Muiishi Makirritos - Pork Belly Don Juan

Truck: Muiishi Makirritos
Location: Karbach Brewing Company, 2032 Karbach Street
Date: June 27, 2014
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MuiishiTruck

Pork Belly Don Juan - $8

A large rice bowl with 24 hour Sous-vide cooked pork belly, pickled cucumbers, takuan, kimchi, fried shiitaki and oyster mushrooms topped with a 62 degree egg. There is a lot of high tech going on here. Sous-vide is done by vacuum sealing the pork belly in plastic and cooking at a low temperature for a very long time. The idea is the food is cooked perfectly evenly through. I can tell you in this case it comes out butter tender, moist, like bacon BBQ. Takuan is a pickle you don't see very often made from dried then weighted daikon radish. It is reputed to be very pungent but I found this to be very mild and a nice texture in the rice bowl. The mushrooms are deep fried and nicely crunchy and earthy. The final piece of the puzzle is the 62 degree egg. a 63 degree egg is cooked in an immersion cooker slowly at a very precise temperature. The result is you get a silky orb of creamy white with a center of liquid egg yolk. Here it is the sauce for the bowl. This is food for the foodie and its done with skill and works. Humble food elevated. Synopsis: High tech bacon and eggs over rice, you just can't go wrong.

The Toasted - Signature Bolillo

Truck: The Toasted
Location: Houston Food Park, 1504 St. Emanuel
Date: July 27, 2014
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheToastedHTX

Signature Bolillo - $8.50

The Signature Bolillo came with the choice of three meats, herb marinated chicken, smoked sausage, and savory skirt steak. I got the skirt steak. The bolillo roll was just about as good as bread gets, crunchy and flaky on the outside, light as a cloud on the inside. The skirt steak was cut in pieces and still a little chewy like skirt steak should be. Skirt steak is a tougher cut, you don't expect it to be buttery filet mignon.  Lettuce, cilantro, and two different creamy mayonnaise. This is proof you just don't have to get crazy with ingredients to be successful. Synopsis: This simple sandwich is simply delicious.

Fried Plantains

The sandwich comes with a side, I chose fried plantains. Plantains are the starchy cousin of the banana and can't be eaten raw. The usual preparation is fried. One of my favorites. I was a little apprehensive when I saw how light colored they were. Two bites in and I decided I couldn't finish them. They should be sweet and heavily caramelized. They should be much darker than these. These were bland and well doughy. (See my review of Binghiman Jerk for an example of great plantains). Synopsis: I would just pick another side.

The Modular Unit - Korean Chicken N Waffles

Truck: The Modular Unit
Location: Houston Food Park, 1504 St. Emanuel
Date June 20, 2014
Twitter: https://twitter.com/modularunit

Korean Chicken N Waffles - $10

Tempera dried chicken pieces and waffle fries liberally sauced with honey Gochujang sauce. This is bar food bar none. Gochujang is a fermented Korean sauce widely used a condiment and flavoring in Korean cooking. Its made with red chili paste, rice, and soybeans. In this version its not very hot and the honey makes it very sweet. I thought it was a little to sweet, but I also couldn't stop eating it. I can see having a nice IPA and eating this in bar. Its a hearty dish too. Synopsis: make me stop eating this please!

Buttz - Texas Butt

Truck: Buttz
Location: Houston Food Park, 1504 St. Emanuel
Date: June 20, 2014
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Buttzfoodtruck

Always a good day when I get to try a new truck. It's always dicey when you catch a truck on its very first service but the guys at Buttz seem to be pros and their service was spot on.

Texas Butt - $8.50

Buttz is practically an all pulled pork truck (not a thing wrong with that!). I decided I'm just going to have to work my way through the menu in order. So the Texas Butt is pulled pork, Texas style BBQ sauce, yellow mustard, pickles, onions, and artisan bread. In this case the artisan bread was a brioche bun. Not a bad choice, its a firmer bread that hold up well under pulled pork. The pork is about as tender as you can make it and not have it turn into gravy. A good sweet BBQ sauce permeates the meat. I'm a fan of pickles and onions on my BBQ sandwiches and they are perfect here. The mustard helps cut sweetness of the sauce. Synopsis: This butt is no joke!

Pho-jita Fusion - Shrimp Glass Noodles

Truck: Pho-jita Fusion
Location: Houston Food Park, 1504 St. Emanuel
Date: June 13, 2014
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Phojita1

Shrimp Glass Noodles - $12

Pho-jita is one of my favorite trucks, everything I've ever had from them is good. I had to try the special, especially since I've been on a diet that doesn't allow noodles and this was my day to ignore the diet. You get a generous serving of cellophane noodles with shrimp, peanuts, Chinese celery, green onions and grape tomatoes. The noodles were done perfectly to my taste, still a bit firm. The shrimp were cooked perfectly, not over done like shrimp so often are. The tails are still on though so they are kinda finger food if you want to get every bit out like I do. Chinese celery is a Asian variety of celery I think is more flavorful than what we are used to. It's a good contrast and crunch in this dish. the peanuts were toasted pretty dark and might be too bitter from some but I'm that guy who eats the burnt popcorn kernels so it works for me. The grape tomatoes were left mostly whole and were a little hard to eat with food service plastic fork. I asked for mine to be medium heat level and I guess my definition of medium and theirs were very different, it lit me up pretty good, but I'm guessing the endorphins it released kept me from killing someone at work that afternoon so its all good.  Synopsis: Come on baby light my fire with this noodles.

Third Coast - The Jerk

Truck: Third Coast
Location: Houston Food Park, 1504 St. Emanuel
Date: June 6, 2014
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThirdCoastHTX

The Jerk - $9.50

A fusion sandwich on an Italian roll. Load it down with plenty of boneless Jamaican style Jerk Chicken. Jerk Chicken is traditionally grilled over a fire and marinated with a blazing but addicting blend of spices. This chicken is right there in heat levels you expect, but topping it with a tropical slaw that includes pineapple, mandarin, and cilantro calms things down and leaves you with just a pleasant warm feeling. Ya Mon, this is good!