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Aromaku

23 Oct

indonesian food truck columbus

Cuisine: Indonesian

2200 E Dublin Granville Road (161). Next to Taco Nazo.
614.843.8803
Open daily 11am-8pm
Facebook

Street Eats and alt eats come together in this brand new truck focusing on Indonesian cuisine. Owned and operated by husband and wife team Hendri and Vivi Hasan, they view their operation as their first step on a path to opening a restaurant. From our point of view, it’s a good one.

indonesian food ohio

As of our first visit, Aromaku offers three distinct dishes. We started with the bakmi ayam – egg noodles with ground chicken. Indonesian food in Columbus is limited and this is a dish that we’ve not come across before. Served with some greens and bean shoots, the chicken is surprisingly flavorful with a noticeable amount of black-pepper. The noodles were nice and springy. Overall, a winner – especially at $6.95.

indonesian chicken and noodles

Next we tried the classic Indonesian dish rendang, a spicy beef stew made with coconut milk and strongly flavored with lime leaves. In many respects, Aromaku’s rendang sauce reminded us of a concentrated Thai tom kha - and that’s not a bad thing at all. Rendang is, by it’s nature, fairly rich, so the modest portion was just right and the salad (or achar) is a great accompaniment. Rendang is offered with either rice or a roti (shown below).

indonesian food in columbus ohio

A quick elaboration on roti – they’re a flat, pan cooked bread, made to order. Aromaku offers them either plain or with green onion. We liked both but would give the edge to the green onion. Although they share the name with the Indian (whole wheat) roti, they’re quite distinct – white flour-based, pan fried, and much flakier. And, they’re perfection when paired with the rendang.

Lastly we tried ayam goreng (fried chicken) which is marinated in a complex spice mixture and has a crispy but un-breaded skin. A typical order would be two leg and thighs or four wings. This pleasantly flavored fried chicken is served with achar, lightly pickled vegetables.

aromaku food truck

The drinks selection is extensive and includes several tropical juices (mango, guava), a couple of  ice teas and the more obscure soursop, white gourd and sugarcane juice. The white gourd (aka winter melon juice) was particularly interesting and unexpectedly tasted of nuts and caramel. The teh kotak was an enjoyable jasmine tea drink.

indonesian food truck drinks

Suffice it to say that, overall, we’re fans. Indonesian cuisine can, on occasion, be a bit challenging to the American palate, but the offerings from Aromaku struck us as being both faithful to their origins and well selected for wide ranging acceptance. Check ‘em out.

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Food Truck Festival September 28th

20 Sep

columbus commons food truck festival

If you enjoyed the food truck festival at Columbus Commons in July, you’ve got another opportunity to try new trucks and find your favorites. Free Admission, access to over 30 of central Ohio’s best food trucks and carts, and over 20 Arts & Crafts vendors. A portion of the proceeds benefit Music Loves Ohio and live music will be provided by Sound Playground and Travelers by Dawn. You can also buy beer and enjoy games for kids and families.

El Conquistador

7 Sep

dominican food truck columbus

Campus Pit Stop at Lane and Kenny.
Monday-Saturday 11am-3pm (may start opening earlier for breakfast when OSU starts).

El Conquistador is a Dominican owned truck, run by a lovely woman called Belkis, who is sometimes helped out by her kids at weekends. Her menu includes some Mexican dishes (tacos, burritos) and you’ll also find Dominican and some Puerto Rican dishes, especially at weekends when she often has specials.

dominican food in columbus

Here most popular dishes are the ‘plantain’, fish tacos, and the chimichanga. The plantain dish is similar to the Venezuelan dish patacon that you’ll find at El Arepazo. It’s a whole ripe plantain flattened and fried and topped with lettuce, pico de gallo, avocado, cilantro salsa, meat or fish of your choice and (optionally) cheese. It can also be served as a vegetarian dish. It’s a great dish with a mixture of sweet, spicy and savory flavors.

