Devilicious and Food Truck Fabulousness

Summer is when Hillcrest gets ultra-fab and not just because of the incredible San Diego, but also to mark Pride weekend. Local San Diego food trucks gathered together at the San Diego LGBT Community Center for Food Truck Fabulousness, a benefit for the AIDS Walk in San Diego. It was also fitting that this particular event took place on the eve of SD Pride, a great kick-off for the weekend. Proceeds from Food Truck Fabulousness went to AIDS Walk and Run San Diego and visitors could also donate themselves at the free event. For those that have been hunting down a few of these trucks, this gathering made it a lot easier to find the vendors you want to try. I was after the butter poached lobster grilled cheese sandwich from the Devilicious Food Truck.

Devilicious Food Truck greeted everyone right at the entrance of The Center's parking lot and a few visitors were commenting on its participation in the Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race. Even at 18:00 there was a short queue. A short wait after paying US$9.00 for the butter poached lobster grilled cheese and $4.00 for truffled parmesan fries, the order came out very hot so you know it was made to order (at least at this hour). The butter poached lobster grilled cheese made with lobster, some sort of melted cheese, caramelized onion, oven-roasted roma tomatoes and herbs on sourdough.



The hot butter poached lobster grilled cheese sandwich felt decadently buttery upon first touch. It smelled buttery with the lingering aroma of lobster. It was definitely cheesy. The presence of the oven-roasted roma tomatoes was not very pronounced, blending in more with the caramelized onion. The lobster was cut into large chunks and not lost among the rest of the sandwich components to remind you that lobster is the co-starring with the cheese. The texture was definitely there, but the lobster flavor was a lot lighter than expected. It still was pretty tasty.

The truffled parmesan fries had black flecks from the truffles and covered with large shavings of parmesan. The parmesan cheese had a silkier texture and milder taste, which made me think that an aged Asiago was used instead as it takes on a flavor similar to parmigiano with age and is interchangeable with paremsan in some cuisines.

After looking at the Devilicious online menu, I am really curious about this asparagus grilled cheese sandwich made with goat cheese.

Here are a few more shots of Food Truck Fabulousness. I was actually wondering what an "Italian Lollipop" (offered by Mangia Mangia) was. The white chocolate macadamia nut cookies from Sweet Treats made a yummy dessert with big chunks of white chocolate and a chewy texture. Breaking it in big pieces was also quite easy.


From left to right: Sweet Treats cookie display, white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and whoopie pies from Sweet Treats, Mangia Mangia menu, Food Truck Fabulousness
Food truck gatherings are definitely a way to sample more in one place. One would be so lucky to have their favorite truck park regularly nearby.

Devilicious Food Truck. Check schedule for location details. San Diego, California. DeviliciousFoodTruck.com
Sweet Treats Truck. Check schedule for location details. San Diego, California. SweetTreatsTruck.com
Mangia Mangia Truck. Check schedule for location details. San Diego, California. MangiaMangiaMobile.com
San Diego LGBT Community Center. 3909 Centre Street, San Diego, CA. theCenterSD.org

Gran Melia's Acqua Pizza and Beer Promotion

Acqua Italian Restaurant's Pizza Salami and Pizza Proscuitto e Funghi
Acqua Italian Restaurant at the Gran Melia Shanghai in Pudong has an unlimited pizza and draught Tiger beer promotion for 88RMB or 101RMB after a 15% service charge on Fridays from 18:00-22:30 (until September 1, as advertised on CityWeekend). Restaurants in luxury hotels in Asia have a reputation of particularly good fare. Unfortunately, this was not the case at Acqua. The service was impeccable, however. The host promptly escorted us to our table and beer was immediately served. During the entire stay, the beer level in each glass never went below the halfway point as the draught Tiger was stealthily poured so as not to interrupt the conversation. The Tiger beer kept flowing until the restaurant ran out of beer an hour before the promotion ended. Other tables were also wondering why the restaurant was not supplied enough beer to last the duration of the promotion. The host informed us that beer was being brought from the 30th floor, but it was only bottles of Tsing Tao beer, which were poured into our empty glasses. The selected pizzas for the promotion were: margherita, salami (sausage), vegetariano (black olives with red and yellow peppers), prosciutto e funghi, and marinara (shrimp and tuna). The crust of the pizza was not super thin, but had great blackened blisters on its underside. The toppings were horrendous. The pizzas looked and tasted like meat or no meat in yellow, red, and brown, regardless of the variety chosen. Intead of pork sausage, it appeared to be pieces of pork. Pizza prosciutto e funghi was the best one, but in place of paper-thin slivers of prosciutto were thick slices of ham. The upside is the pizzas were not greasy and the kitchen obliged requests for tobasco, Chinese chili sauce, balsamic vinegar (in the form of a sweet, thick balsamic reduction), and dried oregano or basically anything to add complexity to an otherwise flat-tasting pizza. After drinking all the beer in the restaurant does the pizza start to really taste good. The only worthy part of this promotion is the unlimited Tiger draught beer (while supplies last). Maybe the regular menu at Acqua Italian Restaurant at Gran Melia Shanghai is inversely better as the pizza was poor?

