How do you like a restaurant even before you ordered the food? For me, by playing Runaway by Bon Jovi then followed by Always and Wanted Dead or Alive. How frakkin’ cool is this place?

My family were having lunch before going to the Buddhist Temple for Chinese New Year. My sister, Bonnie, took us here because I had a craving for soupy noodles.

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So the LA Street Food Fest on Saturday wasn’t a total epic failure. I did get to eat a few things, from The Gastrobus and Dim Sum Truck, and let me just say, there were pretty damn good. The only plus side of the VIP lounge was the free booze, trying out different teas from T Salon (which I found out is from NY), and catching the debut from the Dim Sum Truck.

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How do you want to f–k with people? How do you make people regret paying $30 for a VIP ticket? How do you make people feel like they wasted their day standing in 1 line for 3 hours just to eat few bites? I guess it was pretty easy at the first LA Street Food Fest that was held today in downtown LA.

I admit that it was a great idea and mad props for the people to pull this whole event off. BUT I did not see any sort of planning on their part. On their site it said “Get ready to eat your heart out” well I didn’t really eat my heart out. I only had the patient to stand in line for 1 truck. I know I know I can’t blame them for my inpatient but it’s really no fair to the attendees and to the truck vendors when they don’t try to have a manageable number of attendees. People were sad to be turned away and frustrated to be in line for 2.5hrs for food. And when the trucks run out of food, who will the people blame? The food trucks of course. It was said that 15,000 people passed through the gate today. If you’re a truck vendor how do you prepare for that? You want to keep the line moving but you can only move so fast. I am still reading a lot of angry tweet about today.

So VIP. General admission was $5 and VIP was $30. Good thing I got a media pass and did not have to pay that stupid $30. For $30 you get a private bar, a lady chatting with you about her fake grass, a patio with a stupid view, a gift bag, and restrooms. I felt bad for the $5 people, where will they pee? Probably the best part with as a vip was to try dim sum from the Dim Sum truck. I’ll write about what I ate in a later post. Just those few things, how does that considered as VIP? VIP means F U I’m gonna go cut that long line! Nope, no cutting. You still had to stand in those long lines.

Also this was not a celebration of street food in LA. Where were the taco trucks?

This was quite sad. Also it took me 30mins just to find a stupid parking and I had to pay $7 for it. Argh LA!!!!!

Besides the Buttermilk Truck, another truck I just had to go was the Gastrobus. Yes I have been to the Gastrobus twice (here and here) but well Antonio and Lana are just such great people. I just had to give them a visit and so should everyone! I wanted my whole family to try so I brought them along. Which also mean I would be able to try a lot of the dishes that day heehee.

It was their organic Sunday menu so they were parked at the Los Feliz farmers market at the post office parking lot. Last time I saw Antonio and Lana it was in September so I was glad that they still remembered me when I arrived at the truck. Lana and I chatted a bit before I placed my order. Well I pretty much ordered everything off the menu, like I said I wanted to try them all!

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Seriously am I the last one to blog about this place? I have no idea how much I don’t know about the city that I call home home until I started to call another city my home. Everytime I go back to LA Mo would tell me to go eat at Zankou Chicken. He’s a big fan and so are a lot of the food bloggers that had been to Zankou Chicken.

My friend, Sandy, and I were actually hunting down taco trucks. We were on Colorado Blvd looking for tacos but instead we found Zankou Chicken. I quickly told her to turn around because I had to try it. It was probably not the best thing to do while on the hunt for tacos but I wasn’t sure when I’ll get a chance like that again.

We walked into a not-so-fancy looking place but it sure damn smelled great. Sandy and I decided to just share a 1/4 chicken platter for $6.99 that came with a piece of chicken, hummus, salad and 2 pitas. I stabbed the chicken with the fork and took a bite. The chicken was super tender, flavorful and the skin was crispy. The 2 sides and the pitas were all pretty good too. I can see why people love it. The chicken was so so good, I can eat just the skin forever.

LA is not really known to be a city to go to for great pizzas. I know there are few exceptions but we’re definitely overshadowed by NYC, Phoenix and SF. Having been to Roberta’s, Lucali’s, Grimaldi’s, Lombardi’s, Toby’s Public House and Di Fara’s I think I have started to become somewhat of a pizza snob. I didn’t know I became one while in NY but when my family sat down for a super late new years eve lunch at gjelina in Venice beach, I realized I have….changed.

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