Manila Machine Tasting 7/17/10

A few months ago, I received an email from my friend Nastassia of Let Me Eat Cake saying she had put in notice at her job and she was going to start a Filipino food truck. I was so excited for her. One of my good friends from college comes from a huge Filipino family and I always love going to their home to load up on goodies like pancit, adobo, and of course lumpia. Unfortunately, it's a little hard for me to chase down food trucks so I was happy that Abby of Pleasure Palate invited me to a special tasting of all the truck's goodness.





Our first course was tapsilog which was served with garlic fried rice and a fried egg. I always prefer savory breakfasts and this was no exception. Plus, a dash of Filipino hot sauce gave this a nice heat that had nothing to do with the 95 degree temperature outside.



Next we had lumpiang shanghai and chicken adobo. To me, lumpia is one of the best foods ever. I could eat it all day every day. The Manila Machine's lumpia is nice and crispy on the outside and full of pork greatness on the inside. I loved it. Nastassia's partner is Marvin of Burnt Lumpia. He explained that there are many, many versions of adobo and this is their take. I happened to think it was just the right blend of vinegar and spices.



Longganisa is a type of sausage that Nastassia and Marvin put into a pan de sal bun and top with arugula, onions, and mango jam. It's sweet, salty, and fresh all at the same time. I didn't get a picture of it though.

To cleanse our palates, and as a nice birthday surprise for me, Nastassia treated us all to popsicles. The cool and creamy mango popsicle was perfect on that very hot day.



My favorite dish of the day was the sisig. It's pork cheeks marinated in calamansi and served over rice. It was sprinkled with chicharones and with a spritz of lime juice, I was in pork cheek heaven.



I consider myself to be a slightly adventurous eater, but I've never really wrapped my head around Spam. However, it was on the menu so spam on. The Manila Machine takes a chunk of spam, sears it, then tops it with a fried egg on a pan de sal roll with banana ketchup. It's that great combo of sweet and salty and I actually liked it even though it was a little difficult to eat with the egg sliding around.



We had to leave early because I am a gal on the go lately, but Nastassia quickly whipped up some turon for my sister and I and gave us our ube cupcakes to go. The turon is basically a banana spring roll and topped with a caramel sauce. This sweet treat would go well with vanilla ice cream. The ube cupcake is pretty to look at and tastes even better. Love the coconut frosting on top!  Unfortunately, since we left early, we missed the adobo glazed chicken wings, but I hear they were stellar.





It was totally worth it to brave the hot, hot heat and try the delicious food the Manila Machine has to offer.  If you're in Los Angeles, I highly recommend tracking them down.

The Manila Machine Website
Follow them on Twitter @ManilaMachine