Local public radio commentator and performer Sandra Tsing Loh pulled no punches in a radio performance that has been airing this week when she criticized gourmet food trucks and described them as a "menace."
Tsing Loh apparently purchased food from some food trucks following Pasadena's Doo Dah parade on April 28 and was less than impressed. One of the food trucks she called out by name, the Border Grill truck, .
Tsing Loh's radio piece, which aired on Pasadena's KPCC station can be heard here, or you can read a transcript of the piece.
Her complaints included:
God bless my native city of Los Angeles, and its pulsing norteno reggaeton beat, but I think sometimes there can be TOO much hipness, TOO much multiculturalism, TOO much blending. Do we really NEED a Korean Mexican short rib minicrepe with mandarin oranges and coconut shavings with a side of jicama slaw marinated in Red Bull, handed through a tiny window by a tattooed Cal State Northridge student who’s reading a book on French symbolism and charging three dollars for smart water? I mean how smart is our smart water supposed to be? If it was that smart, I wouldn’t ALSO be trying the kimchi on a stick.
And:
Unfortunately, the welcoming visual mandala of food trucks will represent the height of your lunch experience. Because when you actually read DESCRIPTIONS of what is offered, now comes that familiar smoggy cloud of CONFUSION. It’s like attending an alumni REUNION of things you’ve never met. We have what the LA Weekly voted, in 2011, to be “LA’s most beloved Bacon chocolate” truck, hand-pulled venison sliders, kimchi on a stick, crazy uncle po’boy lobsterooni and those four simple letters, BOBA. I don’t know what boba is-- I don’t want it-- I want people to stop insisting on my getting to know it-- I can barely run the SAFARI app on my Iphone-- I want boba to go away.
And also this:
It pains me to say this, but I ended up dropping 25 dollars at the Border Grill food truck. That bought me some mini-tacos the size of a silver dollar, and two warm quesadillas with a rubbery consistency that made me feel like I was gnawing on a sheep’s ear.
We've occasionally had people on the site criticize food trucks for being expensive, for being excessively fancy, and for competing with locally-run businesses. So we want to know what you think: did you like Tsing Loh's rant? Do you agree with her criticisms? Or are you a fan of food trucks? Let us know in the comments section.
