Yep completely agree

lol, nobody's passing up some delicious food truck food because of a license plate, no matter what it says. that said, maybe go with BLKBTTY on the license plate.

you're in Dallas, right? the lease it out idea has me thinking about giving that a shot. Black Betty would be perfect for a coffee truck. I roast my own coffee. maybe I'll end up being one of your customers and sell coffee drinks.

I was joking that anyone would care if Black Betty’s license showed the owner to be a Bama fan. Still wouldn’t want to be confused for one.

Mark and yim you guys let me know when you’re doing coffee from Betty. I’ll stop on a planned road trip up that way.

yes sir, didn't we determine we both live in East Dallas? I have a tiny diner concept I'm working on and thought it would be cool to have fresh roasted coffee beans so that could be a great match, pm if you want to discuss in more detail

I also bought this old Spartan travel trailer (the restaurant sign is a neon light with stainless surround that is 50+ years old I plan to repurpose in some way, maybe just as yard art along with some other neon I've bought):



and want to repurpose as an outdoor bar/coffee shop in the mornings at the outdoor venue I'm working on, hope to get it to look something like this when complete:



I hope to sell a lot of coffee, grub, beer & cocktails here eventually plus just create a cool place for folks to hang out and enjoy life

definitely, if I ever get this thing off the ground, there will be an open invitations to all 2+2ers

Nice. I live in Fort Worth. I've escaped to Laramie, WY for the next few sauna months though, lol.

Here's some other plate options:



The limitation on the number of letters is making it hard to get it nailed. I may just get a custom plate made that I clip over the rear license plate and have the regular Texas approved plate in front uncovered and if I get pulled over (wont be driving much) just take my chances, ask forgiveness and say we put it over the plate when were parked and forgot to remove it

That sounds awesome, I've been dreaming about escaping the summer heat by going to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone to get my camping and fishing on

You doing any fishing up there?

I don't cotton to any state east of the Mississip.

No, no fishing. I don't like eating them so I've never really caught the bug to try and catch them, lol. I did just spend a week in Silverton, CO (San Juan Mountains) roaming all the old mining roads/passes that are 4WD or OHV only. One of the prettiest parts of the country I've ever been in. I'll have some pics to post in the OOTdoors thread in the next few days.

Got ahold of some bamboo again



Not a lot of yield



Simmered in superior stock made with chicken, jinhua ham, and conpoy. Did not have time to clarify so its not a looker.



Wife gifted me some tea bowls.



Perfect for some chawanmushi. 1 part egg to 2 parts dashi flavored with soy sauce, salt, mirin.



Steamed for 15 minutes then garnished with scallop slices. Cover again with heat off for 5 minutes. add ikura.



Ceviche with extra scallop.

Yim, what are you planning to put on the menu for your food truck?

amoeba looks lovely as always. I’m a big fan of bamboo soup but yeah not sure if it’s worth the effort.

i like the last one the best.

or you could serve some amazing gyros and run with this one (which is currently available)

and amoeba is just toying with us now

Your stuff is always so beautiful I know who made the post instantly without looking at the screen name and its always stuff I've never heard of.

Man, it looks good!

lol, so true

Hey, I like that idea, maybe I'll get several non-approved vanity plates I'll change out based on the type of food

I don't know yet, why don't you come up and we can introduce the world to your wonderful food? (I'm spending $$$ on a new motor, transmission, etc so maybe I can drive it down to Austin when this covid crap clears up)

I'm designing it where it can flex to anything from pre-made & pre-packaged food (like cookies, cupcakes, sandwiches, etc) to coffee to burgers to hot chocolate to shaved ice, etc, etc. I hope to "shark tank" it with chefs or anyone who has an idea and wants to test out their concepts without having to commit $50,000+ to a food truck and then trying to find a location to sell from.

