Q. How does it feel to be part of this competition and be on national tv?
A. We’re honored to be a part of the competition, chosen by Food Network as one of the best trucks in the country. The experience was definitely a once in a lifetime type thing, and we’re super excited to show viewers our delicious food and unique truck.

Q. Was there a strategy going into this?
A. Our strategy was to give it our best, but not lose sight of the experience. We wanted to give a good representation of what we do at home and take advantage of how much we could learn about our truck, our business, and each other through the challenges presented to us.

Q. Any funny stories you can share with us while on the road?
A. You’ll have to watch the show! There are some good ones.

Q. Looking back were there things you thought you could’ve done better?
A. Hindsight is always 20/20, but we know we always gave our best. We’re grateful to be able to look at our mistakes from when we were on the road and apply them to our business now that we’re back home.

Q. How has LA influenced you and your food truck and do you think it’ll be the same, for you, if you were in a different part of the country?
A. There are a lot of trucks in LA, so it’s really important to have something about you that is unique, and just plain better, than the other trucks out there. It’s really important to have something that makes you stand out. Also, because there are so many trucks in LA people are accustomed to them and are eager to try all different types of cuisines – even if it’s something they’ve never heard of before, trying it from a truck makes it ok. It’s just the opposite in some other parts of the county – eating from a truck is completely foreign, let alone trying a new food. You have to get over the obstacle of educating the customer first.

Q. Why do you think people are so fascinated with food trucks?
A. Each truck has something different to offer – people get bored eating at the same places all the time. It’s bringing new a different food to new places all the time.

Q. Which 1 item on your menu best describes you and your truck?
A. PCH (peanut butter, Nutella, and honey crepe). Although we’re often grouped in with all the LA trucks, we’re actually an Orange County truck. The name keeps us true to our OC beach-y roots, and the crepe is seriously delicious. Try it.

Check out the promo for the show and also my past interviews with Grill ‘Em All and Nom Nom Truck who are also competing.

Photo courtesy of The L Magazine

Summers are great in New York City, well if you don’t mind the humidity or stinky subways. Summers here are filled with all sort of free outdoor events like free outdoor movies! SummerScreen, hosted by The L Magazine, is in it’s 5th year over at McCarren Park. This year they’re bringing movies with “a nod to our adolescent idols and crushes: Cusack, Bowie, Danes, Depp, Richards and Reeves” and ALSO few of your favorite food vendors from the Brooklyn Flea! Lobster, tacos, cupcakes, dogs, pizza, pork OH MY!

Nick Burry, publisher for The L Magazine, was nice enough to answer few questions for us regarding the food vendors.

Q. First off how excited are you about having all these food vendors, that are pretty popular with the crowds at the Brooklyn Flea, to be serving food at SummerScreen?
A. I’m psyched to have the vendors there! I feel like they embody the creative, energetic, search-for-authenticity passion that is so prevalent in Brooklyn right now. It’s the same ethic we have at the magazine.

Q. SummerScreen is close to half way through it’s 5th season, why are the food vendors just coming in now?
A. It’s a tough event to pull together. There are a lot of moving pieces, from sound and power to promotion and marketing. We’ve experimented with several vendors in the past, and it’s taken a while before I felt confident that it would be a great experience for both the consumer and the vendor. Right now we have a nice combination of the current surge in popularity of mobile food vendors plus their expertise in selling food outside plus a kickass event with tons of people in SummerScreen. It made a lot of sense this year.

Q. Here’s something fun or maybe not fun, haha. If you were to pick a food vendor to compliment each film what vendor would go with what film?
A. That’s an interesting question. I’d say get a jolt of caffeine from Crop to Cup Coffee before Dead Man. It’s sort of an intense movie, and I think it helps to be in the zone for that. Honestly, it might sound like I’m being political, but I really love all the vendors. I usually gorge on something from each of them, every night. I’ll definitely get a taco from San Loco on Point Break night, though, because I usually feel like Keanu Reeves when I eat there.

