Mmm...Food Trucks! Part 3

Ok...NOW I'm finally concluding my food truck post. I'm continuing the list form.

5. Mable on the Move
This food truck was all about bringing you "high quality, made from scratch, honest, natural food". I decided to steer away the healthy salads and soup and went for the grass feed, all beef, organic hot dogs.

They offered sauerkraut. I normally only put sauerkraut on brats, but I thought maybe they knew something I didn't. I also added banana peppers and a bit of ketchup. I skipped the mustard (bleh!) and relish. I didn't think the hot dog was bad! It was pretty good actually. While I liked the bun since it had seeds on it, I would have preferred a smaller bun. All that bread was too much. Mike didn't think this hot dog was special. He doesn't say it, but I know he uses ball park franks as his standard. If you're going to charge more, it better taste better. I think I made a mistake this time with my topping choices. I would order this again, but with ketchup only. And next time, I will try out their salads and soups. I've heard good things about them.

The Rating

The Info
Mable on the Move
www.mableonthemove.com

6. Spice Box
Can you believe there are multiple Indian food trucks in Indianapolis? P couldn't! I really wanted to try everything on the menu, but we decided to just try the spice wrap with the green (hot) sauce. The Spice Wrap has marinated chicken and onions wrapped in a roti. Roti is an Indian flat bread. I didn't notice that at first, but P pointed out the fact that they were using that instead of just a tortilla. I thought this was really good. I thought the flavors tasted fairly authentic, and it was easy to eat since it was a wrap. Pretty perfect for food from a truck. I probably won't seek out Spice Box because I'm a piggy and rather stuff myself with a buffet, but if it's there I will definitely stop by!

The Rating

The Info

Spice Box.

www.spiceboxindy.com

7. Byrnes Grilled Pizza

So if you read Serious Eats, the picture of the bottom of the crust was my attempt of being a serious food blog. lol. I think Abby thought I was crazy because she had no idea why I wanted her to lift up the pizza so I could take a picture of the bottom of it. 

Anyway, the one slice of Byrnes Grilled Pizza was some great pizza. The pizza Abby ordered was a specialty pizza with no sauce, cheese, ricotta cheese, tomato, peppers and spinach. Pizza's pretty subjective. The reason why I really liked this pizza was the ratio of toppings to crust. Since I don't care much for bread/crust, I clearly like to taste more of the toppings than crust. Speaking of the crust, it actually wasn't that bad. It was thin, clearly from the pictures. The edges were crispy, and there was a faint taste of char. Even though there was a lot of cheese, nothing was too greasy or caused the thin crust to get soggy. I really liked this pizza. Unfortunately, don't go looking for a daily from Byrnes. They are only available for catering by appointment only. So...if you plan an event and hire Byrnes Grilled Pizza, please send me an invite! ;-)

The Rating

The Info

Byrnes Grilled Pizza

www.byrnespizza.com/

8. Little Eataly

Ok, I think this is the BEST name for an Italian food truck. Little EATaly. It just makes me smile. :-) It's like having a dog named "Beans". Just makes you smile every time you say it. Don't believe me? Just try it. ;-) Beans.

This is actually the 2nd time I've tried Little Eataly. The first was after the Super Bowl. Mike had their meatball sub, and I thought it was really comforting. What I still remember about it is that I thought the sauce was really tasty. It wasn't too thick or thin. It wasn't overly sugary and had a good amount of tomato flavor without tasting like straight tomato sauce. So if you have the opportunity to order this, I would recommend it.

At the Food Truck Festival, P ordered the fried ravioli and Abby ordered some sort of lemon pie. (There's a reason why I don't remember the name. Oh, it's the Italian Oreo per their website.) The fried ravioli tasted pretty good. It was overly greasy or mushy. They gave you a small cup of sauce to dip the ravioli in. That was decent. My favorite part was probably the dusting of parmesan cheese all over. I didn't like Abby's dessert thing. It was dry, and the flavors didn't come out at all. Whatever they were supposed to be. I would not recommend this. 

I really, really want to try their penne a la vodka. Anyone else try this? Did you like it?

