Say Cheese Philly!!!

No, I'm not trying to take your picture, but rather tell you about my latest food truck experience. Having promised last week, I headed over to 33rd & Arch to find Say Cheese. A dish with any form of melted cheese is a comfort item for me. It truly makes me feel that wondrous sense of being happy and full, and wonderful. Just writing about it right now makes me feel the same way. 

I hadn't eaten so I was looking for a nice filling lunch. Upon arrival and asking for suggestions, it was recommended that the brisket cheese steak was a solid item. That was also what first caught my eye, not only because it's listed at the top of the menu, it was most appealing to me. The sandwich comes served on a fresh, lightly toasted Italian roll topped with a red pepper spread. The roll is then stuffed with a generous portion of tender, moist, and wonderfully seasoned brisket. I usually pack a lot of flavor into my brisket because on Passover, one needs all the flavor you can get. This however was simply seasoned, and cooked to perfection, allowing the meat to shine on its own. All this is topped with an amazing homemade cheese sauce which I believe had provolone in there - and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. Everything on this sandwich was able to stand out on its own, but yet work together to make one cohesive sandwich. 

I also got an order of their house made chips. These chips are fried to order, and seasoned perfectly. The chips were also just the right "thin-ness" They weren't so thin that there was nothing there, but enough that they crisped up nice and even and with nothing wrong about them. I know that I will be sure to make a return for their deep fried bacon cheeseburger mac & cheese balls. Shhh! Just don't tell Mac Mart!! You can check out today's menu below. 

To Find Say Cheese, Visit any of the following for updates to their location and menu

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SayCheesePhilly

or @saycheesephilly

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saycheesephiladelphia

or search for Say Cheese Philadelphia

Delicias

With plans to go to Mac Mart for lunch being spoiled by last minute schedule change, I landed at Love Park to find the lone food tuck - Delicias.

The main dish sold here are the arepas. Their website describes them as follows:

Arepas are fresh, home-made corn patties, grilled and stuffed with your choice of delicias. Our arepas are naturally wheat and gluten free

Upon a little more research, the arepa is made with "masarepa" or arepa flour. It's basically precooked, ground corn flour. This gets mixed with water, butter, and salt. 

I  was greeted by Bill who made a few recommendations. I ended up getting the robinita - two arepas stuffed with chorizo, black beans, sweet plantain, guacamole, pico de gallo, cotija cheese. I opted to get without the beans. 

Unsure of how to properly eat this, I took the fork that was placed in the bag and went to work. The first thing I noticed was the wonderful aroma of FRESH, flavorful food. The chorizo was seasoned well and offered just the right level of spice. The pico was great, and coming from a tomato hater in the middle of winter, this says a lot. The guacamole was a vibrant green, with no brown discoloration. 

But of course, the star is the arepa patties themselves. They have a nice fresh corny taste, which helped bring the entire dish together. 

Delicias has two trucks, and just recently opened a restaurant on 4th & South st. Find them at any of the links below!

http://deliciasfoodtruck.com

http://www.deliciasarepas.com

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pages/Delicias-Food-Truck/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/PhillyDelicias

My name is Jason and I am addicted to tacos.

So the entire food truck world up until now has just been an inconvenience. I always worked until 2:30, or 3:00 and then headed to another job. This past September, that all changed. I started by frequenting trucks in Love Park as it was most convenient. I eventually started going to The Porch @ 30th and eventually started frequenting the food truck mecca at 33rd & Arch. The other spot I recently learned about was 33rd & Market. Which I clearly knew it was there, but the trucks? I never noticed.

That's where I found Taco Mondo today. Here's their truck. Pretty cool, huh? I'm quickly learning as a "food blogger" to photograph everything. It makes your posts look so much better! I came for tacos. And tacos I had. I got 2 of em, a smoked pork taco and a sweet & sour fried chicken taco. The two tacos cost me $6, which is not bad at all; $8 gets you three tacos. Right on par with the Mexican joints.

The smoked pork taco was loaded with a decent amount of pork, cheese, fresh tomato and lettuce. Topped with a crema - a Mexican sour cream made from cream and buttermilk. This mixture is then allowed to sit out and culture overnight and it begins to thicken. The pork by itself was superb - tender, moist, and not overly smokey. The tomato and lettuce added some freshness. But all together it didn't wow me. It wasn't bad, and was still better than some other tacos I've had, but just not the wow I was hoping for.

It took me one bite into the fried chicken taco to find the wow factor I was looking and hoping for! Taco Mondo takes their boneless chicken and brines it. They lightly bread it, and fry it. Loaded onto the tortilla was a piece of chicken, pickled vegetables, scallions, black & white sesame seeds, and their homemade sweet & sour sauce. It's like southern food meets chinese takeout. However, this was just so much better. With every bite I got more and more curious. There was this subtle, but welcoming heat adding flavor, bite after bite. Upon inquiring, I found out they make their very own sambal - an asian chili paste. This chili paste not only got added to the sauce, but it makes its way into the brine! Talk about layers of flavor, this taco had me wanting more! 

Be sure to check out Taco Mondo on Facebook and Twitter for menu updates and locations. 

Twitter: http://twitter.com/TacoMondo

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/TacoMondo

This was today's Menu

SpOt Burger

So the biggest spot (no pun intended) that food trucks seem to gather in this glorious city, is right on Drexel's campus at 33rd & Arch St. This is commonly referred to as the food truck mecca. I agree. I think I may have counted ten different trucks today, if not more. Anyway, today I bring you none other than SpOt Burger. I have to say what got me here today were the free fries I received for microwaving a grape and capturing it in a photograph. It's not as easy as it sounds. However, it wasn't my first visit and you know it won't be my last!

