The Chips Don't Stack Up... but the Dog's Are Definitely Out!

CHUNK N' CHIP

I was driving home and heard about this truck on a local radio station. It got voted 2^nd place at the OC Foodie Fest as Most Popular Food Trucks. It is an ice cream sandwich shop on wheels. The representative mentioned  different types of cookies and ice creams that were available to choose from. Moo-lan Rouge was among one of the favorite combos. All I heard was red velvet. OMG, anyone who knows me knows that I am red velvet anything and everything.. I LOVE red velvet. I know we’re not supposed to use any electronic device while driving, but I could not resist. I NEEDED to know what this truck offered and where they were going to be next! They had a lot of different combos to choose from which were cleverly named. Bahama Mama, Nutty Wutty, Minteroni, Old School and Goober Doober just to name a few. You could also pick any cookies you wanted with any ice cream as well.

We were finally able catch them on a  Tuesday night. This truck along with a few others were at the Lake Forest bowling alley. This was the first on my list, what we drove 50 miles for!  The cold weather must’ve repelled people from going because there wasn’t much of a line. Not more than 3 people were ahead of us. We ordered 3 types of sandwiches.

 

The first,  Chocolate Heaven, chocolate brownie cookies with vanilla bean ice cream. Second, the Mumbo Jumbo, chocolate brownie cookies with peanut butter cup ice cream.  Last but not least, the Moo-lan Rouge, red velvet cookies with white chocolate fudge macadamia ice cream. We didn’t have to wait long for our order.  I took a bite out of the Chocolate Heaven first.  Eh, I thought it was ok. The cookie didn’t taste like a brownie, it had a weird after taste and didn’t know what it was. It sort of tasted like there was a hint Chinese Five Spice. It just tasted funky. Then I took a bite out of the Mumbo Jumbo. The ice cream was good, you can really taste the peanut butter, but knew I wasn’t going to like it if it was the same cookie used in the Chocolate Heaven. The moment of truth… On to my Moo-lan Rouge. I couldn’t wait to eat it! I took a bite of it. Blah!!! The cookie was a little too crisp. It tasted similar to a sugar cookie rather than what red velvet tastes like. The ice cream had little chunks of macadamias inside, so with the crunch from the cookie and the crunch from the nuts in the ice cream, it didn’t have texture and smoothness of your typical ice cream sandwich. I kept eating it as if my thoughts about it would change, but it didn’t. No taste of red velvet, no taste of fudge. It possibly would’ve been closer to a classic red velvet if they used a cheesecake ice-cream???

So what went wrong? Were the cookies overcooked by sitting under the heat lamp? Why weren’t the cookies warm if it had been sitting underneath the heat lamp? The idea of a mobile cookie sandwich truck is a wonderful idea. I really, REALLY wanted to like what we ordered, especially the Moo-lan-Rouge. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t delicious. This isn’t a truck I would stray away from or never go back to. There are too many choices that I still haven’t and want to try. I just wouldn’t drive all the way out there again for it. If it’s in the area, I would like to give it another try.  

DOGZILLA!!

The Dogzilla truck was at the Lake Forest bowling lanes the same night we were there to try Chunk N' Chip. I never heard of that truck before that night so had no real expectations or urge to try a hot dog. Ed ordered the Dogzilla Dog because I wasn’t in the mood for a hot dog  and instead got a short rib quesadilla from a Korean bbq truck. I can’t even remember the name of the truck, that’s how memorable it was.

The Dogzilla Dog is an all Angus beef hot dog topped with caramelized onions, sliced avocado, and crispy bacon. It was placed in between 3 split Hawaiian bread rolls that had a jayo (Japanese mayo, perhaps?)spread and drizzled with teriyaki sauce and sprinkled with furikake. Furikake is a Japanese condiment normally sprinkled on rice and generally a mixture of  seaweed, sesame seeds, ground/dried fish salt and pepper.

Because the food I got was just mediocre, I took a bite of the Dogzilla Dog. OH MY GOD! It was love at first bite. The sweetness of the teriyaki sauce along w/ the buttery avocado and salty bacon bits together with the all Angus beef hot dog was so good! The Hawaiian rolls were toasted on the grill just enough to give it a little texture. I thought for sure with the teriyaki sauce and the Hawaiian rolls that it would be too sweet, but they were very complementary to the saltiness of the hot dog and bacon. The bacon was crisped to perfection. Not one of them still had that chewy fat.  After about 3 bites, I reluctantly gave the hot dog back but really wanted to eat the entire thing!

A hot dog is a hot dog. What can be done to a hot dog to make it taste that great?? Try this one and you will taste how good a plain old dog can become! The lady on the corner of Santee and Los Angeles selling the bacon wrapped hot dogs with guacamole has definitely been over-throned by this truck. It was an awesome dog!!! The dogs who run this truck Martin Tse, Son Thai (who referred himself as the hired help), and Bac Dang aren’t so bad either! They were super nice and friendly and were even kind enough to strike a pose with me. I would definitely go back for the Dogzilla and to try their Furikake Dog. Dogzilla, you really are that good!