AlwaysInformed: ESPN’s Match Truck

Maryse Chevrière — June 11, 2010

Clockwise from top: Carne Asada Burrito with Skirt and Flank Steak marinated in Lime, Garlic, Cilantro and Beer (Mexico); a server at the ESPN Match Truck, the crowd during lunch.

In what is perhaps one of the more exciting pieces of recent food truck news, ESPN’s Match Truck debuted this morning at Columbus Circle to dish out snacks to hungry World Cup fans.

As reported, the menu was designed by Kogi truck chef Roy Choi who drew inspiration from the street foods of some of the participating teams. Team USA’s Silver Dollar Pancakes and Sliders scored over Italy’s Seared Rice Balls, and it was a draw between South Korea’s Yaki Mandoo Dumplings and Spain’s Tortilla Española— both very good. But if we had to back a team based on their representative dish, we’d have to side with Greece for the Lamb Gyro or Mexico for the Carne Asada Burrito.

Photographs of the Food from ESPN's Match Truck >>

AlwaysInformed: Eddie’s Pizza Truck Debuts June 10th

Arthur Bovino — May 27, 2010

Plain Thin Crust Pizza at Eddie’s in New Hyde Park on Long Island, “Home of the Bar Pie.”

Courtesy of the Always Hungry Twitter feed, we hear that the new truck by Eddie’s Pizza, which was first reported by Slice as slated to hit the City’s streets in late May, has pinpointed an actual planned day to start serving their bar pies while on the move: June 10th.

If you haven’t eaten at Eddie’s before, and you’re planning your weekend Hamptons trip, check out HungryHamptons: Where to Eat on the Drive for the details on how to get there.

AlwaysInformed: The Mister Softee Jingle

Arthur Bovino — March 18, 2010

Mister Softee is back.

It happened last night, 2010’s first Mister Softee jingle. It makes sense if you consider Mister Softee’s history. In 1956, the Conway brothers took their first truck out on St. Paddy’s Day, and gave out green-colored ice cream. March 17th was the anniversary of Mister Softee’s first outing.

The jingle signifies that warm weather is near, but it’s also the crack of the starter’s pistol—the beginning of a run of articles, and local TV news spots that detail how the jingle drives city-dwellers crazy. People have been hiding from the cold so long they forget they can actually leave their homes. They take three months of cabin fever out on poor Mister Softee, and his happy little song.

Last year’s dire warnings included a report at the end of March in The Daily News about Inwood residents claiming to be driven mad by the constant jingle. The New York Post chimed in two months later, this time in Williamsburg and Greenpoint, with residents complaining about the trucks that circle McCarren Park. NPR in 2007 when New York City implemented a new noise code. You get the idea. The over/under on the 2010’s first news report about people being driven mad with rage about the jingle? By next Friday, Monday the 29th at the latest.

Two things. It’s beautiful outside, get out of the house. Go buy an a ice cream. Also, did you know the jingle has lyrics? The cream-i-est dream-i-e-est Softee words were copyrighted in 1960:

The Mister Softee Lyrics >>

AlwaysStrong: Eddie’s Pizza (New Hyde Park, Long Island)

Arthur Bovino — March 10, 2010

Plain Thin Crust Pizza at Eddie’s in New Hyde Park on Long Island, “Home of the Bar Pie.”

It is exciting news that Eddie’s is planning to plant a flag in Manhattan with a food truck that will sell pizza featuring par-baked versions of their signature cracker-thin crusts. Bar pizza goes mobile! Can you get a tumbler of Jack on the rocks with that?

Look, it’s not that Eddie’s is the world’s best pizza, but there is something about the quasi-matzoh crust that makes it a great pace-changer between typical New York slices. Given how thin it is, it will be interesting to see how everyone adapts to eating it on the run in the city. At the New Hyde Park location, the slices are foldable, so you could technically do the two-fold move, and walk with them. The fact that they’re not very filling may mean that the lunch move is the 16-incher.

In honor of the news, here are photographs of a meal at the original location.

More Photographs of Bar Pies at Eddies Pizza >>

HungryChefs: StarChefs.com’s International Chefs Congress (Day One)

Arthur Bovino — September 21, 2009

Norman Van Aken, Charlie Trotter, Emeril Lagasse and panel moderator Clark Wolf.

AlwaysHungryNY.com attended Day One of StarChefs.com’s International Chefs Congress at the Park Avenue Armory on Sunday. Aside from tasty delights like “The Egg” by Le Bernadin’s pastry chef Michael Laiskonis, Rougié‘s seared foie gras, and a Leffe beer milkshake, there were noteworthy presentations. Events included panel discussions about food trucks and American cuisine, Chris Young and Dr. Nathan Myhrvold’s entrancing presentation of their upcoming book on modernist cooking techniques, and demonstrations by David Bouley (Sea Urchin Terrine), April Bloomfield (Pork Belly Roulade), and Pierre Gagnaire (Iron Chef-esque cooking challenge) among others.

