Eat The Street For Japan

by Maria Kanai
photos by Rie Miyoshi

Last week my photographer Rie Miyoshi and I attended the third Eat The Street, a lunch wagon rally event organized by Poni Askew of Streetgrindz.com. This month, the event was for a cause. In light of the terrible earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan, the lunch wagons donated either a portion or all of their proceeds to the American Red Cross to aid relief efforts. It was an awesome way for people to help out a recovering country while enjoying some delicious street food. Here's how it went!

There were some changes from the last ETS in February. First of all, it was even bigger! 32 lunch wagons instead of last month's 26. Trash cans were set up in the middle, tables were set up for easy eating, and the lines actually were fairly short…except for Gogi's Korean Tacos truck! As usual, this was a crowd favorite.

This was another thing that was different! Local artists Lightsleepers worked on a beautiful, Japan-themed painting on twelve canvases that were to be auctioned off, the money once again being donated to the American Red Cross.

The first truck we went to was Shogunai Tacos. Most of the lunch trucks had a Japan-themed dish, and I got Shogunai's Osaka Jo. It was delicious, with the perfect fusion of Mexican and Japanese. The ginger pork was flavored nicely with the shoyu and lemon, and I loved the furikake and bean sprouts. It was actually really filling at $6.50, and my friend and I split one between the two of us.

The biggest surprise of the night? The line at Melt was actually manageable, and I got to try out their famous sandwiches for the first time! I think the lines were short because of their limited menu; Japanese beef curry, their famous tomato soup, and just one Melt sandwich, which was a Kabocha and Bacon melt.

You can see the kabocha (pumpkin) covered with delicious Gouda cheese. The bread was perfectly toasted with a nice crunch, and the cheese, well, was melting in my mouth. It certainly lived up to its hype. However, I did think $9 was a little pricey...

Then I ran into Poni Askew herself! Although she was busy running around organizing everything, she was able to take some time to answer some question. She let me know that she plans on holding these events at the last Friday of every month. As for the changes, she is going to take them slow. "We want to ease into the momentum, and not change too much at once."

We wanted something sweet, and we had loved the icecream at Aloha Ice Cream Tricycle. We got the watermelon icecream this time, for $4. Once again, the cookie crust at the bottom did it for me. I'm usually not a big fruit-flavored-icecream fan, but there were "chocolate" seeds for my chocolate fix.

SOUL Patrol's very own Chef Sean Priester! They were cooking food right outside the truck. SOUL's Japan themed dish was togarashi-spiced catfish with Japanese cucumber relish.

We got the Mexican paella for $7 at Camille's on Wheels, just to take a break from the tacos. The rice was filled with plenty of shrimp, chicken, and shichimi! It was just the right amount of spicy, and the different meats and seafoods were perfectly flavored.

Me and Onopops' Mexican Chocolate. It had an interesting tangy flavor to it that I wasn't quite used to. The chocolate is grown in Hawaii, and I bought the popsicle for $3. I just wasn't used to the strong aftertaste, kind of bitter and very thick, so this wasn't my favorite, even though I look very happy.

Over $7200 was raised for Japan, from a combination of food sales from the lunch wagons and separate donations. Once again, this was the biggest Eat The Street yet. At least 3500 people showed up to eat and participate to help a nation in need, making it an unforgettable night. Keep a lookout for the next event, which is planned to be held on the last Friday of April!