Foodie Fix

We spent much of today at Rainbow Lagoon in Downtown Long Beach, enjoying the sights, smells and flavors from the many catering trucks at the Long Beach Street Food Fest. Especially the flavors....

After a quick round of the grounds to see what fine foods were offered, we stopped for tacos. I chose the Kabob Express truck, specializing in a Mexican-Mediterranean mix of foods for my first stop, chowing down two tacos: lamb with humus and chicken shwarma with humus. Drizzle a little tzatziki on the meat, and my mouth was in Heaven. Caesar sampled a Taco de Papas (made with Yukon Gold potatoes) and a BBQ Burnt Pork Ends taco from The Knockout Taco Truck. Actually, we both sampled, trading bites from each.

Next stop, even though the line was a bit long (but not as long as the one for the gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches), we ordered some balls. From Great Balls on Tires. That's right: meatballs. I ordered the Balligators -- two deep-fried alligator meatballs dripping with Jamaican jerk sauce and resting on a bed of mango salsa (bottom of the picture). Caesar chose the Ball Gogi -- Korean BBQ beef mixed with black sesame seeds, served over kimchi and Asian noodles (top of the picture). The Gogi had a surprisingly sweet taste and mixed with the kimchi was incredible. This was the one truck at which people ordered multiple "To Go" boxes, tasting as many of the meatballs as they could: the Inaugural Ball (squid and shrimp), the Ballywood (chicken masala), Ciao Balla (veal, pork and pancetta marinara), and the IncrediBall (made with kobe beef).

We took a quick break after that. Even though we hadn't eaten a lot of food, the portions were just the right size to make us both feel full. So before tackling any desserts, we walked to Borders, skimmed through the books, then headed back to the festival.

I really wanted to try the red velvet ice cream cookie from Cool Haus, but they ran out before we even reached the window. A little grumpy from lack of ice cream, we strolled around looking for something sweet, and I opted for a soft frozen watermelonade. While waiting in line, Caesar found the truck from Ahn-Joo and ordered a grilled nutella bhang -- two slices of sweet bread filled with nutella and berries then grilled like French toast. Talk about delicious! Yet, even after quickly finishing that, we still bought one more item: butterscotch bread pudding from World Fare.

I think it goes without saying that we waddled to the bus stop because neither of us would have made the walk home after three hours of grubbing.