Cold Rainbow: Tropical Shave Ice Truck

My co-workers and I were so food-trucked out that we left the office to get Thai food even though we still had an army of trucks outside.


It was so hot when we came back, though, that we decided to give the Tropical Shave Ice Truck a shot.

Here's Handsome Magoo's creation. Mine looked pretty similar. You know the drill. Pick one, two, or three flavors.

It was a pleasant way to cool off for $3.50.

You Give Bacon a Bad Name: Lardon

I thought loving Lardon would be a no-brainer.


It's bacon! And look at that great marketing up there!

Well, I didn't love it. That's actually an understatement. It was downright bad.

The Lardon -- BLT with Nueske's peppered bacon, butter lettuce, tomatoes, and St. Agur bleu cheese on a toasted baguette ($6).

The bacon ought to have been the star. It was horrific, chewy, and just gross -- so bad that I ate half and threw the rest away.

Transport That Tea: The Boba Truck

The Boba Truck has quite the extensive tea, boba, and jelly selection on wheels. I was impressed, considering I thought it'd just be regular boba milk tea!

Regular teas and milk teas cost $3.50 and $3.75, respectively. Premium teas and premium milk teas cost $3.75 and $4.00, respectively. Prices include your choice of boba, mini boba, lychee jelly, mango jelly, or aloe bits. Upgrade to a large for $0.50!

My large mocha milk tea with boba cost $4.50.

The mocha milk tea was nice and strong and creamy. The boba were perfectly chewy and just sweet enough.

Izzo got a large almond milk tea with mango jelly for $4.25.

She let me have a sip. Quite nice.

The Boba Truck may not be as good as Tea Station or Half & Half Tea House, but it was mobile and came right to our office!

Basic and Yummy: Fresh Fries

My co-workers bought some wares from Fresh Fries and were kind enough to share.


I thought the Fresh Fries graphics were adorable!

626 Fries -- hoisin sauce, mayo, crunchy noodles ($6).

What?! This combination sounded horrible! It was definitely not something I would've ordered myself, but Wienerdude is a pretty weird guy sometimes. Surprisingly, this offbeat concoction was oddly enjoyable, not unlike Wienerdude himself.

Hummus -- sweet potato fries with hummus sprinkled with smoked paprika and sesame seeds ($6).

I trust Prim's taste in both food and fashion, so I knew her choice of fries would be a winner. Good pick, Prim!

Fresh Fries' concept is not particularly ingenious, but who doesn't love fries?

Mr. Roboto Would Approve: Lomo Arigato

Lomo Arigato serves Peruvian-Japanese fusion food.


Don't be scurred! It's a good combination!

Tallarin saltado -- Peruvian-style spaghetti prepared in a wok with your choice of protein (tri-tip, chicken, or tofu), tomatoes, onions, cilantro, soy sauce, and red wine ($8).

Gigantic portion! This tastes like your Asian mama tried to make Latin lo mein!

Chaufa -- Peruvian-style fried rice with your choice of protein (tri-tip, chicken, or tofu) with red bell peppers, green onions, eggs, and soy sauce ($8).

Crazy huge portion! This tastes like your Latin mama tried to make Japanese fried rice!

Lomo Arigato may not have the most sophisticated offerings, but the food is agreeable and plentiful. You could feed a family of four with just two dishes!

Expensive But Good: Lobsta Truck

You can spot the cheery red Lobsta Truck from a mile away.

It's one of my favorite trucks, graphically speaking. Simple. Striking.

The food is simple and striking, too.

Lobsta roll -- fresh lobster meat on a toasted split-top roll with mayo or butter ($12).

We chose butter. It was all that it was advertised to be. Solid.

Crab roll -- fresh crab meat on a toasted split-top roll with mayo or butter ($12).

We chose butter. I liked this even more than the lobster.

It's pricey for food from a truck, but Lobsta Truck doesn't skimp. Real, fresh, and ample.

Get Your Spam Fix: Uncle Lau's Island BBQ

I tried Uncle Lau's Island BBQ one morning.


Portions are extremely generous, so order conservatively.

I started my day with a Hawaiian iced tea and a loco moco -- spam, two eggs, rice, and gravy ($8).

