Don't tell me bonito flakes don't belong on a hot dog.

​It only seemed fitting to visit a new food truck called Happy Endings in the throes of Valentine's Day season, I reasoned as I headed out to Bo Concept this afternoon. But really, I was only it it for two things: hot dogs and sunshine.

Happy Endings is one of the newer food trucks in town, only on the streets since January 14. It's been setting up shop for lunch lately at the fancy furniture store that's been a welcoming home to many a food truck getting on its feet in Houston. Some day soon, I'm going to have to figure out the story behind Bo Concept's endless support of the city's food truck scene. If I could afford to purchase its furniture in a reciprocal show of support, I totally would.

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Chuck Cook Photography

In need of a chocolate fix? Keep your eyes open; this van may be on a street near you.

​After a great deal of planning, faith and up-front investment, Chocolat d'Arte has driven into Houston's burgeoning food truck scene with a new, spotless van. Rich graphics laden with photos of some of the chocolates on offer adorn the sides.

Entrepreneur and artisan chocolatier Nancy Burke, of Chocolat d'Arte, has been making high-quality chocolate truffles for about a year now. I think I may have been one of the earliest recipients when my husband asked her to make boxes of custom chocolates for my birthday last year. I remember being absolutely awed at their beauty as they twinkled at me in glints of gold, green and red.

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My two favorite slices: The Outdoorsman and the Who's the Mac.

​There's something very appropriate about the fact that Pi Pizza's truck, dubbed Pythagoras, is stationed outside Catbird's nearly every night. The back of the truck reads: "Pizza. Tattoos. Whiskey. Rock 'n' Roll." The latter three of those are found in spades inside Catbird's, the Montrose bar best known -- by me, at least -- for its fierce Manhattans and tattooed clientele, all of whom fairly exude rock 'n' roll.

And on the side of the truck, another paint job reads: "Gourmet pizza without the attitude." There's no attitude at Catbird's, and -- true to its truck slogan -- you won't find any at Pi Pizza either. Of all the bar-food truck pairings I've found in Houston, this one seems the most natural and the most appropriate.

I also say that because Pi's brand of kitchen-sink-topped pizzas also taste best after a few of Catbird's ultra-strong Manhattans. This is drunk food of the highest order, and as such is probably not best appreciated sober.

But it was with a sober mind and belly that I ordered four slices at Pi this weekend. It was a dumb move that I won't pull again, as four Pi Pizza slices equal one large pizza. Complain about the prices all you want (I won't), but $7 to $8 for a slice isn't expensive when you consider that one enormous slice will feed two people -- or one hungry drunk.

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Pad Thai Box's namesake pad thai.

​I like the continuing trend of Houston's food trucks increasingly accepting credit/debit cards. Pi Pizza Truck, The Rice Box, Ladybird, and now Pad Thai Box all take your plastic, happily. Any last excuses you really had about "never carrying cash" fly out the window, leaving you free to explore some of the city's newest mobile eats.

In the case of Pad Thai Box, it was a blustery night in late December when I decided that I was neither in the mood to go to a sit-down restaurant nor a drive-through and remembered that the new food truck was only a few blocks away -- and took cards. It was settled.

The small trailer is the most petite food truck I've yet encountered, manned on quiet nights by only one person: its owner, an affable young man named Bo. He started out as a server with dreams of one day opening his own restaurant; the Pad Thai Box is his first step in completing that journey.

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Chuck Cook Photography

In front, The Northern Indian bowl from the Bare Bowls truck. In back, The Mexican bowl.

​On a gorgeous, unseasonably warm Thursday in January, the new Bare Bowls truck made its debut in back of The Menil Collection building. Despite the fact that it was its first day out, it didn't lack for customers. A crowd that averaged five people persisted during our visit.

Bare Bowls is the latest effort from the same people who run Pure Catering. You might notice the logos and business names are similar. You see, the bowls aren't bare; the food is. The emphasis is on clean, healthy ingredients, sourced locally when possible. You may have seen Chef James doing demos at the Urban Harvest Farmers' Market, along with his partner Carrington.

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Just look for the happy orange bus with the upside-down horseshoe. (Ladybird don't need your luck.)

​Earlier this week, Sarah Rufca's article at CultureMap inspired me to get out and try several of the new food trucks that have hit the streets lately. I'm already currently obsessed with The Rice Box -- and that's having only eaten there twice -- so I headed out yesterday to try Ladybird.

I don't know if Ladybird's name is an homage to Lady Bird Johnson herself or Hank Hill's hound dog on King of the Hill. Either way, the little converted school bus is offering what I'll call some interesting Texan takes on old favorites. Ladybird doesn't seem to quite know how to describe itself either, offering a similar description of its food on its Twitter page: "Ladybird offers tasty, creative food inspired by familiar favorites."

