Ludo Truck!

"Look for the big red coq"

Finally, after many months, the Ludo Truck has arrived, or at least in a soft roll out schedule. Don't think they're doing a regular schedule just yet. For those who have had Ludo's cooking know why its a big deal for the truck to be out and about now. I found them parked on Melrose on a recent Saturday afternoon where a few other trucks have parked recently. I hope more trucks will continue to do so since its very convenient to me a lot of people, plus the city needs some new truck hot spots.

The menu consisted of 3 different chicken styles, slaw, fries, lavender biscuits and crème brûlée and a few other items. Plus they do specials, like a chicken sandwich on Breadbar bread, which I hear is really good. 

  

They have the menu set up in orders of two or three pieces of chicken, your choice, mix or match. I got a three piece order, with two of the Provencal Pepittes, infused with rosemary and herbs de provence and one piece chicken strip style which was buttermilk based and all white meat. Also got a side of the slaw and the honey lavender biscuits. You also get a choice of sauces for dipping. I got the chipotle ketchup bbq type of sauce.

The chicken was fantastic. Just like I remembered, but smaller of course. Super moist and flavorful, with a nice crunch. The seasoning is great, nice and savory. They looked like they are formed from dark meat, not ground, but molded. The chicken strip was terrific as well, great coating and crunch. Well seasoned and almost fluffy like. The slaw was good, but didn't seem that different then other spicy slaws. Not bad by any means, just a good slaw. The lavender biscuits with honey (bathed in it) were quite good. They had more of smell of lavender then taste or just a hint of it perhaps. With the honey though, they were really tasty regardless. More dense then flakey. Good way to finish of with something sweet after a nice savory, fried meal. Plan to try the crème brûlée next time though and there will be other times.

Its great, a food truck with the quality and unique styling of Chef Ludo at prices that are quite affordable. Another truck that raises the bar. I think its hard not to become a fan of him after you've tried his cooking. You can find more about the truck on their website here and follow them on twitter here.

Plaisir

My wife heard about a new French cafe that recently opened near the Trader Joe's in West Hollywood. We had planned an afternoon at the Melrose Trading Post (flea market) which gave us a good excuse to stop by and grab some food to go.



We were greeted by Daniel, a co-founder who was really nice and friendly. We chatted with him while we oohed and awed all the tasty looking Parisian snacks. He offered us some samples of their mousse which was really good as well as this wonderful home made lavender ice cream that had this great blue hue and was very light in taste. There were quite a few other ice cream choices, but we decided to save the ice cream for one of our next visits.





We got a ham and cheese croissant and a lemon bar to go. The croissant seemed larger then your standard breakfast size. It was very flakey and buttery with a little bit of chewy pull to it, in others words great. The ham was sweet and a little salty and went really well with the gruyere cheese all warmed lightly. It was really simple and good. Just big enough for us to split. I know I'll be getting this again.



We saved the lemon bar for later. I think this was one of the best lemon bars I've ever had. Nice, thick and dense lemon filling that was sweet and tangy, but not overly sweet despite the powered sugar on top, which I did like. Also had a thick buttery crust to it that rounded it out. Definitely big enough for two people to split.



You can find more info on their site here and follow them on twitter here. I highly recommend checking them out, made for a nice Paris like afternoon. I know we'll be going back.