Midtown Lunch

Oriental Gourmet is a pretty unfortunate name for a food truck. Up at Temple this truck advertises Chinese food and features an endearing neatly hand written yellow sign of Chinese dishes. But the better bet here is choosing from the list of Vietnamese specialty dishes, for example a platter of char grilled meat  over vermicelli(bún) for $5.

For your chargrilled options, chicken or pork. The chicken has less gristly pieces and is no less charred.  Both are served warm and generously spiced. The thin white vermicelli noodles and the salad of mungbeans, cucumber, and lettuce are cold in contrast.  On top of it all is a scattering of peanuts and scallions. And if that weren’t enough elements for your taste buds, a small cup of tangy Nuoc Cham comes with it. For $5, the balanced, full plate is a nice change from the chicken sandwich carts surrounding it.

Chicken pictured on top, pork on the bottom.  You can’t go wrong with either.

Oriental Food, Liacourus Walk and 13th