In the shark tank scenario, I am thinking 35% of gross sales so if a small operator could run it by themselves and do $1,000 in sales and had a food cost of 20% then they'd make $450, I'd make $350. If I can rent it out 75 day/nights a year, I'd bring in $26,250 which would be a great return on an investment I did for shitz and giggles plus I'd still have the opportunity to use it personally to try out various ideas.

Its meant to be a combination of fun--idea incubator/tester--shark tank partnership

It will have a vent hood and plenty of counter space to serve a tight menu and plenty of power and space for propane tanks so I can bring in a flat top for one food type, fryers for another, cooktop for another, etc, etc

In any given use, it seems prudent to keep a VERY tight menu. If I was going to see how the market liked my BBQ, I'd pre make & pre-package cole slaw, baked beans and maybe one other side and a desert**. Package all the cooked BBQ with my Vacmaster and hold them at temperature in sous vide baths, then I can open what I need & serve as its sold.

** I have an AWESOME chocolate cake recipe that can be pre made and kept in piping bags so it can be piped into a coffee mug or disposable container. Then you microwave it for about 45 seconds and pour hot icing (that is kept hot via sous vide) on it as in comes out of the microwave (the icing seeps into all the air bubbles). Its DANGEROUSLY easy and fast to make, tastes great and is incredibly moist, so I cant keep it around the house. Would be easy to sell little Blue Bell ice cream cups as an add to the cake as well.

The main thing is to have fun with it, try out a bunch ideas and see what works and doesnt

Can we change this thread title to Amoeba’s Culinary Asian Delights already?

I'd take some. Not sure how I'd explain to the wife, but maybe I've softened her up, because:

A coworker started dating this Vietnamese-American chick. Her parents and grandparents were born in Vietnam, they may be citizens as well, but whatever, from the old country. Anyways, he was saying they told her (and him) they were going to start up a kitchen and cook food to sell. Her response was, did you get a kitchen somewhere? A restaurant? A license? lol no to all of that, they cook it out of their home kitchen and sell it to who knows who. So coworker asked if I wanted any, one meal a week. I'm like, of course! It's been a month or two now, I've had some delicious pho, some dishes I'd never heard of and can't remember the name of, like a sort of red seafood dish/stew, some sort of pho-like pork dish with congealed pigs blood, and when they want a lighter week, banh mi. All ****ing delicious. When I got the pigs blood pork thing, it had the coworker's gf's name on it, and I'm like, "Why did they put your name on it?" "Oh, they just assumed the one with pig's blood would be me." Tomorrow's is crab and shrimp with (maybe quail?) eggs. When I asked for the name I just got a screenshot that says, "Thu 5 ngoai co nau banh cua 12, moi nguoi..." Don't care, looking forward to it.

So now that I've been bringing home unlicensed Vietnamese Kitchen food for a little bit, maybe the wife would be less surprised by an unlicensed pastrami showing up in the mail. In any case, in!

^^lol^^

good story

The soup with blood cubes is probably bun bo hue, literally beef noodle soup from the old capitol city of Hue.

The red seafood soup I am less certain of but possibly bun rieu.

bigdaddy, I also want in if you are making pastrami. Charge what you need to as making pastrami is hard work.

Yim, your idea is fantastic. I used to know quite a few people who wanted to try out the restaurant industry but was afraid of the risk.

I've been catching and releasing for decades, its still fun. Been to Silverton too, some of the best trout fishing is east of Durango at the quality waters in New Mexico. Its all catch and release below the damn and they make it even harder by making you use barbless hooks. Trout the size of footballs are everywhere, its crazy:



^^this is a random internet picture I found of fish from the San Juan river^^

And as beautiful as Silverton and the San Juan Mountains are, Yellowstone park and the Grand Tetons blow it away, you're so close, you should drive up there, its incredible.

20+ years ago I bought a VW Eurovan and traveled the country playing poker and fishing. I was obsessed with poker and this was in 1998 before the boom so learning the game was hard for me because I am no natural and didn't have any poker buddies to learn from. On the trip, my buddy and I hiked up to the base of the summit of the Grand Tetons, incredible view: