Food trucks are a vital part of the L.A. culinary scene, with many accumulating hordes of followers who aggressively pursue them around the city. The sheer magnitude of trucks can make dining choices difficult, but columnist Alisha Kapur has narrowed down 10 to try and review. Join her as she goes across the city, experiencing everything from Korean barbecue tacos to sushi burritos, in an attempt to find the food trucks that are worth following.
With Diddy Riese right around the corner from UCLA’s campus, why should students ever need to visit other ice cream sandwich venues? My answer to that question would be Coolhaus.
The gourmet ice cream shop, which specializes in ice cream sandwiches, originally started as a truck in Los Angeles. With both of its owners having backgrounds in design, it serves “architecturally-inspired” sweet treats. Despite its humble origins, Coolhaus now has a store, sells its prepackaged sandwiches in grocers countrywide and sends out trucks in Los Angeles, New York, Dallas and Austin, Texas.
With ice cream flavors like avocado Sriracha and foie gras peanut butter and jelly, Coolhaus expands the boundaries of the traditional ice cream sandwich. When I visited the truck, which had a beat-up, unassuming look to it, I decided to try brown butter candied bacon ice cream inside of two chocolate chip cookies. Although the actual store has more interesting cookie flavors such as peanut butter Captain Crunch and vegan ginger molasses, the truck that day seemed to be serving more conventional cookies.
I asked the cashier for his opinion on the type of cookie to pair with the ice cream I chose, and he said that most people choose chocolate chip. Unlike Diddy Riese’s cookies, which can often taste stale, Coolhaus’ were soft and chewy. Their texture did not diminish from the experience, though, because the cookies still managed to hold up under the ice cream.
The fact that the cookie managed to maintain its integrity was a surprise because the plentiful ice cream seemed to be the star of the show. It tasted remarkably fresh and creamy, melting into sticky puddles inside of the sandwich’s edible wrapper, a thin, rectangular wafer-like sheet. I enjoyed the distinctive taste of the bacon, although it was a little strong for my friends. They grimaced at it and thought that it overpowered the cookies.
I found the idea of the edible wrapper to be interesting and fun. However, it did not really have a taste and wrapped the cookie up more flimsily than one might expect or want. It barely protected my hands from the ice cream, which spilled outside of the boundaries of the sandwich. If it weren’t for the small cardboard tub that encased the cookie, the wrapper would not have been enough.
In a competition, Coolhaus would only lose to Diddy Riese in the price category. With the label “gourmet” comes a tag a little steeper than one would hope. I spent $5 on my sandwich, and it seemed to be smaller than a comparable Diddy Riese sandwich costing $1.75. I probably could have eaten another sandwich after the first one, but I did not want to dish out $10 at a dessert truck.
Yet Coolhaus’ fresh, inspired creations deserve at least one taste. However, when I try a sandwich again, I will probably go to the store. With its limited menu of flavors, the truck did not allow me to experiment as much as I would have wanted. The shop seems to give customers a more interesting, fun experience, and I cannot wait to visit.
Do you know any food trucks in Los Angeles worth sampling? Email Kapur at akapur@media.ucla.edu.