Yesterday afternoon, I found Ladybird parked in a shady corner of the Menil Collection's parking lot. I sat with my back to the slow stream of West Alabama traffic while I waited a few minutes for my food, and watched as Ladybird sold what ended up being some of its last meals of the day; the bus had already run out of food by 1:55 p.m. And it was easy to see why.

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​I don't really get to keep up with the food truck scene much, owing to my almost total lack of ability to actually take a lunch break. The chances of me being able to leave the office for long enough to navigate the tunnels 50 feet below are frequently pretty slim; being able to actually leave the environs of downtown in search of mobile eats is basically a non-starter. But I was able to visit a food truck not once, but twice in the past two weeks. Ahh, staycation.

To say that the food at Rice Box incites cravings might be a bit of an overstatement, but not entirely off the mark. It might be more accurate to say that the idea of the food at Rice Box is mouth-wateringly addictive. There's just something about fried nuggets of protein, garishly lacquered in sweet-tangy-salty-savory sauces, that creates the anticipation of instant gratification.

For me, the unapologetically American rendering of Chinese flavors - General Tso's, Sesame Chicken, etc. - hits a comfort food nerve. Those flavors and textures are reminiscent of my first, youthful forays into the cuisines of Asia, no matter how Western the interpretation. Throw that stuff in a waxed cardstock carry-out box, and it resurrects food memories long forgotten, sending my pleasure center into an MSG-laced tailspin.

As for its other qualities, it's a bit hit or miss, but even the misses are gratifying. More like glancing shots, really.

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Photo by Chuck Cook Photography

It's just another night at The Modular

​Some of the best food to be had in Houston is happening in a small kitchen at Grand Prize, and a trailer in front of Liberty Station.

The Modular (as reported on previously by Minh Truong and Mai Pham) is the brainchild of Joshua Martinez, formerly the General Manager at Kata Robata. It has garnered a reputation for being a waystation for talented chefs in between permanent gigs. Lyle Bento (formerly of Feast) is the current head chef.

It's one of a rapidly expanding group that is changing Houston's dining scene and blowing up perceptions of truck food. They are making high-end, chef-driven, creative food at probably half of what you might pay for a comparable dish at a normal restaurant.

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An HPD officer allegedly threatened a food truck over what the food truck owner says are non-existent "violations."

​UPDATE: The Public Information Office of the HPD called to say that, as of 2 p.m. "no complaint has been filed. No one by that name has filed an [Internal Affairs Division] complaint," the liaison stated.

An encounter with the Houston Police Department has left a local food truck owner unsure if he wants to continue operating his truck anymore, he said.

Around 8:30 last night, Joshua Martinez was in the middle of a routine dinner service, dishing up food from his bright silver truck, The Modular.

When red and blue lights lit up the parking lot at Liberty Station, Martinez poked his head out of the truck to see what was going on and was surprised to find out the reason for the commotion: The cruiser was there for him. An HPD officer walked up to the food truck and told Martinez that The Modular was in violation, he said.

Martinez was baffled. After all, he stated, "HPD has no jurisdiction over food trucks." The City of Houston's Health Department does, but that didn't deter the officer.

"He told me, 'You're supposed to move every 59 minutes. You're a mobile food truck,'" Martinez said, recalling the conversation 15 minutes after it happened last night. He spoke from the parking lot outside his food truck, which was parked on private property. "I showed him my licenses, explained that we are supposed to move every 24 hours and go back to our commissary."

"He didn't listen," Martinez said of the HPD officer. "He just kept saying, 'You're in violation. I can give you up to $6,000 in tickets.'" The staggering amount of the figure made Martinez freeze. "If I violated every health department violation there was, it wouldn't be $6,000!"

Martinez plans to file a formal complaint with the Houston Police Department. When reached today, HPD had no comment on the incident because a complaint had not yet been filed.

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​One of my favorite lunch destinations these days is the parking lot at Inversion on Montrose. I usually check Twitter to see which food truck is there, and it's often one of my favorites: Bernie's Burger Bus or H-Town StrEATs are commonly found tucked into the shade from Inversion's massive corrugated metal structure.

This past week, however, H-Town StrEATS tweeted that they weren't heading to Inversion on their regular day and had a suggestion: "We're closed today, but @flamingpatties is fillin in at @InversionMtrose for us! Check em out!" So I did.

Flaming Patties started up in mid-July, first serving its "gourmet burgers" at Shady Tavern before branching out slowly into other parts of town. I can imagine the lazy backyard feel of Shady Tavern was a perfect match for the Flaming Patties burgers: They have that sort of rough-hewn, Sunday-afternoon-grilling-out look and taste to them, as if a tailgating champ had decided to go all gourmet on his trademark burgers.

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