The Sledgehammer – Version 2.0

August 10, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 10: Off the Rez

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 9:26 pm

Think he’s smoking something?

To bring the food truck project to a close (for now, I’ll probably try to hit a couple more here and there as time permits) I’ll try something that you just don’t see a lot of around here:  Native American food.

The Basics:

Food Ordered:

  • Indian taco, Chicken Chile Verde: $4.00
  • Naked frybread: $2.00
  • Total (with tip): $7.00

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 5 minutes
  • Time to receive food after ordering: About 4 minutes

Over the course of human history, it seems that just about every culture has at one point or another gotten the idea of taking some sort of dough and frying it in oil.  In the case of the  various Native American tribes, it was largely out of necessity, as they worked with whatever they happened to have on hand (which, after the tribes were moved by the US government on to the reservations, was mostly government-provided flour, sugar, salt and lard.)  Although the ingredients are similar, there are almost as many different variations on frybread as there are tribes (this site contains an extensive list of these.)  From my childhood in Los Alamos, I recall frybread being served mostly at special events like the County Fair or the annual rodeo.  This frybread, presumably influenced primarily by the various Pueblos found in the area surrounding Los Alamos and Santa Fe, would usually be served either with butter and sugar similar to how an Elephant Ear would be served, or in the form of an Indian Taco, which basically involves putting the type of toppings you’d expect to find on a taco on top of frybread.  Tasty, but most Indian Tacos (at least they way they were served back in Los Alamos) could be serious contenders for some sort of “Messiest Food Ever” award..

Until I found this particular truck, it had been years since I have had frybread at all, so I thought this truck would be a good chance to reacquaint myself with it.  The menu here provides four different options for Indian Tacos, plus a number of options for sweet toppings to put on the frybread by itself, as well as Succotash, chili (which happens to be the same stuff that’s used as the primary topping on the beef Indian Taco,) and some sort of a burger (presumably to give the Gringos something they’ll actually recognize on the menu.)  There were a few people in line in front of me, but things moved fairly quickly.  I did have to wait a bit for the food after ordering, but not excessively long.  Having already tried both the beef and the chicken tacos on a previous visit,  I found at the time that I preferred the chicken, so I ordered that (I haven’t tried the pork yet, but I’m not big on the whole pulled pork thing right now after some of the other trucks I’ve been to over the last couple of weeks.)  In order to try out the frybread by itself, I ordered one naked as well, with no toppings added.

Based on previous visits to this stand I knew that one taco should be plenty to make a lunch out of, and two is bordering on too much food (but if you are so inclined, there are a couple of different 2-taco combos on the menu, as well as a 3-taco combo that’s bordering on just plain overkill.)   A good portion of the chicken (which is simmered in a chile verde sauce) is placed on top of the taco and topped with cheese, lettuce, a few pickled onions (had to look at the website to figure that part out) and a cumin crema sauce to top it all off.  As often seems to be the case with Indian tacos, if you tried to eat it by hand you’d most likely find yourself making a big mess, so a knife and fork seems to be the way to go here.  As you might expect, the chicken is the star of the show here, with a good flavor and just a little bit of spice to assert its presence.  Based on trying the beef taco previously I do have to say that if felt a little bit heavier overall, mostly because of the chili. 

As for the frybread by itself, it seemed to be mostly pretty good, although I will note that it seemed like it could have used just a little bit longer cook time, as it seemed just the slightest bit doughy in the middle.  Even so, once I took it back to my desk and applied some honey that I keep in my desk drawer (for various breakfast purposes) it was quite good, although at the same time it did make me kind of wish we has someone around here in the Seattle area making proper Sopaipillas the way you get them down in the Southwestern United States.  It’s not exactly native food,  but I certainly wouldn’t complain if Off the Rez decided to branch out a bit.  In the meantime, they’ve got some pretty good stuff that you’re not likely to find around here unless you happen to make a trip out to one of the reservations. 

Off the Rez menu

August 9, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 9: Tacos El Tajin

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 10:38 pm

To be honest, I kind of hesitated to do a review of this truck, mostly because it’s largely a known quantity for a lot of Amazonians and other people who work in the South Lake Union neighborhood.  Nonetheless, I feel like if I’m going to be reviewing the food trucks in the neighborhood I should include it, because the list certainly wouldn’t be complete without it.

