DAYS 22 - 23: Tucson, San Diego, and Los Angeles

Sunday, October 14th - Monday, October 15th, 2012: Tucson, San Diego, and Los Angeles


10/14

We woke up in Benson, Arizona and made our way west to Tucson in about in hour.  Neither of us had been to Tucson before, so we didn't really know where we were going.  I tried to find food trucks on my phone, but, because it was a Sunday, I was having a hard time finding one that was open.

I found 'Planet of the Crepes' on Facebook.

After we drove around exploring Tucson for an hour, I found a website for 'Planet of the Crepes' which is a food truck in Tucson that is open every day.  Once we mapped out where they were (no where near where we were at that moment), we hauled ass to try to get to the truck by by the time it closed at 1pm (it was about 12:40pm at this time).

I found their website with their hours and locations.

We literally pulled into the parking lot at 12:58pm.  We parked and I ran over.  I asked the lady in the truck if she was still open.  She replied 'I suppose I am, but there's not much left...'  So I told her we'd take whatever she had left and explained to her about our food truck road trip.  She was very nice and I gave her the blog website address.

'Planet of the Crepes' truck.

'Planet of the Crepes' menu.

I'm so glad we made it in time because the crepes were delicious!

What we got:
Smoked Duck Crepe
Nutella and Banana Crepe

Total (with tip): $14

Nutella-banana Crepe.

The crepes were served wrapped in wax paper and placed in a Solo drinking cone (very convenient) with a nice napkin wrapped around that and a fork sticking out.  This made it super easy to eat something is normally served on a plate!

Very patriotic.

Nutella-banana crepe.

Smoked Duck Crepe.

The Nutella-banana crepe was so delicious and warm and comforting.  The crepe was enormous and took me over 10 minutes to eat the entire thing!  The smoked duck crepe had guacamole, onions, tomatoes, and aged cheddar cheese in it.  The crepe itself was delicious - soft and crispy and very well-made.  Granted the woman making the crepe had to work with the ingredients she had left, Mitch said it was good overall, but it had way too much guacamole on it (is that possible?) and that the ingredients together could have been better.  All in all, it was tasty and Mitch was happy :)

After we ate the crepes, there was a farmers market going on in the same parking lot, so we walked around and picked up a few items.  I made out pretty well considering one produce stand gave me an entire bag of free onions and another bakery stand gave me a free baguette!

Sleeping Frogs Farm stand.

Produce stand.

Bake House Bakery stand.

What we got:

Eggplant and sweet potato greens (from Sleeping Frog Farms)

Onions from another produce stand.
Caroway Rye Loaf and a sour dough baguette (from Bake House Bakery)

Total: $11



After leaving Tucson, we started heading west towards San Diego (about a 6 hour drive).  The only interesting stop we made was in the middle of the Arizona desert at a place called 'Dateland.'  There were date palm fields all around, so we stopped to get gas and a ton of free date samples.

Date samples.

Kingsley in the Arizona desert.

Kingsley and I galavanting in the desert.

We arrived at our campground in San Diego around 9:30pm.  This KOA campground was honestly the nicest one we've been to so far!  First of all, it was gated.  It had a beautiful pool and grounds - not as rustic as most of the campgrounds we've been to thus far.  Very modern camping.

KOA campground in San Diego.

I wasn't hungry for anything (surprising), so Mitch made himself dinner.

Mitch's dinner - Bacon and eggs with Ramen noodles and fresh heirloom & radish salad.

10/15

After we got up and walked around the campground for a while, we discovered the most amazing thing - a dog wash station.  It was like a carwash/vending machine for dogs!  Kingsley reeked from the alligator pond he jumped into a few days earlier, so it was great timing.

Dog wash.

After that excitement, we got ready, left the camper at the campground, and drove into Ocean Beach to meet our friend, Max, who lives there.  He was going to show us where some good trucks were.

Mitch and Max.

Max used www.sdfoodtrucks.com to find a particular food truck he had heard was good.  It was called 'Eat at Recess' and it was parked near Miramar Marine Corps Air Station.

'Eat at Recess' truck.

'Eat at Recess' menu.

What we got:
The Science Project (Burger)
Red Light (Vegetarian turkey sandwich)
Side of Tots
Dark Cherry Soda
Root Beer

Total (with tip): $25

Side of tots.

Vegetarian turkey sandwich.

Science Project burger (Mitch added the tots to it himself).