patacon columbus food truck

The addictive cilantro sauce (again, think El Arepazo) is available in mild and hot and is also served with empanadas. The empanadas are available in different flavors and are cooked to order.

latin street food columbus

One of our favorite specials at El Conquistador has been the pollo guisado (chicken stew) with moro (rice and beans) and tostones (savory plantain chips). You’ll also find carne guisado, which is a beef stew, and sometimes the Puerto Rican dish arroz con gandules (rice with pigeon peas). The cilantro sauce also goes well with the tostones.

dominican food in columbus ohio

One thing to note. Although ceviche is listed on the menu, we’ve never found it to be available. If there’s enough demand Belkis might consider bringing it back.

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Local Foods Week 2012

13 Aug

local street food week

Local Foods Week kicked off on Saturday. This annual celebration, organized by Local Matters, offers some great events for mobile food fans.

Tuesday through Thursday, Columbus Food Adventures offers Local Foods Week tours that includes a stop at That Food Truck as well as Brothers Drake Meadery and several restaurants who focus on local sourcing.

Dinin’ Hall have declared it ‘Local Street Food Week’ and are encouraging their resident trucks to include menu items with locally sourced content. On Tuesday and Friday they will be hosting Local Matters educators who will be offering advice on gardening and cooking, and will also have activities for kids aged 5-15.

Here are a few of the Local Foods Week special menu items at Dinin’ Hall:

•Sweet Carrot: Fried green tomatoes on corn cakes (Sweet Carrot will be at Dinin’ Hall on August 20)
•Earth’s Crust: Plain cheese pizza with garden tomato sauce, cheeses from Kokoborrego cheese company, and Ohio Farm direct’s grass-fed cheeses.  Also, pepperoni pizza with Bluescreek farm’s all-beef pepperoni. (Earth Crust will be at Dinin’ Hall on August 17)
•Freedom a la Cart: tomato and basil salad, gazpacho (Freedom will be at Dinin’ Hall on August 16)

columbus local foods

On Friday evening, August 17th, The Food Fort at ECDI will be celebrating the Grand Opening of its new commercial kitchen with Food Fort Fest from 5-9pm. Food Fort will be showing off their new incubator kitchen spaces in the Eddie Grayson Culinary Lab with tours and samples from some of their kitchen clients. Guests of the Food Fort Fest will have the opportunity to enjoy signature dishes from several of the resident mobile vendors including Pitabilities, Ajumama, OH! Burgers, Per Zoot, and Kenny’s Meat Wagon. There will be kids activities and a DJ. The Food Fort at ECDI is located at 1655 Old Leonard Avenue in Columbus.

We’d also like to give a shout out to some of the trucks that try to source locally as much as they can all of the time. We’re sure this isn’t a comprehensive list, so we welcome other trucks to add comments about their local sourcing cred.

The Cooplocal foods week columbus 2012
Sweet Carrot
Mya’s Fried chicken
That Food Truck
Freedom a la Cart
Earth’s Crust
Blu Olive
Swoop
Cheesey Truck

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Mya’s Fried Chicken.

19 Jul

fried chicken truck columbus


Website
Facebook
3166 N. High Street (corner of Pacemont and High St).
614.209.9004
Friday-Sunday 12:00-8:00pm

When Ray Ray’s moved down the street to Ace of Cups, their newly vacant spot seemed a great food truck location left truck-less. But as food trucks abhor a vacuum, the void has now been filled by Mya’s fried chicken – a new truck offering fried chicken and comfort food sides. It’s run by a former executive banquet chef who left his job to start the business, named after his daughter.

fried chicken food truck

We went all-in and ordered a whole bird with biscuits and all of the sides. The chicken is sourced from a local distributor, is antibiotic and hormone free, and is all Ohio proud. It was certainly good enough to satisfy a serious fried chicken craving, with our preference leaning towards the juicier dark meat. The breast was a bit on the dry side on our visit. The breading and skin were crunchy in places with a little chewiness and there was a nice touch of rosemary – overall the flavor was exceptional. We ordered ours plain and tried the vinegar sauce and herbed honey drizzle on the side.

columbus food trucks

The warm house-made biscuits were very popular with our tasting team. They also go well with the herbed honey.

