6 Reasons to Eat and Drink in San Diego Right Now

The patio at Carnitas Snack Shack on San Diego's University Ave.

"What food is San Diego known for?" asked Matt as we arrived at our AirBnB accomodation in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego. "Besides beer, that is," he qualified. I was kind of stumped. There's all kinds of amazing taco and seafood artistry going on just south  of San Diego in Tijuana and Ensenada, but we were just in San Diego for a chill weekend and didn't want to bother with the border formalities just to have lunch in Tijuana.
"Um, fish tacos?" I ventured, not really knowing if there actually were any renowned fish taco places in the city. After perusing Chowhound and various blogs, I and came up with short list of places to try, though the general opinion seemed to be that Mexican food isn't as impressive there as one might expect. Don't let the haters dissuade you: In addition to being probably one of the best beer towns anywhere, San Diego has lots of fun places to eat as well as a flourishing cocktail scene. Here are a few:

smoked turkey, left; carnitas taco, right at Carnitas Snack Shack

1) Carnitas Snack Shack. There's nothing quite like it in L.A., which is one excellent reason to check out the little building that really does look like a small snack bar from the front (with a long line down the sidewalk at peak hours). The other, of course, is the food: monstrous, meaty carnitas tacos made from sustainably-raised pork, an insane smoked turkey/blue cheese/apple sandwich made with local poultry, Niman Ranch burgers and more. In back, there's a spacious patio with vegetables and herbs growing and a separate beer bar that's open at night. It's the perfect spot for a sunny lunch in a city that's been proven to have the country's most pleasant weather. It's not taco truck-cheap, but then, why would it be for this quality of ingredients? Also, if you can actually consume two of those tacos, you'll likely not eat again for around 24 hours.

Cocktails on tap at Polite Provisions

2) Soda and Swine/Polite Provisions: When dinner time rolled around, we looked at the fun menu at the small and lively Soda and Swine, which specializes in beef, pork, chicken, chorizo or vegetarian meatballs and pie, but we were still too stuffed for meatballs. Instead we grabbed a spot next door at Polite Provisions, an old-timey pharmacy-themed cocktail spot that's about as hipster as San Diego gets. That means that the mixologists wear bowler hats but the friendly drinkers are still in t-shirts and flip flops, happily tucking into meatballs delivered from Soda & Swine along with communal punchbowls and cocktails on tap. Don't miss the Misty Mountain Buck, with homemade ginger beer, rye and lime juice.
3) 24-hour taco shops: By midnight or so, we were finally hungry again, and found out that San Diego has a wealth of drive-through 24-hour taco shops. We stopped for fish tacos at Los Panchos, which is probably not the most amazing Mexican food ever, but it's cheap and probably way better than what you can get at midnight in most of the country.

Mariscos El Pescador truck, Chula Vista

4) Mariscos El Pescador: The real Mexican seafood action was to take place the next day. After wandering around Coronado Island, we headed south on the 5 for a few miles to Chula Vista. I'm not sure if dining in a Toys 'r Us parking lot is high on every tourist's list, but when I hear fresh octopus tacos, I'm there, even if a curb is the only seating at Mariscos El Pescador. Actually we snared two of the few plastic chairs, the better to enjoy some terrific spicy shrimp and buttery octopus tacos and a citrus-y fresh scallop tostada. The menu is above, just so you can see the wide variety of super-fresh seafood available at this popular truck just a few minutes from the Mexican border.

After all that buttery, garlicky, spicy seafood, we needed to cool it down with some Mexican-style ice cream. Others may have Spidey sense; I have paleta-sense, and I knew that so close to the border, there would be sure to be a neveria featuring Mexican-style ice cream treats.

Mangoneada -- mango sorbet topped with fresh mango and chamoy sauce at Neveria Tocumbo

5) Neveria Tocumbo: A quick Yelp search led to Chula Vista's Neveria Tocumbo, which hit the spot with mango-topped mangoneada sorbet sundaes and ice cream in flavors including queso and mamey; other concoctions included numerous varieties of paletas and Tostilocos.