Thank you Nick and The L Magazine! SummerScreen is every Wednesday night (that’s tonight!) starting at 6pm. Make sure to check out the SummerScreen site for schedule and updated news!

As we gain more knowledge and support for our local farmers we also gain more knowledge about the many struggles they are facing. Ulla Kjarval of Goldilocks finds Manhattan is super passionate about the farming community and knows everything there is to know about the issues farmers are facing. Why? Because she grew up on a farm so she knows first-hand how tough it is to be a farmer. I’m pretty excited that she agreed to let me interview her as I am getting more interested in this topic.

Q. I know you support farmers and grass-fed beef but can you talk a little bit more about what you’re advocating?
A. My family raises grass-fed beef and lamb. We have seen a big rise in demand. Sadly, we have lost a lot of our traditional pasture-based dairies in Upstate New York. As it stands now, we have almost 3 million acres of unused pasture land in New York State alone. This is good grassland too, and we make excellent beef on it. In my mind grass-fed beef is good for the cow but it is also good for producers like my father who can escape the commodity system which gives producers very little freedom to be creative.

Q. Currently what are some of the issues you’re facing?
A. The biggest issue that faces our farm, and all other farmers I talk to, is access to slaughterhouses. We used to farm in the Hudson Valley but after our local plant closed and the community we were living in became more and more suburban we found farming there to be challenging. We have since moved to Delaware County, NY and love it. It is a true farming community.

Q. Are there any short-term or long-term solutions?
A. The demand for local and sustainable products is staggering. Demand here in NYC is creating channels that were not there only a few years ago. We have more grass-fed beef available, more pastured pork and now even local wheat! This is very exciting but I would like to see farming become easier for young people. With more infrastructure and better distribution channels more farmers will be able to make the commitment. It is a very exciting time but there is still a lot of work to be done to make farming an affordable and viable alternative for young people and local food more accessible for all.

Q. Obviously knowledge is a powerful tool but that’s if you have it. I feel the people living in NYC are so blessed because we are able to share knowledge so easily among ourselves. People actually care about sustainability, good food, and support local farmers and businesses but what about people that don’t have that knowledge or that they simply don’t care? How are you going to reach those people and inform them? Especially the people that watch their wallets more than watch what they eat.
A. I love this question. This is an issue close to my heart. How can we make our meat more affordable? We need better infrastructure, more slaughterhouses and a fairer market place. Currently 80% of our beef is processed by only a few companies.
Strict regulations are one of the reasons that local sustainable meat is so expensive. It costs almost as much to process 10 animals as it does to process a 1000 because of how the USDA safety regulations are set up—they benefit the large packers and hurt smaller plants. This adds a big cost to local meat. We are currently in the mist of a fight over more regulations that threaten smaller plants. We need less regulations for the smaller plants or government funding to offset the insane costs that go along with USDA regulations. Currently, we pay almost 500 dollars to have a steer processed. I wonder how much it costs Cargill?

In terms of awareness, we are all relearning skills that as a society we have lost. We are learning to finish our animals on grass, learning to cook again, enrich our soils, by directly from farmers. This requires us all to educate ourselves; farmers are meeting at grazing conferences and sharing tips and insights, butchers are experimenting with sausages and converting new fans to the-nose-to-tail cooking and home cooks armed with dutch ovens are learning to braise. This movement is a movement of education and learning new skills. It is about empowering producers and consumers to make smarter choices.

Q. What should people do to help? What should I do as a food blogger, as a consumer, as a fellow meat eater?
A. I am a big believer that cooking is a revolutionary act. Also, nose-to-tail cooking helps farms like mine who are not finishing thousands of steers a year. We do not really have that many steaks to sell. And to fill a chefs order we would have then sell all the other meat. Chefs that take the whole cow or even half a cow are great. Also home cooks who get excited about beef shins(which are better then short ribs) or like to make their own stock from bones all help us. I think food bloggers have a big opportunity to reach out to the farmers they buy from and help them. Maybe do a blog post. Get there farm name out there.

