Angeleno Bunny Chow and Other Mediocrities
More food truckery, sorry, but rest easy knowing this will be the last for the next few weeks.
My friends Mary and Ben joined me for another trip to the finest shaved ice in town, though a combination of my own poor flavor choices (grape and POG) and the ice-wrangler being in a rush (not enough syrup) made for a slightly less-than-transcendent experience.
Afterward we perused the Miracle Mile strip to see what trucks were serving that day, and came across one we hadn’t seen before: The World Fare truck. Of course, for cringe-filled guffaws, their website corrects that it is a “busTAURANT”. I’m proud to tell you that we were actually too lazy to climb up and sit at their rooftop tables.
Now, I’d read about World Fare and was under the mistaken impression that it would have a rotating menu of street foods, but it would seem there is just one: the South African “bunny chow“, a very loose slang with questionable origins for a product neither containing bunnies nor intended for bunny consumption. On the contrary, it’s traditionally curry served in a pretty large hollowed-out chunk of bread, which World Fare interprets loosely as tiny little rolls with a variety of fillings.
Ben’s hands making their Anger Burger debut!
The prices were a little disappointing too: a combination lunch with two chows, a side of fries and a cookie ran $10. This is one of those instances where I feel like staying true to the history of the food (or larger portions at the very least) would go a long way toward keeping this out of the novelty meal spectrum. Good once, but given the vast range of alternative options, I doubt I’ll be back.
Still, curiosity couldn’t keep us from the deep-fried truffled mac-n-cheese balls. And then surprise! At $3 seemed like a good deal until we realized they were charging like $60 a pound for it — they are tiny, about the size of gumballs. They were hot from the fryer and had a nice crust, but the mac-n-cheese itself was surprisingly bland, being made from a mild white cheese and mysteriously short on salt. It felt awfully patriotic sitting there eating deep-fried macaroni and cheese and thinking, damn, this is totally not salty enough, but it’s true.
But, wouldn’t you know it, it’s springtime in Los Angeles, the weather is fine and in a few days I’m flying back to my hometown for a short bit. Things could be worse. THIS IS NOT A CHALLENGE, UNIVERSE. Back off.
April 11th, 2010 | Eatin' Fancy
Thank you for coming and trying the Fare, we are sorry to hear that you were not fulfilled in the experience but we do appreciate the review.
A few points in terms of quantity vs quality. All beef is Piedmontese Natural hormone free beef, all chicken used is jidori chicken, organic. Cooking time for the Shortrib is 18 hours and the Worcestershire sauce is made from scratch 6 hours.
We are not trying to serve a $5 burrito with rice and beans, having said that we believe that you can eat a quality meal for under $10. Our 8oz Piedmontese burger is $8.
We would love you to come back and try the burger and we hope that you can hit the top deck to experience the Bustaurant as a full experience.
Regards,
Conductor
You shouldn’t apologize: I’m certain that your ideal market is not cranky bloggers on fixed incomes. The crowd of people eating there seemed perfectly happy. It is clearly a quality product.
shesh…i think the food trucks are getting a little bit all up in your business.
isn’t it great that they *all* have google alerts?
I’m going to reverse my statement that you shouldn’t apologize, World Fare, and accept your apology with limitations: recently Cathy over at Gastronomy Blog reviewed some of the same products and was impressed, but perhaps she should have been: her chows were overstuffed and lovely, brimming with meat, whereas mine were significantly less filled and saucier. She was also served four mac and cheese balls and presented them as a $3 order, meaning you either increased the order (for everyone) to four instead of three, or you put four on a plate knowing that three didn’t look like much.
I gotta admit, I don’t like it. Grooming bloggers is par for the course — you have to advertise! — but presenting them with a product that is better than what you actually serve? I don’t like it.
Precisely. Sunday approached the window as a person on the street looking for some food. Whereas I’m sure Cathy (Gastronomy) told them up front that she would be blogging the experience. Predictable result: Sunday received what the paying gentry gets; Gastronomy gets fluffed, over-filled, extra portion treatment.
My advice to anyone considering eating from World Fare: Tell them you’re a blogger and get a much better deal.
Pathetic.
Just to clarify what happened! We were handing out complimentary Mac and Cheese Balls, the fact that the photo has 4 was it was a passing tray and not a per order serving.
In terms of the Bunny Chows, the kitchen does its best at all times to put as much meat into each Bunny as possible. It really comes down to us working on consistency with speed. i.e. maintaining quality and consistent product.
The bloggers were given complimentary mac and cheese balls as they were leaving an event and hustling home. We wanted people to have a small sample of the food before they left.
Our approach to every situation is and should always be the same. The World Fare was created to be a place that you can consistently rely on the quality and the food offering. In our view everyone has a voice and should be treated equally! The internet has created that platform, good or bad.
Well, I have to say I’m impressed with how professional you keep coming across here – I fire off a round of cranky criticism and both times you’ve responded with tact. Rare! And great!
I appreciate that you try for consistency. I’ve worked in food service for almost 15 years and can say with authority that consistency usually means a machine made my lunch. Variation is a natural byproduct of human-craft. But it is unfortunate when it appears that preference has been given to media, even when by accident.
Of course, now I’m going to have to come back to World Fare. I can’t go back and forth this many times without starting to doubt my initial feelings.
Bummed to read that your World Fare experience wasn’t as positive as mine. Oh, well. Trucks are pretty inconsistent it seems. I would normally suggest giving it another go, but with so much good food in this city, why bother! Eat well!