It’s on Kensington. So yeah. Beans from Vietnam and Thailand. Got the egg coffee, Banh Mi, and porridge. I miss Little Saigon in OC so it’s nice to have a reminder. Also got the Sua Da which took 15 min made to order with a phin. Really good coffee. The Banh Mi not quite Ba Le Westminster good but I was happy. There is a decent population of Vietnamese in Philadelphia.
South Philly has Indonesians, Cambodians, Vietnamese, and Thai’s. Hardena is probably the most well known Indo spot. Got the eggplant, collard greens, rendang, and veggie fritter. I loved the collards. I’ve had a few rendang that ended up dry but this has been the best yet.
I like the meat at Gamboa slightly better but the consome at Barajas more. But this is definitely splitting hairs territory, I’d kill to have either one closer to me
The intersection of Compton and Atlantic is the nexus of multitudes of trucks. We were there during a weekend morning and there were over a dozen easily and nighttime is supposed to have more. When we were there, we saw different birria trucks, a bbq stand, mexican sushi, etc.
After the goat tacos, we hit up a shrimp truck which I neglected to get the name. I liked the taco shell better than Mariscos Jaliscos. The shrimp inside is not cooked and seasoned as heavily as Jaliscos which depending on personal preference can be good or bad. Over the last few years as MJ has gotten more popular, I feel like they’ve gotten a bit inconsistent and sometimes the shrimp isn’t as good. Either way, this truck is a worthy stop for comparison if you’re in the area. On Atlantic, just a block over from the Northgate market.
Afterwards, we stopped and grabbed some tamales to go from La Dona Tamaleria
Overall a good outing to kick off a weekend morning. It’s definitely an area I want to explore more especially in the evening when there are more trucks.
Crazy how that is literally around the block from the OG Bludso’s and I never even knew that many food trucks are in that area. I ate at Tacos El Poblano right in the middle of the food truck madness of Compton and there were countless food vendors and even people walking by with desserts and drinks. BTW, don’t waste your time at Tacos El Poblano.
Man, I miss OG Bludso’s. I used to be able to time it perfectly, call in an order, by the time I drove over from the Westside it was ready for pickup.
Feel like there’s a fair amount of areas like this especially in south LA that are known mainly to locals. One of the people in our group had been there at night and said it’s definitely worth exploring. I’m planning return trips soon after the New Year. Once in the morning for more goat and other trucks. Then a night time trip for the different trucks.
It was a fluke how we discovered Bea’s Chocolate Cake. We went to a bday party where everyone ate the fancy patisserie cake and ignored the Bea’s cake. So we took that baby home. Score! So good!
Zozo’s Bakery Persian dessert place in Simi Valley - Bill Addison seems to be a huge fan; very personal service and a lot of care goes into these sweets
Quartersheets and House of Gluten can’t believe I only tried this pizza a couple months ago but this definitely vaulted to the top of my Detroit pizza list and is probably in my personal top 3; desserts are acidic and savory and not too sweet
This Jewel City white pizza with the sambal goreng seasoning from Bungkus Bagus was
P.S. their brick n mortar just opened up in Echo Park this weekend
Dduk mandoo gook (rice cake dumpling soup) from Mountain was my choice of bang bang post Kinn; @J_L great minds think alike as I completely wanted to do Sun Nong Dan afterward but alas the OG location wasn’t open at the time
Go Go Bird just recently opened up in the Citizen Public Market in Culver City - Chef Brandon Kida (of Hinoki and the Bird) heads this, and the fried chicken is fantastic. They add some Szechuan chili oil, and the batter is very light on its feet. The complimentary spicy honey is a must get accompaniment.
Since I was already at the Citizen Public Market, how could I not do a bang bang with Bang Bang Noodles, which has had a pop up the last couple of weeks
We originally wanted to try the mandi at Monasaba in Stanton thanks to @EattheWorldLA’s review but they are closed on Tuesday, so we headed to House of Mandi in Anaheim instead.
The lamb and chicken mandi were very good and nicely seasoned and they came with yogurt sauce and sahawiq. The only disappointing thing was the lamb soup which did not taste lamb-y at all and lacked salt.
For dessert, we headed down the street to Knafeh Cafe. I adore knafeh and thought the one here was so great. I got a slice of the knafeh na’ameh which is the soft one that comes without the crispy kataifi bits. Love that chewy cheese.