every month on Abbott Kinney in Venice. Starting at the Brig parking lot and all the way down the street you will find people and gourmet food trucks. On this occasion we saw about 24 of them. The street was packed for a couple of blocks.

Our last stop of the night was at Lee's Philly. Lee's is a food truck that does philly cheesesteaks and burritos. However they offer a twist. Korean style Gogi beef and chicken stuffed into a philly or burrito. The combination may sound odd. If you have not had much Korean food then this is a great place to experiment.

Gogi Beef Philly CheeseSteak

We ordered two things, first was their philly cheesesteak with gogi beef. This was AMAZING!! I will get this again and again. It had the gogi style beef with kimchi and cheese on a fresh roll. The gogi and kimchi were perfect. However the cheese and the bread made this something I will remember for a long time.

Chicken Gogi Burrito

Then there was the chicken gogi burrito which also had egg, kimchi, cheese, beans, rice and some cabbage. Easily one the best burritos I have had. Not the best but in the top five! They also make a type of avocado spicy sauce that was the perfect compliment to the flavors in the burrito.


On top of the great food the gentleman we spoke with was super friendly despite the fact he had a large crowd and very busy. Overall if was a very good experience. We will be visiting them again!


Check out our Facebook page for more photos and discussions http://www.facebook.com/satnightfoodies

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More Tastes from LA in the OC - @pattywagonLA

You would think with all of the food trucks we have been visiting that we would start getting sick of them a bit. However that is not the case. After a long day in the sun on Saturday we had to run down to Bootlegger’s Brewery in Fullerton to check out the latest gourmet food truck coming down from LA.

We were very happy to see it was the Patty Wagon. I have heard very good things from a number of people so we had to check them out for ourselves. Their claim to fame is their 100% grass fed meat for their hamburgers. Actually I hear about their fries a lot but I am jumping ahead. They also take pride in the locally grown veggies they use with their burgers.

One thing I want to get out of the way is if you do not eat red meat then there is not a lot available for you. This is the only truck that I have seen so far that does not have any alternatives. The fries are about it. Now that I said that, if you do enjoy red meat then you are really going to like this truck. I was lucky that on this occasion we had Kim’s brother with us. Instead of trying only 2 or 3 of their sliders I was able to sample 5 of them! It was almost like winning the lottery.

"Mood Indigo"

First off was the "Mood Indigo", this one had blue cheese, caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, bacon and all on toasted ciabatta. This one turned out to be the perfect start. To be honest I thought it was going to go downhill from here but I was wrong. The burgers in all cases were cooked perfect. Nice and juicy with great flavors.

“I Get a Kick Out of You”

Second was their “I Get a Kick Out of You”, which has roasted jalapenos, provolone, pancetta and a touch of mayo on a toasted roll. To start off these were not your canned sliced jalapenos you get in a jar. These tasted like they were roasted that day. Add to that the crispy pancetta and this was an action packed slider.

“Keep Your Sunny Side Up”

Then it was onto the “Keep Your Sunny Side Up”. This slider was topped with their homemade gremolata (lemon, garlic, parsley butter). Simple yet delicious. The butter was a nice compliment and did not over power the burger.

“You’re My Everything”

Next was the “You’re My Everything”. It was topped with sautéed sweet peppers, onions and garlic with Swiss cheese on a toasted roll. Once again bit on flavor. One thing that was very nice was the burgers did not all taste the same. Each one had a flavor profile all it’s own.

“La Vie En Rose”

Finally it was onto their special of the day, “La Vie En Rose” which had melted gruyere cheese and onions caramelized with thyme and vermouth. Unreal! I was glad I had this last. This slider had a ton of complex flavors. The onions with the creaminess of the cheese were amazing! I wonder if they have this often. If they don't then they should!

Hand Cut Rosemary Garlic Fries

I do not want to forget the hand cut Rosemary Garlic fries, which were very good as well. These were not overly seasoned and very crispy. The sliders are the stars of the show but the fries rocked it!


If you like red meat and have a chance to try them out, do it! You will not be disappointed.

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Well Worth the Wait - @dumplingstation

Dumpling Station is another one of the trucks we visited last weekend. They serve, can you guess? Dumplings! Little pockets of love. They have a good number of items on their menu, we chose three to get good coverage.

Everything we got was very good. They cook everything to order so if they are busy be prepared to wait. When we visited them they had a pretty good crowd and we waited about 25 to 30 minutes after we ordered! However it was worth the wait. One other thing that surprised me was they were all cooked perfect. We got the impression they take pride in what they do. On top of that they were very friendly!


 Their dumplings can be ordered two ways either steamed or pan-fried (potstickers).  Here is what we ate on this visit:

Pan-Fried Chicken and Green Onion Potstickers (Cooked Perfect!)

Steamed Kimchi Pork Dumplings

Cream Cheese and Jalapeno Wontons

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I Need to Get More CRACK! – @theSweetsTruck

We were able to visit The Sweets Truck last Saturday night while in South Pasadena. Actually you caught me, we drove out to South Pasadena to visit a couple of trucks. This was our second visit to the Sweets Truck.