OH, and I think everyone should be on twitter. It is where all the food activism in NYC is happening.

So now that the season is over, what did you think of the whole experience? Was it everything you wished for?
We had no expectations. We hoped to get through the summer and maybe have a few laughs or stories along the way.

Did you ever think this would become so popular? So popular that you ended up at the Vendy Awards.
Not in the least! Full disclosure – we’d never heard of the Vendy Awards until July!

At what point in the summer did you finally realized, “wow I made it”?
I’m not sure we ever thought that, exactly, but by the beginning of August we were breaking into laughter daily at how crazy it was getting. We’d be heading home from the depot at 2am, completely exhausted after an 18 hour day, covered in gunk and just start laughing. Just when we thought we had reached the extent of it all, something else would come along and top it. Daily requests for interviews, chances to appear on major tv shows, great reviews… you couldn’t wipe the shocked smiles off our faces.

What was the best thing that came out of this whole adventure?
Bryan: For me it was realizing Doug and I could actually work together and not kill each other. Being in a relationship, living together, and running a business together actually brought us closer together. Also it was just great to share my love of food with others and meet a whole new group of great people. The summer proved no matter how long you live in New York City there are always opportunities for adventure. I mean, seriously, how many people can say they made Choinkwiches for the masses parked under the Unisphere??
Doug: Ditto. I couldn’t say it better. I’d add that we really aimed to provide amazing customer service… if you caught me frowning at the truck, I’d be pretty surprised. I wanted to make sure that every single customer knew I appreciated their business. It was exhausting, but it paid off. It built good word-of-mouth, we built customer loyalty, and I think it did wonders for my own karma.

What are you going to do from now till next year? Experimenting with new ideas, maybe? May I suggest something with red bean or pop rocks or anchovies? Oh but seriously what about chocolate covered coffee beans?
Between now and next year is all about back to music for Doug. He’s back working on his DMA (Doctorate of Musical Arts) and back to orchestra season. His first job back was just 12 hours after our season-end party so there hasn’t been much downtown since. Bryan never left his job so that continues for him. In BGICT-land we’ll be doing a number of things – most of which we aren’t ready to talk about yet. Some stuff we can mention are redesigning our website, revamping our online store, and working with the designer of our logo, Jason O’Malley, on some new t-shirt ideas. Topping experimentation is never-ending. We cannot stroll down grocery store aisles without looking at everything in terms of how it would taste atop ice cream. We’ve also started moving in on your territory. Eat Me Daily gave us a fun opportunity to take a road trip & write for them, you can check it out here. We hope to be able to continue doing writing projects together- it’s good fun, and a good exercise for both brain and wit.

What are you going to tweet or blog about? Going to miss the tweets about you carrying a bag of malt balls.
Well, we’ve probably already answered this by our orchestra ticket giveaways. That has been successful for us and we will continue to do it as often as possible. Doug thought it was important to bring his love of music into focus more; the response has been strong. We feel like hosts at a party where everyone has a different connection and it is fun to bring them all together – music, ice cream, etc. That, plus we tweet our random thoughts about the universe…

I’m going to miss the gobbler, is there something you can suggest that will satisfy my crave until next season?
Bryan: Perfect lemon sorbet. Simple and light – what’s not to love? Then by April your BGICT jones will be in full force!
Doug: My current favorite ice cream is a limited run from Ben and Jerry’s called Maple Blondie. It’s a good winter flavor, what with the maple component. This week it’s only in scoop shops, but it should be in pints soon- make sure you find it before it leaves the shelves forever.

Probably too soon to ask but any idea what’s going to happen in 2010 with Big Gay Ice Cream? And Jacques Torres, how are you going to top THAT?
It’s definitely too soon to talk about 2010, but we can safely say we will be out again. No question about that. However, we have a lot of things we are juggling at the moment both big and small. When the time is right we will announce them. We don’t want to spill the beans before the time is right. Bryan is huge on not jinxing things by premature disclosure!