Tuesday 18 September 2012

Food Truck Mania

As we are well aware, Toronto is writhing in the middle of an ever growing subculture known as food truck mania.  Food trucks have surpassed their niche status and have catapulted into mainstream existence.  Of course "Eat Street." has helped the cause and Toronto has finally figured out how ridiculously awesome this culture can be.  The truck frenzy comes with it's own set of flaws of course;  ridiculous line ups, often overpriced,  pretentious foodies littering whatever parking lot the truck regales in.   Nevertheless I adore food trucks and everything they stand for, and am not at the point where I'm "over it."  With that, I sampled four trucks over four days at a gas station by Front and Sherbourne last week; here's what I discovered.

Day 1-Stuft:
I arrived day 1 with a grin and a spicy pizazz in my step, excited to go truck wild.  Stuft gets right to the point, no bullshit-,gourmet sausages stuffed inside a bun.  The sausages are literally encased which is street food perfection- easy to eat, hardly a mess; grab it and go baby.  The line up was minimal, and service was quick.  The truck had a simple design, with some dirty dubstep pumping through the speakers.  Great atmosphere, energetic and lively.  I glanced through the menu, which offered six creative options and decided on the "Creole Turducken" with wasabi dijon mustard.  At $8 a pop, slightly pricey, but I wasn't complaining for long.  With it's itty bitty sausage head poking through the bun , I got to business.  Delicious!  The sausage was a healthy mix of turkey, duck and chicken and you could taste the birds.  The flaky bun held everything together, while the wasabi dijon was that perfect smack of nose tingling mayhem.  The entire operation was a tad heavy, but the fantastic spice and meld of flavours made this a hit.  My girlfriend opted for the spinach and feta lamb/beef and another joyful sausage was had.   This one marginally better than mine, oozed run down the arm juice and goodness.  The lamb was mildly pungent in the best possible lamby way,with a strong feta kick.  She decided to accompany the sausage with the house chimichurri sauce, which was wonderfully refreshing, flavours lingered effortlessly.  We will certainly "stuff" ourselves again.

Feta Lamb/Beef Sausage





















Day 2-Gourmet Bitches

Day 2 would prove to be the most disappointing day of the run...We arrived shortly after noon- rookie mistake, as the office crowd had congregated for their lunch time pow wow.  A monumentally long line awaited, with relatively slow service.  Anyway, I had read up on Gourmet Bitches and was excited to participate regardless of the wait.  They've been garnering a lot of attention due to their gluten free take on Tex Mex fare.  The whole gluten thing is still a bit of a mystery to me... is it a fad?  Is it real?  Is it the new vegan?  Well my girlfriend appears to have gluten issues, so I'll give it the benefit of the doubt for now.  The truck had a slick design, uber-hip MGMT was quietly playing, and the menu was carelessly drooped down, making it difficult to read the options.  I browsed the hanging sign, which actually seemed quite promising, despite the hefty price tags.  And then my dear friends we waited...and waited...and waited.  A fellow attendee discussed a vomit story, while the hipster foodies attempted to subtly out-knowledge each other on varying food topics. Right around the half hour mark we ordered and continued to stand for roughly fifteen minutes.  This better blow my balls off...  Three choices to share between two of us, let's give it a go..,First up Polenta battered white fish tacos, with apple slaw and avocado jalapeƱo sauce...three for $12...sounds fantastic right?  Seriously disappointing.  Fish was bland and flavourless, the combo of apple slaw and the sauce was decent, definitely fresh but generally irrelevant.  They were consumed in under two minutes and $12 was thrust into the wind.  Next up-Bitchin' Hibiscus Beef with tomato salsa-There was certainly nothing bitchin' about these, other than the price-$10 for three.  Another sad attempt at the taco kick.  The beef was simply dry ground beef with a vanilla bean/hibiscus infusion.  Unnecessarily sweet and gross.  The gluten free tortillas are like licking paper.  I digress....Finally Bitchin' Mexican Fries-$8.  I had mild hopes for this one, and mild amusement I would have.  They resembled Taco Bell's fries supreme and didn't taste much better.  They were topped with the same beef, cheese sauce, peppers etc...The actual fries were pretty damn tasty, but that beef  destroyed any hopes of repentance.  I will say the highlight of the meal was the house hot sauce, which had notes of habanero and apple, quite delicious and would buy it if they sold it.  I would suggest renaming the truck from Gourmet Bitches to Tying Way to Hard Bitches.
Fish Tacos



















Day 3-Caplansky's Thundering' Thelma
Rumour has it, Zane Caplansky is a rich, spoiled, megalomaniac nut job-but his truck is pretty bad ass.    I arrived earlier than the previous days, and was blessed with a short line.   The truck has a portrait of the man himself (Zane) gloriously posing on the side of the bold blue truck.  Apparently next seasons truck will have his grandmother (Thelma) pin up style, possibly the greatest thing I've heard in a while.  So I scoured the menu, which was relatively traditional, keeping true to his restaurant's (by the same name) Jewish deli roots.  I concluded on a good old Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich $7, and a BLT slider $4.  The house mustards were plentiful and fabulous, I dolloped on the extra hot and the honey mustard, sat down by the gas pumps and dove right in.  The smoked meat was as it should be, thick, fatty, high piled smoky, meaty nostalgic goodness on rye, with a crisp kosher dill.  Haven't been to Montreal in a while, but this is the closest thing in TO your gonna get to Schwartz's.  I then preceded to encounter possibly the highlight of my four days.  Caplansky's BLT slider.   Essentially a sly play on   a BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato) using thick, cured, smoked bacon, mayo and havarti cheese with the added mustards.  Absolutely gorgeous, melty and fatty bacony righteousness the entire slider was consumed in under a minute, with a ridiculous smile on my face.    

Day 4-Gourmet Gringos     
I arrived day four with confidence in the final truck.   Gourmet Gringos are a few dudes doing tex-mex, with all the gluten you can handle.  The truck was loud and colourful, if not a little kitschy, but that's not always a bad thing. Line up was minimal and the options were simple.  Now I have a bit of an issue with Toronto...I'm a big burrito guy, as in- I love the concept.  Spice and meat and cheese and beans and south of the border flavours stuffed inside a giant tortilla, used to wipe away any late night drunken tears.  Problem is, it's pretty damn hard to find a decent one in the 416.  Burrito Boyz were doing it right a few years back, but the corporate overhaul and popularity has run them dry, and the last time I sampled one of the 'boyz' it tasted like spiced mush.  With that, I decided to give Toronto another chance and tackle the carnita (pork) burrito, $8.  My girlfriend opted for the mole braised short rib burrito, also $8.  All was accompanied with the usual accoutrements, service was extremely friendly and quick; excitement was high.  I filled a cup up with the "suicide sauce," which was milder than expected, but beautifully executed with it's fresh pineapple, habanero flavour, and thus we forged on....Ladies and gentleman, burritos are not dead in this city!  A brilliant burrito was had by all.  Perfectly imagined, and loaded with distinct, flavours, not all one convoluted mess.  The pork was tender, the chipotle aoili was smokey, it was big, it was bold, it was perfectly charred, and I was gettting bang for my buck.  My girlfriend's mole braised short ribs, had the subtle chocolate notes, again, super tender and rich.  We slathered on that suicide sauce like it was going out of style and left with our bellies disturbingly full.  Gourmet Gringos, wrapped up four days of food truck fun in style.    

Carnita Burrito