Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Another winner!

With a delicious sounding menu promised from Chef Driven today via Twitter, I took advantage of the nice day and made the extra walk down to Franklin Square to try out a couple main courses.  Two soups were available, including the one I reviewed previously, along with the lemongrass beef salad from last week's menu and a risotto.  Being unable to decide between the salad and the rice, I went with both.  (Totally unlike me, right??  Two meals?  Heh.)

Starting with the salad, it was a bright blend of bibb lettuce, cellophane noodles, fresh herbs, cucumbers, lime wedges, and scallions topped with 2 cooked-to-order skewers of steak and Jerry's "signature" carrot & beet spaghetti.  (I don't know if that's really his signature thing, but I've had three things and I've had pretty tendrils three times.)  It all paired perfectly with the light flavored, slightly tart dressing.  I particularly enjoyed the whole pieces of mint which added a clean pop of zing when I caught one on my fork, without being overpowering.  There are a few salads I'd be happy to have just about any time, and this can easily be added to that list.

When it came to the risotto, it looked like shrimp and grits (of the polenta variety) which I've often found to be on the sweet side of things.  Alas this was surely risotto and the sweetest things in the blend were the plentiful shrimp.  Other than that it was quite a savory dish with creamy and rich arborio, obviously a lot of saffron given the color, briny black olives, and lardons of bacon.  It was delicious, but I'm not sure I'd order it on a day much warmer than today (~65*?) as it might be a little heavy.  While I quite enjoyed it, I could stand for a tad less salt given the seasoning olives and bacon provide.


I (am hoping and) expect the menu to change pretty frequently, which will equate to a frequent customer in me.  So far I'm really impressed.  Hopefully the couple of glitches in occasional slowness will quickly improve as the team gets the hang of things.  4 honks.  A few constructive thoughts:

1. You need knives.
2. A lot of people who eat from trucks, myself included, often take their meals back to the office, so I'd highly recommend packaging which allows the food to be covered.  I know you were using saran wrap to cover things, but that can be cumbersome and definitely slowed things down at the window.  Early on Fojol had open containers with a box of aluminum foil available on the side if you wanted to cover it, but they learned and changed to use something that closes.
3. My friend and I agreed we would be happy to spend an extra couple of bucks for another skewer of beef -- maybe give an option...?

I really am very excited at the fresh new prospects in this truck, and Cirque Cuisine.  Go Jerry & Jessica!!