The Basics:

  • Food Truck: Tacos El Tajin
  • Cuisine: Mexican
  • Website: None
  • Facebook: None
  • Twitter: None
  • Yelp: 4.5 stars, 20 reviews
  • Location:  Corner of Boren and Republican in front of the Amazon Fiona building
  • Days: Daily
  • Payment Methods: Cash, cards (Note that a $0.25 fee might get added for using a card)
  • Sales Tax included in menu prices: Yes

Food Ordered:

  • Taco salad, Carne Asada: $6.00
  • Total (with tip): $7.00

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 7 minutes
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 1 1/2 minutes

A bit of a slow day at Tacos El Tajin…

One might be tempted to say that this taco truck, which parks every day in front of the building I work in, is one of the South Lake Union neighborhood’s best-kept secrets, but by now it’s pretty clear that it isn’t much of a secret.  If you happen to wander by this truck during the lunch hour, there’s a pretty good chance you’re going to be seeing a pretty long line in front of it.  This might scare off a few potential customers here and there, but the line here isn’t nearly as scary as it looks.  They’ve got the whole operation practically down to a science, and the line moves very quickly.  There’s a guy at the first window who takes people’s orders as they arrive, after which the food will arrive at a second window within a minute or two, and payment is handled at a separate table next to the truck.  It may not be as fancy or as slick-looking as some of the other trucks I’ve been to over the course of the nearly two weeks I’ve been doing this project for, but it’s fast, it’s reasonably priced, and it’s tasty.  Which, when you think about it, is pretty much everything most people will be looking for in their lunch  It’s not surprising that quite a few people seem to consider this taco truck to be their default lunch option.  This is so much the case that back in June when the taco truck disappeared for a few days due to a mechanical problem, half of the elevator graffiti (it’s an Amazon thing, long story) was people wondering where the heck the taco truck went.

I’ve been through most of the highlights of the menu by now across a number of visits to this truck, but my favorite item remains the steak taco salad.  Served in a flour tortilla bowl with a foundation of rice and beans, it comes with a generous serving of meat, and is topped with lettuce, tomato, cilantro and cheese.  After you order and pay, the sauces are found on another table off to the side.  There’s a fairly mild green sauce, a somewhat hotter red sauce (that also adds a nice flavor to the mix to go along with the heat) and a slightly orangish Habanero sauce that is reputed to be quite hot, although I’ve never actually tried it to confirm this. In addition to these, there’s also a bottle of what appears to be Crema Agria (basically a thinner version of sour cream) provided as well.  The portion sizes here are generous, and even with relatively low prices compared to a lot of the other food trucks, it’s unlikely anyone will be finding themselves hungry after lunch here.

I suspect that for a lot of people in the South Lake Union neighborhood, none of this will come as any surprise.  At least not if the lines in front of the place are any indication. 

August 8, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 8: Hot Dog King

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 7:18 pm

When I started out on this project, I believe I did mention the fact that even though I’m calling it the Food Truck project, I’m not going to necessarily limit myself to food trucks.  In addition to the usual trucks, there are also a handful of hot dog carts that appear in the neighborhood.  Having either already reviewed the available selections or just not being all that thrilled about the selection a couple of days ago, I decided to make a little detour to one of the more established ones.

The Basics:

  • Food Cart: Hot Dog King
  • Cuisine: Hot Dogs
  • Website: None
  • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thehotdogking
  • Twitter: None
  • Yelp: 4.5 stars, 3 reviews
  • Location:  Corner of Westlake and Harrison, next to Firestone (Also found in front of the  Triangle Pub on 1st Ave. near the stadiums for sporting events)
  • Days: Daily
  • Payment Methods: Cash, cards
  • Sales Tax included in menu prices: Yes

Food Ordered:

  • Louisiana Hotlink, topped with grilled onions and sweet relish and served with chips and drink: $6.00
  • Total (with tip): $7.00

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 1 minute
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 4 minutes

One thing I’ve found about hot dogs over the years is that practically everyone has different ideas of how they like theirs.  Some people prefer to stick to the basics, others will settle for nothing less than a “dragged through the garden” Chicago dog, with most people falling somewhere in between.  It also seems like just about everywhere you go there’s some regional variation on the standard hot dog,. and Seattle is no exception.  Around here, the local variation is the Seattle-style dog, which is sold mostly by the various hot dog stands that set up shop around the stadiums for Mariners, Seahawks and Sounders games, and makes the somewhat odd-sounding addition of cream cheese to the standard litany of hot dog toppings.  Usually I tend to lean more toward the basics when it comes to hot dog toppings (although I do also enjoy a good chili dog every now and then as well,) but if there’s any place that might convince you to branch out it’s this one.  As you can see from the  photo above, the selection of condiments on offer here is extensive, with over 30 different kinds of mustard alone.  Admittedly, I’ve never been a big fan of mustard (the fact that my sisters would often eat it in suspiciously large quantities with just about anything while I was growing up probably contributed to that,) but I have found that I do use it a lot more than I used to.  Even so, I’ve never been all that adventurous about trying different varieties, and rarely venture much beyond the standard yellow stuff. 

