November 30, 2021 • 23 mins
In this episode, Bobby & Sophie are diving deep into the world of food trucks. Listen to hear Sophie's favorite trucks from the west coast, why Bobby thinks they make for such a clever business venture, and finally, find out which famous food truck dish Bobby & Sophie are enjoying together for this conversation.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay, and I'm here with my
daughter and co host, and I'm always Hungry. Sophie and
I gathered around my stove to cook together. Well you cook,
I asked the questions, and eat the food. If does
any food left, you come to the table together to
share a meal, connect as a family, and tell the
stories that matter to us. This is the food truck
(00:27):
episode of Always Hungry. What do we have in front
of us? Okay, so we're talking about food trucks today,
which you know, I think that food trucks have had
an amazing sort of evolution over the last I don't know,
ten fifteen years maybe, you know, when it wasn't too
long ago, about fifteen twenty years ago, that food trucks
were really they weren't. They didn't have the best reputation,
(00:49):
let's put it that way. It was just sort of
a mishmash of different things. And then and then, slowly
but surely, like death, different sort of you know, ethnic
cuisine started using them as you know, you know, basically
restaurants on wheels, and uh, you know, you started seeing
a lot of I would say, I would say the
majority of them were Latin cuisines. There was a lot
(01:12):
of Mexican you know, taco trucks and things like that.
And then, of course, like anything, once something catches on,
you know, it gets played out in this much bigger story.
And so basically pick a cuisine or or a famous
dish and there was a food truck attached to it,
which is really totally fun. I mean I think that
that's you know, having a food truck has been you know,
(01:34):
having food trucks as a possibility has been a really
great way for people to you know, not break the
bank trying to sign a lease for a bricks and
mortar's restaurant, you know, raise a bunch of money to
you know, come up with the restaurant design and furniture
and all the things that kind of come along with it,
and so forced I would say, a nominal amount of money,
(01:55):
you could actually start your own food business if you
if you felt like you had something really good. I've
done over the years, I've done, uh, you know a
lot of different TV you know, with with food trucks.
I think the first one I did a food truck
um story was it was a Belgian waffle place called
called Waffles and Dinghies. Yeah, and and delicious Belgian waffles.
(02:18):
I mean they're still still there's still in existence. They
have a bunch of trucks now in New York City
and they act if you go, if you find them
their Belgian waffles. So they're very crisp, they're really fantastic,
and they're classic Belgian waffles. It's not like the waffle
that you get for breakfast. Oh wait, did you do
this with for Throwdown? Yes, two thousand and ten. Interesting
(02:39):
and yeah did you win? No? I did not win.
Um and they beat me. And they still have their
their throw down waffle on the menu down. Instead of
cooking today we have um, we have a little take
out from from a classic food truck, from a famous
food truck here in Alle. Well here here is the thing. Like, um,
(03:01):
what I was saying before was that I think that
a lot of food trucks start. You saw a lot
of you saw a lot of taco trucks, and you
know they were they were not they were not really
in the mainstream. They would just sort of you'd find
taco trucks that like at like construction sites, and you know,
work sites and things like that where where people needed
to eat like lunch, and the trucks would show up
(03:21):
and and then you know, the workers will come over
and they did buy some tacos or a case of
tas or whatever whatever was on the on the truck
of the time. And then you know, the trend caught
on and then people started using trucks to to serve
basically every single dish you can imagine. And uh, I
would say that, I would say that the breakout truck
(03:43):
was the Cozy Truck by Roy Choi. And you know,
they're basically tacos. The most famous ones are these short
ripped tacos that are sort of a combination of Mexican
and Korean cuisines all in a in a corn to
a t h and so you know he's got these,
you know what they consider world famous double caramelize short
(04:05):
ripped tacos with salsa roha and the salso Salsa roha
has you know, Mexican red chilies and it has Korean
chilis in it, you know, so he really combines it
in a very big way. So we have we've got
some short ripped tacos here, which is is what made
the Kogi truck the Kogi truck. And then we also
got some spicy pork tacos, some vegetarian one which is
(04:29):
kim she caesadilla, So kim she is you know, it's
the it's the cabbage has been marinated and you know,
lots of vinegar and Korean spices, etcetera for a long
period of time. Very very strong flavor, but delicious. And
then they have something called the Blackjack pork caesadilla, um
roy choi and koji. They you know, they set the
world on fire for you know, new style food trucks.
(04:54):
So there are a lot of food trucks around your college. Yeah, actually,
excuse me, she's eating. Yeah. Actually one of the first
food trucks. One of the first times I saw a
food truck doing something really different was like I think
it was like every Wednesday or something, they would have
a bunch of food trucks on campus and one of
them was this the sushi rito trucks. That sushi burritos.
(05:17):
It was crazy but really cool and like very creative.
Salsa roja is really good. Mhmm. You're not cooking today,
we're just eating because it's food trucks, so you have
to take it out. I mean, I was actually considering
making a version of Roy's you know, tacos with short ribs,
(05:38):
et cetera, with Korean flavors and this, and I was like,
I'm not doing that. I'm just going right to the source.
I mean, that's why food trucks are here, so we
can we can order from them. Did you ever think
about opening a food truck? Are starting a food truck?
