Last Saturday, we attended Abbot Kinney First Fridays, a food truck festival in Venice. Held on the first friday of every month, the food trucks offer a wide variety of delicious goodies. We are not seasoned food truck veterans by any means, but nonetheless we were two determined vegetarians ready to eat our way through the slew of trucks. Though the food comas were severe and unforgiving, the soul-lifting comfort food we experienced made the experience totally worth it.
Our ambitious first move was a pizza. An entire pizza. For two people. Yeah. We like to think of it as our baby.
Pizza & Co.’s Margherita Pizza proved to be the king of all cheese stretch pizzas. Seriously, this pizza puts all other pizzas to shame. Made in a real wood fired pizza oven on the truck, the pizza was a chewy cloud topped with a layer of mozzarella so satisfying that it made us want to shake the chef’s hand.
Our next stop was Zema, a Venezuelan food truck with quite the charismatic vendor. He took the time to explain to us what a Venezuelan arepa is, and convinced us to give it a try. We opted for the veggie option with beans, fried plantains, avocado, and a hefty sprinkling (handful really) of cheese. In three words: gooey, soft, and epic.
After Zema, we hit The Grilled Cheese Truck, because apparently we thought we needed more carbs and cheese. Thankfully, the mac and cheese-filled grilled cheese was just what we needed to prove ourselves wrong. That being said, it was intensely comforting and a sure place to return back to (preferably not after having already eaten a full pizza).
Feeling a full food coma coming on, we powered through and decided to grab something a little healthier than melted cheese. We opted for Middle Eastern comfort food instead, in the form of falafel from Falasophy. The Classic Falafel Pita was fresh and hot, exactly as a falafel sandwich should be. Plato’s Salad Bowl was equally good but had an intimidatingly large, fist-sized amount of hummus (which is cool if you’re into that). But, we decided to overlook that little detail given that it mixed so well with the pickled cabbage, tabouleh, and jalepenos.
The Pudding Truck was next (heck ya). Our sweet tooths had kicked in and this velvety, artisanal pudding was exactly the cure we were looking for. We ordered both the chocolate pudding with sea salt and roasted hazelnuts and the vegan chocolate mint swirl. Velvety, luscious, not-too-sweet and perfectly rich--we still have dreams about them. They were that good.
Side note, we also met Donal Skehan! He is a rising Food Network star featured on Tastemade and Youtube. Plus, he’s Irish.
We got sidetracked after the pudding by the glittering vintage marquee lights that read PUPUSAS. Needless to say, we couldn’t resist some hearty bean and cheese pupusas from VCHOS Food Truck.
At this point in the night, it was 7:30 and it felt like midnight. Our stamina was running low, but the aroma of belgian waffles from Marcel coaxed us down the street. One last food. Simple and straightforward was the way to go. The perfectly crusty and fluffy Liege Waffle, in all of its powdered-sugar glory, was the ideal finale to our food filled adventure
The pros of this night were the food, but the con was falling asleep at 8:45pm from food exhaustion (yeah, it’s definitely a thing).