It's the most wonderful time of the year

This was our last week in operations for the year. We had our first brewery experience on Thursday night at Copper Kettle Brewing Company. Getting there was no easy feat as mother nature decided to dump 1 foot of snow on the Rocky Mountain area the night before and morning of. Fortunately, that meant most folks were driving a little slower on the roads and we didn't get any fingers or other obscene gestures for driving our truck too slow. Unfortunately, that meant the Highlander got stuck in a snow ditch. Thanks to the good Samaritan walking on the side of the road who randomly stopped in the freakin 10 degree weather to help push our car out of the ditch. We were slightly worried that most folks would stay in because of the cold & snowy weather, but thankfully folks still needed to get their drink on! We had a blast meeting & serving all you CKBC fans and hope to see yall again soon! Special thanks to Kristen for letting us come out and Chris for your generous donation. The next meal and/or round of drinks is on us!

As the year is coming to a close, we have been reflecting on our past few months. We most certainly had our ups and downs. With no food truck experience, we definitely struggled with starting up the business, but I believe the saying "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" applies beautifully here. We totally understand why people say don't go into business with your family. We don't agree with it, but being confined to a 7ft by 19ft space with each other day after day, we get it.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all our family & friends for your love and support. We honestly could not have done any of this without yall. Every prayer, FB post, tweet -- we love yall for all of it.

It's been a great start for The Sesame Seed. We're excited for what 2012 will bring!

The Active X - Perfect for Small Business Owners

The Sesame Seed purchased a smart phone to assist with the operations of our food truck business. We needed such a phone to process credit card payments, send tweets and make Facebook posts on the fly, and answer customer e-mails while working on the truck. No member of the Liu family has ever owned such an expensive phone, so we wanted to protect our investment. We opted for a premium case and selected the Seidio Active X. We found the case to be just what we needed. 

Pros:

-            The button cut outs on the Active X make pressing the on/off and volume control buttons an ease. The button design on the case as well as the port cut outs are precise, which demonstrates that significant time and accuracy has gone into the design process.

-            The case's rubber skin provides extra grip support and absorbs the shock from an inadvertent drop fairly well.

-            The plastic skeleton on the outside of the case provides a sleek look and allows the phone to slide easily in and out of jean pockets. Without the plastic, the rubber would grip onto the pocket and flip it inside out.

-            The case is thin for the amount of protection it provides. With the case on, the phone fits fairly comfortably into the back pocket of jeans.

-            The case provides just enough buffer so the phone no longer rests directly on the camera lens when it is set down.

-            The case is very easy to apply and remove.

-            Our credit card reader fits perfectly in the bottom audio port even with the case on the phone.

Cons:

-          Price: As previously mentioned, Seidio cases are premium cases. You can tell that a lot of time and effort are put into making these cases. The cost of this case can be up to 10 times higher than your standard case, but the Active X’s precision fitting and protection pay for themselves.

The Active X is the perfect case for our food truck business and has helped keep our smart phone safe from the hazards of our moving kitchen. We believe this is critical to the success of our small, mobile business. Keep up the good work, Seidio.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 Stars

http://www.seidioonline.com

A Sesame Seed Thanksgiving

The Sesame Seed has a lot to be thankful for this year. Thank you to all our family and friends, old and new, for all your love and support in setting up our food truck. We couldn’t have done it without yall. We are excited for all the new adventures that await us!


We spent Thanksgiving night at the Black Friday sale at Best Buy in Flatiron. Stopped by earlier in the afternoon to scope out the scene and there were already people there with their tents and crock pots. Hard core. We showed up around 8:30pm as they were starting to show the latest Harry Potter. Special one-night only additions to the menu included dumplings and egg rolls Liu family style. These were how we made them growing up and I honestly think they taste better than the ones I've tried at any other Chinese restaurant in the US. We also did some boba drinks, but perhaps Broomfieldians don't like the squishiness of boba (similar to the way PooShoe doesn't like the squishiness of sushi). Once we opened up the service window, the line started forming and order tickets started stacking up.

While Gliu and Mama Liu were trying to keep up with the orders, the truck was developing a mind of its own. Flickering lights, stalling generator -- fun times. We spent the first hour at the front of the store but then had to move down so Best Buy could start organizing the line. We really should've moved to the back of the store to hit up the folks near the middle and back of the line. Next year. A little before midnight, we moved back up to the front of the store and before long, the cops started shooing us a way. Officer friendly wouldn't even accept a free freshly baked chocolate chip cookie from us!


