Nick The Foodie Boston

http://www.cloverfoodlab.com

http://momogoose.com/

Location: Cambridge, MA

The Foodie: Strongly Recommends

Four wheels, cheap meals, innovative nom noms. What’s not to like about food trucks?

Inspired by my recent night of mobile gluttony at the Boston vs. NYC food truck throw down, I’ve been ardently seeking truckin’ munchies.

This quest most recently brought me to a quiet side street in Kendall Square here: http://goo.gl/maps/tJ9tc

Lured by the sound of revving engines, the queues of smart kids, and the clank of portable food stuffs – I stumbled upon a veritable cornucopia of food trucks. Here’s the lunchtime lineup in Kendall:

• Momogoose (M-F, 10:30AM-4:30PM)
• Clover(M-F, 8AM-8PM)
• Your mandatory halal truck
• José’s Tacos

Let’s start with Momogoose. These guys have several trucks posted up around the Boston area and sling some mean Asian dishes served in four formats:

1. Twelve inch baguette
2. Rice bowl
3. Noodle bowl
4. Salad bowl

Just choose your delivery mechanism and add proteins like Korean BBQ, bulgogi, spicy pork, chicken teriyaki, and more.

I tucked into a humungo spicy pork baguette sandwich (basically a banh mi) and enjoyed every bite. Observe:

Asian Hoagie

Now, on to Clover. If you haven’t heard of these guys yet, then you are not truly up on your local food game. Clover runs a few brick ‘n mortar locales in Harvard Square and Inman and have a small army of trucks serving up their ever-famous chickpea fritter and a host of other rotating inventive vegetarian health-conscious specialties.

Though I love their chickpea fritter, I branched out and tried their seasonal Fall sandwich of roasted turnip, fresh spinach, apple spread, and sharp cheddar in a wheat pita. Washed down with an iced sweet hibiscus drink in the late-day sun – I could have melted into the loving arms of motherhood and apple pie. Observe:

McTurnip With Cheese

I scoped out José’s Tacos and the Halal truck and was less impressed both by the lines and the look of their vehicles, but think they’re probably worth a shot at some point. It will be hard to pull myself away from Clover and Momogoose though.

So if you find yourself in Kendall for work, for school, or for play on a weekday, be sure to hit up one of these excellent meals on wheels and support your local truckers.

Location: Cambridge, MA

The Foodie: Strongly Recommends

Bon Chon is a Korean word that means “original village.”

It was a humid Monday night when I discovered an underground village in Harvard Square – a village of smiles, love, and a religious devotion to one singular  culinary specialty – the chicken wing.

The friendly people of wing-land presented us with a menu that – though clearly highlighting their chosen delicacy – also included Korean classics like kimchi, bulgogi, and pickled daikon.

But being a tribe that specializes in cooking a wing-ed fly-less bird that occasionally lays eggs – Bon Chon village gets straight to the point and offers the casual visitor a few different quantities and price points of buk buk bawk:

Choose your Flavor:

• Soy Garlic
• Hot Sauce
• Mix of Soy and Hot

Choose your Portion:

• Small 10pcs 9.95
• Medium 20pcs 18.95
• Large 30pcs 26.95
• X-Large 40pcs 33.95

We ordered a mixed medium (generous portion that is almost a struggle for two hungry people to eat), along with sides of rice, kimchi and pickled daikon.

The garlic soy variety was nicely balanced, whereas the hot sauce definitely hits you with a hot but very flavorful kick. We cooled our tongues with the daikon and rice between every few hot wings.

We passed our initiation into the Bon Chon village tribe by mercilessly devouring all twenty (20) wings and leaving the bones stacked in our scrap bucket.

Curious about the Bon Chon people, I visited their website and found that the village can be found in NYC, NJ, Cali, and all over Southeast Asia and Pacifica…

…but I’m glad that I’ve got a village right near my home.

As they say in BonChonese – cluck, ca-cluck, ba-bawk. Chicken is good. Yum.