Dogtown hot dog truck to roll out on Thursday in Los Angeles

[Update 3:56 p.m.: An earlier version of this post referred to Mike Rosa and Ryan Bailey as the former general manager and chef of Ma'Kai. Both men will retain their position at Ma'Kai while running Dogtown.]

The popular Let's Be Frank cart won't be Los Angeles' only gourmet hot dog vendor on wheels, after the Dogtown hot dog truck rolls out this Thursday. (Twitter: @dogtowndog)

Business partners Mike Rosa and Ryan Bailey, the general manager and chef, respectively, of Ma'Kai in Santa Monica (which may soon be replaced by a Red Onion, according to Eater LA), originally wanted to open "some kind of boutique-y location on the Westside" but decided it was too restrictive. Having followed the food truck movement, they quickly settled on hot dogs as their food of choice.

"We wanted to spruce up [hot dogs] a bit," Rosa says. "We've noticed the resurgence of the gourmet burger. We felt we could do the same thing with hot dogs. With hot dogs there's more room to get creative than with burgers because you can do so much with sauces and with toppings and that you can't do with burgers."

Using nitrate-free, grass-fed dogs from Rocker Bros., Dogtown will offer five basic hot dogs alongside one or two daily specials ($5 to $7). Aside from slaw, the only side (at least as of now) is tater tots tossed with sea salt and smoked paprika ($3).

Their signature dog, the Dogtown, comes unadorned except for a tart fennel slaw. The Chile Relleno Dog is coated in a corn masa batter and served with tomatillo ketchup. The Morning Commute Dog is topped with applewood-smoked bacon and a fried egg. For vegetarians, there's a meat-free Philly Cheesesteak made with grilled Portobello mushrooms, sliced onions and peppers. And the Trailer Trash Dog plays both sides of the highbrow-lowbrow coin, featuring a chili dog topped with crumbled Fritos.

"We want people to enjoy how tongue-in-cheek the hot dog can be," Rosa says, "and to be proud of its suspect nature."

-- Elina Shatkin

Logo: courtesy of Dogtown

Sampler Platter: Oaxacan quesadillas, spaghetti hot dogs & jalapeno-pear cocktails

Midweek food bites...

• In honor of Earth Day, a list of the fruits and vegetables that contain the most pesticides. Clean Plate Charlie
• 5 ways to save on organic food. Consumer Reports
• Thierry Perez, co-owner of Fraiche and Riva, has left to open his own restaurant in Culver City. It will be called Ben Fatto. Eater LA
• Freaky food fun: insert dried spaghetti into hot dogs, then boil. Boing Boing
• Pleasure Palate checks out an Echo Park street cart featuring Oaxacan quesadillas with blue corn tortillas.
• Strangest drink ever? The jalapeno-pear caipiroska. Umami Mart
• Kellogg's Frosted Mini-Wheats won't make my kids smarter? Yahoo! News
• Downsize Me: Man loses 15 pounds eating only McDonald's for 30 days. Daily Mail

-- Elina Shatkin

Photo: Elina Shatkin

Deep-fried cupcakes? This Is Why You're Fat

Do you like to look at pictures of "deliciously gross food" such as this cupcake that has been deep fried and then drenched in chocolate syrup and topped off with sprinkles?

Well, someone out there does. Within three days of launching this month, a blog and website dedicated to food porn -- the aptly titled ThisIsWhyYoureFat.com -- pulled in more than 3 million pages views. (The blog's subtitle: Where dreams become heart attacks.)

"We thought it was a very good idea, but we were both very surprised at how it caught on." That's one of the co-creators -- she prefers to be identified as Creator No. 1 and declines to be identified because she and her partner are in the media and want to avoid making themselves part of the story behind the blog, to keep the focus on the food.

A little mystery never hurt either.

"It started because we were joking about how there are all these really nasty pictures of fatty foods floating around on the Internet. We’re like, "Do people really eat this? Are people posting these photos as a badge of honor?'"

They started collecting images on Feb. 1 and launched Feb. 9, and it's been pinging around the Internet ever since, thanks in no small part to mentions by Time, The Atlantic, the New York Times, etc.

Pulled pork in downtown L.A.*

While looking for an elusive falafel purveyor near 5th and Main Street yesterday at lunch, I stumbled upon pulled pork sandwiches being sold from a cart tucked into a doorway of the Crocker Bank Building (home to the upcoming Crocker Club). Blink and you'll miss it, but Pulley's is worth a stop.

Touting "world famous" pulled pork sandwiches, the cart is a one-man operation that is both staffed and marketed by Charles "Captain Chuckie" Hsieh. It had just opened that day, and I was one of the first customers.

Hsieh, 28, who emigrated from Taiwan at age 7 and grew up in San Marino, developed a love for pulled pork while stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. The former army medic who served for a year with the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan says, "They had these pulled pork sandwiches down there. You would find them at drive-throughs and it was so convenient. When I came back, I was looking for them here, but they were only available at sit-down restaurants and they cost $9, so I decided to make them in my own style."