From the Grilled Cheese Invitational (Our first visit)

They are a little different than your normal gourmet food truck or taco truck. They are a dessert and coffee shop on wheels. They offer a number of goodies, from cookies, to cupcakes, brownie bites and other creations. You can also get coffee from them as well. I am not sure what kind of coffee they offer but it tastes like good stuff.


This night we got four treats and a coffee to satisfy our cravings. I must admit we did not eat everything that night. We visited three trucks during this occasion but that is another story. The first sweet was a red velvet cupcake with cream cheese frosting. Yum. The cupcake itself was not too sweet and it reminded me of a ding dong because it had some of the cream cheese frosting inside of it in addition to on top. That was a nice touch. The frosting was a little sweet if eaten by itself but it complimented the cake part nicely.

Red Velvet Cupcake

Second was their little bag of brownie bites. These were much better than I expected. They were not cut up pieces but seemed like little complete square brownies. Each one had a almost gooey center, which was a very nice touch. They had a dust of powdered sugar and are very addicting. We will get these again.

Brownie Bites

Then it is on to their CRACK bar! Cookie Casa makes these. I love these!! They had two types, regular crack and mint crack. Basically they are fudge cookie bar with caramel and chocolate chips. The mint one has a mint filling vs. caramel. Both are very addicting. Be careful, you will have to go back to get more! If nothing else you have to try these.

Regular CRACK!

Left: Mint Crack - Right: Regular Crack

On our first visit last month we also tried their Red Velvet “cookie”. This one threw us off a bit to be honest. They come in two sizes regular and mini. We got the regular and it is huge! It is a red velvet sandwich of two “cookies” with frosting on the inside. The “cookie” part is what threw us off. It is more like a cake in the shape of a cookie. It had a nice flavor but it was a little hard to eat running around. I will have to try this one again now that I know what to expect.

Red Velvet "Cookie"

On this last visit we got the pleasure of meeting Molly who I believe owns the truck. Like everyone else we have met she was very nice and super friendly. Their customer service gets a big thumbs up! They are very active on Twitter and do a lot to promote themselves and other trucks in the LA area. It seems like social media is really starting to work for them and you can tell they take it seriously. It was fun tweeting back and forth with them as we made our way through the event. We are looking forward to visiting them again in the future.


BTW don’t forget to try the Crack!

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Food Truck with Visionary Cuisine - @VizziTruck at @bootleggersbrew - Fullerton, CA

Thanks to the people at Bootlegger's Brewery we did not have to drive far to check out another LA gourmet food truck. In a pervious article we talked about how breweries are teaming up with food trucks make the perfect dinner out. I am still very much liking this new trend (or I hope it becomes more of a trend).

Vizzi Truck is a very fun food truck that is usually in the LA area. They are known for mixing cooking styles from California, Oregon and the Philippines. However it does not stop there. From what we could tell they take big flavors very seriously! The truck itself is also worth mentioning because it is a touch different. It has a couple of big 32" TVs, big speakers, and a screen showcases photos of their awesome food. It was very cool to walk up to a food truck and watch the Laker game while we figured out what we wanted to eat.

Soup of Pan Roasted Butternut Squash

Their menu had a nice selection and as always we had to try a few things. First off was their soup of pan roasted butternut squash. This is a weakness of mine! I usually have to try butternut squash soup if i see it on the menu. This version was very good. It was a bit different than the one I make which was an added bonus. It may be because they also have carrots and maple sugar in theirs. You can also taste the cumin and chilies. The dolup of cream on top was a nice touch. I made need to add that to my recipe.

Black Skillet Jidori Chicken Slider

Sliders with Pimento Spiced-Yakima Salt Popcorn

Then it was onto their Black Skillet Jidori chicken sliders. These were not too fancy but very good. First off, the way they were served was unique. Their sliders come laid out on top of a bunch of pimento spiced-yakima salt popcorn. Not only did it look great it was a very tasty garnish. Bonus! The chicken is garlic marinated but the garlic was not overpowering at all. The sliders were topped with some chimichurri sauce and served on a grilled hawaiian role.

Organic Chickpea Sliders

Now the star of this show. Last we had their organic chickpea sliders. WOW! This is a formed vegetarian cutlet served on hawaiian role with a creme-fraiche chimichurri sauce. It also came with popcorn. These were amazing. They are very good as come but if you want to add a little flare make sure you try one with the sriracha sauce that they have available. Gives it a nice heat that I think makes them almost perfect.


I also want to mention the gentleman that helped us in the truck was very friendly! It is amazing how much nicer the experience is when the people you talk to look and act like they are happy to be there and are proud of what they do. These guys should be proud!  I highly recommend the @vizzitruck!


Once again this was at Bootlegger's Brewery so you have to grab something while you are there if not just stop in for their beer. This time I ordered a Blackberry sour. I wanted something a little different and this was perfect for that. You could taste the blackberry but it was not too much and the sourness was perfect. I have not had anything like that before but I will try that again. I would guess they have about twenty beers on tap right now so you should stop in if you are into beer.


Sometimes people give me a hard time because I have not had much bad stuff to say about anyone. This is another food adventure where it was right on the money. Maybe that is why we are having so much fun checking out all of these trucks and restaurants and sharing what we find with you!

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