The Rating

The Info

Little Eataly

www.littleeataly.com

This FINALLY concludes Mmm...Food Trucks! Thanks for reading! If you're Facebook friends with me then you know that Scratch Truck tweeted a link to my blog! Exciting! But on a side note, I wanted to bring something up. I was very surprised by the number of food trucks (these didn't have tip jars out) that were sooo surprised when I gave them a tip. Is it just me? Even if there isn't a tip jar, I believe you should tip the food trucks. Because even if they are the owners, they provided you a service and product. I don't think the 15-20% rule applies, but the least you can do is give them a dollar. What do you guys think? Maybe I should just ask Siri...

Mmm...Food Trucks! Part 2

I'm finally concluding my food truck post with the trip to the First Friday Food Truck Festival at the Murat. (It'll always be the Murat to me.) We were kind of all over the place, so this post is going to be in list form.

1. Seoul Grill Indy
Obviously, if there is a food truck serving Korean BBQ, I have to try it. Obviously. And, obviously, I'm going to be critical of it... That day, their menu had a rice bowl sampler with either bulgogi (steak) or deji-bulgogi (spicy pork) with a variety of Korean sides: kimchi, radish kimchi, picked daikon... I tried the bulgogi, and I have to admit it was pretty good. Not bad at all. Overall, the whole thing was just that - not bad..except for the kimchi. It was horrible. I appreciate that they make all their food in house, so maybe I just got a bad batch? But that kimchi was just sooo bad. There was no spice to it and it tasted like straight vinegar. I really hope it was just a bad batch and they're not making people think that's what kimchi actually tastes like. Looking at the photos they have on facebook, it looks like they offer a number of other Korean dishes like Korean style wings and kimbap (Korean sushi rolls). So I'm willing to give this place another chance, but I'll probably just stick with making Korean myself or eating at a sit down restaurant.

The Rating

The Info

Seoul Grill Indy

www.facebook.com/seoulgrillindy

@seoulgrillindy

2. Smoke House

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of this gem of a food truck. It looked like a log cabin. Mike ordered the rib tips with baked beans. And I have to say, this was probably my favorite bbq in Indy. (My absolute favorite bbq is from Pappy's in St. Louis.) Way better than King's Ribs. Way, way better. Normally I don't like rib tips since you don't get a lot of meat, but these had plenty of really tender meat. There was a little too much sauce, but I didn't mind that. The sauce was tangy, a little sweet, with a touch of heat. Just the way I like my sauce. The best part for me was the very smokey flavor. Mmm. I love that. I would definitely eat here again!

P.S. The baked beans were really good too. It had bits of meat mixed in. So yum, but honestly, I haven't found baked beans I didn't like. I even like the canned Bush's Baked Beans. So you might not want to take my advice on the beans.

The Rating

The Info

Smoke House

Sorry, couldn't find a website or anything. Anyone know anything about it?

3. Nicey Treat

Nicey Treat was more of a dessert cart of homemade frozen popsicles. What makes them unique are their different flavors like avocado, Arnie Palmer, Pineapple Basil, and mango ginger. The flavors Abby, P, and I tried were Avocado, Pineapple Basil, and Strawberry Mint (Right, Abby or P?) Chili Lime. Anyway, all of the flavors were really good, even the avocado. They were really refreshing. From looking at Nicey Treat's website, I learned that they try to only use local seasonal ingredients. Their treats are gluten, dairy, and lactose free. 

The Rating

The Info

Nicey Treat

www.niceytreat.com

4. Some of This! Some of That!

There were a lot of cajun, creole food trucks! And since Abby and Josh had already tried Chef Dan's and didn't love it, we tried SOT!SOT! Josh got the crawfish po-boy and Mike and I split the catfish po-boy. Both po boys were huge, so you get a lot of food for the cost. And I really liked how that bread wasn't overwhelming. Normally, I end up throwing away most of the bread but I didn't have to do that with this po-boy. The fried fish was really crispy and didn't taste oily at all. I also liked how their aioli was just drizzled over the top. This added just the right amount of flavor without the added gooey mess. The only downside was that the service was SOOOOOOOOO slow. Hopefully, it was just because it was food truck festival and they aren't always this slow.

The Rating

The Info

Some of This! Some of That!

www.facebook.com/sotsot1catering

@SOTSOT1

Ok, I lied...I'm not going to conclude my food truck post. I have 4 more trucks to write about so there will be a Part 3. Hey, don't judge. There were 5 people in our group so we were able to sample a lot of trucks. :-p

Mmm...Food Trucks! Part 1

Obviously, this post is all about food trucks. I'm combining my trips to the First Friday Food Trucks Festival, a trip to Triton Brewery where Florribean Flair was, and an event at Bier Brewery that Scratch and Mac Genie were at. So I'll start there for Part 1...

