Nom Nom Comes Home to UCLA!

nom_ucla

With week zero in full effect, Nom Nom Truck is finally making it out to UCLA for lunch tomorrow (Thursday)!  As former (and current) Bruins, we’ve been looking forward to heading out to the streets of Westwood and bringing our banh mi with us!  Look for us on Strathmore and Gayley at 11:30am in a bright green truck!  Hopefully we can swoop in and grab a nice spot after street cleaning finishes up!  We’ll see you there!

Oh, and big shout-out to Kimberley Wong from the Daily Bruin, who wrote a nice story on us two weeks ago!

@nomnomtruck Tweets Make Us Happy!

twit_nom

I just added an @nomnomtruck section to our “Twitter” page.  We see so many awesome tweets directed towards us everyday that I thought it would be nice to repost some of them.  Moving forward, we’ll update the “Twitter” page on our Web site with new @nomnomtruck tweets that we loved.  Below is what is up there right now:

We are so thankful for all the support we’ve received via heartwarming tweets.  We read absolutely everything on Twitter, and seeing the positive reaction to our truck has made all the hard work worthwhile!  Thank you so much for taking the time to follow us, tweet about us, and even take pictures of our truck and food!  On those really tough stressful days, it’s the @nomnomtruck section that revitalizes us and gets us back out there again!  =)

Recent @nomnomtruck tweets that made us smile (updated 9/23/09):

  • JoanneYummy @nomnomtruck! Stalk this truck… it’s worth it! $8 = grilled pork banh mi + lemongrass chix taco + bbq pork taco + iced coffee = :p
  • intr0vert http://twitpic.com/iv0bs – At the @nomnomtruck with @estarla in Beverly Hills. Gonna get our nom on!
  • baironmJust grabbed some @nomnomtruck yum!!
  • mJIHADat the @nomnomtruck. YUMMIEZ!!!!
  • TimothyDahl@tincanorange @nomnomtruck is delicious!!!

>>more

Cheers to the Goodwill of the Nom!

As you all know, we always buy our bread fresh in San Gabriel Valley every single day (hey it’s gotta always be light and fluffy on the inside and supa crispy on the outside right?).  However, as a consequence of doing that, we do often have baguettes and also meat left over at the end of each day.  We definetely are not wasteful Nom Noms and instead of throwing our delicious supplies away, we have decided to work with Midnight Mission, and donate our leftover meat and bread to their shelter.  When I drove our leftover food the other day to the Mission I was very upset by the thousands of people camping out on the streets on skid row.  Although I had been there during the day, I had not yet seen it at night, and I could not believe my eyes.  I was very upset by the sight, however, I still felt comforted by the fact that at least our food was going to an amazing non-profit where the food was definetely needed.  Three cheers for Midnight Mission!  If you are interested in volunteering for this non-profit or donating please visit www.midnightmission.org

Photo courtesy of MidnightMission.org

On another note of goodwill, all cups used to serve our delicious Vietnamese Coffee are now made from corn, wherein they will decompose within 30 days.  We hope you likey them, we all need to do our part to help the environment (we might even put our logo on them keep an eye out ;P)

Interested in purchasing compostable corn cups too?  We purchase our cups at www.ecoproducts.com

Thursday: Compartes Chocolatier and then the Phillip Lim Boutique for Fashion’s Night Out!

Wow, was Thursday a busy day for the Nom!  We started out driving over to Compartes Chocolatier in Brentwood at noon.  It was super busy, and thank you so much to everyone for coming!

IMG_0001 1

After receiving their food, customers could dine on the charming Compartes patio- so cute!

IMG_0002 1

The lovely Jonathan behind the counter, I love the decor, and his lemongrass sorbet is TO DIE for!!

IMG_0003

We’re hoping to possibly making this a monthly event, we will most definetely keep ya’ll posted!!

Next stop: Phillip Lim Boutique in Weho!  It was most definetely difficult to park the truck in the lot (yes parking is most DEFINETELY not my strength) but as Tim Gunn says, make it work!

