The Manila Machine

The Manila Machine is the first Filipino food truck in the LA area. Before White Rabbit and before Tapa Boy. The Manila Machine was doing it first. Now on to the food. I had a two slider, lumpia and drink combo for $8. You have 4 basic sliders to choose from. Their signature slider, "the original manila dip", a spam slider, a longganisa slider and a beef tapa slider. The two sliders I chose were the longganisa slider and the beef tapa slider.


Lets start with the longganisa slider. Here is the description from their website "Sweet pork and garlic sausage, caramelized onions, arugula, and mango jam on a pan de sal roll." Disclaimer: I am not a fan of sweets unless its for desserts. I thought the longganisa itself was good but the addition of the caramelized onions and mango jam just made it too sweet for me. Pan de sal itself is also a fairly sweet bread so that didn't help. The arugula tried to counteract the sweetness but it had no chance against the other ingredients. All in all it was ok. I probably wouldn't get it again.

Let's move on to the beef tapa slider. Again from their website, "Sweet calamansi beef, achara slaw, and spicy sriracha mayo on a pan de sal roll." Now this was more up my alley. Don't let the description mislead you. there are sweet components in this but they dont overpower. The siracha mayo was a hit and im always a sucker for achara slaw which is sweet and sour. The beef had a good texture and there was plenty of it. This was a far better balanced item. I would definitely get this again.

The side item in this combo was your choice of lumpia shanghai or vegetable lumpia. I chose the lumpia shanghai. Here's how Manila Machine describes it, "Seasoned pork, carrots, and spicy ginger wrapped in thin eggroll skins and deep-fried." This lumpia was the bomb.com. the pork had a really good texture and was really well seasoned. You can actually feel the meat in your mouth. I didn't really get the hit of the spicy ginger though. The wrapper wasnt too thick and it was fried to perfection. The perfect crunch. One of my favorite lumpia shanghai.

Overall I really liked the Manila Machine. There's a lot of Filipino food around the area but they provide a nice twist on traditional Filipino fare. They have quality food and $8 for my combo wasn't too bad of a price. Well that's all for now. Just wait till I eat something else.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6