Midtown Lunch

One year ago, Munchies opened on the Temple Campus to deliver late night food to hungry college students. Now, they still deliver, or you can pick up from their home base- a trailer on Norris Street. Looking at the online menu of college munchie inspired burger and chicken sandwiches (all $5-7), like the Natural Disaster with steak, chicken, fries, cheez whiz, more cheese, and fried onion,  I felt inspired to be bad.  I decided to BYO- build my own (they call it that, I didn’t make it up).

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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.

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Earlier this month Meal Ticket reported the opening of Chris’ Taco Stand on the Temple University Campus. Considering the number and variety of food trucks on the campus, it is a surprise it has taken this long to get some taco action up there. According to Meal Ticket, Chris went to Temple and his credentials include working at Tinto and DiBrunos. I asked Chris about what set him on his taco venture and he answered, “I started with the taco thing because of experiences that I had traveling through Mexico. I think that tacos are the perfect street food. I love that the meats were being grilled right in front of me and perfectly complimented by the the heat and acidity of the salsa.” I have to agree with him there. It is fun to watch Chris work the grill, making every taco to order  inside his tiny, shiny cart.
The menu is straight forward so far, usually with 3 different tacos every day. The steak ($3) and black bean ($2) are available daily and he switches off the pork carnitas and chicken. As all good taco stands should, Chris offers a selection of Jarritos and sodas in glass bottles.   I got to try all of Chris’ tacos and I got some intel on how he makes some of his products.

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After being missing for several months the Irie Food Truck is back. They needed some time to get the truck inspection level ready. For now, just breakfast and sandwiches will be served. The Jamaican menu, including the Jamaican patties and stew chicken, is back next week.

Meal Ticket has just reported that a taco truck opened on 12th and Norris. Chris’s Taco Truck is now in its 2nd week. Tacos are $6 for 3. Check out the Facebook page or Twitter for updates.

Update: And more tacos! It looks like Coup de Taco is testing out Temple Campus on Tuesdays. This would be their 3rd location, in addition to University City and LOVE Park. Double check their location on Twitter.

The Creperie is very popular among the undergrads over at Temple. Both sweet and savory crepes are made to order and tons of fillings are available. They tend to get pretty busy during lunch time, but the boys inside the truck work fast. You can make your own crepe or chose from the combos available. Most of the combos are relatively normal. But not the “Alexander the Crepe”.  This one is a special breed.

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Midtown Lunch: L.A. wrote about a Jamaican food truck this week, so I figured it was about time to point out a Philly equivalent. Though University City gets all the love for their fab food truck scene, the Temple area has a few gems of its own, including the Irie Food Truck.

You will not walk away hungry after finishing your meal from the Irie Food truck. Staples like jerk chicken and oxtail are served in 3 different sizes: mini (comes with one side, $5.50), medium (with 2 sides, $7.50), and large (with 3 sides, $9).

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