Hot Dog King menu

And the customization options don’t end there.  In addition to all the sauces, they also provide a lengthy list of other toppings that can be added to any of the several hot dog options shown above.  In addition to the usual standbys and the local favorites, you’ve just about got the makings of what should be a reasonably respectable Chicago dog (although I don’t think they have the suspiciously green relish or the celery salt,) or you can just go wild if you would like.  In addition to these, there are also a number of specials that vary from day to day.  To top it all off, every sausage on the menu also comes with chips and a drink to make a complete meal out of it.

These days, I kind of suspect that Costco has kind of spoiled the whole hot dog experience for a lot of people.  Sure, selling $1.50 hot dogs with a drink probably isn’t making them much money, but I suspect it’s used more as a marketing ploy than anything these days.  At the same time, I think it’s led people to consider $5 or $6 for a hot dog to be rather expensive.  If it was just a hot dog we were talking about then they’d have a point on that, but they use premium hotdogs here, and I seriously doubt Costco will be matching them in the topping department anytime soon.  This particular one was a grilled Louisiana Hotlink with added grilled onions and relish, plus a bit of plain yellow mustard (hey, I already said I’m not particularly adventurous in the condiment department.)  The sausage appears to be stuffed in a natural casing to give it that nice little snap when you bite into it (best not to think about these things too much really) and had a nice spicy flavor to it, just what you would expect from something like this.  Although the hotdogs here aren’t ridiculously huge, when combined with the chips and drink you’ve got a respectable lunch here, and most likely won’t be hungry again by 2pm.

All things considered, this seems to be a pretty good lunch option, at least assuming you’re in the mood for a good hotdog (which, admittedly doesn’t happen all that often for me.)  If there’s one thing that’s missing from the menu here it would be a chili dog, and I hear that shows up as a special every once in a while.  Even so, it doesn’t matter how picky you are about your hot dogs, chances are that Hot Dog King will have something that will fit your needs.  And then some.

August 7, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 7: Raney Brothers BBQ

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 8:40 pm

If you ask anyone who comes from the South, there seems to be an unwritten law which states that it is physically impossible to make good BBQ anywhere outside of the Southern United States.  To put it mildly, they seem to regard  any BBQ created outside of that geographic area to be irredeemably terrible.  Not that it stops people from trying, of course.  For our next food truck, we’ll take a look at one truck trying to bring BBQ to South Lake Union.

The Basics:

Food Ordered:

  • The Dude (pulled pork sandwich with Cajun meatloaf): $8
  • Fries: $1.50
  • Total (with tip:) $10.50

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 1 minute
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 2 1/2 minutes

This is one of the handful of trucks that parks in front of the building I work in, although until now I haven’t had a chance to actually try it out.  As you might guess from the name of the truck (and the potentially traitorous pigs depicted on the side,) this truck serves barbeque, mostly in the form of sandwiches.  In addition to the ones you see on the menu below, they also serve “The Dude”, a presumably pop culture-inspired sandwich that combines the pulled pork with the Cajun meatloaf found in the Cajun grinder on the regular menu, and adds cheese, grilled onions and the red cabbage slaw you see on the sides portion of the menu to the mix.  Since it seems to be the “signature” item on the menu (to the point that it gets its own special little menu board) and it wasn’t any more expensive than anything else I went for that, and added a side of fries to the order.  Once again I went just a little over my $10 limit once the tip was added, but that’s not a big deal.  Once again I got there a bit before the lunch rush, and once again I was in and out quickly.  At this point, it’s looking like the over 30 minute wait is more the exception than the rule, although there are other trucks (which I have not reviewed for this project) that have been prone to long waits in the middle of the lunch hour.

Given the fact that we are getting this particular BBQ from a truck in the middle of Seattle and not some old shack out in the woods of Carolina, I set my expectations accordingly.  And although I wouldn’t characterize this as being anything too special, it is reasonably competent BBQ with a good, slightly spicy sauce added.  The smoke flavor of the pulled pork is quite subtle, and it can easily get lost among the other ingredients in the sandwich if you let it.  It’s also kind of hard to tell what exactly makes the Cajun meatloaf Cajun.  Aside from these, the sandwich contains some type of cheese (I’m guessing Provolone, but it gets kind of vague with all the other stuff in there), grilled onions and cabbage slaw (something I’m still getting used to as a sandwich ingredient, but I think I’ve gotten the Tatstrami from Tat’s Deli over in Pioneer Square often enough that it’s not too unusual anymore) and the obligatory sauce which was reasonably thick and sweet, with a subtle hint of spice that kicks in a few seconds after you take a bite.  I’m told there’s also a hotter variant of the sauce, but the menu offers no indication of this, so I wasn’t aware of it when I ordered.  The fries are pretty run-of-the-mill, aside from being seasoned with both salt and pepper, which helps them to stand out just a little bit from the usual fast food fries.

All in all, I can’t really find anything to complain about here, but I don’t think I was really blown away by anything later.  Even so, this is definitely the type of thing I could go for on occasion, and the fact that it’s parked right in front of my building is good for some bonus points as well.  I’m sure I’ll be back at some point.

August 6, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 6: The Grilled Cheese Experience

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 9:47 pm

Over the years, Seattle has given us a number of famous experiences.  From one of Seattle’s most famous native sons came the notoriously brief Jimi Hendrix Experience, responsible for some of the greatest rock albums of all time.  From Paul Allen and architect Frank Gehry comes the distinctive yet controversial Experience Music Project at Seattle Center (which, unsurprisingly, contains an extensive permanent exhibit on Jimi Hendrix.)  And now, by way of the alley behind Lake Union Wholesale Florist at Harrison and Boren, we get the Grilled Cheese Experience. 

The Basics:

Food Ordered:

  • Classic Grilled Cheese, with bacon added: $8.00
  • Total (with tip:) $9.00

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 1 minute
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 6 minutes

There are quite a things one might think of when they think of grilled cheese, but the chances are good that an experience isn’t one of them.   Sure it’s a simple, easy-to-make meal that probably earns a place in the top 10 list of things that a penurious dorm-bound college freshman eats for dinner, but at the same time it can be exactly the type of thing that hits the spot when you’re really hungry.  Even so, most people tend to eat grilled cheese sandwiches, not experience them.  It seems that The Grilled Cheese Experience, a relative newcomer to the neighborhood, is out to change that.

In addition to the standard-issue grilled cheese sandwich, this truck offers several deluxe models, as well as a Reuben sandwich, and various specials that presumably change from day to day.  Wanting to keep it simple, I opted for the classic version, but I also decided to spring for the two bucks to add bacon, bringing the cost to $8.  Service was friendly and food was received in a reasonable amount of time (I probably would have waited longer if I had gotten there a few minutes later though, as the line started to grow after I ordered.)   Given the fact that a grilled cheese sandwich tends usually to be one of the cheaper items on any given menu, it’s a little surprising that this one starts out at $6 and goes up from there.  Granted, when compared with the pricing at some of the other food trucks out there that’s pretty good (don’t even get me started on some of the overpriced hipster bait trucks out there charging $13 for a burger and fries),  but especially when you start wandering away from the basics, things start getting expensive in a hurry.  And although the sandwich I received was quite good, it wasn’t very big. By itself, you’d be hard pressed to make a full meal out of this.  If you’re looking to not end up hungry at 2pm, you could add either tomato soup or mac and cheese for $3 each, but I didn’t get the chance to try out either of those on this trip.  And by the time you start adding things, you could easily be getting dangeously close to $15.  On the other hand, it appears that the special does get served with soup.

The main problem with this truck is that even in the culinary wasteland (relatively speaking) that is South Lake Union’s fixed-location restaurant scene, there are several places that make a more than adequate grilled cheese sandwich.  Although I have yet to try the one at Blue Moon Burgers (if I’m going to spend the time and calories on a visit to Blue Moon I’m going for a proper burger),  the Great Northwest Soup Co. makes a pretty good grilled cheese, which can be had with a cup of a number of different soup choices for $7 and change, and adds a full menu of various Paninis on top of that.  Although I can see supporting the little guy here, I still have a hard time justifying spending that much money on something as simple as a grilled cheese sandwich.  In spite of this, I do think I will have to give this place another try to see how the tomato soup or the Mac and Cheese is.  I don’t think anyone around the neighborhood has really figured that one out yet…

The Grilled Cheese Experience menu

August 3, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 5: Where Ya At

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 6:35 pm

Today’s food truck takes us a little further out than I’ve gone for the other trucks, and down the garden path into the Cascade neighborhood.

The Basics:

Food Ordered:

  • Gumbo (small size):  $5.00
  • Begniets (0rder of 3): $4.00
  • Total (with tip:) $10.00

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 5 minutes
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 2 minutes

Having been around for several years already, Where Ya At is one of the more established food trucks in Seattle, and one of the more critically acclaimed ones as well.  In spite of this, it’s out-of-the-way location in comparison to the rest of the SLU food trucks means that most people aren’t going to even know this one exists unless they have heard of it through word of mouth (which, admittedly, is something that this truck isn’t exactly lacking for.)  It’s also a fair bit out of the way when compared to the spots around Boren and Harrison where most of the trucks set up shop.  From the building I work in, it’s about an extra 2-3 blocks of walking to get here when compared to the other trucks I have visited so far.  That said, it’s not a bad walk, even if it does involve some extra uphill walking (after all this is Seattle, walking uphill just comes with the territory around here) and you get a bit of extra scenery here in the form of the well-maintained community garden that resides at Cascade Playground.

