Del-icious!: Food carts come to town part II

Roaming Dragon
Location: Burrard Street & Robson Street
Hours: 11 - 3pm, Monday - Friday

This cart has been established for some time. More like a huge RV with many workers, a website listed on the side and a menu which has obviously been researched, created and perfected many times over, it has a very professional look. The menu choices seemed to hail from all over Asia. Chicken Karage from Japan, Chinese pork belly in steamed buns, Edamame and Udon noodle salad, Fried rice balls, Asian duck confit salad and Korean short-rib tacos. The menu and demonstration dishes looked very appetizing and excitingly diverse. We decided to try the Asian duck confit salad and Korean short rib tacos.

After an agonizingly long walk to find somewhere to sit with the food tantalizing in a brown paper bag, we eventually sat down to eat our lunch.

The tacos were devoured first, in literally two bites. The portion was quite small, and would by no means satisfy a large hunger. I could taste the meat, nicely charred and savoury and a little of the sweet chili sauce, but the predominant taste was a sort of sesame/soy sauce. Neil described it as: "That same taste you use sometimes that I don't like". I did enjoy the taco, but it didn't blow me away, it had a sort of mass-produced quality to it, plus it dripped all over my hand, which I don't like. (When Nigel Slater evocatively describes pear juices dribbling down your chin and buttery, garlic sauce dripping down your arms, I just think 'yuck - get me a wet-wipe'). Probably they're meant to be eaten in one mouthful, they're small enough.

The duck confit salad was better. It contained lots of different herbs like cilantro, mint and shiso, so I'm thinking it had more of a Vietnamese slant, especially as we could taste vinegar, sugar and chili. The duck was really tasty, Neil at first commenting that it was a little salty, but later he concluded that this was OK as the cubes of watermelon and pineapple nicely balanced the salt. I really enjoyed the salad and would like to try some of the other menu items. I will be going back soon.