Confession: Before Saturday, I’d never been to a food truck.
Predicted reaction: WHAT?! OH MY GOD!? YOU’RE A FOOD WRITER AND YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO A FOOD TRUCK OH MY GOD I’M TOTALLY NOT GOING TO READ YOU ANYMORE AND I’M BURNING MY COMPUTER RIGHT NOW TO RID IT OF YOUR EMBARRASSING HUMILIATING ATTEMPT AT BEING A DECENT HUMAN BEING.
I mean, I’m pretty sure that’s true. You’re my readers, do you ever remember me blogging about a food truck? I don’t. I mean I’d been to the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck before I left New York (I even cooked it dinner) but I’m not sure ice cream trucks count because we’ve all been to those. What we haven’t all done is eat breakfast or lunch at dinner from the window of a truck.
And I’ll be honest, the idea of a food truck never really appealed to me for that reason: I like sitting down when I eat. I get no pleasure grabbing a greasy, foil-wrapped sandwich and standing there, dripping strange liquids, while strangers pass me by.
Which brings us to The Eggslut. I’d noticed it over and over again as I did my work at Coffee Commissary on Fairfax. It parks right outside and the thing is when you get your food you can take it to a table. I made a mental note to eat that food some day.
Then Ruth Reichl, who’s in L.A. finishing her novel, did a blog post about “the most decadent breakfast” that she enjoyed from The Eggslut truck. That dish, which does indeed look divine, was a coddle egg on potato puree with gray salt and chives.
And though that appealed to me when I visited The Eggslut this past Saturday with my friend John, another dish caught my eye:
Yes, that’s a little simpler than the potato puree one, but I don’t like to start my day with heavy food. I like to finish my day with heavy food (I’m a Big Dinner kind of guy) though I know that’s not the healthiest way to go about things.
Anyway, at the window, I met Alvin who runs the truck and who told me, after Ruth did her post, his business was crazy the next day. Non-stop. Isn’t that incredible?
Here’s John who also ordered the scrambled eggs on toast:
And here it is close up, with housemade sausage on the side:
That’s a lovely way to start your day and incredibly cheap too (I think the eggs on toast were $5 and the sausage $2).
What’s most admirable about these eggs is that they’re not prepped ahead as, I’m sure, most food truck food must be. They’re cooked to order and the technique, which results in custardy, light-as-air eggs, reveals real talent at the stove.
And the fact that the stove is on wheels makes it all the more exciting. So I suppose you can call me something of a food truck convert; with the caveat that I prefer food trucks stationed near tables. Up Next: The Kogi Truck.
