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Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Los Angeles. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Through the Window of a Shrimp Truck

My search for a travel friendly, cubicle-free lifestyle ended with a shrimp truck.

Well, not ended exactly, more like made a pit stop.

Yes, a shrimp truck, as in prepare shrimp, cook shrimp, and serve shrimp right from the truck.

I never imagined what I could see from the inside of a restaurant on wheels. Actually, I suppose I never imagined I would ever be inside a restaurant on wheels. But the travel bug makes me do crazy things.

Throughout the bustling and trend-hungry streets of Los Angeles, there is an underground culinary culture that is 'The Food Truck.' And people are serious about their trucks. Really serious.

Edibles from all corners of the world are represented on one truck or another; there is something for every palate. Angelenos use all forms of social media to follow these trucks to the ends of the Earth if need be. All for a chance to quench their thirst for the tasty delights that exist solely on wheels.

From the window of The Shrimp Guys truck, I have seen L.A. I have seen new places. I have seen new people. I have seen a new sense of community and friendship in this culture of trucks and their family of followers. Sure, I have traded in my heels and pencil skirts for sneakers and an apron (which, let's face it, isn't my cutest outfit). And at the end of every day, I return home with the heavy aroma of garlic attached to every ounce of my being, instead of an incessantly ringing blackberry that gives me anxiety and nightmares.

But every day I find a new piece of the puzzle that is Los Angeles. Every day I make new friends in the food truck family, and every day is a new food adventure.

One of the best (and my personal favorite!) ways to experience a culture is to share and enjoy the food of its people. I am tasting my way through the likes of Los Angeles, one scrumptious shrimp plate at a time.

Oh, the things you can see through the window of a shrimp truck.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Today, Travel Came to Me

Today I am a traveler, and I haven't even left home! Lines of locals and tourists alike littered the streets trying to get into a street food fair in downtown Los Angeles. I am seeing new parts of my own city. Who knew we had a food fair? I get to eat food ALL day?! Definitely my kind of day. I think this might be a small slice of heaven. Its almost like an assembly of all these different countries got together to share their fabulous food with me (and a thousand other people). They even gave me a passport! So what if it was just a little ticket to get stamped at each place so I could win something? I got to "travel" through the culinary world all in one afternoon. It was enough to satiate my bug, and my appetite for the day. I guess this whole idea of travel being a state of mind and how you can be a traveler in your own home town is true after all. I drive through downtown Los Angeles all the time and curse the horrid drivers and senseless traffic, but today, that same place turned into a little food sanctuary. Travel really is about new experiences. There are things to be discovered right in my backyard, I just have to find them. And considering that my backyard is currently the only place I can afford to go...I will start looking. Travel and I have now been separated for 3 months, 3 weeks, and 5 days (but who's counting?) so I needed this. I know travel and I will be together again soon, but in effort to prevent a severe travel bug induced meltdown, today travel came to me.
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