Columbus food trucks

Of the sides, our favorite was the smashed potatoes with pan gravy. The gravy was rich and meaty and it disappeared first. We’ve heard really good reviews about the mac and cheese from friends, and it was highly recommended by the staff, but on the day we were there the sauce was broken, so although the flavor was good the texture was grainy.

comfort food truck columbus

The lemonade was nice and refreshing, neither too sweet nor too tart.

Clintonville food trucks

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Green Meanie

5 Jul

website
Facebook
Twitter @eatgreenmeanie
614.961.0516

Everything this truck makes has something green in it or on it, said their owner, Keith Smith, thus the name ‘Green Meanie’. He liked the name immediately, and everything else followed, including the hulk-like farmer logo.

That’s about as much of a conceptual handle as you’ll get from this truck – the menu is exceptionally eclectic, ranging from banh mi sandwiches to a spin on Native American fry bread to mac and cheese.

As of our last visit, the menu had four signature sandwiches and one rotating side.

green meanie food truck

Their signature ‘Green Meanie’ is probably the most unique sandwich offering. It consists of panko crusted chicken croquettes atop an adaptation of Native American fry bread topped with avocado, mixed greens, diced tomato, scallion, cilantro, signature green sauce and signature mean sauce. The chicken croquettes are rich and the filling, reminding us of a warm chicken salad (you may want to ask for some extra hot sauce to cut the richness). The fry bread was thinner and less greasy than we expected from previous encounters with it, and it works well as a wrap.

food trucks in Columbus Ohio

The ‘shiznite’ (their spelling) is a panko crusted dirty water hot dog on a New England roll with bacon and jalapeno cream cheese. It’s topped with avocado, onions, diced tomato, scallion, and cilantro and drizzled with ‘shiznite’ sauce. The one we had was a little heavy on the cream cheese but popular with our taste testers.

food truck banh mi sandwich

The ‘banh Meanie’ is probably our favorite Green Meanie sandwich, but it has a distinctly different flavor profile from a traditional banh mi. It’s made with hoisin and sriracha marinated pork tenderloin on French baguette with pickled carrots and onions, blanched beans, cucumbers, fresh basil, cilantro and creamy jalapeno aioli. The difference in flavor, relative to its namesake, comes mainly from the use of Italian basil, the aioli, and the green beans.

columbus street food

The vegetarian option is the Green Thumb which consists of a grilled portobello mushroom with fresh mozzarella served on flatbread and topped with avocado, mixed greens, diced tomato, scallion, cilantro, signature green sauce and signature mean sauce. We liked the flavors of this sandwich but found the portabello tough and hard to bite through.

Sides have included freshly cut french fries served with a scallion-olive oil aioli for dipping, macaroni and cheese topped with bacon and scallions and chilled tomato consomme.We’ve also seen them offering ‘puppy chow’ as a sweet treat.

You’ll notice that there are quite a few signature sauces. Keith’s wife works at Marzetti and has helped him to develop the sauces for the truck.

Prices for a sandwich range from $7-8. Green Meanie are at a lot of events and festivals. Follow them on Twitter or Facebook to see where they’ll be appearing next.

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Blu Olive

17 Jun

italian food truck columbus

Cuisine: Italian
614.313.2229
Twitter
Facebook

There are a lot of mom and pop food trucks out there but Blu Olive is a father-daughter operation run by Sarah and Steve Carmean.

blu olive food truck columbus

Sarah has just moved back from Cleveland after 15 years up north where she’s been working in esteemed kitchens at restaurants including The Flying Fig and Lucky’s Cafe. You’ll see the Cleveland influence in some of their ingredients such as fresh pasta from Ohio City Pasta. Steve’s background is in graphic design.

