Midtown Lunch

A year ago, the ladies behind the Simply Yummy truck at Temple University stuck to the traditional campus staples- hamburgers, cheesesteaks, fries, etc. Then they started offering  occasional Asian inspired specials that quickly became popular. That menu expanded from an occasional wonton soup, to an official section of the menu including  grilled lemongrass chicken and pork either over rice or in banh mi.

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Say Cheese is now in its second semester of serving their grilled cheeses from their truck on the Temple campus (and LOVE park on most Fridays). On the particular day I visited, the Temple art students had shown their love by crochet-bombing the truck with a color crochet bib. And if college students give the grilled cheese the seal of approval, they must be doing something right.

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Walking down 13th Street, you might notice the flashing LED sign of the Halal Express Cart. The cart owners came from NYC less than 2 months ago bringing their street feed to Center City. After getting good feedback from Luncher Mary, I stopped by.

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Today, recently Profiled Luncher Rachel checks out a new food truck in UCity.

At Penn, people think they are food cart experts. You constantly overhear conversations about “my regular order at Bui’s, or how “Obviously the people at Magic Carpet  know me.” That being said, new food carts on campus are no small deal, especially this one. When I heard that Marrakesh, a restaurant previously a little further west than I’d probably venture, gave up its storefront for a food cart closer to campus, I could not wait to be one of the first to try it. People who knew the place raved, and people who though they new food carts (me included) got very excited.

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Pitruco Pizza sells pizza pies from their shiny, mobile wood fired oven equipped truck. Pitruco offers 6 different pizzas ranging from $6.50 to $9. The pies are heated up and presented on a big round cardboard plate or in a box for you. A single pie is enough for a hearty lunch. It was so hard to choose from the tempting descriptions, I got two (there were leftovers, I swear).

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Andrew of Strada Pasta tipped me off that Chewy’s, a truck serving gussied up American food since this fall, had added chicken and waffles to the menu. I had assumed this truck just did burgers, but I realized my mistake when I saw the menu consisted of clever twists on classic food truck staples, like a kimchee egg sandwich, a BLT with granny smith apples and cider mayo, and a burger with feta and olive tapenade.  I was, however, on a chicken and waffles mission.

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While wondering around the food carts looking for something good to eat in University City, I saw a new truck that was so plainly decorated I almost passed it by. Thankfully the picture of the arepa drew me in. I found out that Delicias is now in its second week of operation (besides a test run for a few days in early December). The ladies behind Delicias are from Venezuela. The menu has 3 things: variations of arepas (sliced griddled corn patties with fillings inside) and fried empanadas (filled turnovers) as well as choripan (sausage in a sandwich). A picture of the national dish of Venezuela and the menu after the jump…

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