Meeting the trucks of Food Truck Wars
Ten food trucks will congregate on The Row from 3 to 9 p.m. tonight for Food Truck Wars, a philanthropic event organized by The Dish Dash Los Angeles, the USC Interfraternity Council and the USC Panhellenic Council.
Renee Cohn | Daily Trojan
The event pits East against West on two sides of The Row. Each of the food trucks will offer a Trojan-themed “secret menu,” accessible to those who sign up to The Dish Dash online. Twenty percent of the proceeds from the event will go to Downtown non-profit organizations Paws/LA and The Union Rescue Mission.
Here’s a guide to tonight’s Food Truck Wars to help you choose a side.
1. Mighty Boba Truck: Fresh-brewed sweet tea beverages that will silence any complaints about the lack of good boba in America.
This Taiwanese snack truck never sells drinks more than four hours old, and the iconic tapioca balls that come with it are perfectly chewy and springy.
Options for tea flavors are limited, which means you should try the original milk tea with little hesitation. Sip it down with some of their Taiwanese snack favorites like sweet pork sausage and thick butter toast.
Secret menu item: Strawberry milk tea with golden boba — Red tea with golden yellow tapioca pearls
2. Papa’s Tapas: Spanish appetizers that are petite in size, but big in flavor.
The croquetas are a must-try. They are deep-fried carb-balls with crunchy shella and creamy, mashed potato-like interiors. Even the simple salads are elevated to fresh, flavorful elegance.
Secret menu item: Tortilla Española — With roasted red pepper aioli and spicy sofrita
3. Frysmith: All the fantastical combinations fit to top America’s favorite vegetable.
Since everybody has their own unconventional ways of eating fries, why not just go crazy? Dare to give the Kimchi fries a try. Apart from the spicy Korean pickled cabbage, the fries also come smothered under rich Kurobuta pork belly, onions and melted cheddar cheese.
You can also get sweet potato fries for a more complex, sweet and savory profile.
Secret menu item: “Trojan Cardinal Prosciutto Pizza Fries”— Features prosciutto, fresh mozzarella and tomato sauce
4. Lardon: A truck with a bacon fetish. What’s not to like?
Lardon offers dishes with basic concepts like a bacon-and-egg sandwich and the BLT sandwich, but adds its own twist such as using toasted baguette and adding blue cheese for the BLT and of course, always using thick, high-quality bacon.
But their desserts are the showstoppers. Brownie with bacon-nutella frosting, anyone?
Secret menu item: “The Row”— Three pieces of bacon stacked and layered, with melted, shredded cheddar cheese inside
5. José O’Malley’s: A blend of classic American and Mexican cuisines with a healthy dose of Irish flair.
It’s hard to miss this truck with its circus colors and the blown-up image of a redhead chomping on a taco.
Run by two sisters, José O’Malley’s determined to be the most physically-flamboyant truck, but its menu keeps it tame with ultimate comfort food like Chicago hot dogs, loaded mashed potatoes and Americanized tacos.
Secret menu item: “Trojan Feast” — Nachos with your choice of Beast Red Chips, beans, meat, golden cheese, more chips, meat, and cheese topped with pico de gallo, hot peppers and sour cream
6. White Rabbit Truck: Filipino favorites with a Mexican twist and the American love for gorging.
To order, you choose the meat, then the carbs, which include a choice of tacos, burrito, rice bowl or fries.
For the meat, you cannot go wrong with pork. The customer favorite is the pork sisig, which is a crispy blend of fried pork belly, spiced up with onions and jalapenos for fatty, salty and crunchy bliss.
Secret menu item: Red Velvet Macaroons — This is self-explanatory: must eat!
7. Kabob N’ Roll: Healthy, home-cooked Mediterranean fare.
Nothing too surprising here: beef, chicken or lamb gyro or pita sandwiches some falafel and hummus and dolmas and baklava.
But it’s probably the healthiest and most vegan-friendly truck out of the bunch, and you can count on the ingredients to be fresh and wholesome. It’s like being welcomed into a Mediterranean home.
Secret menu item: “Trojan” Fries — Fresh hand-cut fries topped with homemade hummus, tomatoes, and feta cheese
8. Slammin’ Sliders: Upscale cuisine that won’t break your bank. Or your parents’ bank.
Of course, you’ve got to order sliders at a truck called Slammin’ Sliders, which dishes up Hawaiian rolls stuffed with luxury proteins like Kobe beef and pink pepper-crusted lobster.
But make room for the Okinawa potato salad as well, which is a lovely mash of purple sweet potatoes. Another worthy sweet potato dish is the crisp and gooey sweet potato croquette with pepperjack cheese.
Secret menu item: “USC” Triple Play — Three Kobe beef sliders with a “U”nique “S”auce “C”heddar, which is a blend of Cardinal (sauce) and Gold (cheddar)
9. DIMSUM Truck: Traditional and non-traditional Cantonese morsels at a cheaper price. Who says dim sum is only for brunch?
Ask for the pork and shrimp shumai, which comes with a sticky, garlicky sauce, or the chicken and mushroom buns. If you want something more innovative, the Peking duck taco is also a delicious option.
Secret menu item: BBQ pork puff pastries — Sweet (red) char-siu BBQ pork inside a baked (golden) puff pastry crust
10. Chunk-n-Chip: Artisan ice cream sandwiched between warm chewy cookies.
Choose from classic ice cream flavors like strawberry and rocky road, and cookies like chocolate chip and red velvet. You can even get two different ice creams and two kinds of cookies if you want.
Secret menu item: “The Mammoth” — three-cookie/two-ice cream scoop BOO-Yah sandwich: chocolate brownie cookie, peanut butter cup ice cream, red velvet cookie, peanut butter cup ice cream and chocolate brownie cookie, with whipped cream and chocolate swirls between the cookies.