Scratch...

...was freaking amazing! Mike and I ordered off the regular menu. He got the burger with poutine de Peru fries (fries tossed in Peruvian yellow pepper sauce with queso fresco), and I ordered the grilled cheese with the regular Poutine fries (Fries with gravy and mozzarella cheese curds). My food was definitely better. The grilled cheese had munster and colby jack cheese, braised short rib, carmelized onions, arugula and toasted honey white bread. Unfortunately, the cheese wasn't the focus of this sandwich, but it was still really good. The short rib meat was really tender and all of the flavors worked well. Mike's burger came with bacon marmalade, arugula and gorgonzola cheese. Even though Mike asked for his burger medium, it came out more medium well. It was still very juicy and flavorful. My favorite part was the poutine fries though. I think Mike preferred the Poutine de Peru because of the unique yellow pepper sauce, but I LOVED the gravy coated fries. What else is more comforting than gravy covered fried potatoes with cheese? Unfortunately, I just read on Scratch's website that they're taking the poutine fries off their menu for the spring/summer except as a weekly special. :-(

Mike and Josh also tried the Spicy Chicken Cone and Tuscan Chicken Sandwich. I didn't try the spicy chicken cone because it had a mango-jalapeno slaw and I'm allergic to mango. :-( I can't really speak much for this other than Mike liked this the best out of everything he tried. Even when we went to the Food Truck Festival, he considered getting the chicken cone again. Josh thought his sandwich was ok... to be fair, Josh didn't have the best initial impression of Scratch. At first he didn't like them because they cheated him out of some fries, but the guy at Scratch realized their mistake and actually brought a side of fries (with ketchup!) to Josh inside Bier. That was very cool of them, so all of us appreciated the customer service. 

The Rating 

The Info

Scratch Truck 

www.scratchtruck.com

Mac Genie is great when all I want are Carbs, Carbs, Carbs. Really, I think this is a great idea for a food truck. I know I wasn't the only one in college that craved mac and cheese after a night of drinking. And being good drunk food is a huge plus for food trucks. This was 2nd time I tried Mac Genie. I tried them for the first time after the Super Bowl. Then I tried their buffalo chicken mac. This time I tried their "original" mac and their Spicy Pickle. Everything I've tried here has been good mac and cheese. The pasta isn't too mushy and its full of lots of melty cheese instead of some artificial cheese sauce. I'd really like to see some more variety in their menu, but they have some really solid choices. In the end, this is an ideal place for Carbs, Carbs, Carbs....mmm...

The Rating

The Info

Mac Genie

www.genietrucks.com

With Florribean Flair, don't judge a book by its cover! It doesn't have a fancy truck, but that is no indication of how yummy the food is. Some online research shows that this food truck was created by the executive chef of Iozzo's Garden of Italy, and I LOVE that place! I ordered a sampler with a fish taco, jerk chicken, and a crab cake. I couldn't eat the taco because it was covered in mangoes. So everyone else tried it. I didn't hear any negative reviews of the taco except that Mike's bite had a lot more mango than fish, but it seemed like it was good. The jerk chicken was surprisingly very good! Full of flavor and had a really good kick! I thought it was nice and tender. I would definitely order this again! I also enjoyed the crab cake. Not bad for a crab cake in Indiana. This is a food not-truck that you should definitely give a try!

The Rating

The Info

Florribean Flair

www.florribeanflair.com

Part 2: Food Truck Festival...

Food Baby Goes East! Again!

Last week, I traveled to the Greater Boston area for work. I only had one goal, other than work of course: I wanted to eat seafood and Italian. Unfortunately, where I was, there was no good Italian per the locals. So, I just settled on seafood. Normally, I would save the best for last, but this time I'm going to talk about it first.