Modern Times tasting flight of Fortunate Islands, Black House, Lomaland and Blazing World

Of course, no trip to San Diego would be complete without visiting at least one brewery. Since we had already tried quite a few local beers at Toronado, Local Habit and the hunting lodge-themed cocktail lounge Sycamore Den, we only made it to one actual brewery on this trip

happy beer drinkers at Modern Times Brewery in San Diego

6) Modern Times: One of San Diego's newest breweries is a cool and cavernous space in the warehouse district near the Sports Arena. One huge wall is covered in pages from vintage comicbooks, while another features a mural made from thousands of colored Post-it notes. We had a tasting flight of all four beers being poured, and loved both the Black House coffee stout and the Fortunate Islands hoppy wheat.
Next time, we'll have those meatballs for sure with a house made almond soda at Soda & Swine, try homestyle Mexican at Super Cocina and finally get to Alesmith Brewing, among others. What are your San Diego favorites?

Lardon: One bacon truck to rule them all

Frisee aux lardons sandwich on a brioche bun

Even though the novelty of gourmet food trucks has pretty much worn off in the nearly two years since they've taken off, it's still possible to get a jaded food blogger excited -- basically, just add bacon. The Lardon truck was launched by Silver Lake residents and parents Heather and Jeremiah Crowley, and Jeremiah says he plans to park the truck in the less-popular areas so as to not irk restaurant owners. In the evenings, he'll often be down the street from his house at Sunset and Coronado St. in Silver Lake. We found him in front of Gingergrass Friday morning in time for brunch. Brioche French toast sandwich with crumbled bacon sounded amazing, but since I love frisee aux lardons salad, I wanted to try their version on a brioche bun. The sandwich with a fried egg, a nice clump of frisee and several delicious crispy lardons was a fun twist on a salad, though a few more lardons would have made it even more decadent. If you're going to have a bacon truck, you might as well go all the way, right? Kathy had the breakfast burrito with potatoes, cheddar, and smoky thick-cut bacon, but said a good salsa would have made it even better. The Lardon truck is still getting its bacon legs, working on details like finding a coffee supplier to go with the Bacon pancakes, but it's certainly off to a savory start. We'll be back to work our way through the pancakes, French toast, and BLT with blue cheese.
Follow the Lardon truck here to find out where to get your bacon on.

Who could object to such a scene?

Picnic tables in front of Papa's Tapas on Wilshire

I know being a restaurant owner is no picnic, but I despite my generally good feelings for councilman Tom LaBonge, I think his call for more regulations for food trucks-- including prohibiting them from using metered spaces at all --  is generally a poor idea. Take the stretch of Wilshire which seems to be the source of the most complaints. I've worked there for 15 years, and I've been complaining about the food around there for just as long. The lack of street life around there was dreary, considering that thousands of people work in the area and need to eat lunch. On Thursday our office building at 5900 Wilshire set up picnic tables in front of the piece of the Berlin Wall improbably propped up on the lawn. There were kids in strollers, office workers, museum visitors, all sharing tables and talking about which trucks they liked. It was worlds better than the sterile sidewalks with only a few chain restaurants of the previous 14 years. The petition put together by the Mobile Food Truck Vendors is up to nearly 6,000 signatures -- it couldn't hurt to sign it. Do you think the trucks require any more regulation than they already have?

Veggie, garlic shrimp and beef tacos from Papa's Tapas

Vizzi Truck: A delicious truck with an odd name

@VizziTruck on Wilshire Blvd.

chimichurri chicken, broccoli and popcorn

The food truck craze shows no signs of abating -- I've been interviewed twice this week already by people working on TV shows and articles about food trucks, even though it seems like we'll never need another article about them. But some of the best-known trucks specialize in greasy late-night craving sort of food that frankly, most of us can't afford to eat too often. Since I rely on the rotating trucks of Wilshire Blvd. to mix up my office brown-bagging, I'm happy to find ones that actually serve vegetables. The Vizzi Truck's description is "coastal infused visionary cuisine." I have no idea what that means, but I really enjoyed my grilled Jidori chicken with a super-garlicky chimichurri sauce with caramelized broccoli. The Vizzi Truck's dishes come with a side of pimeno-spiced popcorn which is much more fun than say, tortilla chips. A work colleague reported that organic chickpea sliders were flavorful and garlicky, too. Other dishes include Wagyu beef on sliders or over broccoli and flatbreads with marinated chicken or shrimp and cheese. It's a little harder to describe than just fries, grilled cheese or Korean tacos, but trucks like the Vizzi Truck and Worldfare are trying to do something closer to restaurant food, with fresh, high quality ingredients -- and you don't even have to be hung over to appreciate them.

Worldfare Bustaurant: A real restaurant on a double decker bus

Worldfare bustaurant on Wilshire Blvd.