Cooking experiment of the week: Blackberry-apple pie. We had Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night and this was dessert. Saw the recipe in Southern Living. The cheddar flavor really came through. A little too much in my opinion though. I'm not a huge fan of pie, but after trying this one, I prefer an all-butter crust.

Jon Man came over for Thanksgiving dinner and brought Falcor. He is quite possibly the post hyper dog I have ever met, and we used to have a beagle. I think he slept for 30 mins max the entire 24 hours he was here. Mama Liu completely spoiled him with leftover meat we cooked on the truck and sweet potato biscuits we had for Thanksgiving dinner. You are one lucky pup, Falcor.

How to setup a food truck in Colorado

 How to set up a food truck in Colorado

I. Find Locations

-         The most vital step in a successful food truck business is location. Being new to Colorado, we found this step the most difficult. It took us 2-3 months to complete this step, but we did the rest of the steps in the meanwhile.

-         Private property: Need written agreement from property owner to operate

-         Street parking: Must apply for a Solicitor’s License with the city’s Finance Department

-         Each city has its own zoning requirements for mobile food establishments. You may want to call the city to make sure your location selections are okay.

II. Register your company name

-         Visit Secretary of State website (Colorado’s SOS: http://www.sos.state.co.us/)

-         Sign up for name and company type

-         I would recommend starting out as a LLC

III. Sign up for your Federal, State, and City tax ID numbers

-         Federal EIN: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=102767,00.html

o       Everything for your EIN can be done online

-         State: http://www.colorado.gov/revenue

o       You can download the form from the CO Department of Revenue’s website, but will most likely have to physically go to the Department of Revenue in Denver to submit your application

-         City

o       Go to the city’s website and find the tax license application form

o       Example: For Broomfield, CO you can go here to download the tax form: http://www.broomfield.org/salestax/, but you will need to submit the form in person to the Finance Department

o       Must have a sales tax license for each city you will be operating in

IV. Purchasing or building your own food truck

-         Purchasing an existing truck

o       We searched Craigslist for a used food truck. Also try http://www.denverstreetfood.com/

o       If you purchase a used truck, make sure to get a Bill of Sale for the title transfer. You will need to pay taxes on this transaction when you get the title transferred at the DMV. Also request that the previous owner get an Emissions Test done on the truck. Some cities require this for the title transfer.

o       Get a mechanic to inspect the truck before the purchase

-         Creating your own truck

o       Purchase a delivery truck, moving truck, large cargo van etc, and bring it to Team 20 LLC

§         Team 20’s contact info: http://www.manta.com/c/mtvhj8b/team-20-llc

§         Team 20 is owned by Chuck Courter. Almost every single food truck I have heard of in the CO area has gone through Chuck’s garage at some point. Chuck’s crew specializes in building food trucks. They can do everything from minor customizations to building your truck from scratch. The only thing they do not do would be the exterior wrapping of the truck.

-         Make sure to have the name, model number, and if possible the original manual of all your equipment (ex: ovens, fryer, hot water heater). I will mention why in the Retail Food Establishment License section

V. Insurance

-         Drivers insurance for the truck

-         Liability insurance for the business ($1 million coverage minimum)

-         Insurance company may require that you take a food safety course for the liability insurance. Enrolling in a food safety course will also greatly help with filling out the application for a Retail Food Establishment License.

VI. Retail Food Establishment License at the Environmental Health Department

-         It is best to register at the beginning of the year because your Retail Food Establishment License expires at the end of each calendar year (Dec 31).

-         Pick up a copy of the application and review it before filling the fields out. There might be a few things that seem confusing in the application. Take this time to ask the Health Department about any questions you may have.

-         You need to secure a commissary at which you will do your meal preparations, drain waist water, clean utensils, etc. A commissary can be any commercial kitchen that has been approved by the Health Department. I would recommend seeking out a commissary as the first step of the application process, because the application requires a signed agreement with your commissary.