gourmet food trucks columbus

At the moment they are keeping the menu short and simple. Their aim is to cook flavorful Italian food and serve homemade ice cream. Expect to find a couple of changing pasta dishes, some seasonal specials, and the addition of ice coffee to the menu as well. So far we’ve been impressed with everything we’ve tried but the stand-out dish has been the beet and ricotta ravioli with poppy seed butter. The beet flavor is surprisingly mild given the vibrant color of the filling and there’s a lovely sweetness that almost reminded me of sweetcorn. Great flavor and perfectly cooked.

blu olive food truck

The meatballs with capellini were also satisfying (they are planning to switch the pasta to rigatoni) – nice tender pork and beef meatballs with a pleasant marinara and a-touch-softer-than al dente pasta. We also enjoyed the salads – it’s always nice to find healthy options at food trucks as well as behemoth burgers and fried food. The finely shaved fennel is a nice addition to the mesclun greens and the lemon and parsley dressing is citrusy without being acidic. The bean salad with roasted marinated tomatoes was refreshing and made for a nice side dish.

italian street food ohio

We are looking forward to trying more of Sarah’s homemade ice cream. On our first visit we tried this gorgeous little float with vanilla ice cream, blood orange pellegrino soda and some raspberries.

sarah carmean ice cream

You can find Blu Olive this Monday at the Columbus Museum of Art at lunchtime and at St James Tavern in the evening. For future locations, keep an eye on their twitter or facebook updates. This is one of our favorite new trucks of 2012 and we encourage you to check them out.

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OH Burgers

11 Jun

street food in ohio

Cuisine: Burgers
website
Facebook
@OH_Burgers
614.270.4139

OH Burgers is the third gourmet burger trucks to pop up this summer. Each of them has a different take on the genre, and the direction that OH Burgers has gone is with the slider or mini burger.

burger trucks columbus

The truck is run by Brian Thornton, helped out by his teacher wife during her summer vacation. Brian has aspired to have his own restaurant since high school, and like many entrepreneurs has found that food trucks are a more cost effective way to get things going. He’s been working on the concept since he saw the success of the food truck festival at Columbus Commons last summer. His culinary school training, restaurant experience and background in operations management give him a lot of good skills for the business.

Brian chose burgers because, as well as being popular, they’re versatile. He likes that you can play around with a variety of toppings. Why mini burgers? Because he wants you to try more than one of his burgers and they’re faster to cook which means he can keep the line moving. Each burger is 2oz so two equates to a quarter pounder.

Brian is sourcing as much locally as he can. His beef comes from Rife’s Market in Grandview (which procures it from a farm in Zanesville) and is freshly ground on the truck. His bread comes from The French Loaf in Grandview. Burgers are $3 each or two for $5.

As of writing, the menu includes Mexican, Greek and Italian plays on the burger as well as a veggie burger that was getting pretty good reviews from customers during our visit. Brian says that he has lots more ideas for burger toppings and will use seasonal ingredients this summer.

The smell of these little guys cooking is hard to resist. We tried the Italian and the classic OH Burger mini. The buns are nice and soft and patties have good flavor and texture. The Little Italy mini has mozzarella, bruschetta (fresh chopped tomato) and balsamic reduction and was our favorite of the two. We also heard praise for the Cinco de Mayo burger.

OH burgers food truck

OH Burgers also serve sweet potato chips made from scratch on the truck. A little greasy but thin and crunchy.

food trucks in columbus ohio

You can find OH Burgers once a week at Dinin’ Hall in June and follow them on facebook or twitter for their up-to-date locations.

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Sweet Carrot Casual Cuisine

6 Jun

food truck catering columbus

Cuisine: BBQ/Locavore
Website
Facebook
@SweetCarrotFT

Sweet Carrot is a bit unusual in the ‘Food Cart 2.0′ world, in that they are focusing primarily on festivals and catering private events. Perhaps that’s not too surprising because Sweet Carrot is a division of the Two Caterers contemporary cuisine catering company (The name is actually an anagram of Two Caterers). With the tagline ‘More than just a food truck, Sweet Carrot is a mobile kitchen’, it was conceived in response to the many prospective customers who looking for lower cost, high quality catering options.

