Schnitzel Wagon: Fried, Breaded and on Wheels

When Zach from Midtown Lunch suggested trying out the Schnitzel Wagon, I was hesitant.  Drive all the way downtown for fried cutlets from a truck?  But the scent of fried food won out and I headed over to 350 Grand Avenue to go check it out with him.  The meat is kosher and they are in the process of converting their entire truck to having kosher certification.

The day we went the options were chicken or cod schnitzel.  On other days they have additional meats and on Fridays they have falafel.  The schnitzel comes either in a sandwich for $8 or as a combo plate with two sides for $10.  The combo plate is the way to go.  The chicken schnitzel sandwich (below) came with lettuce, tomato and choice of half a dozen different sauces.  The chicken was moist and crispy but the bread was underwhelming. It would have been even better as a plate, so we wouldn't have had to work to get at it.

The cod was perhaps even better than the chicken (comparing just the meat and ignoring the bread issue), which surprised me as I wasn't expecting to be so enthusiastic about it.  It had a nice crunch exterior and a firm yet tender interior.  We got several different sauces including sriracha and barbeque.  Coleslaw, garden salad, potato salad and french fries were the options for the sides and we opted for the potato salad and fries.  The fries were limp but I enjoyed the potato salad more than Zach, perhaps because it had no mayonnaise taste and I am mayo-averse.

The plate is the superior choice and the portion size is ample.  With the cod, they even suggested getting it as a plate as the fish portion is too much for a sandwich.  They have consistently parked on S. Grand Avenue near Starry Kitchen and CASA but I'd follow their twitter account to be sure they will be out that day.  Once the kosher certification comes through there will be delivery to the jewelry district, and hopefully other parts of downtown.  That would be great as the only thing better than fried food is fried food delivered to your door.

Cart for a Cause: Nobu Edition

Tuesday March 23rd was the first day of operation of Cart for a Cause. This is a temporary gourmet truck that will operate on Tuesdays and serve gourmet lunches from shnazzy chefs for $10. The beneficiary of the cause is St. Vincent's Meals on Wheels, a Catholic charity based in downtown LA which brings meals to the housebound. According to LA Weekly's SquidInk Blog, $6.50 of each meal goes to the charity.

Nobu Los Angeles was the first restaurant/chef up and they will be returning this coming Tuesday as well. The location was behind the UTA building on Wilshire Blvd in Beverly Hills, the same building as the Niketown, just off Rodeo Drive.

There were three options: sushi with black cod, sushi with chicken skewers, and a field green salad with shrimp. All the lunches also came with a drink, either bottled water or one of the pomegranate beverages from Pom, who is one of the sponsors. (Pom corporate sibling Fiji Water and Lexus are also sponsors). I opted for the sushi with chicken skewers. The skewers came with two types of sauce, a red sauce that was mildly spicy and a darker one that reminded me of teriyaki sauce.

It was incongrous to see a nun hanging out at a food truck. But she was there to represent the cause. A reasonably sized line had developed by the 12:30 launch time and after a suitable number of photo ops, the food distribution began. They only had 150 portions and sold out within an hour. I was told by a friend who went by too late that by the time he got there only the shrimp salad was left.

The sushi was 3 pieces of spicy tuna roll and 3 pieces of salmon and avocado maki. According to the Cart for a Cause facebook page, the two sauces/skewers were anticucho & kushiyaki.

After next week's Nobu round 2, other chefs will be taking weekly turns. They will apparently be using other locations to park the cart in future weeks as well. Note: the best parking option is to park in Via Rodeo's underground valet parking lot. They have 2 hour free parking, no validation required, and the only cost is the valet tip. It is less than a 5 minute walk to the UTA driveway from there.