Le Tigre truck

I've been a bit slow on the food truck tracking and noshing recently. One reason is that I no longer live in the Downtown core where most of them are situated. We're on a mission to remedy this however and three new carts will appear on here soon, the first of which is this one: Le Tigre.

I've hunted down this truck for a while. Sometimes it's in weird places to cater for college and large business crowds, far away from bus and skytrain routes. I've seen it at farmers' markets with line ups far too long for Neil to handle, so until now I've only been able to look at the menu on line and dream. Beet fries, popcorn chicken, Brussels sprouts, (yes, you heard correctly), kick ass' rice and more. Sounded intriguing.

We found it within a reasonable little jaunt from our meeting point and finally tried it. I ordered the BBQ pulled pork steamed buns first and then moved on to the popcorn chicken. 

The buns were delicious in themselves, the pork sweet and spicy in that typical way. The bun was light, fluffy and pleasantly chewy with crunchy, refreshing slaw to contrast, but, the amount of oil pooling around at the bottom of the tray saturated the bottom of the buns also and rendered these an absolute pain to eat. If you're OK with greasy fingers and copious napkin wastage then you'd have no problem, but I'm not. I imagine the oil came from the pork itself, a shame as the flavours were really there. But, as I mentioned in the post for this truck, the best pulled pork is moist but not greasy at all. (Probably why this truck is still very popular). So, onwards. Would the popcorn chicken be better?

Unfortunately, no. Again, the first few were utterly delicious, especially dipped into their interesting and complex 7 spice mayo, but really, after only a few, Neil admitted defeat and actually had to eat something a little tangy at work to counteract the oil and settle his stomach. (Before we even began eating them, Neil commented I should take them home and cook them a bit more, thinking they were undercooked. They were very juicy and succulent, but incredibly oily). So, I was disappointed. Not with the taste, which was there, but the unpleasant heaviness and slight nausea I also felt that afternoon, simply because of too much oil.

This cart remains popular however, very popular and while we were there one of Neil's friends rolled by to pick up the beet fries and kick ass rice. I took a photo but didn't try them, (he didn't offer). The beet fries are apparently legendary, coated in plum powder, deep fried and served with that same 7 spice mayo. (Pictured at top of post)

I'd go again, if only to try the beet fries, kick ass rice and Brussels sprouts. Who knows, maybe they were just a little heavy handed with the oil that day.

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