Eggslut LA: ACME Foodporn

When I first heard about Eggslut truck, I was a bit turned off by its name. Such a gratuitous marketing gimmick, I thought.

But the truck was co-founded by Chef Alvin Cailan, who had worked in the kitchen of critically acclaimed MB Post with Michelin-starred chef David Lefevre (previously of Water Grill), and sounded like one of those passion projects that is only temporarily on wheels - until the idea incubates, heats up and hatches a brick and mortar down the line.  After reading that even Ruth Reichl stopped by while in LA and raved about it, I decided it was time to give it a try. Even if it meant waking up at the crack of dawn to hit up the truck, parked pretty much every Monday to Friday 7-11:30am in front of Coffee Commissary on Fairfax, on my way to work if I take the longer route.

Once I had a taste last week, I realized the appropriateness of the name. It's eggs, 'done every which way' (their quote is "wet, hard, and on top of everything"), indiscriminately offering all who desire it, indescribeable pleasures that you'll want to experience again and again. (Ok somebody please stop me, now.)

The most unique, and pretty much its signature dish, is: Thee Slut ($8) a soft-boiled, coddled egg atop potato puree topped by grey salt and chives - served up in a glass jar.  Eggs and potato have gone together - forever - but the two breakfast staples I have never seen served up like this, and never at this unexpectedly high quality from a truck.  The egg was literally perfectly cooked (how can they achieve the precision needed in what tastes like a 63 degree egg on a truck?!!!) and absolutely transcendent, when the liquid gold yolk runneth over into the buttery potato puree below, with the chives and grey salt softly punctuating the lot with extra kicks of flavor and crunch. 

The beast with two backs indeed.  Lots of fellow foodies have reported the correct way to savor this proof-of-a-higher-being, is to break the yolk, then plunge the accompanying toasts down through it to the potato below, to end up with a bit of everything on the toast.  I had been so distracted by the flavors and textures of what was in the jar, that I completely forgot about the toasts - so will have to try the 'proper' way on my next visit (and there will be many - I've never been a morning person, but Eggslut may just change my life...ok maybe not.  But it will be commute-route-altering...)

Aside from Thee Slut, eggs are also served in various breakfast sandwich-burgers, creative egg-centric takes on familiar dishes like "Notcho Slut" (gourmet nachos with eggs) and in daily specials.  The day I went, one of the specials was Mushroom Tartine ($8) soft-scrambled eggs served open faced on French loaf with diced cremini mushrooms, roasted grape tomatoes, parmesan & chives.  It was over for me the minute I read that on the menu board: I had to get it (lust: check. pre-meditated gluttony: check).

The presentation was beautiful, and again, the quality of every element was shockingly high caliber for a food truck.  If you put this on an unmarked plate and brought it to me next to another unmarked plate of eggs from Farmshop - I would venture to say that I really don't know if I would be able to tell the difference based on quality.

The cool thing about Eggslut's 'regular' location that I want to note, is that it's right in front of Coffee Commissary: it's a perfect pairing not only in terms of each providing breakfast staples that the other lacks - but also that Coffee Commissary has some nice seating both inside the cafe and outside on the patio - which Eggslut clients...I mean customers...can also use. 

So unlike other food trucks where you have to eat standing up on the sidewalk, perch at makeshift bar height tables, or go ghetto fabulous with seats made of overturned buckets -  you can actually enjoy a leisurely breakfast in a nice setting with real tables and chairs.  IF you don't have to rush off to work, that is.  I didn't wake up early enough that morning, and had to run back to the office, so I took my food to go.  But not before picking up a coffee from Coffee Commissary.  Again, I am not at all a coffee connoiseur, so no idea how good this coffee ranks among others in the city, but to me The Cuban ($4) was super fragrant, smooth, with subtle spices that went really well with the luscious egg dishes.

The other thing I should mention is, if like me you want to just 'swing by' and pick up breakfast from Eggslut - note that they make every item to order (hence the insanely delicious bites), so don't expect to be able to complete anything at the speed of a drive by.  It took about 10 minutes for a 2-dish order.  SO worth the wait, and with Coffee Commissary right there you can just use that time to get your drink order in - but just something to plan for, if you've got places to go and appointments to keep.

All I know is - I'm hooked, and can't wait to make my way back to Eggslut for more. Don't let the name throw you off - the food is absolutely legit.

On a 7 point scale:
Flavor - 6.5 bites
Presentation - 6 bites
Originality - 5.5 bites
Ambience - 5 stars
Service - 5.5 stars
Overall experience - 6 bites
Price - $ (1 bite mark)
Probability of return visit - 100%
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Eggslut LA
In front of Coffee Commissary Mondays to Fridays 7-11:30am
Location varies on Saturdays - see Twitter for updates
Twitter: @eggslutla
Website: eggslut.com

Coffee Commissary
801 N. Fairfax Ave., #106, Los Angeles, 90046
Website: http://coffeecommissary.com/
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