Street, Heat and Meat: The Long Beach Street Food Fest

The "Eh":

Don't get me wrong. I loved the mac 'n cheese and pork rib grilled cheese sandwich I got from the Grilled Cheese Truck (@GrlldCheeseTruk), and would eat it again, but it was slightly expensive ($7.50) and the line was ridiculous. Ten minutes after the fest started, there was a 20-person line; by 1 p.m., the line stretched clear across the park and was at least two hours in length. No sandwich is worth a two-hour wait, sorry.

Dave Lieberman/OC Weekly

​Del's Frozen Lemonade (@DelsLA), the old Venice standby, was fine, and flecked with recognizable pieces of lemon zest, but in the heat it melted so fast that we ended up drinking more than half of it with no recourse needed to the spoon. I'd rather keep this as a treat when I go to Venice Beach.

I liked the doughnuts (really beignets) from the Buttermilk Truck (@ButtermilkTruck), but they were very small, and two of them cost $2. They were really well done and obviously freshly cooked, but the problem again was the line; this was the second most-popular truck, and I'd be pissed off if I waited forty minutes for two bites of doughnut. If there were less of a wait, I'd be happy to follow them around, especially in breakfast-free places like Miracle Mile.

The Bad:

The Lomo Arigato (@LomoArigato) truck had menus in the window, on the side and on the rear of the truck, as well as posted up inside the truck. Nowhere, however, were the prices posted. They were selling Peruvian-Chinese specialties (lomo saltado and arroz chaufa), which looked tempting, but I can't comment on the food; I refuse to buy anything not marked with a price, on principle. Post the prices; it looks shady if you don't.

We ordered a gobi paratha and mango lassi from the India Jones Chow Truck (@IndiaJonesCT) and were immediately sorry we did. The lassi was fine, though pre-made and poured from a pitcher; a little squeeze of citrus juice would have woken it up a little bit and made it seem fresher.

Dave Lieberman

​The gobi paratha (a wheat bread stuffed with cauliflower filling) was inedibly salty, as though they had salted the filling and then used Lawry's seasoned salt for the spicing. It came with a tub of raita; the only word I can use to describe their yoghurt dip is "stringy". It looked like cucumber had been shredded into long strands and mixed with the yoghurt. It, too, was unbelievably salty, so that when I dipped the paratha into the raita I had to take a long drag of the lassi to get my mouth to stop burning. We ate a quarter of the paratha and a teaspoon of the raita and the rest went into the trash. Honestly, if that's the best you can do, pick a different career--chartered accountancy perhaps.