Nom Nom Truck - Serving Banh Mi to Los Angeles » david

Our Truck, pre-”Nom Nom”-ization!

Nom Nom Truck — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 21:14:31 +0000

Jenn, Misa and I went out to the Road Stoves (www.roadstoves.com) lot on Thursday to check out our truck and practice driving it for the first time! Allison Torneros (www.allisontorneros.com), our designer, also joined us to take measurements of the truck and get inspired before coming up with our final design. The truck may not look like much now, but once Allison is done with it, it’s gonna be the sweetest-lookin ride driving down the 10!

Before meeting our goal of bringing banh mi to the Westside, we’re going to have to learn how to drive our massive truck over there! Our lesson started with simply driving forwards and in reverse, getting a feel for the handling, acceleration and brakes. Let me tell you folks, the brakes are NOT like a normal car. Ample planning time must be factored in to any stop…so if you ever see us driving down the street, I would recommend switching lanes if you happen to be in front of us. ;) After some practice, I think we all started to get the hang of driving. We still have another few weeks before we have to really get out there, so we’ll get as much practice time in as possible before then.

Nom Nom Visits the “Godfather”

Nom Nom Truck — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:19:16 +0000

Misa and I took a trip out to meet with the “Godfather” of mobile food trucks (at least that’s what I like to call him), Morris Appel, owner of Road Stoves (www.roadstoves.com). For those of you who don’t know, this is the guy who has been an integral part of the recent mobile food truck boom in Los Angeles, and a staple in the traditional mobile food truck scene for…well…forever! With more than 80 trucks in his possession, Morris is “the Don” of the mobile food scene in Los Angeles…and he’s just getting started. ;) Kogi works with him, Green Truck works with him, Barbies-Q works with him…and now, Nom Nom is going to work with him! We’re super stoked to be involved with such great company and get a chance to share in the comradery among the different trucks in the “Road Stove family.”

In fact, while we were at the Road Stove lot, we happened to run into the Kogi crew, gearing up for the day! Roy Choi, the head chef for Kogi, told us that Morris was “the best in the business”, so that’s pretty much all we needed to hear!

Now it’s just a matter of outfitting the truck with a few key appliances we need to make some kick-ass banh mi and painting/decorating our truck with some crazy “nom nom” graphics, and we’re ready to go! Late August is just around the corner!

Nom Nom Photoshoot

Misa — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 01:00:40 +0000

We had our second photoshoot for Nom Nom today and it was soooo fun! I just got a new haircut for a hair campaign last week (similar to Lime Cat’s), and it actually fits in pretty well with the Banh Mi theme :)

To see close-ups of our shoot today, visit our album here!

Towards the end of the photoshoot we decided to include Lucky, our biggest fan, in one of the photos, for how could we ignore our #1 fan? Mmmmmmmm looking back on these photos makes me really hungry and long for another Banh Mi! Enjoy! :-P

Til next time,

Misa

Food Handler’s Certificate Class…COMPLETE!

Nom Nom Truck — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 01:26:36 +0000

Instructor "Jimmy" lecturing about food safety

That’s right folks, Nom Nom Truck is now officially certified to handle your food! In preparation for our launch, Misa and I took a food handler’s class today and received our temporary certificates! We won’t get our real certificates until after we receive our final test results in four weeks (plenty of time before we actually open our truck), but since we took the 6 hour class, we at least got a temporary pass. Misa and I are both pretty awesome, so there’s no doubt in my mind that we totally aced the test.
It was actually a pretty fun class, so for any of you putting off getting your food handler’s certificate, just go for it. It’s actually a pretty entertaining day, and you even learn a lot of useful stuff! For those of you who have no need of a food handler’s certificate…which is pretty much everyone…it’s still an interesting class to take. For instance, did you know that the internal cooking temperature for poultry needs to reach 165 F for 15 seconds to kill harmful bacteria? Right it down, folks!

By the way, I would have taken more pictures, but our instructor freaked when I snapped this one out of nowhere. He said cameras make him nervous… He was probably joking, but I didn’t feel like testing him. 0_o

Nom Nom Tacos Trial!

Nom Nom Truck — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 05:28:51 +0000

Lemongrass Chicken Taco

Had a little potluck dinner at my apartment last night, and since I hadn’t made the lemongrass chicken tacos for the majority of the people coming over that night, I figured I may as well do another test run to see what people thought. The result? They liked it! w00t!

Here’s a pic of our friend Afro-Mark with a taco. He’s been eating these things for weeks now, and it looks like he still loves ‘em! That’s a good sign!

Afro-Mark with Taco

Field Trip to Premier Meat Company!

Nom Nom Truck — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 23:26:36 +0000

Nom Nom founders checkin' out Premier Meat Company

Woke up early today to head out to Premier Meats facility down in Commerce. It was a very interesting trip! Steve , our contact over there, was incredibly helpful and genuinely interested in what we are doing for Nom Nom. He even printed out some articles for us that he found recently on mobile food trucks! What a nice guy!

After hanging out in Steve’s office for a bit, we got to take a tour of the Premier facility! We even got to put on these nifty jackets and hair nets. Meat meat meat everywhere! Another pic after the jump…
I think we were all a little worried about what is was going to be like in the butchering room…namely, how would it smell. It turns out it wasn’t bad at all! The entire place was very clean, and the air conditioner blasting on high (it is a meat locker, after all) kept us all feeling pretty fresh. Everyone working there seemed very serious, and were taking apart their cuts of meat with incredible skill.

All in all, it was a very interesting little field trip.

Meeting with Founder of Kay ‘N Dave’s!

Nom Nom Truck — Mon, 18 May 2009 22:08:24 +0000

: Culver City Build-Out; photo courtesy LA Times

Misa and I just got back from a meeting with the founder of Kay ‘N Dave’s, a very popular and successful Mexican restaurant now opening its fourth location in downtown Culver City. In fact, we had the meeting at the restaurant while it was being built out! It was a pretty cool experience chatting with the owner while construction of his restaurant was happening all around us.

Dave couldn’t have been nicer. He was super laid back, offered a lot of advice, contacts, help…just a great meeting all around. A successful entrepreneur and restaurant owner, Dave actually got into the industry with no prior experience, much like what we hope to do. It was very encouraging to see how well he has done to date, so I’m stoked to keep working on Nom Nom. Now we just need to actually get a truck, build up a following, finalize a menu, and get to cookin’!

Nom Nom Meets with Premier Meat Co.!

Nom Nom Truck — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:25:08 +0000

Went with Jenn and Misa to meet with Premier Meat Company, a meat supplier (duh) for some of the best restuarants in Los Angeles. The meeting went really well and the Premier rep, Steve, had some very encouraging comments for us in regards to starting up the business. Premier just happens to supply our idol company, Kogi BBQ, with meat as well, so I couldn’t think of a better company to partner with for our meat.
We’re definitely looking forward to working with Premier. They seems like a great company with friendly people and superb customer service. In fact, we’re going to schedule a tour of their facilities as soon as we can figure out a time that works for everyone. It should be a lot of fun. Stay tuned…