This scenery extends to the truck as well, as it parks next to the Cascade People’s Center (which actually sounds kind of scary, but it seems to be just a typical community center) in a spot that allows the people in line to wait under a nice plant-covered gazebo.  Given the fact that the average food truck in the neighborhood gives you all the ambience of a claustrophobic parking lot while you’re waiting, this has to go for some points in their favor.  Not that I had long to wait anyway, asa the food came fairly quickly once I ordered and paid for it.

Originally when I got here I wanted to try out the smothered chicken Po Boy sandwich, but by the time I got in line they had run out.  I briefly considered the pork, but soon realized that yesterday’s meal had puit me off pork (at least of the shredded variety) for a little bit, so I decided to try out the gumbo instead.  I had also heard a fair bit about the Begniets here (which seem to be the most popular item, and one that apparently sells out frequently) and decided to go for the smaller size on the gumbo and spring for an order of those too.  Even though the gumbo was a small size, the portion size was still pretty decent.  The gumbo itself was a typical chicken-and-sausage affair with a pretty good flavor with just a little bit of kick to it to let you know it’s there (they offer a decent selection of appropriate hot sauces for those who wish to spice it up a bit more.)  In spite of a decent amount of okra, it didn’t seem quite as thick as some of them that I’ve had over the years (some people have commented that it doesn’t seem to use much roux), and had a rather souplike texture to it overall.  I also felt it could have done with just a little bit more rice in it, but that’s just a minor quibble.  The Begniets, on the other hand, are pretty much exactly as advertised:  fried dough and powdered sugar, two of the most dangerous substances known to man.  And they don’t skimp on the sugar here either, I think there was at least a quarter of a cup of sugar still in the bag when the three Begniets had been removed.  I ate a couple of these with lunch, and saved the third one for later, based on the probably now discredited theory that putting a portion of something bad for you aside and saving it for later somehow makes it slightly less bad for you when you do actually eat it.  When the residual oil from the fryer combines with the powdered sugar, it forms a substance that bears a surprising resemblance to Oreo filling (which, from what I understand, isn’t actually that far off,) and which I should probably be down in the exercise room right now trying to work off.

The obvious comparison here is with Jemil’s Big Easy, another Cajun food truck which I already covered a few days ago.  Since I haven’t extensively covered the menu of either of these two trucks it’s hard for me to say that I can really recommend one over the other, but since they both show up on different days of the week (at least for the time being) it’s unlikely you’ll see both around at the same time anyway.  Both trucks serve up perfectly reasonable versions of the classic Cajun staples, but although Where Ya At is a bit of a hike for most people, their prices do seem to be better overall (especially given the fact that the menu prices at Jemil’s don’t include tax) and the variety on the menu seems to be better.  Jemil’s also doesn’t have Begniets on the menu, but that might be a good thing, since I’m currently trying to not die of a heart attack at an inconveniently young age.

If I keep up this food truck thing for too much longer that might just happen.  This puts us at the halfway point for the food truck project, with another week to go. 

Where Ya At Menu

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 4: Pai’s

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 1:37 am

(Update: Looks like this truck is out of business, as the owners have moved back to Thailand.)

After just three days of eating lunches from the various food trucks found around the South Lake Union neighborhood, I’m already starting to question the wisdom of this whole thing. Not that the food has been bad or anything like that, but it’s one of those situations like what happens when you’ve been on a cruise ship for a week: The food is good, and there’s plenty of it, but by the time the trip is over you get kind of sick of all the fancy food, and by that time you’re ready to just go find the cheapest and junkiest thing you can and go eat it. In my case, that usually ends up being Taco Bell, but I digress. Speaking of cruises (well, sort of), the next entry on our tour of the food trucks comes to us from the Islands…

The Basics:

Food Ordered:

  • Kalua Pork rice bowl: $8.00
  • Total price (with tip): $9.00

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 3 1/2 minutes
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 1 1/2 minutes

Pai’s bills itself as “Thai-Hawaiian Street Eats,” but to be honest, it’s kind of hard to tell exactly where the influences are coming from here. The Hawaiian part on the menu is pretty obvious, but the Thai part is a little bit vague, and somewhere along the line it seems that a fair bit of Korean influence has crept in. Not that any of this is their fault, mind you. This truck bases its food of the concept of the traditional Hawaiian Plate Lunch, itself a product of lunch wagons and later food trucks during the days when Hawaii’s plantations required large amounts of immigrant labor to operate. For those who aren’t familiar with it, the Plate Lunch generally consists of a couple of scoops of rice, a scoop of macaroni salad (or something similar), and some sort of meat, at which point pretty much anything goes. In Hawaii, plate lunches have been influenced significantly by Japanese, Korean, and mainland American cuisines, as well as the native Hawaiian cuisine. In fact, the ubiquitous (except in South Lake Union, curse my luck) take-out containers of Teriyaki you get from a lot of places around here are essentially a plate lunch in disguise.

