Bouffons Montreal 2013 has come and gone officially. A great event that gave many people the opportunity to check out many of the different food trucks for the 1st time. In the past year, through a couple of Just for Laughs presentations I saw, I got to try a few more trucks to continue my explorations of what we have available to us.
Up first, Le Cheese – a truck all about cheese and the different ways one can enjoy cheese. On my first visit, saddened by the Fried Cheesecake being sold out (more on that later…), I went for their special of the day – a fried onion, bacon and swiss grilled cheese. A nice size sandwich – the bread had a great grilled crisp exterior and the combo of onions and bacon gave a nice fatty sweetness to the sandwich. The swiss wasn’t completely melted to my liking but honestly a minor quibble. Still a great sandwich.
As luck would have it, I got the chance to walk by Le Cheese again a few days later when I went back to a final go-through and they had the fried cheesecake still available. 3 mini pieces of cheesecake deep fried and covered with a strawberry coulis. The cheesecake itself was nice and the strawberry coulis added some sweet fruitiness. The batter really had no flavour to speak of but at least it didn’t get in the way of the cake. A solid dessert.
Le Cheese
On Facebook and Twitter @LeCheeseTruck
Next up, from the crew from La Salle à Manger, the trailer that is Pas d’Cochon dans mon Salon. These guys use charcoal grilling to deliver some great BBQ. They also offer some oysters and a few other items for some variety. They were one of the first “trucks” present last year during the festival run and have come back for some more – although their lack of a true truck prevents them from being part of the trial run in Ville-Marie.
Their pulled pork sandwich is what they are known for so of course I would have to try one. What a beast of a sandwich this thing is. Huge portion of pulled pork, covered with a sweet tangy barbecue sauce and stuffed in a bun. Quite honestly, you pretty much need a fork to lighten the load before biting down on the sandwich proper unless you’re cool with getting BBQ sauce all over yourself in public. The pork itself is quite tender – it just falls apart as one would expect from great pulled pork. The BBQ sauce has a nice balance between sweetness and tanginess which I appreciate and the bun does a great job of soaking up all that sauce. Well done all around.
Pas d’Cochon dans mon Salon
On Facebook and Twitter @Pas_d_cochon
Meatball Montreal is a truck that specializes in…well… meatballs of course! On this evening, they had 2 options – classic meatballs or a BBQ variety – as well as lemonade and potato salad. Given what I had already had eaten, I decided to stick to just the classic ones.
In one order, you get 2 meatballs with two pieces of bread, some tomato sauce, fresh basil and freshly grated Reggiano cheese. The bread was nice and crispy, the tomato sauce provided a nice tangy flavour and the fresh basil and Reggiano provided some bite but let’s be honest… none of this matters if the meatballs aren’t up to snuff. Thankfully, these meatballs are quite good. I think the key thing with meatballs is texture. Firm enough to hold together but still tender enough to really let the flavours of the meat and binders to come through. Perfect in this case. The meatballs could be cut quite easily just using a fork but they didn’t fall apart afterwards. A great and unique truck concept that truly stands out from the crowd.
Meatball Montreal
On Facebook and Twitter @Meatball_Mtl
Fast forward to a couple of days later where, other than the fried cheesecake mentioned earlier, I got to try 2 of the more unique trucks we have going around. First up, we have a Dim Sum truck!! Just let that sink in for a moment….. I have to give major props to the folks who though this one up because this is, in theory, a great truck option and would that really brings a different flavour to the party. This very colourful truck offers a number of combos using some Dim Sum staple items.
My sister and I went for combo #4 – a BBQ pork bun, a shrimp dumpling and a Sui Mai dumpling. The bun was probably the worse thing here – the pork itself had a nice BBQ flavour but the bum was completely flat and quite dry. The steamed shrimp dumpling was great and the Sui Mai was solid although pretty much pork with one mini shrimp instead of a true mix of the two. I love the concept and this has the potential to be a great component to our regular truck lineup.
Dim Sum Montreal
On Facebook
And lastly, from the Plateau boutique of the same name, we have Boite à Fromages – a truck all about Raclette – in this case, the basic raclette dish of cheese melted on top of potatoes. Using that base, you can select from a few extra combination of ingredients added on top of that.
I decided to go a little crazy with my selection and went with apples, caramel pecans and fleur de sel. Loved how the sweetness of the apples and pecans paired with the fleur de sel and the richness of the cheese. The potatoes, as always with raclette, provided a nice means to enjoy the unique flavour profile here. Very cool idea from these people and my only though once I was done was that I wanted to try their other options as soon as possible. I think that speaks volume to the quality here. Very well done.
Boite à Fromages
On Facebook and Twitter @boiteafromages
Cheers!
Ramblings from the Complex Mind of a 30 Something 