Click for chef & food pictures from Sunday's StarChefs.com International Chefs Congress >>

AlwaysTraveling: L.A. Tacos (Los Angeles)

The Gluttoness — September 21, 2009

Los Angeles may be the land of glitz and glamour, but when it comes to food, we all know that the City of Angels is Taqueria Town. There are tons of authentic options, from free-standing originals to chains like King Taco, but newcomers are also shaking up the scene with international alternatives. Their prevalence even led one man to embark on The Great Taco Hunt, a lofty mission to taste and rate L.A. tacos in a quest to find the perfect one. During a recent trip, I conducted my own AlwaysHungry taco expedition, following a visit to the famed Tito’s Tacos with a stop at the nearest Kogi Truck (view site).

Clockwise from top left: Tito’s exterior, Tito’s Taco, Chili con Carne, Tostada.

Tito’s Tacos in Culver City is an inexpensive Mexican institution that has been preparing their top-secret recipes since 1959. Despite eight fast-moving windows for takeout and eat-in orders, long lines for this standard fare never let up. There are no frills and limited options. Tacos come with beef—don’t even think about substitutions.

While the name is Tito’s Tacos, the best thing on the menu is the Chili con Carne, which is slow-cooked for a decadent, heavily-spiced beefiness. Although the same beef fills the hard-shelled tacos, the proportion is overwhelmed by a flavorless helping of shredded lettuce. Refried Beans are topped with melted cheese and the Been & Cheese Tostadas are best eaten fast, before the crisp, underlying shell goes inconveniently soggy and becomes impossible to eat without utensils. The fresh Tomato Salsa is somewhat watery, needing both salt and pepper. Nothing at Titos’ is the best, and some of the stuff is barely average—it’s obvious that lifelong patrons have grown accustomed to the authentic, if underseasoned flavors.

Continue Reading >>

FirstLook: Señor Tacombi

Arthur Bovino — September 11, 2009

The Señor Tacombi truck served tacos to the fashionably hungry on Bond Street in front of The Smile.

We swung by The Smile (restaurant page) last night to get a peek at the Señor Tacombi taco truck on Bond Street. As reported yesterday, it was stationed there for the Fashion’s Night Out (view site) event, which marked the beginning of New York Fashion Week.

The VW bus, which we were told was brought all the way from Playa del Carmen, Mexico, was prepped to hand out 1000 free tacos to a fashionable, taco-hungry crowd. There were two options (shown below) prepared by several chefs, including Nicholas Porcelli (right, displaying his “Cook Well” finger tattoos).

We should note that the Señor Tacombi website was revamped since our post last Friday and no longer features images of white lingerie-clad angels and cool flying pigs.

Roast Pork with Achiote topped with Pickled Onion and Mexican Oregano.

Grilled Cactus with Roasted Habanero Salsa.

AlwaysPartying: Tacombi’s First Night Out

Arthur Bovino — September 10, 2009

Señor Tacombi truck

It is confirmed— in a celebration of fashion, street carts and Mexican food, Aaron Sanchez’s food truck, Señor Tacombi will debut tonight on Bond Street as part of The Smile’s festivities to celebrate Fashion’s Night Out (view site). Food will begin being served at the truck at 8pm. Last week’s post noted previous menu items.

As if this weren’t enough, The Smile will also be hosting a Schaller & Webber sausage cart, and serving some of their own bruschetta as well. Basically, there is no question that 26 Bond Street is the place that any good eater will be tonight.

AlwaysInformed: Señor Tacombi

Arthur Bovino — September 04, 2009

Señor Tacombi, a Mexican street taco concept from Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

There have been rumblings that Aaron Sanchez might be working on a food truck and now, it seems, things may be coming together. Señor Tacombi (view site) is a taqueria concept that has been operating in Playa del Carmen, Mexico for about three and a half years. It’s a taco stand fashioned with a 1960’s VW bus. We’ve heard that the founder, Dario Wolos Cantu, has partnered with Myriad Restaurant Group and Aaron Sanchez (of Centrico), who will supposedly be taking care of the taco and Mexican street food menu. Here’s the catch, as we understand it, while the bus could be moved for events, it’s not going to be a mobile concept.