Not really? I mean because when that whole phase was,
you know, really, when when that whole thing really took off,
I was really you know, I had so many restaurants
(05:59):
that was just trying to keep, you know, going. It's
like having a food truck was not definitely in the cards.
I didn't need one more thing to to kind of
try to run. So but um, I like food trucks.
I think that they're really cool and you find you
find tons and tons of creativity. And I'm just looking
at this list from Time out the best food trucks
(06:20):
in l A. So, you know, Modiscos, Jalisco, So those
are you know, shrimp tacos, you know, and uh, you
know they look so good. Um, and they say this
is one of the long standing heroes of old school
taco trucks. So these guys are like part of the
original set of taco trucks before you know, everybody decided
(06:41):
that they had to have, you know, a Greek food
truck and you know food truck with you know, Korean food, etcetera.
You know. But uh and then of course Koji is
number two on the list. Um, and they call that
the granddaddy of the modern food truck bonanza since two
thousands and eight. So and I totally agree with that.
I mean, to me, just like not paying that close attention.
(07:02):
You heard over and over roy choi kogy Empire, like
that's what you kept hearing about, and he really said,
you know, he set the place on fire. Um. One
of my favorite, like one of my favorite places to
get tacos is from a taco truck, Leo's Taco Truck.
They have a few, but I go to the one
in Echo Park and they're really known for like their
Alpa store tacos. It's so good and it's I'm pretty
(07:24):
sure it's still cash only. Yeah, I mean, what about
like different kinds of Now there's there's a place, there's
a truck called the Yeasty Boys obviously off the Beastie Boys,
but they serve bagels and locks and schmir and it
says other stuff. No, it's so good. I know the
owner Evan Evan Fox. He because he hasn't one of
(07:44):
their trucks is is comes to still stops in Silver Lake.
And so I could walk there like every morning when
I when I still lived there, every morning that they
were there when they still lived there when I still
lived there. Rather, the bagels are good. I mean Evans
originally from from Arizona, but he spent a bunch of
time in New York and when he moved out here
was like, we don't have a lot of good bagels
out here, and he so he started Easy Boys. Yeah.
(08:05):
And if you notice, like it's like in some cases
it's really spawned like crazy businesses. I mean, the the
line that you have to wait in for EUSt Boys,
even if it's like eight am, is like nuts. I mean,
people people show up. Well. Well, one of the things
about it is um you know, well, first of all,
like some of the individual truck trucks have you know, transcended,
(08:30):
you know, the trend where they where they where they
where They're just so busy you can't get near him.
I remember. I don't think they do it anymore, but
used to be in Los Angeles in Venice on avit Kinney,
which is probably the most well known street in Venice.
Lots of restaurants, uh, cool clothing shops, etcetera. And there
(08:51):
was one night a week they used to have food
truck night and they lined the food trucks up and
down the street. I think they stopped doing and then
they moved the food trucks, but you would go there,
think it was like a Tuesday night or Friday night,
I can't remember, and you'd find all these different places
and to eat. It was like it was like literally
like grazing along the food truck line, which is totally fun.
You know Van lou and ice Cream, Yeah, so Van
(09:13):
lou and ice Cream. I mean they were one of
the first ice cream companies to really make some inroads
in the vegan ice cream world. Not all their ice
creams are vegan, but a few of them are. And
they started, you know, they have tons of you know,
bricks and mortar stores now, but they started as a
food truck. I remember. I remember the first time I
saw it. They were they were right in front of
Masa Grill in fifteenth and fifth in New York. I
(09:35):
was like, what is this ice cream stop? You know?
Do you know this place CVT No, I don't. I'm
guessing it means chocolate vanilla twist because they served three
flavors basically, and they yeah, it's like it's the old
school swirled truck and only offers three flavors chocolate, vanilla
and a combo of both. I love it and I
(09:56):
love this. I love this this um this line in
in this in this paragraph. This is from time out. Uh,
if you ask for free soft serve in exchange for
a post of your Instagram account, so like, if you're
an influencer, you'll have to reckon with the owner. His
name is Joe Niici. Um, he's got no time for
influences trying to bargain for food. In fact, he went
vile for charging influences double. If that's so funny. I mean,
(10:20):
I guess a lot of you know, people like food influences.
They expect, you know, free samples of things because they
you know, they can give you they can blow you
up on their on their feed. But um, this guy's
not having it. But but I have to say, like
the ice cream looks good. I'm a soft serve like junkie. Yes,
but it has to have like it has to have
good flavor, you have to have has to have that
(10:43):
sort of dense texture that you can almost chew. And
no frosty crystals in my serve or any of my
ice cream. I can't do it. So let's talk about
(11:12):
some food trucks in New York City. We keep talking
about Los Angeles. I'm just gonna talk up. I'm just
gonna I'm just gonna go down this. I have this
um this page of of of food trucks. So okay,
So Barrera Barrera Landia, which is your Mexican tacos. This
is a place in Jackson Heights and Queens. So you know,
(11:32):
Barira has become just has like blown up as as
a concept. It's basically like the French dip of tacos,
you know, where you have like that broth that you've
you've stewed the meat in and then you make a
taco out of it. Sometimes they put like cheese and melk,
the cheese on the tortea itself to make it nice
and crispy, and then you you put the student meat
(11:53):
inside of it and then you fold it up and
then you dip it into the broth and take a bite.