IMG_0016 1

The boutique is absolutely stunning.  Me and David K. (a fellow Nom team member!) went to peek inside- beautiful!:

IMG_0022

Thursday Special Schedule!

Nom Nom Truck is going to be busy today!  We start out with lunch in Brentwood at Compartes Chocolatier, then head over to West Hollywood for a special event (everyone is invited) at 3.1 Phillip Lim, and finally hit up USC frat row!  Hopefully we don’t run out of food before our triple shift day is over!   UPDATE: It seems my last little note was somewhat prescient.  Our special pickled carrots and daikon have run short and we won’t have enough to serve USC for a late late night shift! We’ve searched far and wide all over San Gabriel Valley, but even with all the pickled veggies we could gather from super markets and our supplier, we STILL won’t have enough.  =T  Sorry Trojans, we’ll try again next time. 

Compartes Chocolatier - Summer Lunch Fun!  (12pm to 2pm at 912 S. Barrington in Brentwood)

nom_compartes

We’ll be at Compartes Brentwood boutique at 912 S. Barrington Avenue for a fun Summer lunch from 12pm till 2pm!  In addition to grabbing some delicious banh mi from Nom Nom Truck, Compartes will also be slangin chocolates + ice creams + coffee + iced coffee and fresh chocolate dipped fruit goodies!  They even have a lemongrass chocolate truffle to go with our famed lemongrass chicken tacos!  Sit and relax on Compartes’ newly renovated patio lounge and listen to music by their fountain, munch on delectable treats – the perfect way to spend a Summer afternoon!

Phillip Lim Boutique - Fashion Night Out Special Event!  (6pm to 8pm at 631 N. Robertson Blvd. in West Hollywood)  free banh mi to first 50 people to arrive!

nom_lim

Nom Nom Truck is honored to be invited to Phillip Lim’s beautiful Los Angeles boutique location to serve our banh mi to hungry fashionistas tonight!  The first 50 people to arrive will be treated to a FREE BANH MI, courtesy of Phillip Lim!

CANCELED!  USC - Frat Row: Early Celebration for Inevitable Trojan Triumph over Buckeyes!  (11pm to 2am in front of Alpha Kappa Psi on University and 28th St.)

nom_usc

UPDATE from above: Our special pickled carrots and daikon have run short and we won’t have enough to serve USC for a late late night shift! We’ve searched far and wide all over San Gabriel Valley, but even with all the pickled veggies we could gather from super markets and our supplier, we STILL won’t have enough.  =T  Sorry Trojans, we’ll try again next time.  We’re finally set to hit up USC on a late Thursday night!  On previous visits to USC, many students advised us to come to frat row for a late night shift.  Well…here we come!  The fine people at Alpha Kappa Psi have agreed to let us park in front of their house right on frat row, so we’ll be right in the middle of all the late night revelry!  If you are interested in joining a professional business fraternity, consider Alpha Kappa Psi!

Swapping tacos with Border Grill and trying Get Shaved Ice!

Hi everyone!  Sorry I’ve been on hiatus for a while, but I’m back!  Last Friday we had a great run over at the 5900 building on Wilshire.  Border Grill Truck was just down the street, and the girls were so sweet to bring us over some of their delicious tacos to try!  Our team luved them, and they are so colorful too! (Our fav was the guacamoleeee)

In return, we were sure to send some Banh Mi and Vietnamese taco luv their way . . . we hope they liked them! :DIMG_0184

So sweet :)

IMG_0188

At the end of our shift (and while we were waiting for our mechanic to come) David found out that Get Shaved was down the street!  He brought back some shaved ice from them and it was AMAZING! However I was kinda pissed because he hogged all the shaved ice to himself and didn’t let me have anymore!! >:-o

The good news is on Wednesday we will be doing a shift on Butler and Olympic with Get Shaved Ice. The perfect dessert to compliment your Banh Mi or Taco on a hot summer day.

Thank goodness!! Then I’ll be able to have a shaved ice all to maself and David can’t steal mine ahahahahahaaaa.  And maybe we could even work some kind of food swap while we’re at it . . .

