Wow, it was so much fun just writing and eating and writing and eating, that I'm going to do it again! I ate such good food at my last food truck, that I just had to go find more, and lo and behold, a mini food truck fest right around my neighborhood.
Eat Fig and York, a mini food truck festival in Highland Park, usually showcases about 3-4 different food trucks each week. This week I had the pleasure of trying out different things from the
Mandoline Grill,
India Jones Chow Truck and
Peaches' Smokehouse. I went with a group of friends (shoutout to Katherine, Liz and Evan), and got to share/try different things!
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| Mandoline Grill |
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| Peaches' Smokehouse Truck |
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| India Jones Chow Truck |
I ordered a grilled pork Bánh mì from the Mandoline Grill and a Fried Chicken Sandwich with Waffle Fries from Peaches' Smokehouse. I'll talk about the Bánh mì and then talk about the Fried Chicken Sandwich afterwards.
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| Bánh mì from Mandoline Grill |
When it comes to Vietnamese sandwiches, Bánh mì, outside of Vietnam, it's hard to find really good ones.
Lee's Sandwich is good, but it's hard to find. I've been to Vietnam and I've come to realize that it takes a miracle to find truly authentic ones, but if I lower my standards, they're not bad. Thus I ordered one from Mandoline Grill, and it was great. The french baguette was quite long and skinny, but there was no skimping of the toppings. It was a very full sandwich. All of the requisite flavors were present, with the grilled pork, the cilantro, the tangy pickled vegetables and the heat of the jalapenos. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and my friends did too. It was big enough for us to share without being super full, and it was nicely filled such that everyone had a bite of everything. Like I said, it's hard to find extraordinary. super authentic Bánh mì, but even the ones I find here, are just as great.
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| Fried Chicken Sandwich & Waffle Fries |
Now I'm not someone who is that familiar with southern cuisine, and my preconceived notions of them are: it's mostly fried, BBQ, great seafood. That being said, I had one of the best Fried Chicken Sandwiches ever at Peaches' Smokehouse. I cannot praise it high enough. It was a substantial piece of chicken, like a boneless thigh I think. Very juicy dark meat, not dry at all and the crunch was just superb. Great flavors all around, from the chicken, to the garlic aioli that was in the sandwich. It also came with house-cured pickles that acted as a great palate cleanser. If there was one thing I would complain, is that it's a bit pricey. Other than that, I truly enjoyed that sandwich. Honestly, this sandwich is my guilty pleasure. One that I can only enjoy maybe once a week or less than that. The waffle fries, were a bit lackluster. Wasn't that crispy (maybe because it was cold outside), but also didn't get as much as I would've thought, also based on the price. However, I couldn't eat much because I had to try some of the other things that my friends purchased.
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| Butter Chicken with Rice from India Jones |
My friends ordered things from India Jones, which I had the opportunity to try. They first had a garlic naan, which was super good. It was what I expected a naan to be, like from an actual restaurant. Often times, I'm skeptical of naan outside of a restaurant, but this was just amazing. It was amazingly garlicky, almost like a garlic flatbread, with such bold flavors. We destroyed the naan, even before we received our curry. It was that good. They also ordered a combo, which came with a curry, butter chicken, and two Indian tacos. I unfortunately, only had one bite of the butter chicken. I wish I had more, but from what I can remember, it was good. The chicken was done quite well, wasn't too dry. The curry was sweet, but also had a subtle kick to it, much like what I would expect from a butter chicken. If I see them again, I'll definitely have more than just one bite next time. The other part, was the taco chaat. They were two blue hard shell corn tacos, one with chicken and one with lamb. It was also filled with some spicy slaw, and topped with a really nice sauce and crispy vermicelli. The chicken had a nice spicy kick too it, and the texture was so good with the crunch of the shell and the vermicelli. The chicken was also quite well done, with it not being dry and being quite flavorful. The lamb was a little bit chewy, but had great flavor and also had a nice kick. Both of them were great examples of the fusion cuisine.
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| Chicken Taco Chaat from India Jones (not my hand) |
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed my experience at Eat Fig and York. The parking situation was super convenient and there weren't a lot of people there, so there were hardly any lines. I wished there was some seating arrangements, like benches or tables and chairs, but my friends and I were content with just sitting on the lot and enjoying our bounty. I'll definitely come by next week to try out some new trucks and even revisit some old ones.
