When I stopped by the Ahn Joo truck a little over a month ago, Debbie Lee tipped me off that a meatball truck would be hitting the streets shortly. Meatballs and I get along quite swimmingly, so this was one launch that I was a wee bit more excited for than the rest.
After polishing off two gut busting deep-fried sushi rolls from Yatta-! Truck at Art Walk, The Astronomer and I moseyed on over to Great Balls on Tires for our second course.
Great Balls on Tires was founded by Clint Peralta, Michael Brombart, and Sharron Barshishat, three friends who attended the Le Cordon Bleu School of Culinary Arts. According to the truck’s website, the trio chose to focus on meatballs because of their universal popularity and appeal. “They are found in nearly every culture with names like polpette, kofta and frikadel. They are found in dumplings and on top of spaghetti all covered with cheese.”
Inspired by travels abroad, the menu encompasses a wide range of flavors from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. By the time we arrived at the truck, they were sold out of the “IncrediBall” (Kobe Beef ball wrapped in bacon and gruyere) and the “Ballywood” (Garam Masala chicken ball cradled in a coconut curry and set atop saffron basmati rice), two of the most enticing menu items. After a bit of hemming and hawing, we finally settled on the “Ball Gogi” ($5.50).
The Ball Gogi takes traditional Korean flavors and serves ‘em up on a bed of rice noodles. The ground bulgogi meatballs were accompanied by sigumchi namul (Korean sesame spinach), kimchi, and black sesame seeds. I really liked how the Ball Gogi captured a Korean barbecue experience in a neat and tidy package. The entire dish reminded me of a Vietnamese bun dish, minus the saucer of fish sauce on the side.
Dirty puns involving balls are fairly low brow, but I’m not above that kind of humor, especially when the food speaks for itself.
Follow Great Balls on Tires on Twitter @GreatBallsOT.
POWER RANKINGS
The Manila Machine > India Jones Chow Truck > Dim Sum Truck > Great Balls on Tires > World Fare Bustaurant > Ahn Joo > Border Grill Truck > Cool Haus > Lomo Arigato > Don Chow > Kogi > Yatta-! Truck > Marked 5 > Dosa Truck > Phamish
We’re not above low brow humor – them balls look pretty damn good!
These balls sounds hot! hot! hot! Curious about their sweet balls…
I love their sense of humor! And that food looks great, too.
Wow. That is a GREAT idea. And balls are funny. I’d love to hear about the IncrediBall at a later date!
oh i love balls! and they’re not even hairy…wait a minute…..
Damn it’s crazy how there are all these food trucks poping up, or rolling out I should say. I live in the San Fernando Valley and I wish we had more food trucks like this out here. I try and catch them when I’m in LA though.
I remember you mentioning that you wanted to try more trucks but weren’t near them too frequently. Glad to see you’re getting to sample some!
I love reading about all of these mobile foods, this looks like a good one.
There’s been a lot of balls in LA recently….