In the interest of not blowing the $10 limit for lunch yet again, I decided to skip the whole plate lunch, and just opted for the rice bowl with Kalua Pork. Although there were a few people in front of me when I got here, the line moved quickly, and it only took about five minutes from the time I got in line to when I was walking away with my food. Service is friendly, and the cashier made a point of thanking people as they put money into the tip jar (which I usually do). The Kalua Pork was served with cabbage (mostly covered up by the pork in the photo above) and a fairly generous scoop of rice underneath. I do note that they use the same smaller container here as Urban Oasis does, but the portion here feels significantly more substantial. I don’t think anyone is going to complain that there isn’t enough food here. As to the flavor, my opinions were a bit more mixed. My biggest complaint with this was that it was quite salty, bordering on too much so. Admittedly, I did put some soy sauce on it (they have several sauces on hand, including soy, hoisin and sriracha) but not enough so that it should be as salty as it was. There’s also a lot of smoke flavor here (which is typical of this dish,) which eventually became almost overpowering after eating enough of it. I also thought that there wasn’t as much of the cabbage as I would have liked. This is a bit of an odd thing to complain about since usually it’s the meat that there’s not enough of and too much of the veggies, but it seemed like all the cabbage was gone after just a few bites, whereas there was no shortage of pork to go around.

Overall, I thought that the service here was friendly and the portions more than reasonable, although I’m not sure I’d order this particular dish again next time. It is hard to form an opinion based on a single dish though, so I think I’d have to try a couple other things off the menu before I decide what I think one way or the other.

Pai’s Menu

August 1, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 3: Urban Nomad

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 9:20 pm

(Update:  Unfortunately, it looks like this truck is out of business.  They still have a physical location in Lower Queen Anne, but the menu bears little resemblance to that of the truck.)

After the previous day’s epic 26-minute wait for food at Kaosamai (I should probably note that I’m writing most of these a couple of days in advance,) I decided I should probably work on getting out a bit earlier to beat the lunch rush.  Our next food truck lunch comes to us from Urban Nomad, a relative newcomer to the neighborhood.

The Basics:

Food Ordered:

  • Roasted Garlic Alfredo with Chicken: $9.50
  • Total (with tip:) $10.50

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 2 minutes
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 3 1/2 minutes

A relative newcomer to the food truck scene (come to think of it, who isn’t a relative newcomer to the food truck scene these days?), Urban Nomad has a name that tells you absolutely nothing about what kind of food you’ll expect to find inside.  For the first few weeks since they opened back in June they’ve been making occasional appearances in the alley behind Lake Union Wholesale Florist, but it was only last week that I got a look at their menu.  Interestingly enough, pasta seems to be practically a foreign substance around these parts, and aside from Mac and Cheese served as a side dish in the Amazon cafe, I can’t recall seeing anyone in the neighborhood serving any pasta dishes.  On the other hand, when you think about it, pasta seems like a natural foodstuff for mobile trucks like this.  The pasta and the sauce can all be prepared in advance to be served quickly while on location.  When you see it, you’re almost surprised that nobody managed to beat them to it.

You’ll also notice that as one of the newer trucks on the block, it’s also one of the nicer looking ones.  With the large number of trucks you see throughout the neighborhood, you tend to see all kinds of different things ranging from the shiny new ones like this, all the way down to the ones that look like they might be old enough to have grandkids.  By the same token, you see all kinds of different ways of showing the menu, ranging from a simple whiteboard with the menu written on it, all the way to the fancy display screens like you see on this truck.  It actually wouldn’t even cost all that much to set up a system like that these days (you can get a reasonably cheap display for a couple hundred bucks and run it off just about any old notebook computer you might have hanging around,) but when you can get just about the same functionality out of a $15 whiteboard and a $5 set of markers, the return on investment seems a bit dubious. Hoping to avoid a repeat of Kaosamai’s epic wait, I set off a few minutes earlier than I did last time, but probably didn’t need to do so.  There were only a handful of people in front of the truck (which was on its first day at what they expect to be a new permanent location just a couple of blocks away from their previous spot,) and I was able to order and pay quickly (aside from a minor hitch or two with their iPad-based payment system for taking cards,) and the food was ready in under four minutes.