Most of the website is in Spanish, but amidst images of white lingerie-wearing angels and Mexican-wrestling-mask and white business suit-wearing men, the concept seems to be traditional Mexican street tacos with quality ingredients. The menu (with magic mushrooms and flying, cape-wearing pigs) of these self-proclaimed “LOS HIJOS DEL MAÍZ” (Children of the Corn) has featured:

Fish Tacos: Herb-breaded grouper and shrimp, fresh ceviche with lime, Pico de gallo and olive oil.
Veggie Tacos: “Magic Mushrooms,” queca pacheca, beans, corn and slices of cheese.
Beef: Flank steak, with green pepper and onion.
Pork: Cochinita pibil and carnitas
Chicken: “Chicken Locochón,” shredded chicken breast in tomato sauce, chipotle and onion.

AlwaysInvestigating: CupcakeStop’s Cupcake Truck

The Gluttoness — June 25, 2009

You know you’re onto something when The New York Times and CNN feature you before you even serve your first cupcake. The idea for the CupcakeStop was dreamt up by Lev Ekster while studying at New York Law School. The cupcakes are baked in Brooklyn by a professional pastry chef, Manal Mady, and Ekster twitters the location of “New York’s first mobile cupcake shoppe”—a popular methodology of roving food trucks also employed by Wafels & Dinges and LA’s famed Kogi Taco Truck. The flavors on the day that we sampled CupcakeStop included: Red Velvet, Oreo Crumb, Peanut Butter and Jelly and Tie Dye.

The menu should immediately alarm any cupcake aficionado. CupcakeStop’s flavors are eerily similar to Baked by Melissa’s bite-sized confections. In fact, all four flavors can be found at her sliver of a storefront located on Spring Street near Broadway, where miniature cupcakes also sell for $1 (CupcakeStop’s full-sized sweets cost $2.25). Unfortunately for CupcakeStop, these carbon copy cupcakes don’t come close to the moist originals. The cake was dry, closer in texture to a stale muffin than a cupcake, and the icing wasn’t nearly sweet or creamy enough to overwhelm the average bottoms.

The best of the bunch was the Oreo Crumb, a chocolate-flecked vanilla cake with cookies-and-cream icing. We wouldn’t go out of our way to find CupcakeStop again but we won’t rule out stopping by to curtail a cupcake craving.

AlwaysTraveling: Super Duper Weenie (Fairfield, CT)

Jeff Zalaznick — May 04, 2009

Gary Zemora was working as a chef at Pasta Nostra, a respected South Norwalk Italian restaurant, but he just couldn’t shake the image of a painting he had seen of the 1977 Super Duper Weenie truck. Originally owned by Robert Turner, who first parked it in Norwalk, CT, the truck was sold to Neil Farans, the owner of a Texaco station, who was burdened with selling the thing until Gary Zemora emerged as the truck’s saving grace.

Zemora quit his job and opened up shop in 1992 with the mindset of a serious gourmand. When the restored roadside hot dog truck developed a cult-like following, it was time to open a sit-down restaurant to better accommodate the legions of loyal Super Duper Weenie diners. Now located in Fairfield, CT, the specialty of the house are the locally-sourced, smoked hot dogs, which are split down the middle and cooked on a griddle until a crusty shell seals the succulent juices inside. The dog that Gary uses is very important to him, and when you ask him about it, he laments for the local butcher from which he once sourced his hot dogs. On his old butcher, “A great man ran this business for 50 years, and then his son comes in and fucks the whole thing up.” He is happy with his current meat, but admits that it will never compare to what he once had. Luckily, he maintains such a high quality operation that no one else would notice, but, like many great chefs, Zemora is a perfectionist. Only fresh-baked rolls will suffice, and Zemora’s high-standards also inform his homemade condiments— meat chili, onion sauce, coleslaw, and sweet and hot relishes (both made from scratch with Zemora’s own pickled cukes). With such care put into the accoutrements, it’s only fitting that the menu offers spellbinding combinations like the Dixie (meat chili and coleslaw) and the New Yorker (sauerkraut, onion sauce, mustard and hot relish).

Fresh cut and served hot out of the fryer, salt-and-pepper French Fries are a must whether you’re eating a New Englander (sauerkraut, bacon, mustard, sweet relish and raw onion) or Super Duper Chicken Nuggets. Even the nuggets get the homemade treatment. Pounded cutlets are sliced, tossed in the Super Duper seasoning blend, then deep-fried to golden perfection. Although it feels weird to say it, these may well be the best chicken fingers that I have ever had. Not only because they are treated with such care , but also because they are served with the most exquisite homemade BBQ sauce, and with a specially sourced honey mustard that totally seals the deal. Zemora also is famous for his soups. During my visit, he forced some New England Clam Chowder on me, and, much to my surprise, it was delicious. The clams were fresh, and the broth had the perfect consistency. Making soup is a passion of his, and something that he often does for off site catering. Super Duper Weenie is the ultimate road trip food stop when it comes to cuisine and charm, and the perfect amuse bouche on a drive up to New Haven for pizza. Next time you are heading north on I-95, make it happen.