The Worldfare bustaurant, not to be confused with the Gastrobus, made its debut this week with the twist of having an upstairs deck for dining. The cuisine is fresh, gourmet fare with a South African twist: it's one of the few places in town to get the South African speciality Bunny chow, basically a stew in a big bread bowl. At Worldfare, this means slider-sized buns stuffed with a healthy quantity of beef shorttribs, BBQ pork, chicken curry or veggie chili (don't worry, no actual rabbit is involved.) I tried the shortrib bunny chow, which packed plenty of meat into a specially-made bun with a terrific vinegary marinade. Truffled mac 'n cheese balls were a delicious side. The market salad was made mostly from iceberg (I might suggest romaine), but the addition of cilantro, chives, mint, hazelnuts and dried blueberries gave it plenty of flavor. I love hibiscus, so I added a perfectly tart/sweet lime hibiscus drink to my order. All this came to about $13, not the cheapest lunch, but quite possibly the best I've ever had from a truck. And while the upstairs bus deck was bright and hot today, they're planning to add seats and umbrellas soon.

L.A. Street Food Fest: Welcome to the food truck jungle

There were at least 30 trucks, each with a massive line in front. Fortunately L.A. Center Studios had some grassy and shady areas.

I wasn't too surprised that lines at the first L.A. Street Food Fest turned out to be too long for many to get in and too long for nearly everyone to wait at food trucks. But it was pretty amazing to see several thousand (I heard 15,000!) people so enthusiastic about trying a bounty of L.A. Street Food. I had hoped to see many more stands from the Breed St. vendors and other *real* street stands -- where were the bacon-wrapped hotdogs and churro men? I heard Ludovic Lefevbre's fried chicken, made by Ludovic and Mattatouille, was amazing, but an hour wait seemed too long. We snagged dumplings and duck tacos from the Dim Sum truck, which is launching soon; a Brazilian acaraje (black-eyed pea flour fritter, above) from Sabor da Bahia; and mini doughnuts from the Fry Chick. Mostly I regret not trying the crab cakes with lardons and shallot vinaigrette from Monsieur Egg -- aside from Ludo's Chicken, that sounded like the hit of the fest.The only other booth with a reasonable wait was Mama Koh's chicken wings - tasty sauce but pretty soggy. Hopefully Mama will take some lessons from Kyochon, since Silver Lake could use some good Asian-style wings.
Mama Koh apparently works out of Hello Teriyaki, which took over Yoshinoya Bowl in the crackhead mini-mall at Sunset and Fountain. Hello Teriyaki looks to be a cut above most fast-food places, with no MSG or preservatives and dishes like teriyaki tacos, tempura plates and teriyaki sub sandwiches.
Anyways, thanks to the L.A. Street Food Fest crew for coming up with the idea -- next time, hopefully, they'll add more street food booths and try for shorter lines!
Did you get in? What did you think?

Frysmith preview tonight in Eagle Rock/Los Feliz

We stopped by the Frysmith truck last night for a taste of the long-awaited fries from Erik Cho and his wife Brooke Howell. Erik learned the frying trade first at his mother's knee, working in her hamburger joints, and then at tony bistros like Berkeley's Cafe Rouge, where he perfected his technique. Inspired by his love of good fries, he's launching the Frysmith truck this week with the grand opening (free cookies!) Friday night in Venice.For now, Erik's menu is pretty tightly controlled. All fries are served in main dish portions, topped with proteins like pork belly with kimchi, rajas with steak, sweet potato fries with barbecued chicken or vegan chili. He doesn't serve fries a la carte, and like Father's Office, he doesn't serve ketchup -- at least not until he perfects his own recipe.
He's definitely got the frying technique down, and the fries (cooked in canola oil) were perfectly cooked, with just enough crispy brown bits at the bottom of the tray. The Kimchi with pork belly topping would make a hefty late-night snack with a good beer. Pairings of sodas like honey-blood orange or Cheerwine are suggested with each variety.The truck has one final tryout run tonight in Eagle Rock and then at the Bigfoot before tomorrow's grand opening; follow them on Twitter to find out where to find Frysmith.

Our wishes come true: Buttermilk Truck will serve pancakes

Hard to believe it was only five weeks ago I tweeted:
Why doesn't someone start a pancake truck? Just wondering.5:28 PM Aug 6th from web.