Today, in addition to my free fries, I tried the all new "SpOt Roll" You read right....ROLL!!! we're not talking hoagie roll, but like an egg roll. But better. Stuffed inside the crispy golden brown egg roll wrapper was perfectly cooked beef, cabbage, cheese, and pickles. I also believe there was bacon, as I tasted it every so often. I ordered two of these bad boys. And they were quite a bit larger than I expected! They were served with their signature spOt sauce as well. What they did was take their signature SpOt burger and wrap it in an egg roll and deep fried it. Very excellent meal. The only upset was I wasn't able to squeeze in a donut after eating all that. Oh well, that's for another day!

Birra & Bagels

So Tuseday night on my way home I got a craving for pizza. I usually hit Pizzeria Stella to cure this craving. However, I was practically home and I though about Birra. It's located on the corner of 12th & Morris (& Passyunk) in South Philly. One of their menu pizzas include the "Brooklyn Bagel"

This featured house cured salmon, chive spread, fresh dill, capers, tomato, and an everything crust. The salmon was thinly sliced, and it's saltiness was perfectly balanced by the chive spread, dill and tomato. The everything crust clearly featured poppy seed, onion and/or garlic, and a sprinkle of sea salt. 

It had to be one of the best tasting pizzas I have ever had!

I've eaten here before and have had some other menu items including their garlic & chili mussels and jerk chicken penne. Everything is exceptional!

Deli in Philly

Every once in a while, I manage to consume something other than pork!

Nestled in the center if Reading Terminal Market you can find Hershel's East Side Deli, a nice Jewish -style deli. Everything here is top quality and fresh. Offering pastrami, brisket, turkey, and corned beef, everything is sliced to order. Sandwiches or platters are available. Today I got the pastrami on rye with mustard. Pickle in the side with a Dr. Brown black cherry soda is of course my standard. The only thing I don't like is the cheese on the menu. Even though I'm not kosher it's just strange. At least they don't offer bacon or ham like other delis in the area. 

I needed a small sweet treat after that so I ended up at Kamal's who offer a wonderful assortment of baklava and baklava like desserts. I ordered one of my favorites, the kataifi. No picture, but imagine shredded wheat wrapped around some chopped walnuts covered in a delicious honey syrup. The shredded wheat comes in sheets just like the phyllo dough and is every bit as delicate. I also discovered that they also sell halva, a delicious rich sesame based dessert. Not as good from the shuk in Israel, but still pretty darn good. 

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

I think my favorite chocolate covered item has to be a chocolate covered pretzel. I have yet to buy one that i've truly enjoyed. It needs a good hard pretzel - WITH SALT!. Also, it's important to not cover it with so much crap that when you bite into it, everything breaks and goes flying. The chocolate is also important. I prefer dark, some prefer milk. It just has to be good chocolate. I now present to you my chocolate covered pretzels. Available for sale! $8 for a box of 16!

Popcorn, Pork, & Pickles

I ventured out today for a few random things and passed Jake's Sandwich Board. How could I not go in? I grabbed a 50/50 - half grilled bacon, half pork sandwich topped with a house made sriracha spread, all topped with some sharp provolone. I also had an order of fried pickles. In all my years, I've never noticed these on the menu. As Always, a good, solid meal.

I also stopped into Go Popcorn, half a block north on 12th street. They offer a variety of standard popcorn flavors - original, kettle, caramel, cheddar, along with a rotating list of specials advertised well in advance. Prices are reasonable a small, depending on flavor can start around $3 for a small bag. During thanksgiving, there was even a stuffing flavor! My favorite so far has been the pumpkin pie :)

Pork & Cupcakes!

So living in South Philly sometimes has its advantages. Today, this advantage happens to be the Mummers. And with the mummers, It brought food trucks!! Two trucks in particular that I had had a strong desire to try for quite some time. The first was the Guerrilla Ultima truck. I've seen it often, especially at the Dickinson Square Farmer's Market on Sunday mornings. Now, they have been setting up shop outside of the Second St. Brewhouse. Today's menu featured pork sandwiches and fries. I opted to get my sandwich with sharp wiz and hot peppers. (I apologize for the lack of picture). It was smaller than I thought it would be with its $10 price tag. But nonetheless, totally worth it in the end. The roll was nice and soft - not too crusty and held up well.

My other stop of the day was at Milk + Sugar. A truck full of delicious homemade sweets. I picked up two cupcakes today - a chocolate peanut butter and chocolate salted caramel. The cupcakes themselves had a nice, rich chocolatey taste and even had little chocolate chips inside! These airy fluffy cakes were what a cupcake should be! Both frostings were not that overly sweet frosting you get so often. They held up well in their little boxes until I got home to devour them. You can often find Milk + Sugar at 10th & South on Sundays. 

You can find both trucks on Twitter and Facebook. Check out their pages for locations and menus.

Milk + Sugar:

Facebook

Twitter

Guerilla Ultima:

Facebook

Twitter

A journey begins....

Welcome! As part of my New Year's resolution this year, I promised to visit more food trucks, and eat more from the same food trucks I already frequent. I promise to do that, and at the same time, I have also decided to blog about it. Mixed in with the food trucks will also be other Philly Phood Phinds, as well as my own creations and projects. Looking forward sharing this experience with you!