Perfect Strangers

Remember that show? I do! I use to watch it pretty religiously. I probably wouldn't watch it today if it were a new show but it kept my young self entertained. There is just something funny enough about a guy named Balki from the island called Mypos. I don't know...maybe I liked it because it sounds like "meatballs". Maybe I like meatballs.

I'm telling you all this because somewhere between an email from this gal a couple of weeks ago to me telling you this story now, I somehow ended up joining a Ragnar team for the SoCal 2012 Ragnar with a group of local ladies that I've never met in real life before. You know...as in "perfect strangers". This is a big step for me because I have "stranger danger" fears.

Sarah did a marvelous job putting that post/roster together and honestly I couldn't have have done it better myself. Plus I have no time! :(

As of now, I believe that we are still taking suggestions for a team name. Go over to Sarah's blog to enter your suggestion and win a prize.

The Ragnar SoCal 2012 race will be my second Ragnar. I did the 2010 SoCal race with some co-workers. It's been a while but I seem to remember having a good time. I even wrote up some tips. I'm looking forward to this and will try my best to chronicle this journey to the best of my abilities. Do you trust my abilities? Don't answer that!

I didn't blog yesterday due to busy-ness. Regular blogging will resume next week hopefully. If you follow me on Twitter, you may have seen my tweet about getting my Spinning Certification this weekend. Yes, it's true! I'll post about that next week as well.

Last night I made more cookie brownies. If you are keeping count, that will be twice in one week. :)

I also ate from the Lime Truck twice this week. They have this amazing Ultimate taco made with shredded pork that they cook for 10 hours. Ten hours people!

And because a photo is worth a thousand words...

...Seafood Ceviche...

...and a Lychee Limade. More lychee please! I love me some lychee but I could hardly taste it in this. Maybe put some actual lychees in the drink? Please? No?

Okay, gotta go...I'll be back soon I hope!

Wednesdays At The Teller Lot

Ah the Teller Lot Food Truck gathering! It's been awhile. Months! But I was lured by a good truck lineup today. I stopped coming here for lunch on Wednesdays because I reasoned that there was a lack of healthy eats provided by food trucks but today Seabirds and the Lime Truck were there so I figured that at least I would get something vegan or organic. No such luck, the lines to both these trucks were long and moving slower than molasses in the winter. On a positive note, the trees have grown out nicely in that lot so it provided some much needed shade in the middle of an otherwise hot parking lot. Bring a folding chair, seating is at a premium here. Bring a wide brimmed hat and water while you are at it. Especially if you decide to stand in one of those long lines because it will literally take an hour or more to get your food in hand. They are here almost every Wednesday from 11:30-2pm. Trucks may vary.

The Rolling Sushi Van did not have a line. Sometimes that is all I'm looking for. I wanted something light since I ate so terribly last night. Making up for my inability to practice self-restraint is never good but better than no effort at all.

So I ordered the Sashimi Salad for $7.00. It looked colorful when I opened up the box. I took a bite and immediately noticed the delicious lime(y) dressing. I don't know why there was not a line at this truck because this salad was amazing! I almost drank the dressing after I finished the salad but once again I practiced self-restraint. Oooo I hate that self-restraint.

M ordered some Spicy Shrimp Tacos from the Flavor Rush Truck. I've never seen them before but the tacos smelled good. I didn't get a taste. :(

He also got some cupcakes from Oh For Sweets Sake! Red Velvet and Lemon Drop cupcakes. This will surely derail my self-restraint.

In addition, he also got a brat from Brats Berlin. Yes, this is how he rolls. Eating two lunches plus cupcakes. He definitely has no self-restraint.

SoCo Farmers Market and the Farm to Food Truck Competition

Today was my last long run before the SF Marathon. My schedule called for 8 miles but seeing how I've been missing my target milages these past few weekends, I thought that I should do 10 for good measure. Turns out that today was a good running day for me so I ended up doing 12. It felt great and I get to fully taper this upcoming week. I am planning to do a couple of short runs and maybe go to spin class once or twice. I'm excited, I head up to SF next Friday. I'm really looking forward to checking out the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building.

