Midtown Lunch

I will fully admit to having a love/hate relationship with food trucks.  I love street food, and it’s been a part of my lunch routine since I started this site almost 5 years ago.  When the first wave of gourmet trucks started hitting the streets in NYC it was fun, and new.  Unique and exciting.  Now it seems like everybody and their mother is opening a food truck, and some of them are pretty mediocre.  Little did I know that NYC was the minor leagues compared to what was going on in L.A.  Outfits like Road Stoves make it incredibly easy to open your own food truck, and when something is easy why bother doing basic things that opening a new business usually requires… like research.  Or menu testing.

When I first moved to L.A. a year ago this month I was completely overwhelmed by the food truck scene.  So many freakin’ trucks to try, so many different concepts.  Some of them were no brainers… Kogi, Dim Sum Truck, India Jones, Grill ‘Em All (what can I say, I’m a huge Four Horsemen fan.)  Others took a bit of convincing.  Buttermilk Truck?  What the hell is that?! Burgers sold by a Paris Hilton look-a-like?  No thanks.  But I quickly learned to not necessarily judge by name alone (Baby’s makes a good burger, and Buttermilk is possibly my favorite truck in all of L.A.)  Take Frysmith for example.  I like french fries just as much as the next guy, but fries isn’t a meal- even if you top that shit with meat and cheese and other fancy ingredients (which apparently they do.)

Then I found out that you can get those fries stuff into a tortilla… and that changed everything.

Not pretty, but pretty delicious.

Despite my skepticism, Frysmith actually does a pretty amazing job of turning an order of french fries into a full lunch.  They have regular fries and sweet potato fries, and you can get them topped with chili (obviously), steak and chilies, chicken and cashews, or kimchi and pork belly (like in the order shown above.)  They also offer daily specials, like  hamburger or short ribs.  In fact I first heard of this whole french fry stuffed burrito thing from Lunch’er “Steven” back in September.  He told me that one of the best things he had ever eaten from a truck was this lamb/french fry burrito special from Frysmith.  Little did we know that for an extra $1 they are actually willing to stuff any of their creations into a tortilla!  The “chubbies” (their word, not mine) is not something they actively promote, and occasionally they will run out of the tortillas, but if they do have them it’s a no brainer.

I felt like the rajas fries sounded the most burrito-ish (fire-roasted poblano chiles, caramelized onions and shawarma-marinated steak with Jack cheese) although it turned out to be a little on the dry side… but I still loved it.  The fries are made from fresh cut potatoes, and cooked to order (aka awesome.)  But next time I’ll definitely go for one of the gooier creations- like the kimchi fries or the chicken in tomatillo-tamarind sauce with cashews over sweet potato fries.   And, yes.  There will definitely be a next time.  (Maybe today?  They’re parked near UCLA…)

THE + (What somebody who likes this place will say)

• There’s nothing hotter than carb on carb action
• Alone, french fries aren’t a meal.  Wrap them in a tortilla and problem solved!
• Frysmith’s fries are made from fresh cut potatoes, and fried to order.  They’re actually pretty amazing on their own
• If you have to take an order from Frysmith to-go, a burrito is the easiest way to do it

THE – (What somebody who doesn’t like this place would say)

• The fries are made to order, so it kind of takes awhile.  Shouldn’t truck food be fast?
• The idea is good in theory, but the rajas fry burrito was super dry
• Wrapping something in a tortilla doesn’t automatically make it a lunch!
• I’m on the  {insert name of insane-o low carb diet here} diet

Frysmith, Track their location on their website or twitter