And sure enough, here comes The Buttermilk Truck, bringing chicken and waffles, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, scones, granola and more. We'll let you know when they roll out for business.

Here's an interview owner Gigi Pascual did with the California Taco Trucks blog. I'm guessing eating pancakes while standing up could be a little tricky, though.

NomNom Truck: One of our favorite meals-on-wheels so far

As soon as I heard about the Nom Nom Truck, I was excited, because delectable Vietnamese banh mi sandwiches are really only available east of Downtown or in the faraway Westminster area. I know, there's a few places around Silver Lake that have them -- Viet Noodle Bar, Gingergrass -- but they're pricey and it seems a bit precious to order them in a real restaurant. If an outlet of Lee's or another chain were to open a shop in Santa Monica, Westwood or Hollywood, people would go completely nuts, even if they charged double what they charge elsewhere.
Anyway, I was swamped at work when the Nom Nom truck arrived on Wilshire Blvd., but two helpful co-workers were game to check it out and pick one up for me. Justin, Janine and I all got the bbq pork banh mi ($5), so I can't report on the other flavors (lemongrass chicken, deli special, grilled pork, tofu). "The bread was much better than I expected," reported Janine, although she didn't like her lemongrass chicken taco as much.
Indeed the bread was soft and crunchy, the pork was good-enough quality and there were the requisite veggies and cilantro inside. Some traditional ingredient was missing -- hoisin or Maggi sauce? and there was more mayo than usual, but it this sandwich was head and shoulders above what is normally available on Wilshire Blvd.
This truck should be a lesson to other trucks: Keep the menu simple, make it possible to have lunch for $5, and make sure it actually tastes good.
Tip: Make sure to ask for sliced jalapenos if you like it spicy.

Nom Nom Truck rating: 3 1/2 tires out of 4

Follow the Nom Nom Truck on Twitter.

Fishlips Sushi: Don't be scared of raw fish from a truck

After eating just about everything that swims in the sea from a variety of venues in Baja last month, it's clear I'm not exactly squeamish about trucks, stalls, stands or any other food-dispensing conveyance. But when Fishlips launched, several people said to me "Sushi from a truck? I'm not sure about that." I can now report that the Fishlips truck is an impeccably clean place to get your sushi, and is inspected by the health department like a bricks and mortar restaurant (although trucks don't get letter grades). The sushi chef makes everything to order, using an electric rice conveyor belt for the rolls. My spicy tuna roll wasn't quite like a normal roll -- it used chunks of ahi anointed with sriracha rather than the usual ground tuna, but I liked that better since there was no mayo involved. The rice was kind of loosey goosey but it was a great deal at $3.50 for a half roll. Various lunch sets are also well-priced -- for around $8 you get a lot of sushi, in a combination of rolls and temaki, which are cute ball-shaped sushi. The warm edamame were also delicious, sprinkled with salt and much nicer than the cold supermarket variety. This sushi isn't completely traditional, but it's a good value and very fresh, so I give it:
3 out of 4 tires.
Follow Fishlips on Twitter @fishlips_sushi.

See more food truck ratings here.

Food trucks face troubles, but how good is the food?

While I was hanging with the goats and gourmets of Northern California, I missed the beginnings of the Wilshire food truck wars, as reported by LAist. I knew trouble was brewing, though, when the owner of Barbie's Q told me he had been asked to move by the restaurants on the Baja Fresh/Johnnie's/O to Go strip. I find it hard to believe that these chain businesses have actually had to lay people off because of food trucks. Many of the customers of the food trucks, like me, are people who burned out on all those restaurants long ago and and were holding out for something new. Meanwhile, the concierge of our building at 5900 Wilshire is sending out a handy schedule of trucks.
Fishlips Sushi is joining the rotating lineup which includes Baby's Badass Burgers, Green Truck on the Go, Kogi, Skewers on Wheels and Dosa Truck.
Update: Things are getting tougher for the trucks, says the L.A. Times, with police citing them for minor issues. Mid-Wilshire area restaurants are the first to strike back at the trucks for supposedly infringing on their business, but I agree with the Baja Fresh manager -- I don't buy it.
So far, the food from these trucks is leaving me kinda lukewarm. Here's where I stand so far:
My Kogi meal back in December was probably the best yet -- 3 1/2 out of 4 tires, because the tacos are reasonably priced and have actual flavor.
GreenTruckLA: Both the veggie burgers and beef burgers are good, and I love the fresh salad and perky dressing. Prices are high though, and a whole wheat bun would be even better.
3 out of 4 tires.
Barbie's Q: So far I've only tried the pulled BBQ chicken sandwich. The price was fair at $6.95, but the chicken was chunked, not pulled, the sauce was boring, the sandwich was small and there was barely a spoonful of coleslaw on the side.
1 1/2 out of 4 tires.
Dosa Truck: Interesting idea, but the execution was lacking. The flavor of the spinach and cheese dosa was ok, but the flat, floppy concoction was more like a crepe, and the pancake's flavor was too tangy. At $6, it's just too much for what you get.
1 1/2 out of 4 tires.

