The day it happened, I certainly didn’t wake up that morning and think, “Today, I am going to eat tater tots and a carnitas-filled grilled cheese sandwich for lunch.” Yes, tater tots … I kid you nots.

Actually, the tater tots were really just icing on the cake. The real prize was finally, finally, finally experiencing the hot new trend in city cuisine – a food truck. In my case, the inaugural homage was to The Grilled Cheese Truck in Los Angeles. Cholesterol be damned! A girl needs her calcium.

You might guess I hunted down “TGCT” with the help of Twitter, but I did it the old-fashioned way. Well sort of the old-fashioned way – with Google on my trusty Crackberry. Riding shotgun as we were driving westbound on the 210 nearing Pasadena, I found TGCT’s website and saw on the calendar that the truck was setting up shop behind Vroman’s Bookshop on Colorado Boulevard. Color us there!

We turned into the parking lot behind Vroman’s and there was TGCT in all its cheddar-yellow and annatto-orange glory, complete with the phrase “Chef driven grilled cheese ‘cause that’s how we roll” emblazoned on the back, and already starting to attract a lunch crowd. We sidled up to the truck to review the menu, eyeing options like the Brie Melt on cranberry walnut bread, the Harvest Melt with butternut squash and sautéed leeks, or the signature Cheesy Mac and Rib.

Then, we saw it. Today’s special happiness-making creation was a spicy smoked carnitas melt with pepper jack cheese, caramelized onions and heirloom tomatoes. Sigh ...

In a rare – very rare – moment of restraint, we decided to split the sandwich and “only” get a half sack of tater tots. After a helpful TGCT veteran showed us where to place our order, we stepped back and watched the show. Though it was still early in the 11:30-2 lunchtime setup, people were already feeling the gouda migrations towards the truck from the parking lot, the street, from between the buildings.

Our order came up (served in fairly eco-friendly foil/wax-coated envelopes instead of something like styrofoam, thank you TGCT) and we returned to the car thinking we were going to eat it on the road. We rethought that rookie decision during the first bite. Clearly, this was a delightfully gooey meal that would require our full attention. Plus we didn’t want to spill the hot mustard and Tapitío dipping sauces for the tater tots, which were of course sprinkled with paprika – though next time we might sprinkle them with sumac, just because.

The next few minutes were spent in a dreamy, cheesy, tater totery trance of delight. If the incident shows up on YouTube, I apologize; there was no whey I curd stop myself. The cheese was perfectly melted and the bread was just crusty enough to offer up a delicate crunch in your mouth. The carnitas were tender and a touch spicy, and the tater tots … c’mon, we all know how fun tater tots are. We couldn’t edam up fast enough!

Sometimes, a memorable culinary experience makes you want to run home and try your hand at recreating the dish. This wasn’t one of them, in part because I know how much butter I’d have to put on the bread to make it that tasty. (Actually, since posting this originally, I saw TGCT featured on the new Cooking Channel's Unique Eats show, and found out they put a combo of butter AND mayo on the bread!) I’ll leave the “Chef driven” grilled cheese to TGCT, and next time I might just try the basic cheddar -- unless they tempt me with one of their specials like the recent Caprese Melt with fresh mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, sweet basil and balsamic glaze; or the Havarti with smoked turkey, melted leeks and thyme on rosemary potato bread; or the Provolone, grilled chicken, caramelized onions, applewood bacon and tomatoes on potato rosemary bread…

Praise cheeses!