It's it's kind of sort of taken off in a
big way. There's something called Mystic Mystic Marsala, which is
an Indian food truck, is an Ethiopian one called mckeena Cafe.
How about the Halala guys. Those guys, okay, the ha
(12:15):
the Halal guys, I mean, these guys are iconic. It's
Middle Eastern. They started in Midtown around the corner from
Bar American with my restaurant Italian and on like fifty
I want to say, they were on like on fifty
three or fifty four street off sixth Avenue line down
the block for delicious Middle Eastern food. And they also
have now expanded their business to bricks and mortar, and
(12:39):
I think they actually did a deal with like a
venture company where you know, they started opening you know,
tons and tons of stores. The Halala guys, I mean,
but who doesn't want to eat that food? You know?
It's like no, I know, I mean, there's a lot
of competition for it now, but those guys, those guys
were definitely one of the first there's something called New
York doses, which are you know, in in you know, vegan.
(13:02):
I guess that there's Indian and Pakistani versions in the
West village. How about jerk pan Okay, they're not talking
about me. They're talking about you know, jerk cuisine. So
obviously Caribbean cuisine, jerk chicken and whatnot. I love those
flavors so much. I love I love this one King
Souvlaki of Astoria. So obviously it's Greek. I think Greek
(13:24):
really works nicely for a food truck, you know, yeah,
I think so, because you like, you can have like
skewers of shish kebabs, you know, like of of lamb
and beef and chicken, vegetables, even like shrimp. You can
do Greek salads. I mean, the key to food trucks
is like keeping the menu small and and executing you know,
(13:45):
just a handful of things really really well. But they
have to be very quick cook things. You know. Um,
you and I stopped by a food truck the other day.
I think your friend owns it. It's a smash burger truck. Yeah,
heavy handed, heavy handed, short beef ashburgers the mouthful. Yeah,
so there's so these guys are really smart. They're making
smash burgers, but they're using short ribs. Do you know
(14:07):
why they're using short ribs. I don't. Well, short ribs
have a lot of fat in it and tons of flavor.
So when you smash a burger down, there's a good up,
there's a good chance you're gonna squeeze out a lot
of the juiciness. But I think they're smart because they're
using short ribs, so they're they're ensuring that even though
they're smashing it and getting that crust on the outside,
that they're keeping a good amount of juiciness in the
(14:29):
in the in the patty itself, and then they put
obviously melted cheese on it. They have a potato bun,
They have great French fries. Those guys do it right.
There's another food truck out here in l A called
Happy Ice. There's a you know, brick and mortar location
now too, but it's shaved ice. It's like this super colorful,
colorful shaved ice. And the guy who started it is
(14:50):
originally from Philadelphia, and in Philadelphia they call it Philadelphia water. Um.
But he couldn't when he moved out to l A.
He couldn't find anything like it, and so he started
his own company, Philadelphia Water What does that mean? It's
what they call shaved ice. There a water ice. Yeah, okay, yes,
it's actually I believe. I don't want to get into
(15:11):
a fight over this, okay, but I really believe it's
a South Jersey thing. Yeah I do. Now, people from
Philadelphia and South Jersey are tough, so don't don't don't
beat me up over this. Okay, but but but but
that's really I think. You know, water ice is something
that you would hear a lot in South Jersey. And listen,
Philadelphia and South Jersey are literally connected. But so that
(15:32):
that makes perfect sense. I've never heard. I've never heard
the term of Philadelphia water shape. You're showing me your Instagram.
What's what's the Instagram? It's delicious. It's happy ice, happy ice. Okay. Um.
In l A, the Border Grilled truck. Those are my ladies,
Mary Sue and Susan Mary Sue milick In and Susan Fenneger,
who love them so much. Lots of Mexican and Latin
(15:54):
cuisine on their truck. Of course, in l A there's
the Green truck vegetarian farm to truck. I went to
a great plant based food truck called Man Eating Plant
and it's this couple who they have Japanese and Taiwanese
roots and so they're kind of combining those flavors from
their culture and doing this plant based Well it's not
(16:15):
a truck, it's it's a school bus. They like gout
it a school bus and turned it into like a
food bus. Really yeah, I kind of love that. I know, right, So,
(16:39):
food trucks I think have spawned something else, which are
I think that you know, food trucks were the first
pop up restaurants, and now we have pop up restaurants. Okay,
so what so what does that mean? So the food
truck obviously was on a truck, but now if you
go to places like Smogersberg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and then
(17:02):
they have s'more Gala, which is l A's version. You
and I were just there, and again, low investment could
be high reward. And I love this for people just
starting out, especially were people who are changing their careers
or people who are not just recipe testing but like
you know, saying hey, look I'm a really good cook.
This is what I cook. I'm going to rent out
(17:24):
a stand and I'm going to show you that I
got this and and people will become discovered literally discovered
by doing this. And what I mean by that is,
you know, somebody rolls by and they have something delicious.
