Shuka Truck Offers Something New to The Truck World
The Shuka Truck has been floating around the streets for a few months now, but has recently become a regular fixture among the food truck gatherings in Midtown.
They are certainly offering something new from a truck, which is always exciting. Shakshuka is a Middle Eastern dish (often associated with Israel) that is basically eggs cooked with tomatoes, peppers, onions, and spices. What could be bad?
The Shuka Truck has taken the traditional recipe and altered it for food truck fare. Traditional platters are available, but at $12, they are above the ML price range. More for us are the sandwiches which all cap out at $10. I’m surprised they’re not also doing shakshuka tacos.
Another twist here is that they offer the eggs in a few different less-traditional versions. In addition to the traditional red, they also do a green, white, and a humshuka (with hummus and garlic confit).
The first time I came by I was intrigued by the white sandwich. It was an incredibly messy sandwich with smoked eggplant, mushrooms, and blue cheese. I found it pretty bland. Granted, it was rich and filling but all I tasted was butter. It needed something to break up the richness and make the other ingredients stand out. The blue cheese overwhelmed the eggplant and mushrooms. Perhaps more herbs would have made the whole thing pop.
On my second visit, I tried out the Green sandwich. The combination of asparagus, spinach, and zucchini gave the sandwich a nice sweet earthiness and it had more going on with pickled onions and tangy goat cheese. The flavors really popped here. And the bread was different. It had seeds on it and while it was less fluffy, it too had more flavor.
But even with the green sandwich, I felt like they could have spared some more ingredients for $10. Both sandwiches were rich and messy, but they were a little thin.
The truth is these are just glorified egg sandwiches. It’s great to try a new, traditional dish and there are definitely some worthwhile flavors here. Maybe a $12 splurge for the platter would be more satisfying, but a $10 egg sandwich can’t beat the iconic (and cheap) ones from the corner bodega.
They’ve been parking on 47th and Park on Wednesdays and 46th and 5th on Fridays, but their schedule can be found on their Twitter account.
Posted by brianhoffman at 10:32 am, May 28th, 2015 under Shuka Truck.
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Given that shakshuka is traditionally served in the skillet in which it is cooked, did you see how they are serving it from the truck?
I would have to imagine they are just dumpling it into a styrofoam container.