DC Weekend 2011: Part Three

Truckeroo.

This was probably my favorite food adventure of the weekend. I was almost giddy with excitement as I walked into Truckeroo.  For those of you who may not know, the food truck scene is big in DC and is ever-growing.  Food trucks nowadays are no longer the disgusting roach coaches they used to be. Those still exist but are more in the form of hot dog carts and such. Food trucks are becoming quite gourmet, to a point where a lot of brick-and-mortar restaurants are feeling a little threatened and are doing whatever they can to get rid of the food trucks. But if Truckeroo is any indication as to the growing popularity of food trucks, they're not going anywhere any time soon.

not too crowded for lunch...

theres the lobster pound!!

Big Cheese: specialty grilled cheese sandwiches

Truckeroo is an event where once a month between June and October, about 20-30 food trucks all gather in one location and basically have a big food truck party, live music included. 

Curbside Cupcakes

DC Empanadas

It. Was. Awesome.

some kind of tropical food truck; didnt get the name

Cap Mac does mac'n cheese

Dangerously Delicious Pies

They set up around 11am and stay all day and night until about 11pm or until the food runs out.  We went for lunch and met my dad who works nearby in DC.  We hit the Lobster Pound, which I've blogged about before, and got ourselves a couple Lobster rolls. Superking opted for the Connecticut style (melted butter) and I and my dad opted for the traditional Maine style (mayo). It was still super yummy and I certainly wouldn't turn it down but I think I like the buttered one better.

While Superking waited in one line, I hopped over to the Sauca truck (globally inspired cuisine) and ordered a Pork Banh Mi. Its a griddled flatbread stuffed with Vietnamese pork, pickled veggies, and peanut and Thai coconut sauces. It was great, sweet, tangy, spicy, yumm. Although the guy running the truck told me their best seller is the Mumbai Butter Chicken. I'll have to try that next time.

Superking went for the BBQ Bus.  Obviously they serve barbecue sandwiches.  We got the traditional pulled pork bbq...slow roasted smokey pork on a cornmeal-dusted kaiser roll with crunchy slaw and pickled red onion and a smokey sweet bbq sauce.  Nothing particularly unique or outstanding but a great pork sandwich nonetheless.

After all that I needed a sweet treat and headed over to Pleasant Pops, a truck that makes popsicles using local, organic, seasonal ingredients.  They had flavors such as Peach Mint Iced Tea and Strawberry Ginger Lemonade.  I went for the Peaches and Ginger flavor. Both flavors were very prevalent and you could tell they were fresh. Very yummy!

To be continued for dinner...

Mokomandy's

Who would have ever thought Korean food and Cajun food could go so well together?? A while back a good friend of ours (thanks Jay) recommended this crazy little restaurant nearby that served just that...a combination (not a fusion so they say) of Korean and Cajun cuisine.  This place may be located in the middle of the Northern Virginia suburbs riddled with boring ol' chain restaurants but Mokomandy's is anything but boring or a chain. In fact, between the cool atmosphere, the amazing food, and friendly service, for a moment you might think you actually teleported to the city somehow.  This "casual fine-dining" restaurant hand-crafts every single dish bringing a modern twist to both cuisines creating a unique and delicious dining experience.

Their menu offers small plates, medium plates, and large plates.  Superking and I stuck to mostly small plates so we could try as many items as we could stuff in our mouths! Here's a look at what we ordered...

Fois Gras Dumplings...juicy braised duck wrapped in a beautiful little dumpling pouch and served with a house-made plum sauce and a tiny radish and sprout "salad".  The duck was perfectly moist and flavorful, the plum sauce had a lovely sweetness, and the radish provided a crisp fresh crunch.

we actually wanted to order their Gator Croquettes but they were all out

Oyster Po' Boy Sliders...3 juicy little oysters breaded in cornmeal topped with lettuce, tomato, and a remoulade sauce all on their own adorable little brioche buns.  I'm not a fan of oysters...I've tried them several times prepared several different ways...not a fan.  But these, honestly didn't even taste like oysters (I mean that in a good way!). They were actually quite tasty! And not slimy!

Wild Boar Bowl...this was one of their medium plates, or bowl rather.  Braised wild boar meat in a bowl with kimchi rice, kochujang (a red pepper bean paste), laver (a type of seaweed I think), a few carrots, a fried egg, and sweet potato chip for garnish.  The red pepper paste provides a little spicy kick and the boar meat was tender and juicy!

At one point during this course, the hostess walked by and noticed Superking liking a certain hot sauce on the table. She stopped and asked with a devilish grin, "would you like something hotter?" Tentatively Superking says yes. She returns a moment later with a non-descript, non-labeled bottle filled with a dark sludgy sauce and says, "this is our Ghost Chili sauce."  For those of you who may not know, ghost peppers are among the hottest in the world.  To put this in perspective...the scoville chart which measures hottness of peppers says that a simple little jalapeno is about 4,000 scoville units.  A habanero is roughly 200,000. A ghost pepper...over a million.  In other words, don't go near these things unless you have a death wish. Luckily there are other ingredients in their Ghost Chili sauce besides just the ghost peppers to help cut the heat a little but its still pretty daggone hot! Use very very sparingly!

Ssam...no thats not a misspelling, and its not short for Ssamuel.  Its basically like a Korean taco where you use a lettuce leaf as the shell and inside is pork (though there were also chicken and veggie options), purple rice, kochujang, sesame, radish, and scallions. The lettuce cups were crisp and fresh and the pork was tender and a little spicy.  Every flavor was perfectly balanced and delicious.