We were you and I were at the l A.
Smorg the other day. What was some of the amazing
Oh we went. How about that plant based Cuban place?
(17:44):
Oh my god, that was so good. Okay, I'm just
gonna say this. I was a little unsure because I
love Cuban food. Now I will say this. I've never
been to Cuba. I have spent a lot of time
in Little Havana in Miami, and they some spectacular Cuban,
authentic Cuban food there. It's not plant based, I mean
(18:05):
it is. It is. There was a lot of pork
and and um, you know I love that. I mean,
I just love I love that cuisine. You know, a
Cuban sandwich has two kinds of pork, has ham, and
it has roasted pork on it. So we walk up
to this plant based Cuban place, Senior Rita's, and uh,
(18:26):
first of all, the woman who who owns it, she
got the recipes from her dad, and and she admitted
that her dad was like not into it either. He
was like, what wait what jackfruit? Like, what's that? You know?
And like in some ways, you know, I was the
same way. And and she made us the most delicious
Cuban sandwich. Okay, why was it delicious? Well, first of all,
(18:47):
she used jackfruit, and she flavored flavored it with things
like like a moho, which is a moho is a
classic Cuban. It's like it's like a sauce, but it's
very light, it's citrus, it's garlic, you know, it's it's
more like a like it brings it brings flavor and
moisture to to whatever it's you're putting on. It could
be fish, meat, vegetables, whatever, um. And then what she
(19:10):
did was she had you know, she had vegan shees
on there because there's because there's usually Swiss cheese on
a a classic Cuban. And then she pressed it because
the Cuban sandwich one of the one of the tell
tales signs of a great Cuban is that it's pressed
perfectly on both sides. This was delicious, It was crispy.
The jackfruit I did not like if you said to
me it's pork, I would have believed it. And you know,
(19:33):
the the mayonnaise and the mustard were obviously delicious, and
the it was it was a really great sandwich. And
I was like, I'm eating a real I'm eating I'm
eating one of the best Cubans I've ever had. And
it was not it was not an out pork in
it yea, and you can find her obviously. It's more
l a Silver Lake and Yuka Valley. The thing about
pop ups is that the rent is for the day.
(19:56):
The commitment is for the day. You know what you
you sell if you have if you have some popularity,
you can make a nice living doing it, and you
can sleep while knowing that your commitment is like not
so drastic. And so that's what's really nice about it.
We were talking to a woman who was cooking Caribbean food.
(20:17):
It was called Bridgetown, Bridgetown. You went to a you
went to a pop up called Bridgetown. Let me look
it up, Oh Bridgetown, rotee, this is it? Describe it.
It's an l a Caribbean pop up? All right, yes,
pop up of the year okay by Esquire. Wow, Okay,
Rashida Holmes, Okay, now Rashida. I started speaking Rashida because
(20:41):
I was so impressed with her cuisine. She had these
little salt caught um cakes that were just fantastic every Sunday.
She's a Smorgasborg Los Angeles and it's called Bridgetown Rote,
so you know, like Rote is like that. It's like
a rap almost, you know, with different kinds of ingredients
kind of. But she's got, you know, this Caribbean flavor
that I just absolutely love using Scotch bond at chilies
(21:04):
and things like that. So it's got spice, it's got heat,
it's got sweet, it's got fruitiness, it's got tons and
tons of flavor. Also, I loved her and her crew.
They were great, just so enthusiastic. And she's worked in
a lot of good restaurants. She worked at Botanica actually, yeah,
one of our favorite restaurants, and she was the sush
chef there. So she's kind of she's kind of worked
(21:25):
around good restaurants in l A. And she was like,
I'm going on my own, but I'm gonna do it
pop up style, And all of a sudden, you know,
she's getting awards pop Up of the Year from Esquire Magazine,
you know the Bridgetown Route, and then Best Best New
Restaurant two thousand and one. Now, interestingly enough, two thousand
and twenty one was an interesting year for restaurants in
(21:46):
general because of the pandemic. But she's she's a pop
up and she got Restaurant of the Year, Best New
Restaurant rest of the Best New Restaurant of the Year
from Eater. So and by the way, she deserves it,
killing it, loving it. Love these stories every out there
who's got a good food idea and you think you
can make it happen. Food trucks, pop ups. We'll be there,
(22:07):
Sophie and I will be standing online. We will have
our our forks in hand and lots of napkins. You
and I are sloppy eaters sometimes, man, it's you're sloppier
than I am. It's because I'm enthusiastics. Um so, yeah,
l a New York, the rest of there's a there's
the rest of the country out there. I mean, I'm
(22:29):
sure in some of these other you know, big cities,
you know, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, there's food trucks everywhere. I
just don't know enough about them, but maybe we can actually,
you know, maybe that's a good idea, a food truck
for food truck tour with Sophie Filet and her dad
and Bob. Let's do it. But first I'm gonna eat
this Kochi short ribed taco and then I'm going to
(22:51):
be on the hunt for the CVT Soft Serve ice
cream truck. Let's go see you there. Always Hungry is
created by Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay. Our executive producer
is Christopher Hasiotis. Always Hungry is produced, edited, and mixed
by Jonathan Hostresler. Always Hungry is engineered by Sophie Flay.