Acqua. Gran Melia Shanghai, 2/F, 1288 Lujiazui Huan Lu (near Dongyuan Lu). 陆家嘴环路1288号2楼 (近东园路), Shanghai, China. Tel: 86 (021) 3867 8888. www.gran-melia-shanghai.com

McFlurry International - Rolo McFlurry in the United States

McDonald's is known for its taste standard, which is tasting exactly the same at whatever location you happen to visit anywhere in the world. The appeal of the McFlurry is that the McDonald's vanilla soft-serve is combined with different flavors, specializing the McFlurry by region or county. Even abroad, my Twitter feed blew up with the announcement of the Rolo McFlurry. For those not acquainted with the Rolo, it is a milk chocolate shell filled with caramel in the shape of a truncated cone. The thick shell of chocolate means ratio of chocolate to caramel is slightly higher and the caramel filling is also soft to almost solid.

The Rolo McFlurry is mashed up Rolos, which looked more like pieces of milk chocolate shell, and a swirl of caramel sauce.

Snack size (US$1.99) is 340-430 calories while the regular (US$2.69) is 510-640 calories. Also on the menu were the classic Oreo and M&M flavors. It is not clear exactly where the Rolo McFlurry is on the calorie scale, but chances are it is on the higher side.

The server who made the Rolo McFlurry at the Southcoast Plaza location visited in California put heaping spoonfuls of Rolo and a thick squeeze of caramel in the McFlurry cup with its protective lid to prevent spillage. It was haphazardly mixed together by hand and looked like a gorgeous mess, though maybe not well-mixed. After I started taking a photo of it, the server offered to make a second "better looking" one (and better mixed using the McFlurry machine). I took the server up on this offer but was immediately mortified when she threw it away instead of just giving it to some kid passing by as a mistake order. In the below photos, you can see the first Rolo McFlurry compared to the second.

Oh...It was good. Plenty of thick caramel sauce and chocolate chunks throughout the soft-serve ice cream. The actual portion was up to the top of the cup instead of halfway, the way it usually comes out in China (that is what that special lid is for!). Rolo in McFlurry form...yum.


McFlurry photos on the left are the first McFlurry while the second one made is on the right

McFlurry International - China 4

It appears that in honor of Kung Fu Panda 2, McDonald's in China (that is Màidāngláo, 麦当劳) is featuring the special Red Bean McFlurry. If you want a direct translation it is more "Red Bean Taste (hóngdòu kǒuwèi, 红豆口味)," which is a more accurate description of how this McFlurry (麦旋风, mài xuànfēng) is flavored. Perhaps this is an allusion to the red panda, which is a distant relative to the giant panda featured in the film. The server at the counter informs us that buying two McFlurrys is a better deal at 15RMB instead of one at 10RMB.

To make the hóngdòu kǒuwèi mài xuànfēng or 红豆口味麦旋风, red bean flavor syrup and Oreo pieces are mixed in with the vanilla soft-serve ice cream. The red bean flavor is not at all strong and is perhaps over-sweetened. One customer thought the McFlurry tasted like artificial strawberry instead of red bean, a belief furthered by the pink hue the ice cream took on. The McDonald's version of "red bean taste" could be described as a light, musky berry flavor. Only at the bottom of the cup were one or two actual red beans found to provide authenticity. More real red beans mixed in would make this version of the McFlurry slightly more appealing.