The 'Eat at Recess' truck was pretty incredible.  It looked very new and it was enormous.  It had a drink station and a condiment station on the side, and the kitchen inside looked about the size of most restaurant kitchens!

The food was equally incredible.  We were surprised at how big the menu was at this truck because most trucks have pretty small menus.  The tots were so crunchy and wonderful.  The vegetarian 'turkey' sandwich was also very good - sweet and savory at the same time.  Mitch's burger was "effin' delicious" - you could tell that the burger was fresh pressed and the veggies on it were fresh and organic.  He was very happy.

Kingsley catching some tots.

After lunch, we drove back to Max's apartment that's literally one block from the ocean.  We admired the view for a while and considered moving in with Max for the rest of the week.

One block from Max's apartment.

Mitch and Max.

We went back to the campground to pick up the camper and started heading towards Los Angeles.  We kept hearing horror stories about how time-consuming it is to drive in LA.  Even though we've been there before, we've never actually driven there, so we had no idea what to expect.

Approaching the LA skyline.

It actually wasn't horrible at all!  We made it from San Diego to the food truck we were going to in West Hollywood in about 2 and half hours.  Our friend, Michael (the same one who was in Austin while we were there) and his wife, Amber, live there and Amber works for a food truck/catering company called 'Heirloom LA.'  On Monday nights, a wine store called Silverlake Wines has free wine tastings and they let Heirloom park their truck in front of the store to serve food for all the winos from 5-10pm.

'Heirloom LA' menu.

Everything on the menu sounded so good!

Amber taking our order and the delicious, beautiful trifle cake on the counter.

I can honestly say that this meal was the best we've had, hands down.  The chef made Mitch small plates of several things on the menu, and Mitch hung out with him in the truck for a while.

Amber and Mitch.

Mitch with the Heirloom chefs, Migs and Todd, inside the truck.

What we got:
Garden salad
Wild Baramundi
Mojo Crispy
Sloppy Migs
Cochinite Pibil Plate
Spice Cake Trifle

Garden salad with veggies, lettuces & vinegar.

Wild Baramundi white fish with Heirloom tomato ceviche.

Cochinite Pibil plate with pickled onions and dirty rice.

Sloppy Migs - brisket on a bun with fresh salad and onion rings.

Mojo Crispy - Ciccharon sandwich with queso freco and shell bean puree.

Spiced trifle cake with fresh berries and stone fruit.

Overall, everything was absolutely perfect -  the truck graphics, the truck set-up, the menu display, the staff, and, most importantly, the food!  

The salad was so fresh tasting because all the vegetables were home-grown and organic.  So simple and yummy with just a little vinegar on it.  The perfectly cooked fresh whitefish was crusted in delicious crispy tempura and the tomato ceviche was a perfect accompaniment to the fish.  The cochinite pibil plate was a standard, amazing braised pork shoulder with an awesome spicy barbecue sauce.  The sloppy migs was Mitch's favorite - the brisket was super tender, slathered in barbecue sauce, served on yummy ciabata bread with crispy onion rings.  Wait - I guess the mojo crispy was Mitch's favorite - the chiccharon was an awesome pork belly roll that appeared to be roasted and then fried which made it super tender and crispy all at the same time.  Everything on the sandwich complimented each other but the pork itself was so tasty that it almost didn't need anything else with it!

All in all, the best food truck experience we've had so far!!

There was another Australian Shepard hanging out at the wine store.  They were so cute together!

Bye-bye Hollywood!

Amber is awesome and wouldn't let us pay for anything.  Considering all the food they kept bringing out for us to try, this was extremely generous and totally unexpected!  Thank you so much to Amber and the chefs at Heirloom.  I went into the wine store and picked out a nice wine for them as a thank you :)

After our amazing meal, we started our trek north.  Our campground was located in Santa Margarita, CA, about a 3 and a half hour drive north of LA.  This campground was beautiful, located in the mountains way off the main highway.  

Santa Margarita Lake, CA.

Total Food Truck/Food Stand Spending in 2 days:  $50 (under budget)

Spending for 2 Days:

San Diego campground: $55

Santa Margarita campground: $40

Gas: $244

Food Truck food: $50

Wine: $20

Dog wash: $6

TOTAL: $415 (over budget)

Posts to come:

San Francisco

Cloverdale, CA

Crescent City, CA

Eugene, OR

Albany, OR

Portland

Seattle

XO

Mitch and Laurel