Photos of the Week: Mobile Food

For this week's Friday Food Photos, we bring you our latest finds on the mobile food scene...

For additional pictures, check out our Facebook album of Wyebrook Farm. It was a fun day trip out to Chester County for two awesome burgers and a day at the farm. Their cafe is closed for the season but keep it in mind for next spring or fall.

Big fan of the Turkey Meatball Bahm Mi from the Just Jackie's food truck this week. Could have used a few more honey ginger meatballs but the garlic, lemon herb mayo on top was a great combo with picked carrots, jalapenos, cabbage, cucumber and cilantro. Many food truck sandwiches end up being delicious gut bombs, but this was a lighter (and still delicious) alternative.

Local 215 and Chewy's at The Porch at 30th Street

Last up in our series on food trucks at The Porch at 30th Street... Local 215 and Chewy's.

Duck and pork buns from Local 215

Local 215 

This truck is all about locally-sourced seasonal foods. At right are a duck bun (braised duck with cucumber pickled radish, baby greens, cilantro and chili aoili rolled in housemade Laffa bread) and a pork belly bun (slow braised pork belly, chili aoili, and baby greens also in Laffa).

I paid $7 for the two, plus $3 for a huge side serving of polenta. The buns' contents were very good, but the bread was kinda dry. Polenta was pretty standard. Ignore the Subway wrapper, I promise it was somebody else's.

Local 215 will be back at The Porch on Fridays in August with other entrees like pork shoulder, lamb
sausage and roast turkey. Twitter: @Local215

Taco Truck Takeover at The Porch

Next up in our quick review of food trucks at The Porch at 30th Street: TACOS! For more on The Porch and why we think it's awesome, see our intro posts on What's to Eat at The Porch and two other trucks, MacMart and Jimmies Cupcakes.

Mesa Fresh

This new food cart serves well-stuffed burritos, ensaladas and tasty tacos. For $6.75, I got two yummy barbacoa pork soft tacos with pickled red onion, ancho sauce and salsa, plus a small handful of white corn chips and fresh salsa (the 75 cents was added for cheese). It was plenty of lunch for me and frankly one of the cheaper food truck options these days. Three tacos with chips are $8. Tacos come in a soft or hard shell, with the typical menu of options: chicken, al pastor, carne asada, pork, ground beef or veggie. No fish.

Friends gave the burritos - meat and veggie for $8 and $6 respectively - a thumbs up. The cart is an extension of the retail Mesa Fresh locations in Wayne and Springfield, PA, so maybe they have their act together pretty well from that in-store experience. Twitter: @MesaFresh

Love the sign - "This is what our salsa looked like this morning" At right, a Mesa Fresh soft pork taco with cheese.

Taco Mondo 

Less exciting, unfortunately, was the new taco truck from the Street Food Philly folks. On my first try, the fish tacos with some sort of slaw on top were over-fried and lacking in flavor. Friends didn't love their tacos either, so we haven't been back.  Anyone else had something good there? Street Food Philly, on the other hand, is great, serving a rotating menu of sandwiches, salads and of course parmesean truffle fries. It's often found on Drexel's campus at 33rd and Arch. Twitter: @TacoMondo

Not so delicious fish taco from Taco Mondo

Mesa Fresh and Taco Mondo are not on the Porch schedule for the rest of this summer, but follow them on Twitter for other locations. Like all the trucks are doing these days, I'm sure we'll see them at festivals and night markets galore. If you're near 30th Street, Penn or Drexel and have a taco craving, seek out the dependably delicious Cucina Zapata at 31st and Ludlow for a short rib or Cap'n Crunch fish taco.

Food Truck Reviews from The Porch: MacMart and Jimmies Cupcakes

Here comes our first post in this week's quick n' dirty series on the food trucks we've tried lately at The Porch at 30th Street and other locations. Why not start with two of the world's greatest foods? Mac n' cheese and cupcakes.

Photo from http://midtownlunch.com/philadelphia/

MacMart 

What's more fun than a mac n' cheese truck? She's gotten a lot of buzz since launching this winter, deservedly so. I loved the BBQ Mac with BBQ chicken chunks, smokey BBQ drizzle and cornbread crumble on top. Sorry, no photo because I was balancing too much stuff and couldn't risk spilling on a dry clean only work outfit. But trust me, it looks and tastes great.

What's to Eat at The Porch at 30th Street? Food Trucks of Course

There was a point last year when I felt like I knew all the food trucks in Philly. People asked us for opinions and we actually had one. Today? Not so much. There are so. many. food trucks on the streets of Philadelphia now, it's tough to keep up. I'm told we pale in comparison to other cities, but don't care. Philly has more than its fair share of great mobile food.

Porch photo borrowed from http://universitycity.org

I have the privilege of working close to The Porch at 30th Street so each Wednesday and Friday my co-workers and I can catch up on some of the new and old (by "old" I mean, like, a year) food trucks that visit for lunch.

The Porch, by the way, is one of the absolute best concepts brought to life in Philadelphia lately. Food, entertainment, nice places to sit, zumba classes, special events, gorgeous flowers... right next to 30th Street Station. Kudos to the University City District, with significant support from the William Penn Foundation, for pulling it off.