(23:15):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to
your favorite shows.
All right, guys, welcome to Always Hungry from My Heart Radio.
My name is Bobby Flay, and I'm here with my
daughter and co host, and I'm always Hungry. Sophie and
I gathered around my stove to cook together. Well you cook,
I asked the questions, and eat the food. If does
any food left, you come to the table together to
share a meal, connect as a family, and tell the
stories that matter to us. This is the food truck
(00:27):
episode of Always Hungry. What do we have in front
of us? Okay, so we're talking about food trucks today,
which you know, I think that food trucks have had
an amazing sort of evolution over the last I don't know,
ten fifteen years maybe, you know, when it wasn't too
long ago, about fifteen twenty years ago, that food trucks
were really they weren't. They didn't have the best reputation,
(00:49):
let's put it that way. It was just sort of
a mishmash of different things. And then and then, slowly
but surely, like death, different sort of you know, ethnic
cuisine started using them as you know, you know, basically
restaurants on wheels, and uh, you know, you started seeing
a lot of I would say, I would say the
majority of them were Latin cuisines. There was a lot
(01:12):
of Mexican you know, taco trucks and things like that.
And then, of course, like anything, once something catches on,
you know, it gets played out in this much bigger story.
And so basically pick a cuisine or or a famous
dish and there was a food truck attached to it,
which is really totally fun. I mean I think that
that's you know, having a food truck has been you know,
(01:34):
having food trucks as a possibility has been a really
great way for people to you know, not break the
bank trying to sign a lease for a bricks and
mortar's restaurant, you know, raise a bunch of money to
you know, come up with the restaurant design and furniture
and all the things that kind of come along with it,
and so forced I would say, a nominal amount of money,
(01:55):
you could actually start your own food business if you
if you felt like you had something really good. I've
done over the years, I've done, uh, you know a
lot of different TV you know, with with food trucks.
I think the first one I did a food truck
um story was it was a Belgian waffle place called
called Waffles and Dinghies. Yeah, and and delicious Belgian waffles.
(02:18):
I mean they're still still there's still in existence. They
have a bunch of trucks now in New York City
and they act if you go, if you find them
their Belgian waffles. So they're very crisp, they're really fantastic,
and they're classic Belgian waffles. It's not like the waffle
that you get for breakfast. Oh wait, did you do
this with for Throwdown? Yes, two thousand and ten. Interesting
(02:39):
and yeah did you win? No? I did not win.
Um and they beat me. And they still have their
their throw down waffle on the menu down. Instead of
cooking today we have um, we have a little take
out from from a classic food truck, from a famous
food truck here in Alle. Well here here is the thing. Like, um,
(03:01):
what I was saying before was that I think that
a lot of food trucks start. You saw a lot
of you saw a lot of taco trucks, and you
know they were they were not they were not really
in the mainstream. They would just sort of you'd find
taco trucks that like at like construction sites, and you know,
work sites and things like that where where people needed
to eat like lunch, and the trucks would show up
(03:21):
and and then you know, the workers will come over
and they did buy some tacos or a case of
tas or whatever whatever was on the on the truck
of the time. And then you know, the trend caught
on and then people started using trucks to to serve
basically every single dish you can imagine. And uh, I
would say that, I would say that the breakout truck
(03:43):
was the Cozy Truck by Roy Choi. And you know,
they're basically tacos. The most famous ones are these short
ripped tacos that are sort of a combination of Mexican
and Korean cuisines all in a in a corn to
a t h and so you know he's got these,
you know what they consider world famous double caramelize short
(04:05):
ripped tacos with salsa roha and the salso Salsa roha
has you know, Mexican red chilies and it has Korean
chilis in it, you know, so he really combines it
in a very big way. So we have we've got
some short ripped tacos here, which is is what made
the Kogi truck the Kogi truck. And then we also
got some spicy pork tacos, some vegetarian one which is
(04:29):
kim she caesadilla, So kim she is you know, it's
the it's the cabbage has been marinated and you know,
lots of vinegar and Korean spices, etcetera for a long
period of time. Very very strong flavor, but delicious. And
then they have something called the Blackjack pork caesadilla, um
roy choi and koji. They you know, they set the
world on fire for you know, new style food trucks.
(04:54):
So there are a lot of food trucks around your college. Yeah, actually,
excuse me, she's eating. Yeah. Actually one of the first
food trucks. One of the first times I saw a
food truck doing something really different was like I think
it was like every Wednesday or something, they would have
a bunch of food trucks on campus and one of
them was this the sushi rito trucks. That sushi burritos.
(05:17):
It was crazy but really cool and like very creative.
Salsa roja is really good. Mhmm. You're not cooking today,
we're just eating because it's food trucks, so you have
to take it out. I mean, I was actually considering
making a version of Roy's you know, tacos with short ribs,
(05:38):
et cetera, with Korean flavors and this, and I was like,
I'm not doing that. I'm just going right to the source.
I mean, that's why food trucks are here, so we
can we can order from them. Did you ever think
about opening a food truck? Are starting a food truck?
