“One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to EATING.”

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Food trucks today with @alessia_stewart!

A post shared by Josh Cobler ✊🏼 (@kuya_joshua) on Sep 22, 2012 at 5:56pm PDT

Back on September 22, ten food trucks rolled into the Dallas suburbs as a part of the first annual Haute Wheels Food Truck Fest. I am a big fan of food — in case the foodie trip to New York didn’t make you realize that — so naturally I showed up at the hour it opened. My best friend since preschool, Alessia, came with me and we tackled the food trucks together! Thanks for joining me in my goal to eat at all ten food trucks, even if that didn’t work out for obvious reasons!

Alessia didn’t actually join me until I hit Good Karma Kitchen, although she and her parents ended up eating at most of the same trucks, and our families went back to Coolhaus for a group dessert.

The Ten Food Trucks:

• Nammi Truck*
• The Butchers Son
• Easy Slider*
• Ssahm BBQ*
• Ruthies Rolling Café*
• Jacks Chow Hound
• Good Karma Kitchen*
• Coolhaus*
• Rockstar Bake Shop
• Eat Jo Dawgs

* indicates that I ate here

Nammi Truck

The first truck I attacked was Nammi Truck, a Vietnamese fusion truck. Nammi Truck sold mostly bánh mì, a Vietnamese dish consisting of a baguette filled with meat and pickled vegetables. I’ll be honest: I’ve been incredibly spoiled when it comes to bánh mì. It turns out that in San Francisco, the bánh mì I had with the Asian American Donor Program from Saigon Sandwiches would be the best one I’d eat. (Saigon Sandwiches is rated 26/30 by Zagat.) The barbecue pork bánh mì offered by Nammi was underwhelming, mostly because I was expecting something of the same quality as Saigon. Regardless, it was still good and quite filling.

My rating: 2.5 out of 5

Ssahm BBQ

Deciding to do an Asian run, I went straight to Nammi’s neighbor Ssahm BBQ. Priding itself on its Korean tacos, Ssahm BBQ was definitely a place I was looking forward to, especially because I’ve never truly tried Korean tacos outside of the ones my mom makes at home. Originally, I was going to go to Kogi (famous for its Korean tacos) on my second day in L.A. but they were closed and we ended up going to A-Frame. The beef taco I had at Ssahm BBQ tasted good! However, it was ridiculously spicy and tasted more Mexican than Korean! I understand that people in Texas like Mexican food, but I was expecting more Korean taste. And the kimchi fries didn’t actually have kimchi.

My rating: 3/5

Coolhaus

I’ll be honest: I’m not a huge fan of ice cream sandwiches. I cringe a little bit whenever I’m offered one, so naturally, I didn’t really want to go here. Why did I choose Coolhaus? My mouth was burning from the spiciness of Ssahm BBQ! I decided the best way to cool off would be to go to Coolhaus! They offer a build-an-ice-cream-sandwich menu — choose a cookie and choose an ice cream! I went with a classic chocolate chip cookie with Tahitian vanilla bean ice cream. The vanilla was one of the best vanillas I’ve ever tasted, and I love the idea of stick a scoop of ice cream in between two cookies!

My rating: 5/5

Ruthie’s Rolling Café

I’ll admit that I was attracted to the colorful food truck called Ruthie’s Rolling Café. This is what a food truck should look like: bright, vibrant, fun. Ruthie’s offers many types of sandwiches, making it popular with younger children. Okay, I know I said I ate here, but I lied. My little brother Jude ate here, not me. He ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, and his seven-year-old, unexposed palate liked it.

My rating:

His rating: Like

Good Karma Kitchen

Good Karma Kitchen serves gluten-free and vegetarian because vegan is too much of a stretch food. I was probably looking forward to this one the most, alongside Ssahm BBQ. If you’ve seen my Tumblr, then you’d know that I love the idea of vegan/vegetarian food mostly because I’m constantly reblogging vegan meals. Personally, I see veganism (and its brother, vegetarianism) as healthier diets — provided essential nutrients are still being consumed — than the omnivorous diets most people have. Add that in with gluten-free, and you get a recipe for a food truck that I love… er, supposed to love.

I was not impressed with Good Karma Kitchen at all because it was… gasp, PIZZA WEEK! That’s how I ended up leaving with a margherita pizza and sweetened organic peach tea. Thank God it was sweetened; my Tita J- had it unsweetened and it tasted disgusting. The salad didn’t have a dressing, so it wasn’t even decent. If you look at Good Karma Kitchen’s menu, you’ll see all sorts of good-sounding food. Instead, they fed me pizza because apparently, it’s pizza week. Vegetarian food should make me feel good, not bad. Pizza makes me feel bad.

My rating: 1/5

Easy Slider

After being disheartened by Good Karma Kitchen, Alessia showed up. I decided I had one more meal in me, so we went to one more place: Easy Slider. It was pretty noticeable since it had a giant burger at the top — it’s in the original tweet I sent — and Alessia and I split a portion (two per order). Easy Slider burgers look fun — each slider has the usual stick going through the middle, except there was something on one end! My order had pickles, but I saw one with strawberries! I ordered The Classic, which consists of angus beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomato, and onions. I ordered it with no onions because I hate onions (they’re evil). It tasted delicious and was one of the best sliders I’d had in a while! (I don’t have much red meat that often…)

My rating: 5/5

And that was my food truck run!

I did pretty well, didn’t I? I mean, 6/10 food trucks is still pretty good (even if I didn’t eat at one of them)! My favorites were definitely Easy Slider and Coolhaus. If you look at the places I didn’t go to, you’ll notice they have barbecue, sausages, or something of the like. I don’t really like barbecue, which is a sin worthy of capital punishment here in Texas… Well, actually, I only like Asian barbecue. (Not like I can have much of that here in Dallas, anyway.) It was a fun night for sure, and Alessia, I hope food and friends (er, friend) made up for the fact that you were missing your homecoming! I would say I owe you one, but I was the one who paid for the sliders… 😉