Light, this was not! I've had much better loco moco, but this hit the spot well enough because I didn't have particularly high expectations. The people in the truck were also very nice, so that was a plus.

Summer Quencher: Del's Lemonade

Del's Lemonade is a welcome sight on a hot day. It's frozen!

I lapped up my large frozen lemonade pretty quickly. It was like I'd visited the fair while at work.

Disastrous Dduk: Ahn-Joo

Ahn-Joo made my co-workers and me really sad.

The Korean snack bar on wheels sounded so promising.

Bulgogi bowl -- Korean BBQ beef, garlic fried rice, spicy pickled cucumbers ($8).

This was the winner amongst our selection, which is pretty pathetic because it was only ok at best.

Spicy chilled buckwheat noodles, Fuji apples, Korean vegetables ($5) and bacon-wrapped rice cylinders, jalapeño ponzu ($3).

The soba was utterly forgettable. The bacon-wrapped rice cylinders were nice little bites, but we'd had higher hopes for them.

Spicy chicken and Korean pepper skewers ($3).

Awful. Nuggets of dry. Like Sahara dry.

Korean nachos -- fried rice cakes, smoke chile queso, soy-braised pork, kimchee salsa ($7).

Terrible. I love dduk. Love! I hated this. The pork was palatable, but the dduk was so wrong. So dessicated. So rock-hard. We could've pelted each other with them. They were a far cry from the wondrous chewiness that they should've been.

Fuji apple egg roll, ginger mascarpone ($5).

These were an acceptable end to the meal. Actually, they tasted kind of good, but I'm not sure if we enjoyed them simply because we ate them after that horrible mess of a dduk disaster.

If this meal was indicative of what Ahn-Joo always serves, I don't know how it stays in business.

Unremarkaball: Great Balls on Tires

Great Balls on Tires lured me in because of its name.

The truck goes balls out with its theme. There's no holding back here.

IncrediBall -- two ground Kobe beef sliders with applewood smoked bacon, Gruyere, wild arugula, garlic aioli, toasted brioche ($7).

I really wanted to love these because this truck has such a fun concept and is run by extremely nice people. Unfortunately, the meatballs were dry and underseasoned.

I hope this was an off day. I didn't have a good experience, but I'd be willing to give this truck another chance because the guys on the truck were just so friendly and cool.

That, my friends, is the power of good customer service.

Decent Breakfast Burrito: Mangia

The CIA shut down the cafeteria to prepare for our new food service provider, so we had food trucks come to the CIA that week. I started my day with a chorizo breakfast burrito ($4) from Mangia (which, bizarrely, seems to have zero web presence).

This was surprisingly tastier than I expected, especially since it's a burrito from an Italian truck.

I didn't have a choice. It was the only truck there that morning.

Fancy-Schmancy Ice Cream Sandwiches: Coolhaus

I was glad to see Coolhaus at The Railroad Revival Tour.

I really like Coolhaus. I'd tried it in the past after another concert, but it was too dark that night to memorialize our foie-gras-ice-cream-ginger-molasses-cookie sandwich and brown-butter-candied-bacon-ice-cream-snickerdoodle sandwich with my little pink camera.

Pick your cookie. Pick your ice cream. Pay $5 for your personalized ice cream sandwich!

Red velvet cookie + red velvet ice cream.


Maple waffle white chocolate cookie + Nutella toasted almond ice cream.

Both the ice cream and the cookies at Coolhaus are inventive and delectable. Even I'm willing to wait in line for Coolhaus.

Food for the Stoned: The Munchie Machine

When we went to the Railroad Revival Tour with our dear friends The Cruisers, our only sustenance options were food trucks. We started with The Munchie Machine.

How sad was I when I was informed there were no Scooby Snacks that night?

There was only a very limited menu for this event.

Prices were also jacked up. Boo!

The Green Bird -- smoked turkey, pesto, tomatoes, cheese ($10).

It's not just my crappy picture. This so-called sandwich really was this anemic. And it cost $10. WTF?!

Caramel s'more ($5).

This was the best of the bunch, but that's not saying much. I paid $5 for this?! Bah!

Cinnamon s'more ($5).

The Munchie Machine serves food that only a pothead could love at prices only the high could ignore. What a waste.