-         Fill out detailed form about the truck.

o       Usually around 20 pages long

o       Food safety questions

o       Know your cooking and holding temperatures

o       The Broomfield Health Department required a copy of all of our equipments’ user manuals in order to verify that the equipment is designed for commercial use. If you do not have the manuals, you will have to find the make and model number on the equipment. Then, do a Google search. For example, my sandwich prep refrigerator is a BlueAir BAPT1. I searched for the make and model number and found a pdf version of the manual online. If all else fails, you can email the company that manufactured your equipment and ask them to email you a copy of the manual.

o       You will have to provide a to-scale diagram of all the equipment and ventilation in your truck. Here is an example of the diagram I made for the Sesame Seed truck.

-         Denver has a separate health inspection process from the rest of CO. If you get your health inspection done outside of Denver, your Retail Food Establishment License will be good for all of CO except for Denver. In order to operate in Denver, you will need to apply directly with the Denver Environmental Health Department.

-         There will be a fee for the license as well as a partially refundable fee for your health inspector’s time. Each hour he/she spends reviewing your application/truck will cost X dollars. So remember: Help your health inspector as much as you can. The more time you save your health inspector, the more money you save as well!

Important Notes

-         Special events are big earners, but HUGE events (e.g. CU football games, famer’s markets) can be costly to apply for.

-         Prepare your truck for cold weather (e.g. possible freezing of water lines, difficulty starting up engine).

-         Set up a separate bank account for your business so that you can separate your personal spending from business. This will make filing your taxes easier.

-         Keep a copy of all of your forms and documents! You may need them when applying for other things. Keep all of your business receipts as well.

-         Almost every time you have to submit an application, you will need to pay a processing fee. So be sure to have your check book/credit card on you.

-         Most applications have a waiting/processing period of several weeks

You can take the Texans out of Texas but not the Texas out of the Texans

Although Thanksgiving week tends to be a shorter week for most folks, we've got quite a few things going on. We're doing a special promotion in support of Broomfield FISH at our regular truck stops on Monday & Tuesday. Bring a can, get $1.50 off your sandwich. We've been donating extra sandwiches at the end of our lunch services to FISH and want to get the community in on the action. Spread the love, Broomfield!

We're going to be at Best Buy on Flatiron Cir on Thanksgiving night from around 9:30pm to midnight to serve hot food and drinks to those waiting in line for the Black Friday sale. Best Buy will be showing the latest Harry Potter movie starting around 9:30pm. Even if you're not planning on participating in the sale madness, please stop by to enjoy the movie and some delicious Chinese truck food.

The coming Saturday is Small Business Saturday. Amex will give you a one-time $25 statement credit when you use your registered Amex card on Nov 26 to make a purchase of $25 or more at a small business. We will be offering special party platters for $25 on Small Business Saturday. If you pay using your Amex, you are basically getting a delicious tray of Chinese-inspired cuisine for free! Please see our website for more details on placing an order. Thanks in advance for supporting small businesses and your local economy!

This past weekend, Gliu and PooShoe visited one of their favorite men in Colorado Springs. Jon took us shooting at Dragonmans. The name of the shooting range was perfectly fitting. Loved the entrance to the range. Bloodied crash dummies galore. Awesome.

First, we fired some of Jon's hand guns. Then, we moved on to the big boys -- rifles.

What we already knew was reaffirmed -- PooShoe has terrible aim. I should've played more shooting computer games like Gliu.

Cooking Experiment of the Week: My favorite cake when I lived in NYC a few years ago was the banana cake from Momofuku Milk Bar. I am super picky about desserts and almost never try anything twice. This was the only cake I purchased multiple times. I loved all the different layers, flavors, and textures. Found a copycat recipe online a while back and decided to test it out this weekend. This cake was truly a labor of love. Took 3-4 hours to make and assemble. It was delicious though. Almost as good as the one in NYC. If you've got a couple hours to kill, I definitely recommend trying it out.

It's that time of the year

With the holidays coming up, we decided to create a special holiday catering menu. If you'd rather spend time with your loved ones than slave away behind the stove, give us a call. If you're tired of the kitchen catching on fire, send us an e-mail. If you just want a delicious home-cooked Chinese-inspired meal, Facebook or Twitter us. This is just a sample menu. If you can think it up, we can probably cook it up. Just let us know what you're looking for and we'll work with you to create the best line-up for your special event.