One last small plate we had to try before delving into dessert...Wagyu Carpaccio.  You just don't see a lot of Wagyu so its hard to pass up.  This carpaccio was served with a nice clump of greens on top drizzled with soy sauce, sprinkled with pine nuts, daikon radish, and believe it or nor a few slices of pear! It sounds odd but the pear added a bright sweetness to the savory salty wagyu carpaccio with the soy and nuts.

Finally we order dessert and as we're waiting the owner brings us a dessert we didn't order. "Oh I don't think thats ours," we said. The owner replies, "I know but we made an extra one so we thought you'd like to have it!".  Ok, an extra dessert can't hurt, right?

Chicory pudding with chocolate sauce, pecans, cane syrup salted caramels, and fresh cream.  Omg! It was light and fluffy and creamy. Flavors of coffee and chocolate and caramel. And these lovely caramel wafers buried beneath all the chocolate sauce and cream; it was like finding buried treasure!

Then came our real dessert...Beignets. Ah, beignets! Even saying the word makes me happy.  Beautiful little donut holes, fried crispy on the outside, soft and doughy on the inside, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with 4 sauces...chocolate, caramel, strawberry jam,  and cane syrup.  We even dipped a few bites of our beignets in the leftovers of the first dessert...yumm!

Left: caramel; Top: cane syrup; Right: strawberry; Bottom: chocolate

Needless to say, we were so stuffed when we left they practically had to call a crane to roll us out to the parking lot.  But every bite was so worth it.  A cool urban atmosphere, friendly attentive service, and awesomely delicious and unique food. Its very refreshing to find a hidden gem like this so close to home. Can't wait to go back!

the aftermath

Food Trucks in Farragut Square

To continue our food truck adventure from yesterday...after we left the Lobster Pound, we metroed over to Farragut Square.  When we arrived, the entire square was packed with people and there were about 6 different food trucks all lined up already with lines some 20-30 people deep.

The food trucks we saw there were these...
CapMac  (specialty-mac n cheese)

Sauca (specialty-global cuisine)

Sweetbites (specialty-cupcakes, cookies, muffins, etc.)

Meathead Mobile Eatery (specialty-meat...see more below)

El Floridano (specialty-global sandwiches...see more below)

SweetGreen  (specialty-salads and frozen yogurt, all organic...see more below)

Hubby and I decided to split up to maximize our food truck tastings, especially since the lines were kinda long and most trucks only serve til about 2, unless they run out of food beforehand.  Hubby stood in line at El Floridano and ordered the Chicken Chiang Mai sandwich.  Kaffir lime chicken on an Italian style hoagie roll topped with charred tomato salsa, avocado spread, pickled onions, and baby arugula. The taste was so light and fresh. The chicken was perfectly grilled and juicy.  The freshness of the lime and the veggies made the perfect compliment to the chicken. Their whole menu only consisted of 3 sandwiches and 2 soups.  All very unique. I guess you don't need a large menu when those few items are the best you got. And our chicken sandwich was great.

I stood in line at the Meathead Mobile Eatery.  It was kinda funny because I kept seeing this huge group of people near this truck and I thought they were in line. But they were just standing around.  And then I was told, there wasn't really  a line for ordering.  You just walk up to the truck and order! But then you wait, with a ticket and listen for your number to be called. So thats what all these people are standing around for! When I finally figured this out, the guy at the window called out number 124.  I looked down at my ticket...157. Ugh.

However, the numbers were being called fairly quickly and before long, he was calling out 150...151...152...as he got closer to my number the excitement and anticipation grew. Soon it was going to be me! It was like playing the lottery! Finally...155...156...157!!! Yay!!

Their menu is a little funny too. They offer 4 different meat sandwiches with names like Moo Moo (rib-eye steak), the Oink Oink (BBQ pork), the Cluck Cluck (you guessed it...chicken), and the Meathead (a combination of all meats).  I ordered the Oink Oink...juicy pork chunks, covered with a creamy cole slaw and a tangy BBQ sauce.  It was awesome! The meat was so tender and juicy.  The cole slaw, which neither hubby or I are huge fans, was minimal yet added just enough creaminess to bring out the tanginess of the sauce and the smokiness of the meat.  Defnitely a favorite.

After enjoying a sit on a park bench under a tree and horking down both the sandwiches between us, we decided there was just enough room left for dessert. So we headed to the other side of the square where the sweet trucks were. We chose SweetGreen for their frozen yogurt. Now when we say frozen yogurt, we're not just talking about some fake ice cream/ice milk substitute like you see in a lot of places.  They take actual Stonyfield plain organic yogurt and freeze it.  One flavor, fat free.  Which to some may not sound very appetizing.  But then you add the toppings.  Their list of toppings includes nuts, coconut, blackberries, strawberries, baked apples, graham cracker...just to name a few. And the fruit is actual fresh cut fruit...no syrups or fillers or added sugars. Real fruit.  And the yogurt itself has a mild creamy tang to it that blends perfectly with the strawberries and blackberries we got on ours. 

And what's also really cool about SweetGreen is that everything they offer is organic and local whenever possible.  Even the actual truck and the spoons and bowls are all environmentally friendly! In addition to yogurt they also offer a whole list of fresh yummy salads too. Aside from their food trucks they have actual brick-and-mortar restaurants as well all over the DC, Maryland, and Northern Virginia area. Yay for local and organic! The frozen yogurt we had there was the perfect sweet end to a perfect sweet day!

There were so many more trucks we would've liked to see if there was more time and more room in our tummys.  So we definitely have plans to go back another day for more food truck adventures! Can't wait!