Sweet Carrot has a wide range of menu options for private catering events, including house smoked BBQ meats (pork, brisket, chicken, turkey), burgers, brats, pasta dishes, and desserts. Dishes offered at festivals will vary. For the Arts Festival this weekend they offered ‘fried arts’ – which were deep fried cornmeal dusted artichoke hearts with lemon and parmesan and served with chipotle aioli. The ‘fried arts’ were available on a corncake or served in a boat. Other offerings were chicken meatballs (on a corncake or alone) and carrot cake cake pops.

Sweet Carrot Food Truck

We tried the corn cake with house smoked pulled pork, coleslaw, BBQ sauce and corn salsa ($6). It’s a play on classic BBQ flavors and sides and the combination works well as you would expect. The coleslaw and corn salsa are refreshing on a warm day and you can add an additional side of each for 50c. It’s definitely a step up from deep fried fair food.

sweet carrot food truck

We bumped into one of our Street Eats readers who had tried the food on Friday and thought it was so good that he came back on Sunday for more. That’s a pretty good endorsement.

Here are some of the upcoming events that you will be able to find the Sweet Carrot truck at this summer.

food truck events columbus 2012

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Food Truck Pods

4 Jun

No doubt you’ve noticed that the street food scene has exploded in Columbus this year. There are new trucks appearing every week and lots of festivals this summer are prominently featuring food trucks. At some of these festivals they’re the main attraction.

There’s another new development on the food truck scene – the rise of food truck ‘pods’. Pioneered by cities like Portland and Austin, and long popular on the west coast, this is the first year that they have been appearing in Columbus.

There doesn’t seem to be any official definition of a ‘pod’, but here’s our take on it: A pod is a grouping of food trucks assembled at an established location (usually a parking lot) on a semi-permanent or regular basis. A pod may range from 2-20 trucks, though some suggest 3 as a minimum. There is often some seating or dining area.

Here’s our round up of the food truck pods (clusters) in Columbus:

food truck pod columbus

Dinin’ Hall
Website @dininhall
Located at the 400 W Rich St., Dinin’ Hall (above) is far and away the most accommodating of the food truck pods and boasts the amenities such as an indoor seating area for up to 60 people, central payment system, and other products to purchase. There are usually 2 or 3 trucks/carts there each weekday at lunchtime. A calendar of participating trucks and their menus are available on their website.

food truck pods in columbus ohio

Campus Pitt Stop
the Pitt Stop is located at the Intersection of Lane Avenue and Kenny Road in a repurposed gas station site, and currently features 3 trucks.  Based upon conversations with the property owner, we’re expecting this pod to grow. Trucks commonly found here include: El Conquistador, Sophie’s Gourmet Pierogi and The Pickled Swine. There’s no seating area (yet), but there is some cover from the elements.

hal and als's bar food trucks

Hal & Al’s – Monthly Food Truck Hop
Facebook  @foodtruckhop
This is a monthly food truck event that takes place at Hal & Al’s bar at 1289 Parsons Ave. The next one is July 1st. They’ve been hosting around 6 trucks. Seating (and beer) is available inside the bar and there is a large grassy area where you can sit outside. In the future they plan to fence in the area so that they can serve beer outside.

food trucks at columbus commons

Columbus Commons
Information  @columbuscommons
AKA the ‘Food Truck Food Court’, occurring 11am-2pm every Thursday during the summer (until September 27th). You can expect to find 6-8 trucks there. There is outdoor seating and you can also enjoy corn hole, ping pong and bocce ball. There will also be food trucks at the commons for the Downtown LIVE events some Thursday evenings and for the June 13th Food Truck Festival.

Zauber Brewery
@zbrewery Facebook
A new microbrewery, Zauber Brewing Company is hosting food trucks at its location at 1300 Norton Ave near Grandview. Usually on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays you can find at least one food truck (and often two) set up for lunch and dinner. Check twitter and facebook for updates. This is a small pod and we expect to see them grow.

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