Not really? I mean because when that whole phase was,
you know, really, when when that whole thing really took off,
I was really you know, I had so many restaurants
(05:59):
that was just trying to keep, you know, going. It's
like having a food truck was not definitely in the cards.
I didn't need one more thing to to kind of
try to run. So but um, I like food trucks.
I think that they're really cool and you find you
find tons and tons of creativity. And I'm just looking
at this list from Time out the best food trucks
(06:20):
in l A. So, you know, Modiscos, Jalisco, So those
are you know, shrimp tacos, you know, and uh, you
know they look so good. Um, and they say this
is one of the long standing heroes of old school
taco trucks. So these guys are like part of the
original set of taco trucks before you know, everybody decided
(06:41):
that they had to have, you know, a Greek food
truck and you know food truck with you know, Korean food, etcetera.
You know. But uh and then of course Koji is
number two on the list. Um, and they call that
the granddaddy of the modern food truck bonanza since two
thousands and eight. So and I totally agree with that.
I mean, to me, just like not paying that close attention.
(07:02):
You heard over and over roy choi kogy Empire, like
that's what you kept hearing about, and he really said,
you know, he set the place on fire. Um. One
of my favorite, like one of my favorite places to
get tacos is from a taco truck, Leo's Taco Truck.
They have a few, but I go to the one
in Echo Park and they're really known for like their
Alpa store tacos. It's so good and it's I'm pretty
(07:24):
sure it's still cash only. Yeah, I mean, what about
like different kinds of Now there's there's a place, there's
a truck called the Yeasty Boys obviously off the Beastie Boys,
but they serve bagels and locks and schmir and it
says other stuff. No, it's so good. I know the
owner Evan Evan Fox. He because he hasn't one of
(07:44):
their trucks is is comes to still stops in Silver Lake.
And so I could walk there like every morning when
I when I still lived there, every morning that they
were there when they still lived there when I still
lived there. Rather, the bagels are good. I mean Evans
originally from from Arizona, but he spent a bunch of
time in New York and when he moved out here
was like, we don't have a lot of good bagels
out here, and he so he started Easy Boys. Yeah.
(08:05):
And if you notice, like it's like in some cases
it's really spawned like crazy businesses. I mean, the the
line that you have to wait in for EUSt Boys,
even if it's like eight am, is like nuts. I mean,
people people show up. Well. Well, one of the things
about it is um you know, well, first of all,
like some of the individual truck trucks have you know, transcended,
(08:30):
you know, the trend where they where they where they
where They're just so busy you can't get near him.
I remember. I don't think they do it anymore, but
used to be in Los Angeles in Venice on avit Kinney,
which is probably the most well known street in Venice.
Lots of restaurants, uh, cool clothing shops, etcetera. And there
(08:51):
was one night a week they used to have food
truck night and they lined the food trucks up and
down the street. I think they stopped doing and then
they moved the food trucks, but you would go there,
think it was like a Tuesday night or Friday night,
I can't remember, and you'd find all these different places
and to eat. It was like it was like literally
like grazing along the food truck line, which is totally fun.
You know Van lou and ice Cream, Yeah, so Van
(09:13):
lou and ice Cream. I mean they were one of
the first ice cream companies to really make some inroads
in the vegan ice cream world. Not all their ice
creams are vegan, but a few of them are. And
they started, you know, they have tons of you know,
bricks and mortar stores now, but they started as a
food truck. I remember. I remember the first time I
saw it. They were they were right in front of
Masa Grill in fifteenth and fifth in New York. I
(09:35):
was like, what is this ice cream stop? You know?
Do you know this place CVT No, I don't. I'm
guessing it means chocolate vanilla twist because they served three
flavors basically, and they yeah, it's like it's the old
school swirled truck and only offers three flavors chocolate, vanilla
and a combo of both. I love it and I
(09:56):
love this. I love this this um this line in
in this in this paragraph. This is from time out. Uh,
if you ask for free soft serve in exchange for
a post of your Instagram account, so like, if you're
an influencer, you'll have to reckon with the owner. His
name is Joe Niici. Um, he's got no time for
influences trying to bargain for food. In fact, he went
vile for charging influences double. If that's so funny. I mean,
(10:20):
I guess a lot of you know, people like food influences.
They expect, you know, free samples of things because they
you know, they can give you they can blow you
up on their on their feed. But um, this guy's
not having it. But but I have to say, like
the ice cream looks good. I'm a soft serve like junkie. Yes,
but it has to have like it has to have
good flavor, you have to have has to have that
(10:43):
sort of dense texture that you can almost chew. And
no frosty crystals in my serve or any of my
ice cream. I can't do it. So let's talk about
(11:12):
some food trucks in New York City. We keep talking
about Los Angeles. I'm just gonna talk up. I'm just
gonna I'm just gonna go down this. I have this
um this page of of of food trucks. So okay,
So Barrera Barrera Landia, which is your Mexican tacos. This
is a place in Jackson Heights and Queens. So you know,
(11:32):
Barira has become just has like blown up as as
a concept. It's basically like the French dip of tacos,
you know, where you have like that broth that you've
you've stewed the meat in and then you make a
taco out of it. Sometimes they put like cheese and melk,
the cheese on the tortea itself to make it nice
and crispy, and then you you put the student meat
(11:53):
inside of it and then you fold it up and
then you dip it into the broth and take a bite.
It's it's kind of sort of taken off in a
big way. There's something called Mystic Mystic Marsala, which is
an Indian food truck, is an Ethiopian one called mckeena Cafe.
How about the Halala guys. Those guys, okay, the ha
(12:15):
the Halal guys, I mean, these guys are iconic. It's
Middle Eastern. They started in Midtown around the corner from
Bar American with my restaurant Italian and on like fifty
I want to say, they were on like on fifty
three or fifty four street off sixth Avenue line down
the block for delicious Middle Eastern food. And they also
have now expanded their business to bricks and mortar, and
(12:39):
I think they actually did a deal with like a
venture company where you know, they started opening you know,
tons and tons of stores. The Halala guys, I mean,
but who doesn't want to eat that food? You know?
It's like no, I know, I mean, there's a lot
of competition for it now, but those guys, those guys
were definitely one of the first there's something called New
York doses, which are you know, in in you know, vegan.
(13:02):
I guess that there's Indian and Pakistani versions in the
West village. How about jerk pan Okay, they're not talking
about me. They're talking about you know, jerk cuisine. So
obviously Caribbean cuisine, jerk chicken and whatnot. I love those
flavors so much. I love I love this one King
Souvlaki of Astoria. So obviously it's Greek. I think Greek
(13:24):
really works nicely for a food truck, you know, yeah,
I think so, because you like, you can have like
skewers of shish kebabs, you know, like of of lamb
and beef and chicken, vegetables, even like shrimp. You can
do Greek salads. I mean, the key to food trucks
is like keeping the menu small and and executing you know,
(13:45):
just a handful of things really really well. But they
have to be very quick cook things. You know. Um,
you and I stopped by a food truck the other day.
I think your friend owns it. It's a smash burger truck. Yeah,
heavy handed, heavy handed, short beef ashburgers the mouthful. Yeah,
so there's so these guys are really smart. They're making
smash burgers, but they're using short ribs. Do you know
(14:07):
why they're using short ribs. I don't. Well, short ribs
have a lot of fat in it and tons of flavor.
So when you smash a burger down, there's a good up,
there's a good chance you're gonna squeeze out a lot
of the juiciness. But I think they're smart because they're
using short ribs, so they're they're ensuring that even though
they're smashing it and getting that crust on the outside,
that they're keeping a good amount of juiciness in the
(14:29):
in the in the patty itself, and then they put
obviously melted cheese on it. They have a potato bun,
They have great French fries. Those guys do it right.
There's another food truck out here in l A called
Happy Ice. There's a you know, brick and mortar location
now too, but it's shaved ice. It's like this super colorful,
colorful shaved ice. And the guy who started it is
(14:50):
originally from Philadelphia, and in Philadelphia they call it Philadelphia water. Um.
But he couldn't when he moved out to l A.
He couldn't find anything like it, and so he started
his own company, Philadelphia Water What does that mean? It's
what they call shaved ice. There a water ice. Yeah, okay, yes,
it's actually I believe. I don't want to get into
(15:11):
a fight over this, okay, but I really believe it's
a South Jersey thing. Yeah I do. Now, people from
Philadelphia and South Jersey are tough, so don't don't don't
beat me up over this. Okay, but but but but
that's really I think. You know, water ice is something
that you would hear a lot in South Jersey. And listen,
Philadelphia and South Jersey are literally connected. But so that
(15:32):
that makes perfect sense. I've never heard. I've never heard
the term of Philadelphia water shape. You're showing me your Instagram.
What's what's the Instagram? It's delicious. It's happy ice, happy ice. Okay. Um.
In l A, the Border Grilled truck. Those are my ladies,
Mary Sue and Susan Mary Sue milick In and Susan Fenneger,
who love them so much. Lots of Mexican and Latin
(15:54):
cuisine on their truck. Of course, in l A there's
the Green truck vegetarian farm to truck. I went to
a great plant based food truck called Man Eating Plant
and it's this couple who they have Japanese and Taiwanese
roots and so they're kind of combining those flavors from
their culture and doing this plant based Well it's not
(16:15):
a truck, it's it's a school bus. They like gout
it a school bus and turned it into like a
food bus. Really yeah, I kind of love that. I know, right, So,
(16:39):
food trucks I think have spawned something else, which are
I think that you know, food trucks were the first
pop up restaurants, and now we have pop up restaurants. Okay,
so what so what does that mean? So the food
truck obviously was on a truck, but now if you
go to places like Smogersberg in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and then
(17:02):
they have s'more Gala, which is l A's version. You
and I were just there, and again, low investment could
be high reward. And I love this for people just
starting out, especially were people who are changing their careers
or people who are not just recipe testing but like
you know, saying hey, look I'm a really good cook.
This is what I cook. I'm going to rent out
(17:24):
a stand and I'm going to show you that I
got this and and people will become discovered literally discovered
by doing this. And what I mean by that is,
you know, somebody rolls by and they have something delicious.
We were you and I were at the l A.
Smorg the other day. What was some of the amazing
Oh we went. How about that plant based Cuban place?
(17:44):
Oh my god, that was so good. Okay, I'm just
gonna say this. I was a little unsure because I
love Cuban food. Now I will say this. I've never
been to Cuba. I have spent a lot of time
in Little Havana in Miami, and they some spectacular Cuban,
authentic Cuban food there. It's not plant based, I mean
(18:05):
it is. It is. There was a lot of pork
and and um, you know I love that. I mean,
I just love I love that cuisine. You know, a
Cuban sandwich has two kinds of pork, has ham, and
it has roasted pork on it. So we walk up
to this plant based Cuban place, Senior Rita's, and uh,
(18:26):
first of all, the woman who who owns it, she
got the recipes from her dad, and and she admitted
that her dad was like not into it either. He
was like, what wait what jackfruit? Like, what's that? You know?
And like in some ways, you know, I was the
same way. And and she made us the most delicious
Cuban sandwich. Okay, why was it delicious? Well, first of all,
(18:47):
she used jackfruit, and she flavored flavored it with things
like like a moho, which is a moho is a
classic Cuban. It's like it's like a sauce, but it's
very light, it's citrus, it's garlic, you know, it's it's
more like a like it brings it brings flavor and
moisture to to whatever it's you're putting on. It could
be fish, meat, vegetables, whatever, um. And then what she
(19:10):
did was she had you know, she had vegan shees
on there because there's because there's usually Swiss cheese on
a a classic Cuban. And then she pressed it because
the Cuban sandwich one of the one of the tell
tales signs of a great Cuban is that it's pressed
perfectly on both sides. This was delicious, It was crispy.
The jackfruit I did not like if you said to
me it's pork, I would have believed it. And you know,
(19:33):
the the mayonnaise and the mustard were obviously delicious, and
the it was it was a really great sandwich. And
I was like, I'm eating a real I'm eating I'm
eating one of the best Cubans I've ever had. And
it was not it was not an out pork in
it yea, and you can find her obviously. It's more
l a Silver Lake and Yuka Valley. The thing about
pop ups is that the rent is for the day.
(19:56):
The commitment is for the day. You know what you
you sell if you have if you have some popularity,
you can make a nice living doing it, and you
can sleep while knowing that your commitment is like not
so drastic. And so that's what's really nice about it.
We were talking to a woman who was cooking Caribbean food.
(20:17):
It was called Bridgetown, Bridgetown. You went to a you
went to a pop up called Bridgetown. Let me look
it up, Oh Bridgetown, rotee, this is it? Describe it.
It's an l a Caribbean pop up? All right, yes,
pop up of the year okay by Esquire. Wow, Okay,
Rashida Holmes, Okay, now Rashida. I started speaking Rashida because
(20:41):
I was so impressed with her cuisine. She had these
little salt caught um cakes that were just fantastic every Sunday.
She's a Smorgasborg Los Angeles and it's called Bridgetown Rote,
so you know, like Rote is like that. It's like
a rap almost, you know, with different kinds of ingredients
kind of. But she's got, you know, this Caribbean flavor
that I just absolutely love using Scotch bond at chilies
(21:04):
and things like that. So it's got spice, it's got heat,
it's got sweet, it's got fruitiness, it's got tons and
tons of flavor. Also, I loved her and her crew.
They were great, just so enthusiastic. And she's worked in
a lot of good restaurants. She worked at Botanica actually, yeah,
one of our favorite restaurants, and she was the sush
chef there. So she's kind of she's kind of worked
(21:25):
around good restaurants in l A. And she was like,
I'm going on my own, but I'm gonna do it
pop up style, And all of a sudden, you know,
she's getting awards pop Up of the Year from Esquire Magazine,
you know the Bridgetown Route, and then Best Best New
Restaurant two thousand and one. Now, interestingly enough, two thousand
and twenty one was an interesting year for restaurants in
(21:46):
general because of the pandemic. But she's she's a pop
up and she got Restaurant of the Year, Best New
Restaurant rest of the Best New Restaurant of the Year
from Eater. So and by the way, she deserves it,
killing it, loving it. Love these stories every out there
who's got a good food idea and you think you
can make it happen. Food trucks, pop ups. We'll be there,
(22:07):
Sophie and I will be standing online. We will have
our our forks in hand and lots of napkins. You
and I are sloppy eaters sometimes, man, it's you're sloppier
than I am. It's because I'm enthusiastics. Um so, yeah,
l a New York, the rest of there's a there's
the rest of the country out there. I mean, I'm
(22:29):
sure in some of these other you know, big cities,
you know, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, there's food trucks everywhere. I
just don't know enough about them, but maybe we can actually,
you know, maybe that's a good idea, a food truck
for food truck tour with Sophie Filet and her dad
and Bob. Let's do it. But first I'm gonna eat
this Kochi short ribed taco and then I'm going to
(22:51):
be on the hunt for the CVT Soft Serve ice
cream truck. Let's go see you there. Always Hungry is
created by Bobby Flay and Sophie Flay. Our executive producer
is Christopher Hasiotis. Always Hungry is produced, edited, and mixed
by Jonathan Hostresler. Always Hungry is engineered by Sophie Flay.
(23:15):
For more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
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