Midtown Lunch

I was afraid that the metal gates on the windows and doors meant Little Delicious, the spot I picked for a Caribbean lunch, was closed. Luckily, that wasn’t the case. Inside was a family sitting at the counter, a few tables with friends and massive plates of food, and a line of locals, anxious to get some take out. We sat at an empty table and wondered whether there was table service, or if we should line up. After a bit, we were given menus and our orders were taken. No line standing needed.  Little Delicious is located in a pretty dilapidated area. Neither the exterior nor the interior of the restaurant is pretty, but its all about the hot plates of food.

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I wanted to do a little pork taste testing in the North of Kensington area, comparing El Principe, a Dominican restaurant I enjoyed a while back, to Isla Nena, a Puerto Rican spot the next block over. Isla Nena’s slogan “sabor Boricua pa’que tu lo sepas” let us know to expect authentic Puerto Rican food. Two steam tables are on your right when you enter, but there are tables in the back for waiter service. On the menu you will find fried side dishes and meat and seafood entrees.

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No profile volunteers for today (email me slackers! the people want to know what you eat. jamie@midtownlunch.com), so I will instead share my awesome pork experience from when I snuck away to Puerto Plata last week.

On my way from the airport I asked my taxi driver the most important question, “Donde podemos comer lechon asado? Where can we eat roast pork?” He responded, “En todos partes! Everywhere!” That is my kind of country.

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Today, Nick from My Inner Fatty is breaking is usual truck habits with Carribean food from Gigi and Big R.

University city is pretty much littered with food trucks, with 95% of them either serving Mexican food of some sort, Asian cuisine, or sandwiches. Now that’s all fine and good, but sometimes repetition gets boring (this isn’t a knock on any of the other food carts, I’m just saying…). After wandering down 38th street numerous times, I decided to pass on my stalwarts of Yue Kee, Bui’s, and Steak Queen, only to notice an obscenely obnoxious looking truck parked on the other side of Spruce. Plastered with random captions like “Largest Platters In the City,” “Come Try the Best,” and “Caribbean Soul Food,” I was at the very least, curious.

The truck is called Gigi and Big R’s Caribbean Soul Food (there’s apparently also a physical restaurant and 2 other trucks), and obvious from their given name, they serve Caribbean ‘soul food.’ What does that mean exactly? Well, I wasn’t entirely sure either, but a quick glance at their menu reveals a short list of options. Most of their platters are $7-9 dollars for the small orders, and $11 for the large orders, each coming with your choice of sides. While this seems kind of pricey compared to almost all the other food trucks, I suppose they fill a niche as they’re the only one of their kind on Penn’s campus. You’re paying a slight premium in order to take a break from sesame chicken and cheesesteaks (though on the plus side, the wait time is almost nil!).

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