If you’ve ever walked by the College of Communications during your weekday, either getting to class or just hanging out with friends, you’ll notice that there’s sometimes a local food truck there serving the Boston public a variety of worldly cuisine. The trucks come from the surrounding areas, everywhere from Cambridge to Quincy, and are also super varied in the foods that they happen to serve. There have been countless sweet, dessert food trucks parked outside of COM, but also ones that might satisfy your lunch craving of the day. Here’s your guide to the ones I’ve seen, and a selection of the food they have to sell.
- Teri-Yummy
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What I ordered: Chicken Teriyaki bowl with white rice, steamed vegetables, a fried egg, and an added sriracha sauce stripe on top.
Review: The teriyaki chicken, despite the name of the food truck, was not the best I’ve ever had. It was a bit stringy, mismatched, and some of the pieces were chewier than I would have liked for a $9 – $10 meal. The protein wasn’t absolutely awful, and, granted, it’s a food truck; however, I would’ve liked the quality of that to be a little better. The fried egg on top, on the other hand, was a great addition; it was perfectly crispy on the outside while still maintaining a runny yolk in the middle. The sriracha sauce also paired very nicely with the taste of the egg, making it ever so slightly spicy without overpowering it. The rice and vegetables I also thought were good quality. Both had been nicely warmed by the chicken and egg sitting on top. In addition, the rice and vegetables received some of the teriyaki sauce and the egg yolk from above which gave a great, subtle addition of flavor that mixed in well.
One last point of note for this food truck is that there were no knives in their utensil jar, so I was eating my meal with a fork. While that doesn’t seem like an issue for essentially a chicken and rice bowl, it created a problem with the fried egg on top (that I found particularly hard to eat with neither a utensil to cut it with nor a solid surface to cut it on).
I probably won’t choose to buy this street food again however, if it ever happens I would instead order the vegetarian option of just a rice bowl with a “vegetable medley” due to the quality of the chicken.
- Zinneken’s Waffles
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What I ordered: a simple Belgian waffle with melted chocolate (or you can get Nutella for the same price).
Review: An amazing waffle for the price. The dough wasn’t too overworked so it was fairly light and fluffy. Not like a donut dough, but it didn’t feel heavy to eat or too crispy to break through with flimsy utensils. The chocolate was a great addition to the waffle. Nutella can sometimes give a little bit of a heavy, sticky feeling to the pastry however, the chocolate remained quite fluid the whole time so it never created a too-much-chocolate-for-the-waffle situation. The chocolate had a nice rich flavor to it as well, making it a nice change from the sweet waffle and little bit of powdered sugar. Overall, I was incredibly happy with the waffle and chocolate. It’s an easy thing to make (so I wasn’t expecting really amazing things however, I was truly impressed.)
Another important aspect of the food truck is timing. The fast-food nature of the trucks gives the impression that the food is intended to be cooked and delivered in a matter of minutes. That it was. Although it’s only a waffle, this waffle was finished quickly while still maintaining the authentic flavor of a real waffle with real chocolate.
- The Dining Car
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What I ordered: Fancy Fries (a special that doesn’t come up on their online menu).
Review: For the price compared to the amount of fries actually received, I would consider these a little bit on the pricey side. However, it’s obvious that the fries were freshly cooked due to the skins still on them and ever so slightly greasy nature to them (having just come out of the deep fryer).
The sauce to go with the fries was also delicious. It was a garlic pesto with some added herbs that ended up giving the fries a lot of nice, fresh flavor that took away from how greasy they may have been. Additionally, it was a generous amount of sauce for the about $4 price of the fries. The stick to eat the fries added on the side was a great addition, helping me eat the fries without being too messy and having to pick them up around the sauce. Therefore, I could eat them on my way to class instead of having to stop and come back after class.
The only negative I would consider is the size of the actual paper bowl. For the size of the fries, it was a little small and ended up bending a little bit due to the heat of the fries, grease, and sauce. Despite this, the actual food from the food truck (despite them not specializing in fries) was very good.
As far as food truck food and production of such food went, it was ever so slightly hit and miss from the ones that I tasted however, it was an exciting experience to be able to say I’ve taste-tested all three of these. Needless to say, the foods I tried are only one item on each individual, diverse menu for each truck.
These food trucks may do certain dishes, especially the ones they specialize in, better than others. Furthermore, everyone has different tastes so my word isn’t the absolute truth for trying these food trucks, just my humble opinion.
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