Bao Chicken Wow Wow?

Food truck fun (or is it Food Druck fun?) continues for me as I chose to stalk another truck. Today I went to Chairman Bao (@charimantruck on Twitter). In looking at the menu I was stoked to try both a baked and a steamed bun but when I got there no baked buns were available.

I ordered 2 buns both steamed. Pork belly was one. Really good, tender, well cooked. Delicious. Red sesame chicken for the second. Supposedly spicy but not incredibly. The pork belly bun was certainly the star of the 2.

This brings me to a larger/better food truck issue. They are using twitter pretty well (certainly some better than others). Here are some points that frustrate me and think they could improve on:

1. publish up to date menus - either tweet or post on their web pages if common items are not available
2. be more descriptive on where you are going to be - posting a street address with no city isn't incredibly useful for those of us not in SF (aka food stalkers)
3. use the new square app so I don't have to lug cash with me (minor nit)

The Chairman was good but not great and falls to a function of not having what I wanted (guess part of that is my fault for having expectations).

3 Weeks of Food Trucks - The First Rankings

So I have been obsessing about trucks and rather than long winded reviews of each of them here is a listing ranked that will change after I try them again (and again) and add other trucks. How on earth have I eaten at 11 trucks in 3 weeks? Usually I follow and identify which ones I am interested in by using a twitter list feed that I created that now has about 45 different bay area trucks. I will be going to Edgewood Eats this upcoming Monday to try a few more. So stay tuned.

1. @3sumeats - This is a truck run by a former Top Chef contestant. I had some philly cheesesteak potstickers and possibly the best BLT I have ever eaten (rosemary encrusted bacon). Really, REALLY good stuff.
2. @Brassknucklesf - Had a sandwich that was pork and ham served with a rosemary waffle (named Notorious P.I.G.). Kitchy names and a really bad ass sandwich.
3. @eatmobowl - Ate from this truck 2x in 1 day if that says something. Had a 5 spice pulled pork bowl and then a tofu (umami) bowl. Both with fried eggs on top. Simple and perfect!
4. @BttrScotchOnGo - Ventured over to this truck to pick up desserts for the house. Easily the best butterscotch pudding I have EVER eaten. Also had a butterscotch brownie (more like a blondie) which was great and then a rice krispy treat that was a bit unspectacular. They also have salads and sandwiches but yet to try them.
5. @TheRibWhip - Ventured up to SF for lunch to try this place out. Unfortunately I caught them on a day where they had no brisket or pulled pork. Still a GREAT burger. They will more than likely slide up the list once I try some actual bbq.
6. @OaxacanKitchen - Ate me some great tacos that were some of the best taco truck tacos I could imagine (and most know I love me some taco trucks). This truck took the place of a restaurant that they shuttered to focus on catering and the mobile food biz.
7. @LIBAfalafel - Really good falafel and a crazy condiment bar.
8. @CurryUpNow - Liked it a lot just nothing spectacular. Easily a recommend but just Indian food wrapped in some naan. The plates look yummy though.
9. @SFWHISK - So I just had a dessert from them and it was really good strawberry pana cotta. Some yummy looking sandwiches and salads on the menu.
10. @treatbot - This is an ice cream AND karaoke truck!?!?!?!? The ice cream was good not great they were out of cones so I got a sandwich on a cookie and the cookie was a bit unspectacular.
11. @MoGoBBQ - got 2 things from them 1 really good and one meh but really yummy short rib sliders.

MoGo BBQ Truck

The first of I imagine many review I will write is the first truck I tried recently: MoGo BBQ (@MoGoBBQ on twitter). This is a truck that describes itself as gourmet Korean BBQ. I think that gourmet might be a stretch but one of the two things I ate were damned good (the other was just good).

On their menu there are a number of tacos, quesadillas, and other goodies all with a Korean flair. I chose to order the sliders (short ribs, spam, cabbage slaw on hawaiian rolls) and the dirty dog (hot dog wrapped in bacon, covered in kimchi and other stuff).

The sliders were great, just really tasty. Wonderfully cooked short ribs. The spam wasn't something I expected or would have otherwise ordered but I was really pleased. All of it was set on the sweet rolls and really a tasty treat for $6. Not sure if it alone would have filled me up for lunch but certainly with a small side it would have been an ideal and tasty lunch.

The dog was less thrilling. The bacon wasn't cooked fully which took away from the overall quality of the dog. It was a bit of a mess but with a name like Dirty Dog what should I have expected. I think that it was a bit of mishmosh of flavors but with better cooked bacon I would have enjoyed it a ton more.

Overall MoGo is a really good truck, quick turn around for the food. Great prices. One other knock was there was a limited drink selection the day I went.

My official review (out of 5) would be 3.5 stars (or should I use tires as my unit of measure?).

My New Obsession

So if you have been following my Twitter or Facebook feed you will note that I have a new obsession. That obsession has a name and that name is Multi-ethnic Food Trucks! I have been on the periphery of this scene for years. 2 years ago I had an amazing taco truck serve food for my 40th birthday party at my house. In the process of researching that I read a number of articles about the high end food truck scene and got intrigued. I know that I am about a year or so late to the pool but I am diving in head first. In the past 5 days I have now eaten at 4 different trucks and will review them 1x1. I will begin to take photos of the food I eat to log it.

Something that helps a ton is Twitter. The trucks post their locations each morning and I can plan my attack if it is a food truck kinda day. I now am following about 31 trucks on this list page : http://twitter.com/#!/mposki/food-trucks. I am beginning to expand my list to SF and SJ trucks as well as with all the tech companies around here they sometimes show up and I want to know when they are around.

Another nerdy tool to find some trucks is TruxMap which serves to show locations of a few of the trucks for that day. Nerdy tools help find interesting food.

Next blog post: Review of MoGo BBQ Food Truck.