Top 5: Mobile eatery standouts from local food truck festival

Kristin Tzintzun

During Wednesday and Friday nights, Chatsworth Street in Granada Hills has become host to more than 25 gourmet food trucks that set up shop and sell their culinary creations on the boulevard. Here are the top 5 food trucks that come out during the Granada Hills Food Truck Festival, in no particular order.

1. The Grilled Cheese Truck The Grilled Cheese Truck offers a variety of their own unique creations, from cheesy mac and rib and brie, buffalo chicken and three-cheese melts to the dessert melts filled with marshmallows, Nutella, bananas and other sweet ingredients. If the menu items aren’t enough for you, you can make your own creation with a combination of any of their 15 or so savory ingredients.

Twitter: @grlldcheesetruk

2. Crepe’n Around Crepe’n Around offers everything from the sweet to savory crêpes. Among their dessert crêpes are s’moreinspired ones with truckmade Callebaut chocolate sauce, marshmallows and graham crackers and Berries & Cream. Their savory crêpes, on the other hand, include chicken pesto, ham and Brie cheese and maple-braised pork. The business was named one of Los Angeles’ top 10 food trucks by Zagat.

Twitter: @CrepenAround

3. Da Burger Boss

This 1920s gangster themed food truck offers a variety of burgers that will make you come back for more. All of their delicious burgers are put together with their very own “special sauce” and served with matchstick fries. Be sure to try the Patrolman, a big, juicy burger served with bacon, blue cheese and sweet cranberry-apple mashup held together with grilled glazed donuts.

Twitter: @daburgerboss

4. The Churro Man The Churro Man food truck makes its own fresh handmade twisted churros topped with the most delicious combination of cinnamon and sugar. Served warm and fresh and filled with sugary goodness, the food is a must for anyone with a sweet tooth. Not only are the churros tasty, but they’re also sold at an affordable price, even for broke college students. For a real treat, get five churros for a mere $4.

Twitter: @The_Churro_Man

5. Sweet Arleen’s Sweet Arleen’s offers many different cupcakes featured on “Cupcake Wars” on Food Network. As a three-time winner of the competition show, the truck bakes up flavors like chocolate marshmallow and salted caramel brownies. Sweet Arleen’s also serves traditional cupcake flavors like Southern-inspired red velvet topped with a delicious whipped cream cheese frosting and the classic vanilla cupcake.

Twitter: @sweetarleens

Top 5: Products for personal self-defense

Victor Rodriguez Special to the Roundup

It could happen to anyone. No matter how many miles you cash out at your local gym or how many selfdefense classes you take, you’re never going to be too prepared to handle yourself in the presence of a threat. Instead of arming yourself to the teeth with knives, guns and hand grenades, try one of these self-defense products.

1. Date Rape Drink Test

You hear about it in the news or in cheesy daytime dramas, but the dangers of being given a spiked drink are all too real. Drink Safe Tech has produced a simple way to detect colorless and odorless drugs that disappear from the body within 24 hours. While it’s not a self-defense product, preventative defense is just as important. Costing less than your favorite Starbucks cappuccino drink, the Date Rape Drink Test is $1.50 at drinksafetech.com.

2. Monkey Fist keychain

Straight from the 1800s, the Monkey

Fist is an old tool with a modern design. At its center is a small steel ball bearing wrapped in paracord. This crude — if not caveman-esque — tool can definitely stop an assailant in his tracks. It’s also highly portable with the keychain attachment. While this product is available through Walmart ranging from $25 to $30, for the more do-it-yourself types, all the items can be found at the local hardware stores, with several online tutorials to help you retain your piece of mind.

3. Cat defense keychain

Don’t judge this product by its cover. While this keychain may be cute, the stainless aluminum charm has been disguised as a cat, with its eyes doubling as spaces for your fingers, and ears doubling as twin spikes for an incredibly effective piercing punch. This ferocious feline is primarily available at amazon.com, and generally costs about $5.00.

4. Pepper spray or mace

One of the most used self-defense products is the pepper spray, and for good reason. The sheer amount of development that this concept has gone through is astounding. A person is now able to completely customize what type of pepper they can pack. From concealable lipstick to sprays disguised as pens, or even a quick release key chain, most pepper sprays now come infused with an ultraviolet detection component, which help to identify attackers.

5. Tasers

Tasers offer what police agencies describe as the “less than lethal” option to deal with an attacker. Stun guns can take many different shapes; some fire two fish hook prong projectiles that literally stick themselves into the target, while others require direct contact to work. These electric angels are commercially available online from $20 to $60, but you may also buy them at Quartermaster Uniforms.