So I got myself these flowers this morning since I did so well with my run. Okay, so I basically get myself flowers pretty often. You know...when my run goes crappy, when my run is just okay and yes even when my run goes well. Especially when my runs go well. Because then I deserve 2 dozen red and white roses. ;)

After my run and some errand running, we decided to have lunch at the SoCo Farmers Market in Costa Mesa which operates every Saturday from 9-4pm. There were 20 food trucks onsite today as there was a food truck special event going on that I will talk about in a bit. Not sure how many trucks are normally here on Saturdays. I think it was just today that there were 20 trucks.

Produce stalls - this farmers market is very small but there were quite a few varieties of vendors.

I was pretty hungry since it was already 1:30pm and I had not yet eaten anything today aside from a cup of coffee and a PB bagel. So I walked past the market stalls and headed straight to the food trucks.

First up The Lobsta Truck! I've been wanting to try their lobster roll for a while now so I was stoked when I saw that they were here.

The Lobsta Roll w/ Mayo - I ordered it light on the mayo and it came on a toasty roll. It was everything I thought it would be. Really good! It was steep at $12 each but there was a lot of lobster meat and it tasted fresh. Mmmm!

M went over to The Calbi Truck for a beef and a shrimp taco.

He also checked out Berlin Brats. I've never heard of them before. They must be from LA or new to the game.

Bratwurst with roasted red peppers. There was too much bun. The bun to brat ration was off. 

I think he ended with these Pulled Pork sliders from Bacon Mania.

I wanted more seafood so I got in line for Slap Fish where they cook with sustainable seafood. So progressive!

I ordered the Seafood Tostada for $6, which included mussels, clams, shrimp, crab and calamari in a spicy citrus and tomato sauce. This was pretty fresh seafood. I loved the crunch that the slaw provided. Really tasty sauce too! I liked this.

Then it was sliders time so we headed to The Flip Truck...

...where I ordered a regular burger and one with cheese for the Honey. It came with Lou Wow fries and some sort of horseradish ketchup. These burgers were tasty for having come out of a truck.

Finally, we decided to end with The Morsels Bakery Truck.

By the time we got to the ordering window they were out of cream puffs and a couple of the cupcake flavors.

We decided to share this Red Velvet. I liked this a lot. The cake was moist and not too sweet and the frosting had a nice tang. Really good!

Crepes Bonaparte and with no lines but I was not in the mood for crepes today. :(

Rolling Sushi

Louks - they specialize in Greek cuisine.

Komodo

... and Kona Ice. These were just a few of the trucks there. There were lots more trucks there that I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of. I've never been to a truck gathering this large before and it was nice to have such a large selection of food to choose from. Plus the lines were not bad.

With our bellies full of amazing food, we decided to check out the Farm to Food Truck Competition. Just picture that Food Network show Chopped except with Food Trucks as the competitors. Each of the below trucks were to spend an hour gathering produce from the farmers market and then another hour cooking up an original dish to be judged by four local food bloggers. I think Slap Fish was the big winner! I think Bacon Mania, Spudrunners and Dos Chinos also placed. It was hot out there and crowded which is why I am uncertain.

The judges hard at "work".

All the competitors and their dishes. Most fun and delicious lunch I've had in a while.

The Burnt Truck

When food trucks first became popular I was curious about them and even sought out a couple. After a couple of visits I was pretty much fed up with the long lines, the longer wait, lack of a chair and table and more often than not the salt and grease that came with every order. I was done! I was pretty sure that I was over this whole food truck thing until one day The Burnt Truck made a stop near where I lived. I had to go check it out. Had to! I mean it was right there. The lines are still terrible and I still miss having a chair to sit on while I eat and a table to set my meal on...