GetShaved_01

photo courtesy of Lindsay William-Ross, LAist

Schedule for Week of September 7!

photo credit: Amy Scattergood
photo credit: Amy Scattergood

We’ve got our schedule for the week of September 7th - 13th pretty well lined up and posted!  We still have a few locations we’re trying to figure out at the moment, and will probably finalize in the coming days.  We’re looking forward to trying out Santa Monica for the first time this Tuesday!  We hear parking may be tough, but we’ll definitely give it a shot!  Wednesday we’ll be heading back out to Olympic Blvd., where we received a great welcome last Thursday!  We’ve also asked the Get Shaved truck to come along and join us on Olympic, so all you Westsiders will get a chance to cool down with some AWESOME shaved ice!  We have a private pary to cater on Wednesday night, so we won’t be making it out to The Brig this week.  =(  Thursday has us hitting up Brentwood for the first time, after receiving an invite from Compartes Chocolatier on Barrington Ave.  Compartes Chocolatier is going to provide Nom Nom customers patio seating, as well as have a special selection of chocolates specifically created to complement Nom Nom’s Vietnamese flavors!  Later that night we’ll be catering a private event, then head out to USC’s frat row to try our hand at serving the drunken revelers in the late late night!  We’ll be heading back to 5900 Wilshire on Friday, and then seek out a location for Friday night.  Saturday is still up in the air!

Nom Nom Getting Love from LA Times and LA Weekly!

press_090409

Elina Shatkin at the LA Times did a nice story on us earlier this week.  She actually interviewed us back before we launched, and then did a follow up early this week.  Thanks so much for the shout-out!  Great story!

Amy Scattergood at LA Weekly braved the afternoon heat came by the truck yesterday while we were out on Olympic Blvd. to chat with us as well.  Great story from LA Weekly today!  Thanks Amy!

Schedule For This Week!

We’re working on ramping up our truck schedule this week, with the ultimate goal of getting out 5 to 6 times a week for both lunch and evening services.  However, we’re still learning what to expect in terms of crowds and how much food we should bring out, so we we’re not quite ready to go full throttle quite yet!  This week we’ll be heading out for lunch Tuesday through Friday, with a few evening services mixed in.  We may try to hit up a spot or two on Saturday too!  Check the schedule on the right for any and all updates on times and locations!

nomnom_prep_pic

We’ve also been working on maximzing our efficiency so all you banh mi fans won’t have to wait so long in line!  Kogi was nice enough to give us some pointers that may help move the line along faster, and we got a few new tools that should also help speed things along.  I know everyone’s very busy, especially during lunch time, so an hour long line for lunch just won’t cut it!

Nom Nom Debut: Too Many People, Not Enough Food!

photo courtesy of Jason Yao's camera phone

photo courtesy of Jason Yao's camera phone

Thank you everyone for coming out to our launch last night at The Brig!  It was a very amazing, but hectic first night for us, and we definitely had our share of missteps and hiccups.  I would just like to express our gratitude for all those people who waited in line remained patient throughout the night!  Through the long lines, unfilled orders, miscalculated change, and just plain lack of food, everyone was surprisingly understanding and supportive.  We’re still learning how to do this whole food truck thing, and knowing how much food to prep the day before is still a mystery to us (as anyone who was there last night could attest).  If we prep too much, then we have a bunch of spoiled food at the end of the day; if we prep too little, then we have what happened last night…hungry customers!  It will probably take some time and experience to get it right, but I promise we’ll get there soon!

Whew…with that said, the launch was still a fantastic experience.  It was great seeing so many people out to greet us and chow down!  We even had some celebrities in the crowd (waiting in line for an hour like everyone else)!  Elijah Wood, Roger Sterling (Mad Men) and Sam Merlotte (True Blood) were all spotted getting their “Nom” on! 

Overall, the turnout was great, the vibe was incredible, and it was very heartening to see so many people clamoring for banh mi!  Emboldened by the wave of support last night, we’ll keep working to crank out banh mi and bring them to all the underserved parts of Los Angeles!  Thank you so much everyone!

By the way…does anyone have any pics from last night that we could post?  I was way too busy to take any.  If you do, we’d love it if you could send them to: [email protected].