Rumjungle at Mandalay Bay

13 days until Andy and I head to Kauai for our one year anniversary! Which is July 5th. Sorry if I made that confusing before.

Last year, we had a joint bachelor/bachelorette party in Las Vegas. It was an amazing time. We had one night with a separate dinner for girls and boys. Dinner for the girls was at Rumjungle in Mandalay Bay. We decided it was time to show the boys what it was all about.



Rumjungle features a rodizio fire pit and huge skewers of meat. You have been warned.



I started off with a pineapple caipirinha which is a Brazil's national cocktail. Similar to a mojito, it's compromised of rum/cachaca, sugarcane, lime and pineapple all muddled together. This was particularily strong for me and I sipped it and then passed it off to Gary.



Andy ordered a fruity rum drink. He said it was way too sweet for him. We probably should have just swapped drinks! (Let's all LOL at my sister Sarah's sweet facial expression in the background.)



Next up came rolls with chimichurri sauce. I love cilantro so this dipping sauce was DELISH.



Then came tons of appetizers for the six of us to split. I had cheese wedges, ham, a fresh salad with mint, potato salad, and some roasted veggies. The salad was so fresh. I usually dislike mint but this was good.



Seasoned black beans, coconut rice and corn with cojita cheese.



Then skewers of meat. I was pretty full at this point so I was a little nervous.



They piled the meat on a plate for us to share. I have videos from Andy's flip to share soon.

We rolled out of there and walked around to decrease the fullness.



And took a picture with Spongebob to impress my 8 year old brother.



And hailed a monorail!



And posed by Border Grill.

I am waiting for some more pictures from my sister and Tiffany and will post more soon!

I have eaten an entire watermelon in the past 15 hours. Watermelon is so good in the summer, go get one!

LA Street Food Fest

Hi! This is Andy. I would be the other boo who eats who never posts. Well now I am!




On Saturday, Amanda and I went to the LA Street Food Fest. If you were at the foodbuzz fest, this was sort of like the first evening of that. Basically, LA is full of street food trucks, and a good 20 or so of them converged in downtown LA. Pretty amazing idea. It was cheap to get in. Presale tickets were $10. All the food was small portions of regular items and everything was under $5 a piece. And free booze. Did I mention free booze? New Belgium Brewery had the beer, makers of Fat Tire. And Pama Pomegranate Liqueur supplied the mixed beverages. For free! Donations were suggested, so we dropped a few dollars.



(Amanda's note: I usually prefer tequila but vodka seems to go with Pomegranate more.)

Anyway, this gave me an opportunity to try out my new Flip Video. Amazing little guy.



Amanda and her little sister Sarah.



So here we go. Lines were long and two of our friends didn't have presale. The line at 11:30 took about 45 minutes to get through...just to get in! We got in instantly and went to the booze. It was an amazingly beautiful day in LA. So Amanda has sun in her eyes and we are enjoy our pomegranate and vodka beverages. For FREE!

Watch this video here

Our first stop was the non-descript Vietnamese Food Truck. They had eggrolls and a variety of mini pork and beef sandwiches that were out of this world good. You can see the crowded in the video. This line took about a half an hour.

See video here! We are still trying to figure out how to embed the videos onto the blog.





These trucks weren't really set up for the volume of people and lines were long. But it was some damn good food and since we were with a group of friends we could divide and conquer! So we did!







Brett's phallic pork on a stick. Fun!


Next up, however was a free drink. But this time not an adult beverage. Honest Tea was handing out free bottles. I grabed a Pomegranate Blue(OMG I LOVE ANTIOXIDANTS!). Amanda and I both love this flavor. We have a thing for pomegranate anything. And I do mean anything!

Free Tea Video!


At this point we all separated. Segregated, if you will. We went Boys and Girls. Me and my two good friends Gary and Brett went to the Buttermilk Truck (yeah, I said it. Leave you guessing as to what they had, but it was the highlight of the fest). The ladies: Amanda, her sister Sarah, and her bestest friend Tiffany went to the Tasty Meat Truck and the Badass Burger Truck. After about an hour and a half, we had a ton of food. Actually, while in line for the Buttermilk Truck, Brett and I went to the Gastrobus(is there a better name for a food truck?) to get some amazing Sweet Potato Fries.



Gastrobus video

All organic products from local farmers? I am all in. The fries were outstanding. I love sweet potato in any form.



Amanda's Note: While Andy enjoyed sweet potato fries, I gushed over running into C.S. Lee who plays Masuka on DEXTER! I didn't introduce myself or ask for a picture so I creepily pretended to be posing. Whatever!






Ok, food has appeared in large quanities. This was pig out time. Feta fries, more sweet potato fries, Lamb Gyros, Mini Burgers. Ice cream cones and frozen bananas(possibly the best I have ever inhaled, because it was inhaled were also acquired. Is this heaven we have stumbled upon? Perhaps. Perhaps.












On to the main event, the Pièce de résistance if you will. The Buttermilk Truck. Amanda heard about this truck somewhere. Maybe it was myth. Maybe it was urban legend. But they had amazing food. Mini donuts(which we didn't try, but will assume were awesome) and something called a Buttermilk Brick which was a biscuit, an egg, covered NOT smoothered in chorizo gravy. Amazing. But the best was the Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Pancake. Whoever concocted this deserves the Nobel Peace Prize. We had some amazingly great things today, but this was by far, hands down, the best.











That is beauty.




We walked about a bit after this, food coma set in. There was more free booze to be had and some cute vendors selling shirts and other items. By this time, everyone was running out of food or just way behind. We heard of some trucks having an hour line and then an hour to make the food. At least you know it is fresh. Obviously these trucks aren't set up for this volume like I mentioned. Many people were angry, but we got in around the start and hit about 8 seperate trucks. A lot of people got turned away at the door, but this was the first time around and issues arise that are unforseen. Still, an amazing idea. The last stop was the Sweet Truck. Which had a giant line but decided to take it to the street and just sell cookie bars for $1. So we bought one and saved it for Valentines Day. Ok, maybe a nibble on the way to the car.





Seriously. Bacon is good.

On the way out, the organizers mentioned there will be another fest in the fall. We cannot wait, as there were a great deal of other trucks that either weren't there or we couldn't get to. This has given Amanda and I a mission, which is to seek out some of these trucks on weekends and get the full experience. There are dozens of these trucks doing all types of food from the typical hot dog to things like the Buttermilk Truck and the Gastrobus doing pretty interesting stuff out of a truck. So stay tuned. Sorry if I(we) come off like crazy people on the video. I guess we are. But hopefully you get a chuckle or too...and become insanely jealous and if you are local find some of these trucks and support local food!



Also free Izze!

We have several videos and more pictures to come soon! Let us know if you attended the LA Street Food Fest as well.