Source

...but doesn't this look so good? From left to right: Cheeseburger, Vietnamese Beef and Fried Chicken!

Those Tator Tots made me fall in love with tator tots all over again. They were so crispy! And the Vietnamese Beef has a really nice lemongrass flavor. Really good.

Can you tell this is my favorite out of the bunch? Yeah these are fried chicken sliders complete with mashed potatoes and gravy...all in one pretty little package!

I wouldn't say that I am back on the food truck bandwagon but I might be willing to stand in line again. But only if it is short!

Souvenirs and A Cupcake!

After a long day at work, I was pretty lazy to make dinner last night. I haven't been grocery shopping as much later because I really want to clean out my fridge and pantry. I've been finding a lot of interesting stuff that I've purchased and forgotten about...like that frozen bag of turkey meatballs I had in the freezer or that jar of arrabiata sauce. So I ended up making turkey meatballs in arrabiata sauce. Yeah, I am so creative. NOT! I threw about 3 cups of fresh spinach into the sauce because I had to eat it up. I cooked up some brown rice fusilli to go with this. It was darn good. I am in a cooking funk, but hopefully this weekend I will find some inspiration to make vegan lasagna or something else to eat throughout the coming week.

Yes I ate a red velvet cupcake last night from the OhForSweetsSake truck that was purchased during lunch. I've been doing well on my no refined sugar week until this cupcake. I have a weakness and this is it! I think I will try again next week. Can't believe I could not go even one week without eating a dessert!

So, I finally got around to photographing all the neat souvenirs that Sister K lugged on the way back from Spain. She is really strong because that girl can shop! This gift in particular, I just LOVE! Sister K got this for me from a artisan shop in Spain. It is a cut carved wooden spoon. I love wooden spoons and this one in particular is just magnificant! All the edges are smooth and you can tell that someone spent a lot of time making it.

A close-up of the spoon and how there are no splinters or rough edges.

This is another item that Sister K brought back for me. It is a tote bag with the words Barcelona imprinted on it in gold. It had a zipper closure. Can't wait to use this. I have a ton of bags but I love bags.

Finally, this was also from Sister K. It is a hair clip. The flower is made with some sort of soft pleather. It is gorgeous! I think I am going to wear this to my Christmas party this year.

A close-up of the hair clip. Really lovely! Sister K has really good taste and spent a lot of time thinking about what to bring back and for that I appreciate these items that much more. These items are so thoughtful and I love handmade usable! Thank you Sister K, I love my presents!

I also took a photo of this art work that an artist made for me at my company picnic last week. This guy was a big hit at our event. He worked non-stop and had to continue to work even after the event was over to get all the request fulfilled.

Lastly, I decided to line my shoes up in a row to show how many shoes I've gone through these past 3-4 years. After I took this photo, I realized there was one extra pair in a box I had missed, it was another pair of the pink ones.

I know I said I was not going back to the food truck lines but there I was again. The lines seems to get worse every week, especially after the recent OC Foodie Fest event. A first for OC but surely not the last as I've heard they are already thinking about improving the event for next year. I guess words spend fast around these parts. Some out-of-state readers have commented that they haven't heard of the food truck craze. There is a show on Food Network call The Great Food Truck Race if you want to see what the hype is all about. I think this might be a predominantly California thing, with LA running the most trucks. Followed by probably OC and then other part in Norcal.

 I've been eating at the Dos Chinos truck which served a fusion type cuisine of Vietnamese and Mexican. It's pretty good and for some reason their lines are still manageable. The wait is still pretty long but not a 2 hour wait like some of the other trucks.

 
 Yesterday I got the garlic shrimp with pineapple salsa burrito. This was quite good.

 This is what I eat everyday. A turkey sandwich on 7-grain bread with mayo and mustard, sliced tomatoes and lettuce. Slightly less glamourous than stuff I would get at the food trucks, but my favorite lunch at the moment.