We'll be doing a sampling of a few of these dishes at our truck stops this week.Check our calendar to see where we'll be and stop by for a free sample with any food purchase. Each day, we'll announce what item we'll be sampling that day.


We also plan on doing a canned food drive the week of Thanksgiving. Exact details will be announced the week of, but it will be something along the lines of bring a can, get $X off your sandwich.

We got another snow day last week. These Texans are slowly learning that we have to get up earlier to shuck the snow off the car.

PooShoe and Mama Liu decided to visit Chautauqua Park in Boulder this past Saturday. While it was very beautiful, Mama Liu almost got blown away by the 30-40 mph winds. PooShoe's left contact got blown up into the far corner of her eye and was stuck there for an hour. Fantastic. We made it less than 1/3 mile up the trail before turning back and hiding out in the car.

Cooking experiment of the week: Chocolate-Pumpkin Marble Cake. Lots of butter but mighty delicious. Used freshly pureed pumpkin and added toasted walnuts to the pumpkin batter and mint chocolate chips to the chocolate batter. The "do not touch" sign was to keep Gliu away while it was cooling. Also, we tried our hands at Hawaiian Sweet Bread Rolls. These didn't turn out quite as well. The dough was super sticky and we ended up having to add (too much) flour, which made them pretty dry and biscuit-like instead of light and fluffy. Might give these a shot another time. In any case, turned them into pretty tasty sliders. Beef patties stuffed with Monterrey Jack and topped with guacamole and caramelized onions. Yum.

Ridic story of the week: PooShoe is still giving out incorrect change to customers. Fortunately for the customers it's always too much change. Fortunately for The Sesame Seed the customers are honest citizens that alert PooShoe of her mistake and return the excess change. One word for PooShoe -- Kumon.

Our first big snow

On Sunday, we did our first big scrub down of the truck. I was nominated to climb up into the vents and clean them out. There were things up there that belong in nightmares. Apparently the previous owner didn't take very good care of that part of the truck. Will probably be climbing up there for many weeks to come.

Wednesday brought more snow than these Texans have seen in a long time. We decided to take a snow day and bring the truck into the shop for some much needed TLC. Hopefully the truck will run much more smoothly now and it won't be hocking massive loogies every time Gliu tries to start it up.

Thursday was our first day at Broomfield Civic Center (aka City & County of Broomfield). Thanks to Julie for making this happen for us and to all the city employees for coming out despite the cold weather. We are looking forward to seeing all of yall every Tuesday and Thursday! If you're planning on being at or near the City (Maybe for jury duty? Hopefully not in any trouble with the police department.), please stop on by.

We've tried a couple locations out on different days and now we're ready to set up a more permanent schedule. This is our plan for now. Any changes will be posted on our website's homepage and calendar.

Monday: Garden Center
Tuesday: Broomfield Civic Center
Wednesday: End of W Midway Blvd in front of Hunter Douglas & New Business Media
Thursday: Broomfield Civic Center
Friday: Garden Center

Hope to see yall out there!

Grand opening week

This week was the Sesame Seed's grand opening. Our first operating day was Monday, which was cold, wet, and windy -- perfect day for selling sao bing. Thanks to the brave few who came out to Garden Center and gave us a shot!

We were at the end of W Midway in front of Hunter Douglas and New Business Media from Tuesday through Thursday. It was awesome meeting all the employees of the nearby companies. Special thanks to @mookpool for your awesome tweet! We hope you become our first regular.

We were back at Garden Center on Friday, a beautiful and sunny day (why couldn't Monday have been like that?). Since Security Service Federal Credit Union didn't like us parking next to their bank on Monday, we moved to the west side of Wells Fargo on Friday. Thanks Wells Fargo for being more chill.

Looking forward to the coming week. Check out our schedule to see where we'll be. Hope to see some of the folks from last week again and meet more new people.

Ridic story of the week: A customer bought 2 sandwiches and 2 sodas and gave me $20. I gave him $15 in change. Does something seem off here? Yes, your math skills serve you right. The correct change should have been $5. PooShoe's math degree from UT and her Fellowship from the SOA should be revoked.


Cooking experiment of the week: Bubble-top brioches. Time consuming but not difficult. Bread truly is a labor of love. We took the prettiest ones and turned them into yummy egg, cheddar, and bacon sandwiches. These were the leftovers.