I ordered the Roasted Garlic Alfredo pasta, which was served with options of chicken, shrimp or portabella mushrooms (I went for the chicken.)  At $9.50, this is pushing the upper limits of my $10 limit, and in fact when I add the tip it puts me over the limit again, which means that I’m only 1 for 3 on staying under the limit so far.  At least there isn’t any additional sales tax on top of it.  For that $9.50, you get a portion size that seems just a bit on the small side in comparison to some of the other trucks in the neighborhood that I’ve been to.  Not that you’ll be going hungry or anything like that (in fact, some of the other places’ portions tend to approaching the “too much food” threshold) but you probably wouldn’t have to look too hard to find more food for less money.  As for the food itself, I can’t say that it was anything special or anything like that, but it was reasonably well done.  To be honest, when I ordered the Alfredo pasta I expected to find Fettuccine in there instead of the Rigatoni I was served, but I suppose if I had actually read the menu I would have known that.  Either way, pasta is pasta regardless of what shape it happens to be in, so this doesn’t really matter anyway.  As far as Alfredo sauces go, I’d have to say that the one here was fairly decent compared to some I’ve had, albeit a little on the thin side.   On the other hand, it is also backed up by a generous amount of shaved (as opposed to grated or powdered) Parmesan cheese on top, which when combined with the sauce  does make up for the thinness a bit, and also provides some nice melted cheese action as well.  The chicken, on the other hand, was nothing special (and for all I could tell might have even been the pre-cooked stuff you can get in bags at Costco), and the Alfredo sauce when combined with the cheese is probably substantial enough that the chicken probably could have been omitted with little to no ill effect.  Interestingly enough, I think my gold standard for this type of pasta dish comes from the excellent Fettuccine Alfredo served in the dining rooms aboard Princess cruise ships (a sentiment that seems to be shared among a number of other cruisers as well.)  Also, for those so inclined, there are also vegetarian and gluten-free options on the menu as well, although I don’t have much reason to try out either of these (although I could see the mushroom option for some pastas being good under the right circumstances.)

All in all, not a bad place for a lunch, especially given the dearth of pasta to be found elsewhere in the neighborhood.  That said, I do have to point out once again that the prices seem to be a bit on the high side for a food truck meal, and the portion sizes are a bit on the small side.  Nonetheless, if you take this into effect and don’t mind a bit of a splurge for lunch, chances are you won’t be disappointed here.

Urban Nomad Menu

July 31, 2012

South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 2: Kaosamai

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 7:11 pm

Yesterday’s first venture into the mass of enigmatic food trucks that pop up to serve the denizens of South Lake Union came up with some pretty good results, but I also managed to blow my $10 budget on the first day.  Would day 2 prove any better?  Let’s find out…

The Basics:

  • Food Truck: Kaosamai Thai Cook Truck
  • Cuisine: Thai
  • Website: http://www.kaosamai.com/
  • Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Kaosamai
  • Twitter: None
  • Yelp: 4 stars, 15 reviews
  • Location: Harrison Avenue, between Boren and Fairview
  • Days: Monday and Friday (also daily at Terry Ave. between Thomas and John, and a full-service restaurant in the Fremont neighborhood)
  • Payment Methods: Cash, LevelUp
  • Sales Tax included in prices: Yes

Food Ordered:

  • Pad Thai with Chicken ($8.00)
  • Total price (with tip): $9.00

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 5 minutes
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 26 minutes

Once again, I set off a few minutes before Noon in order to try to beat the rush.  Apparently I’m not doing a very good job of beating the rush, because once again there was a pretty significant line of people in front of this truck when I got there.  Nonetheless, once it started moving, it moved reasonably fast, and I was able to order and pay within a few minutes.  I was handed a little slip with an order number on it.  I was #41.  A couple of minutes after I ordered, they called #22.  This is rarely a good sign if you’re looking for a quick bite to eat.

In a significant proportion of the relatively few ventures I’ve made out to the food trucks prior to starting this project, I found that it wasn’t unusual to end up waiting quite a while for your food after ordering.  This isn’t too surprising; after all, when you’re working in a relatively small truck that’s going to be crowded with only three people in it, you’re going to be short-staffed almost by definition.  Even so, people tend to get a bit impatient after a while, especially when they’re standing on the side of the road waiting for some sort of food to come out of a big orange truck with a tiny little hole in the side of it.  It is because of some of these previous experiences with long waits that I decided that as I go through the various trucks, I will be timing how long it takes to order and pay after getting in line, and then how long it takes to receive my order after paying.

