Trotter's Protege Meets Chinese Bao at The Chairman Truck

Fine dining chefs jumping ship to sell casual, comfort food is not just a trend that started in the past year. Chef Hiro Nagahara, formerly chef de cuisine at Bar Charlie (Charlie Trotter) in Las Vegas worked with Mobi Munch to start The Chairman Truck in 2009, selling chinese steamed buns with unique, high end fillings like spiced duck confit in San Francisco.

(The Chairman was originally named The Chairman Bao, but then they got sued by Baohaus in NY since "chairman bao" was apparently the first item on their menu. Gotta admit, it's such a catchy name.)

Mobi Munch is actually an LA-based company, and when they outfitted The Chairman's second truck, they decided to hold a tasting for friends and media before sending it off to SF. The tasting was held at Mobi Munch headquarters in downtown LA, where I tried five of their offerings. The buns are usually $3.25 each for steamed bao ($6.75 for baked - not sure how big these are), $3.75 for duck confit and pork belly.

1st bao: Tender Pork Belly with Pickled Daikon

First, let's talk about the bao itself. The bao is made using a 40 year old yeast brought from China 20 years ago by the SF truck operator, Curtis Lam's uncle who was the executive chef of Yank Sing. The warm bao was great, neither too thick nor too doughy.

The pork belly was tender, not overly fatty, and the crunchy, tart, pickled daikon was the perfect accompaniment to cut the richness. The daikon is, of course, pickled in-house ("in-truck"?)

The 2nd bao is a spinoff of korean spicy chicken: Spicy Red Sesame Chicken with pickled cucumber and carrots

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Get On the Lobsta Truck!

I'm not one to chase down food trucks, but I've been curious about the Lobsta Truck for a while since all my friends and fellow food bloggers seem to love it (one Boston transplant says that it's legit). My chance to try it came when they parked outside of Scoops Westside one Tuesday evening.

They were already out of the crab roll by the time I got there, so my companion and I got one of each lobster roll: with mayo or with butter. Apparently, for Bostonians, the proper way to eat a lobster roll is with mayo (celery and pepper optional).

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Heirloom LA Launches Food Truck

Heirloom LA is not just any food truck. Matthew Poley brings his experience working for Gino Angelini into his homemade pastas, his famous lasagna cupcakes, and everything else from a braised brisket to pork belly. Tara Maxey, in charge of the sweets, honed her skills working at Cake Monkey Bakery.

Heirloom LA started off as a catering company, so their food so far might have eluded many people, except for a somewhat brief stint at Intelligentsia Pasadena, but now you can find them roaming the streets of LA with their new truck, powered by Windows Phone. They held a preview party last week at Bar Covell, which I happily attended (lasagna cupcakes!)

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