Right. Food truck season is in full swing, and over the last few whatevers shut up I'm busy I've been trying some things I didn't get to last year, a new dish at an old fave, and a new truck entirely.

I mean, seriously, fuck Dino's.

Don't get me wrong. I've spent quite a few evenings at Dino's Gyros near Southdale for a quick gyro-and-fries fix, and it's not bad, as counter-service fastesque food goes.

But tonight, I went a few blocks east on 66th, to a former shitty Taco Bell (no, that's not automatically redundant, some of the actual Bells are better appointed than others, and this one was always awful) that is now the home of Aida Mediterranean Cuisine, and I did one of those things I only do at my favorite places. Spent the time after my meal planning out my next order.

It's actually taken nearly two years to explore the list of new restaurants in our general price range that have become more available to us sine the move. A couple of weeks ago, I knocked a biggie off the list - the Lone Spur Grill and Bar, a barbecue/Tex Mex place a bit to the northwest of me.

I have recently completed a Mission Burrito Mission to the Golden Valley Panchero's. And since they are so painfully, obviously molding themselves in the Chipotle vein, it's only fair that I talk abouit them relative to Chipotle.

The menu is, for all practical intents and purposes, identical. Even more so than Qdoba's. Oh, you can get quesadillas there if you want, but otherwise, the meats, accoutrements, etc. are identical. Well, OK, when I was there, there was a special "Shrimp Scampi Taco", but that sounds like an awful fucking idea on every level, so let's ignore it.

Thought I'd forgotten about my I Could Eat This All Fucking Day feature? I have not. And the aloo tikka chaat at World Street Kitchen? I could eat that all fucking day for a fucking week.

OK, the word is out and it's officially open. If City Pages can post about it, then so can I. The food truck that popped my food truck, banh mi, and lamb belly cherries is now a counter-service restaurant at 28th and Lyndale, and on Sunday night, because Twitter said they were open, we had dinner and dessert there.

Last weekend, I finally got a chance to try Little Szechuan. The St. Paul location has apparently been a well-regarded institution for years, but this year they opened up a satellite location five minutes away from me, in the Shops At West End.

I've been food truck lunching to a nigh-disturbing degree this season. I just keep finding/having/making excuses to go out to lunch. Which is probably very bad for my budget, but what the hell. It's very good on my taste buds.

I feel bad about not having tried any new trucks, but on the other hand, the constantly changing menus of my favorites keep tempting me with stuff I haven't tried before. And then there's the temptation to just eat the things I know I love. Anyway, here are some of the new dishes I've eaten in the last few weeks:

OK. Here's a little Sushi Fix update, because I've been back a couple times since my first post, and there are things you need to know.

First thing you need to know: DEMON SAUCE. They will put Demon Sauce on your roll if you want them too. Demon Sauce is fuckety hot. Like, take how hot I'm comfortable with things being and add another 30% to it. It's not ghost chili/mace hot, but it's definitely in the habanero/holy shit my face is on fire range, especially if you eat it straight.

Do not eat it straight. Unless you're a chile-head with much higher tolerance than me.

A few notes from the weekend:

AREPA UPDATE:

After I made a dozen of the thin arepas, I froze eight of them. THis weekend, I tried popping a couple of them in the toaster like toaster waffles, and in a glorious success, they came out near-fresh. Drizzled with butter an honey, they were nice, but now I really want to make a hot pepper jam.

AMERICAN PIE:

This strip mall pizza joint was competent without being special, but the damndest thing happened duirng a wait for the check that, if I'm gonna be honest, was insanely fucking long.