Animal.

My pictures are not the business. It was rather dark at Animal, and I have been making it a habit to forget the dSLR. So I was left to use my iPhone for this dark and dotty images. The images of the food will do no justice, so let's just move on to my thoughts of Animal.

We all know I splurge on food time to time. This is one of those times. 50 bucks got me beer, 4 dishes, and dessert. It was a good amount and range of food.

Mama’s Little Yella Pils
It's weird that I am getting into beers now. I decided to get one tonight. This wasn't bad. I can't say too much, cause my love for beer... this is just the beginning.

barbeque pork belly sandwiches, slaw
These sandwiches were AMAZING. The pork belly is well seasoned, and the fatty part of it just melts in your mouth. I had nothing to complain about this dish. The people at the table next to us left one on a plate, and I wish I could just take that off their hands... I hope it didn't go to waste!

poutine, oxtail gravy, cheddar
I've had poutine once before. You've probably seen the post earlier in my blog. That one was great, but this one... is... BETTER. The oxtail gravy totally makes a difference. I love oxtail, as is, so using that type of meat to top fries and cheese is pretty much perfection.

sweetbreads, creamed spinach, capers, oyster mushroom
I have never had sweetbreads before. I can't say it's something I would try in a heartbeat, but it's one of those dishes that I want to try at least once in my life. It was one of those times. I thought it was pretty good. The texture is definitely interesting. I did enjoy the spinach, capers, and mushroom that came with it. And the lemon scraps they added. If you put it all together, it was a pretty good combination in your mouth.

foie gras, biscuit, maple sausage gravy
I am not usually a fan of biscuits and gravy... but this is pretty damn good. I have never had duck liver either, so another weird thing to try. I definitely would not mind getting this again. Pricey little dish though.

bacon chocolate crunch bar, s&p anglaise
This is the one thing that attracted me to Animal in the first place. It was featured on Best Thing I Ever Ate. And of course, it was a must-have. I don't care how much I ate (see above), we ended up getting a dish of this to share between five of us. We each got a bite or two. Can't complain... this was GREAT. It tasted exactly like a crunch bar, but better chocolate and a slight taste of saltiness.

I was quite satisfied with everything here. I would go back again. Maybe not like every week. But once a while, I would not mind. Of course... unless I win the lottery. One can dream...

Food Truck Chase!

The food truck community in Los Angeles is insane. It seems like it has blown up over a span of.... a few months. We have fusion foods of all kinds, every single type of cuisine in the world, and specialty trucks. Sometimes, I think I should start my own truck... Hmm, maybe so....

I have a slew of food trucks I follow on Twitter, but I haven't even caught up with most of them. I was able to catch a few last Thursday. I helped plan a big food truck chase for my friend's birthday. Quite successful, I might add! The night starts off around 7pm and until 1am. We hit up the following: Gastrobus, Mandoline Grill, Kogi BBQ, and The White Rabbit. In that particular order too.

Kinda hard to plan a food truck chase. Sure there is TruxMap and other sites to help you locate each and every truck out there, but I was trying to schedule it all for one night and I wasn't about to drive well-across town in LA traffic (especially with 10 people). I did my research. I looked at all the websites for the trucks I could find. Most of them put their schedule up, so I tracked the ones on the East side of LA -- Echo Park, Silverlake, Los Feliz, and Eagle Rock. Very do-able.

I'm only going to highlight the ones I was most impressed with. So Mandoline Grill and White Rabbit, congrats!! You made it to my "I like you" list. :)

Mandoline Grill -- I have actually been to this place before at a food truck festival a couple months ago. It was OK to me at the time. I had their noodle bowl. I wasn't impressed cause it was just that - a noodle bowl. Sure it was delicious, but nothing to go home and write about. But that Thursday night, I was tipped off to their secret menu! And for some reason, secret menus are so fun!! I must say, it was pretty damn good. I had their nachos and tacos...with a Vietnamese twist!! Amazing.

I had the beef taco -- and yes. Delicious. I don't even remember what was in it really... but it was damn good. It's also very VERY very VERY spicy. I am OK with handling spice, so I continued to eat the whole taco. My nose was sniffling and I was semi-sweating... but all I could think was "Yeah, that was good!"
I didn't order the nachos, but someone else in our group did. I had to try it. And again, delicious! I don't think there was any cheese in here.. Or I could be wrong. But this one is very spicy too! Can't stop, won't stop.... too good.

The White Rabbit -- So... I believe that Filipino food is the best type of cuisine out there. But it's hard to please me cause... my family's Filipino food is the BEST Filipino food. Of course, ask every other Filipino out there. They will probably say the same thing. :)

I'm confident to say that they did a good job impressing me. I had the taco combo: Adobo, Tocino, and Sisig tacos. My favorite is the Sisig. I am pretty picky when it comes to that dish, but the Sisig in these tacos were on point. Crunchy and tasty!
Dessert: white chocolate champorado! I don't even like white chocolate, but I do love champorado. They added a twist to it, so of course I have to try it. I normally like my champorado more liquidy, not to sweet, and really soft rice. This one is almost... all of the opposite. It was more pudding-like, and you could taste every morsel. I still enjoyed it a good amount, despite my distaste for white chocolate. It wasn't too incredibly sweet, and I think the amount they give you is perfect. They add broken up barquillos and a strawberry on top, so that adds a nice touch. I still think they should have the regular champorado, but then again... can they top my Mom's? Yeah, that could be tough....
I guess fusion trucks won that night. Vietnamese tacos and Filipino tacos... I dig it! Now go find them on twitter, chase, and chomp down these dishes. I enjoy, and I hope you do too.

Happy eating!