Soft opening @ Denver Rescue Mission

On Saturday, we partnered with Denver Rescue Mission to host an event at The Crossing where our food truck provided a free hot lunch to the Mission's clients who are currently battling hunger. God has blessed us abundantly over the years and our hearts felt burdened to give back to the community.

We spent many days and hours prepping for the event and while it was stressful at times, it was a great learning experience. We got much needed practice using the equipment on the truck.

Saturday was a very early morning for us. We got up at the crack of dawn to haul our truck and ourselves down to Denver. One of the first things we did was fill up the water tank. The water hose reminds me of an umbilical cord.

After heating up the oil and firing up the oven and grill, Mama Liu got to frying the chicken while Gliu warmed up the BBQ pork and PooShoe baked the sao bing. We prepped food for 300 people to be served over the course of a little more than an hour. It was insane. When we were assembling the sandwiches, I felt like the stack of unassembled sao bing were growing instead of shrinking.

While we were working in the truck, Daddy Liu checked out the activity in the kitchen. The fried chicken was a hit.

After we had cooked all the food, we were finally able to take a little breather and mingle with some of the Mission's clients.

One of our favorite Texas men drove all the way up from Colorado Springs to say hi. We love you Jon Man!

Yes, we all crashed when we got home, but this was an extremely rewarding experience. Denver, thank you for giving us this opportunity. It was a pleasure to serve those in need. Chef Kameo, thanks for sharing your kitchen with us. We were more than happy to give you a much needed break.

The Sesame Seed is born

We picked up our newly wrapped truck from Ink Monstr on Thursday. Isn't she (yes, I have dubbed it a she) pretty? Reminds me a little bit of a stubby fire truck.

As we were driving home, in my rear view mirror, I saw Gliu and the truck take a massive dive toward the shoulder on the highway. What the heck happened?! Apparently the left side mirror is useless and you need to stick your head out the window when shifting to the left lane. This truck has way too many quirks.

We've been prepping for our Saturday lunch service at the Denver Rescue Mission for the past few days. 300 meals in a little over an hour? God help us!

I think I called over 50 local businesses to see if anyone would be interested in supporting the event and/or charity. Not a single bite. This is a cold, cold world I tell ya.

Our grand opening is this coming Monday, October 17 at the Garden Center in Broomfield. Only a few days left til the big day! See our website for the rest of our first week schedule. We're both excited and scared. Please come out and support us if you're in the neighborhood!

We are legit now

We brought the truck into the auto shop on Tuesday to get things under the hood checked out. They replaced the battery and did some other minor touch ups. Hopefully we won't be stranded on the side of the road with a busted truck again anytime soon.

We had our inspection with the health department on Thursday and passed! This was a huge hurdle for us. Holly, the inspector, was great. We had to switch from the Boulder health department (we initially thought we were going to operate there) to the Broomfield health department and she really sped up the entire application and inspection process for us. With our retail food license in hand, we can now legally serve food to all you hungry folks out there.

We also fired up the truck for the first time this week to make sure everything runs properly. Oven, check. Grill, check. Fryer, check. Refrigerator, check. Hot water generator and waste water removal still unknown. Please help, Chuck!

On Saturday, we dropped off the truck at InkMonstr to get it wrapped. They had just printed our wrap the day before and told us not to touch it. Mama Liu has a hard time following instructions.

Afterward, Team Liu went to the Double Ten Centennial Banquet in Denver to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Republic of China's independence. Thanks to Auntie Sue for inviting us. Multiple history presentations = Gliu and PooShoe nap time. 

Mama Liu insisted on bringing those balloons home. PooShoe was not too happy as they obstructed her rear view mirror while driving.

We are planning to do a soft opening on Saturday, October 15 and have our grand opening on Monday, October 17. Stay tuned for more details!

Ridic story of the week: We soaked and washed the paint brushes we used on the truck last week. I asked Mama Liu not to dump the paint ridden water down our kitchen sink. 30 minutes later, I walk into the bathroom to find a toilet bowl full of green paint. Freakin Mama Liu!

Cooking experiment of the week: We tried making beef noodle soup with hand-pulled noodles per Chef Tomm. Fail. Ended up rolling the dough out pancake-style and slicing it up. I must say that fresh noodles are very tasty, infinitely better than store-bought dry noodles.