In this case, I probably didn’t need to bother with the stopwatch, because the ever-increasing crowd of people in front of the place told the story:  the orders were coming in a lot faster than the food was coming out.  Five minutes of waiting turned into ten, ten into twenty, with a slow trickle of orders coming out every few minutes.  In the end, it took 26 minutes from the time I paid until I got my food, which is getting dangerously close to  Salumi territory for epically long waits for food (I tried Salumi once when I worked over in Pioneer Square, and ended up spending 45 minutes in line, I’ve heard it’s even longer these days.)  Although most of the customers in this particular part of the neighborhood are presumably going to be Amazonians without a fixed work schedule, someone with a 30-minute lunch break would be getting back to the office late before they had even taken a single bite of their food.  It doesn’t matter how cool the stuff on your Smartphone happens to be, by the time you’re waiting that long,  And I don’t even want to imagine what would happen if it was raining while everyone was standing out there…

That said, when the Pad Thai I ordered did finally arrive, it was quite good.  The most obvious comparison that is going to be made here is with Thai Curry Simple, which happens to be directly next door to Kaosamai’s Harrison Street location, and is also one of my favorite lunch spots in the neighborhood.  The Pad Thai is probably the item on the menu that I order most often there (although the Massamun Chicken and Panang Chicken are also quite good as well.)  Even so, I think I’d actually have to say that I like Kaosamai’s version of Pad Thai better than Thai Curry Simple’s version, even though I consider them both to be quite good .  The mix of fresh veggies and bean sprouts adds quite a bit to this, and it comes with plenty of peanuts on top (which might actually be my favorite part of the dish, oddly enough.  I can’t say that I’ve tried a whole lot of different Pad Thais over the years, but this one certainly holds its own in comparison to some.

Just don’t plan on being in any hurry to get it.

Kaosamai menu

July 30, 2012

The South Lake Union Food Truck Project, Day 1: Jemil’s Big Easy

Filed under: Food, Seattle — Tags: , — Brian Lutz @ 8:00 pm

To kick off the food truck project I’m going to be blogging about here for the next couple of weeks, I went with something I had at least some familiarity with.  I got here a few minutes before the typical Noon lunch hour, and found that there was already a pretty decent line in front of the truck.  Might as well dive in…

The Basics:

Food Ordered:

  • Jambalaya (Medium Size): $5.99
  • Red Beans and Rice (Medium Size): $3,99
  • Total price (with tax and tip:) $11.96

Speed:

  • Time to order and pay: About 5 minutes
  • Time to receive food after ordering: 1 minute

Jemil’s Big Easy is one of the few food trucks in South Lake Union that I have actually tried before, although I have only done so once.  Even so, the first time was good enough to warrant another try, thus I have chosen this one to kick off my little project.  Although I got here a few minutes before noon, the line was already several people deep, but they had someone out writing down orders to pass to the cashier in order to expedite the process of ordering.  Fortunately, things moved along quickly, and  it took just a few minutes in line to pay, after which my food was ready pretty quickly.

Before I proceed, there are a couple of things I would like to note about food trucks in general:  Although most of the food trucks include the sales tax in their prices (presumably because it allows them to work with whole dollar prices), this isn’t always the case, and Jemil’s is one of the food trucks that doesn’t include tax.  Another thing I’ve found is that payment options can be hit-or-miss too.  Cash is obviously king in this business, but some food trucks do actually take cards as well (although I have seen occasionally seen extra fees added for credit cards.)  In addition to this, a handful of trucks also take payment through LevelUp, a Smartphone-based mobile payment system that seems to have popped up in various locations around the neighborhood (and which occasionally does include some extra promos as incentives to use it,) although I’ve never actually tried using it.  Either way, I will be sure to note payment options as I go through these.

In the interest of trying different things I opted for two smaller entrees rather than one large one.  This approach came with the unintended side effect of causing me to already blow past my self-imposed $10 limit right on day one.  Technically if you only count pre-tax prices I was (barely) under the limit.  Anyway,  the one on the left is Red Beans and Rice, while the Chicken and Sausage Jambalaya is on the left.  Each of these also comes in a larger size for a couple dollars more, and based on past experience most people should find one of the larger entrees to be a more than adequate meal.  In addition to these and the customary Gumbo, the menu also has a number of Po Boy sandwiches, as well as various specials.

Of these two items, I would have to say the better of the two was the Red Beans and Rice.  In a lot of different cuisines, I often find that there’s one or two items that tend to be a good benchmark for how well a particular restaurant handles that type of food, and for Cajun I tend to go with either the Red Beans and Rice or the Gumbo.  These particular ones were quite flavorful, and happened to contain the same big chunks of sausage that you see in the Jambalaya .  The Jambalaya also had plenty of sausage and chicken in it, but didn’t seem quite as good for some reason.  In both cases, I was expecting these to be a bit spicier than they were (I suspect they have to cater to local tastes, which means turning down the spices a bit,) and I thought that the Jambalaya in particular would have been a bit better if it was just a bit warmer when it was served.  I was half-tempted to microwave it for a bit.

Ultimately, these are relatively minor quibbles, and I thought the food here was quite good overall.  I’ll definitely have to be back and try more of the menu.  In particular, the Muffaletta looks like it could be quite good.  Anyway, I’d have to say this is off to a decent start,  Hopefully my luck holds out…

Jemil’s Big Easy Menu

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