According to the locals and the sales rep that travels here all the time, Michael's has the best seafood in the Newburyport/Amesbury area. And it was sooo good. You might think that all seafood restaurants are good in this area. That is not true, but this place was fabulous. We started with raw oysters, clams, and jumbo shrimp. I usually only eat these at the Chinese buffet ;-). You can definitely tell a difference.  One of my co-workers and I shared entrees. I ordered the swordfish with citrus ponzu, and he got the 2lb whole lobster with mashed potatoes. First of all, the portions were huge! The potatoes could be their own entrees. Both dishes were very good. The swordfish was nice and meaty. The sweet and salty citrus ponzu worked really well with the fish. It didn't overpower at all. The lobster was great! It was lightly salty and tender. My favorite part was "the tamale", although I had never heard it called that before. Service was good. Nothing spectacular, but no complaints. I almost forgot! We ordered dessert. I tried their strawberry shortcake. I didn't want to try it because I had a feeling I would like it better than Cheesecake Factory's and I did! The biscuit had a better flaky flavor. The ice cream and the fresh whip were so creamy. The strawberries were perfectly juicy and had the right amount of sweetness. Mmmm....

The next night we tried the Black Cow for dinner. Apparently, it used to be good a few years ago, but it has gone downhill. First, the rolls were rock hard. We should have left then. The only seafood they had on their menu was haddock. It was a white fish that tasted a lot like tilapia. I got it with pasta that came out of a box. The overall dish was ok. Really disappointing compared to the previous night's seafood. Oh, and we got calamari as an appetizer. The Cheesecake Factory has better calamari. This was too chewy and the batter had no flavor. Service was eh. Server was adequate, but not very welcoming. Another sign we should have left.

For breakfast we went to two places: Angie's Foods and Taffy's. I got the corned beef hash at both places. Angie's gave me canned hash and Taffy's was homemade. Angie's provides homemade hash, but I misunderstood the server and ended up ordering canned. The hash at Taffy's was obviously better, but the side of potatoes at Angie's were really good. I really liked how they were red potatoes instead of those cubes of potatoes that come out of a plastic bag from the freezer section. One note about the omelettes. I didn't order one, but my coworkers did. They didn't look very good. They looked like scrambled eggs with the toppings mixed in formed into an omelette shape. One guy thought it was good; the other didn't. I'm sure it tasted fine, but it definitely didn't look appetizing. Both places had decent service. Angie's did end up being a bit slow, so allow yourself extra time if you go there.

I go back to this area in June. I think I know where I'll be going back to!

The Ratings

Michael's Harborside - TWO BIG THUMBS UP

Black Cow - 

Angie's & Taffy's - 

The Info

Michael's Harborside

1 Tournament Wharf

Newburyport, MA 

978-462-7785

www.michaelsharborside.com

Black Cow Tap & Grill

54 Merrimac St.

Newburyport, MA

978-499-8811

www.blackcowrestaurants.com

Angie's 

7 Pleasant St.

Newburyport, MA

978-462-7959

Taffy's

44 Liberty St.

Newburyport, MA

978-465-9039

Henry's On East St.

A little while ago, I met a friend from college at Henry's on East St. for brunch/lunch. As a special they had a crabcake salad. It looks great, huh.

It was actually a little disappointing. The crab cake was a little mushy and there was too much dressing. Everything just seemed so wet. But with that said, what I really liked about this place is that they asked me what I liked and didn't like about the salad because they wanted to always improve. So even though I didn't love the food this time, I think this place has lots of potential. Definitely worth another visit when I'm in the Mass Ave. area. They also serve different options like quiche, breakfast burrito, breakfast sandwiches, paninis, and a variety of salads. And if nothing else, you can enjoy coffee (or tea in my case) outside with their free Wi-Fi. 

The Rating

The Info

Henry's Coffee Bistro

627 N. East St.

Indianapolis, IN 46202

(317) 951-0335

www.henryscoffeebistro.com

Sakura

I think most people have a restaurant which sets the bar for a certain type of food. And if you're like me, then you'll order that type of food or dish at other places already knowing that it's never going to live up to your favorite.That is what the soft shell crab roll at Sakura is for me.

The soft shell crab roll is the one pictured in the lower left.

Why I LOVE the soft shell crab from Sakura:

1. The soft shell crab roll is served in a chopped style, instead of "legs" like a spider roll.

2. Not only is the filling inside the roll, they give you a TON on top!

3. The sauce is soooooooo good. 

Really, it's something you need to try. Most people I know try it and become Sakura soft shell crab converts!

There are other reasons why I love Sakura:

1. The miso soup has tofu in it.

2. I know one of the servers. (So to be fair, I might be a little biased.)

3. The chicken teriyaki is tasty. 

If you go here, I recommend a reservation. It's a very small restaurant, and it gets crowded quickly.

The Rating

The Info
7201 N. Keystone Ave.
Indianapolis, IN 46240
(317) 259-4171
www.indysakura.com