My L.A. Street Food Fest regret

I think I am still in a food coma.

But I am pretty sure I could makesome room for an order of Frysmith's kimchi fries....

My stomach was extremely honored to be asked to judge the L.A. Street Food Festival, held Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. More than 50 restaurants, food trucks and carts were well represented, and thousands turned out to sample the offerings. Founded and organized by fellow foodies and entrepreneurs Shawna Dawson and Sonja Rasula, the event was a fund-raiser for St. Vincent Meals on Wheels and the Woolly School Garden.

Fellow judges included L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- arm visibly swollen and still in a sling -- as well as chefs Susan Feniger and Walter Manzke (yes, I asked; no, he wouldn't say), Bill Esparza of Street Gourmet LA and actor Jesse Williams ("Grey's Anatomy").

With so many appetites, and so many choices, I wondered how we'd ever come to a consensus at the end of the food orgy. In fact, it was pretty easy. In almost every category, we were nearly unanimous on one or two choices. Too full to fight, we just decided to use the powers invested in us to name runners-up. In doing so, we were able to give a shout-out to nearly every standout.

There was a spirited debate about what constituted nouveau street food -- as opposed to classic "old school" street food. I'll spare you the details, but it's a sign of L.A.'s diversity -- and sophisticated tastes -- that "old school" honors went to both the explosive Thai bites served up by chef Robert Danhi of Southeast Asian Flavors and the tamales from Tamales Elena. Nouveau honors went to both Sedthee Thai's pork spareribs and the pork belly adobo served up by the Manila Machine.

Best sweet tooth honors went to Scoops Westside for its Thai Iced Tea Coconut flavor and Munchie Machine's PB&J S'More Sandwich. (It's just what it sounds like, a S'more tucked inside a PB&J. If a dessert could get a key to the city, this would be it: Villaraigosa went nuts for it, as we all did.)

Turn the page to see more winners....  

Best overall bite of the day went to Mariscos Jalisco for its must-try hard-shell shrimp tacos.

We also used our special judging powers to create a category just for Starry Kitchen, giving a best showmanship award to Nguyen Tran for his deep-fried green rice tofu balls.

My only regret -- other than the five or so pounds I surely gained -- is that we did not figure out a way to dole out an award to Frysmith's kimchi fries. Its menu says the dish is normally served with pork belly. Honestly, I did not detect any pork belly. Maybe they were out, or maybe I just missed it. But I nonetheless fell in love with the rest of the dish: French fries topped with caramelized onions, cheddar cheese and kimchi (it's a slightly sweeter version than I've ever had before).

Kudos to Dawson and Rasula on a well-organized event. Now that the two have hopefully rested up, the question is: When's the next one?

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

Photo: Rene Lynch / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Los Angeles Food Truck Chaser]

Does anyone know if they are working on a follow up event?

[J H]

While it was a success for Meals on Wheels and spreading the word about the plethora of food trucks in Los Angeles, the overall event was not very well executed. Everyone I talked to (about 25 or so people) the only people who enjoyed the event were people with VIP tickets. I am more than willing to wait in line for a taste of the very original food offered by the different venues, but this was ridiculous. I arrived at 4:45pm with my General Admission ticket and found the line was extremely long, but luckily it moved quickly.

I was looking forward to good beer gardens and great food. What I found on entering was a foodies nightmare. I spent half an hour in one line because the line was very long and the vendor was unprepaired. This wouldn't have been too bad if the even was longer that 3.5 hrs. After I decided to go for a beer in the 'beer garden' and again I (and everyone I was with) was sorely disappointed. The 2 beer gardens had equally long lines and when I got to the front I found that they only had Singha. Really? One beer? Not quite what was implied when I bought the tickets. Even with that I was still excited to try new foods.

Long story short I only got to try 5 new food trucks before the event ended. Not worth the $45 I paid for the tickets. Everyone I came with was very, very disappointed.

Also, the sponsors said ticket sales were capped at 5000. Maybe the ticket sales were capped at 5000, but it looked more like the Grilled Cheese Invitational, which had 7000+ people, but since this was a fairly large venue I would put the estimate around 8 or 9k people.

Before I left I tried to seek out the large amount of water that was advertised on the website. I found 2 sets of water fountains. That is all the water I was able to find. Also, the amount of drinks that were advertised was very misleading. By the time I was able to try a bit of food and get in line for a drink, all the tea was gone, the pomegranate juice was gone, the soda was gone and the lines for beer had doubled.

Needless to say I don't know anyone (even VIPs) that will be going next year. Waste of money in my opinion.

[downtownLAeater]

"Sorry" Kitchen is more like it. Nguyen can't stop hyping his own place the moment you step inside his restaurant. If he would just shut up, i think he would get more customers. If the food was actually good, that would even be a bigger bonus.

[oakley]

Yeah, that Nguyen, he's a showman alright. Did he tell you about the cracked black board and a hole in his wall as a result of his showmanship? ;-)

Some of us "southerners" missed out the LA scene but we were rewarded with a Long Beach Street Food Festival that same day. We stuffed ourselves silly as well. Disappointingly, the most anticipated Ludo Fried Chicken was MIA.

Are you going to come down to OC Foodie Fest Saturday August 28?