Dosa truck at Silver Lake Wine tonight

I'm not sure all these trucks manage to find parking, but the new Dosa truck tweeted that it will be at Silver Lake Wine's Monday night tasting tonight. Anyone tried it yet?
Here's more new food trucks from the Daily Dish blog. I'm thinking soon, we're going to get tired of eating standing up.

Banh mi truck finally coming: Nom Nom!

Via numerous tweets which I've lost track of by now, all the bloggers are excited about the Nom Nom truck, rolling out this summer on the Westside and beyond. Please, bring it Eastward as well!

Sprinkles Cupcake truck looks ready to go; Locali's Icecycle rolls to Larchmont

Sprinkles cupcake truck via Los Angeles magazine's Lesley Bargar Suter

Rolling dessert edition: I might have preferred a French fry truck, or even the creme brulee cart, but behold the Sprinkles cupcake truck, soon to be jousting for space with all the other upcoming trucks on the streets of L.A.

Also rolling out right now: The Icycle from Locali is heading to Larchmont Village with Ruby Jewel ice cream sandwiches and other frozen treats.

Street vendors on Twitter

Nothing too new for L.A. here, but Serious Eats has compiled a nationwide list of trucks and carts that signal their location and specials using Twitter. Whether you're planning on opening a soujouk corndog cart or a satay-stuffed pupuseria truck, you'll want to use the #streetvendor hashtag so your friends can find you.

Calbi BBQ: A little too close to Kogi?

Here's a photo of the Kogi BBQ truck.

And here's one of the new Calbi BBQ truck. Not like there's any resemblance or anything. Just sayin'.

Yuri Truck: Are we approaching gridlock yet?

Faster than you can say "get on the Kogi bandwagon," reports of new roving trucks of the non-taco, non-roach coach variety are starting to multiply. Today's entry: YuriTruck, an offshoot of Yuri Japanese cafe, the Melrose sushi roll/teriyaki joint that has both lovers and haters on Yelp. There's a launch party Friday evening from 6-8 in front of the cafe on Melrose.
Follow them on Twitter @yuritruck

Prefab ice cream sandwiches: Coming soon to L.A.?

Coachella-goers got a preview of Coolhaus ice-cream sandwiches in the shape of trendy modern prefab houses, according to CurbedLA. The Coolhaus website says the ice cream truck will be hitting the streets of Los Angeles this summer, proving my prediction a few months ago of many more cool food trucks in the coming months. Flavors include the Frank Behry, the Richard Meyer Lemon Ginger and the Mies Vanilla Rohe. Cute.

Around the blogs: Vegan hotdogs and more

A monster of a veggie dog at Franken's

Quarrygirl caught up with the Franken's vegan hotdog cart in Echo Park the other night. As I thought, mobile food is really taking off in L.A., with Kogi's second truck coming soon and rumors of other ventures in the works. What kind of specialty food cart or truck would you like to see?

Losanjealous is seeking foodie cheapskates to blog for free about low-priced meals...I guess the writers aren't the only ones who are cheapskates!

And FoodGPS dives deeply into the design, hiring and menu at the still under-construction Intelligentsia Venice, which takes a purist approach -- you might not be able to get decaf coffee there.

Sinosoul blogger, Yelper and eater extraordinaire TonyC begs to differ from the Chowhound who raved about The Open Door in Monterey Park. Let the pork belly battle begin.

Kogi gets a new truck; Silver Lake and Melrose tonight

Kogi BBQ got a second truck to fill Angeleno's near-insatiable need for Korean-flavored tacos. They're getting it up and running, according to their website, the better to cover all of L.A.
Tonight, they're on Sunset at Manzanita in Silver Lake at 6 pm and then at 9 pm will move to the StampedLA Shoe pop-up shop party at 7700 Melrose.