Encountering Food Trucks in Northfield

If I said you could have authentic Korean fried chicken in Northfield, you would think I’m insane. After all, the closest Korean restaurant on the map is 20 miles away from here. In fact, I thought I was almost insane when I was walking to Family Fare as usual and saw a Korean food truck parking at the Imminent Brew. Food trucks are not popular in my home country China, so it was also a small cultural shock to me. But instantly I got the gist of food truck culture: when you are hungry and don’t know what to eat, and suddenly you see a bright-colored food truck parked in your neighborhood selling aromatic, exotic foods which you have not heard of, at that moment excitement bursts out. 

That Korean sweet-spicy chicken was as good as you could imagine. But why is there suddenly a food truck in the neighborhood? The curiosity prompted me to look it up, and then I found that Imminent Brew hosts food trucks every week! I then followed the food truck for a week and recorded what I bought in this blog. I have to admit that’s kind of cheating because I think the best way to approach a food truck is an unexpected encounter in the street corner. But let’s see what I had in a week!

Brick Oven Bus 

Brick Oven Bus (BOB) sells fresh-made wood-fire pizza. What is the most outstanding is not their pizza but their food truck itself (though their pizza is also incredibly delicious)! While other food trucks are still using trailers, BOB directly built their food truck into a yellow school bus. And yes, as their name suggests, they really have a brick-made oven with burning flames for cooking pizza! Their founder said he came up with this idea because his daughter loved the school bus. I would say this is an amazing idea. After all, who doesn’t want a pizza school bus in the neighborhood?

I ordered their Angry Hawaiian pizza which cost me $18. I saw how they kneaded the dough, put in all the ingredients, and passed a steaming hot pizza from the oven to your hand in five minutes. The pizza had a beautiful brown leopard-print crust. If you are not a fundamentalist who hates pineapple on pizza, you would definitely love the rich and sophisticated flavor created by the smoked bacon, sweet pineapple, banana peppers, tomato sauce, and three kinds of cheese. I can’t wait to see the yellow school bus in Northfield again!

Hanok Korean Eastery

Do you remember the Korean fried chicken I mentioned earlier? They came back again! They sold out the kimbap last time, so I could not miss this time. Hanok refers to a kind of traditional Korean house made of wood, and HKE also makes authentic Korean food. I ordered a box of bulgogi kimbap which cost $15. There are an overall 12 kimbaps in a box. If I did not show you the picture, you might not know what a kimbap is. If I show you the picture without adding a caption, you might think this is sushi. But sushi and kimbap are different! While both sushi and kimbap are made of seasoned rice, the sushi rice is seasoned with vinegar and usually contains raw fish. On the other hand, kimbap rice is seasoned with sesame oil and contains a wider variety of ingredients, for example, bulgogi, which is a kind of thin-sliced beef that is marinated and stir-fried with soy sauce. Other varieties of ingredients include perilla tofu, donkatsu, which is the cutlet of fried pork loin, spicy fish cake, etc. In all varieties of kimbap, eggs, carrots, pickled radish, and braised burdock root will usually be included. All these ingredients form a sophisticated but balanced flavor. It can be an entree but also serve as snacks. Also next time, if you want to order their sweet-spicy fried chicken, call them by their original name: Dakgangjeong. 

Tacos La Muñeca

Talking about food trucks, you should never forget the taco trucks! After all, it is these Mexican immigrants who first promoted food trucks as a way of entrepreneurship and initiated the thriving culture of food trucks in the US. La Muñeca means girl dolls in Spanish, which sounds kind of objectifying when it combines with food? But the tacos are delicious. I bought two asada tacos and two al pastor tacos which cost me $21. Asada is grilled skirt steak and al pastor is marinated pork. People say Chinese food and Mexican food are to some extent similar, and I can see why because both people are good at cooking pork! The pork in the tacos al pastor is cut into appropriate sizes for chewing but not too big for letting all spice flavors infiltrate in. When you pour on all the sauces and squeeze lime juice on the tacos and bite everything at the same time, you can feel all flavors blast in your mouth. That is the best way to enjoy a taco. 

Young Man

You cannot tell what food Young Man is selling by their name. But what if I tell you that they are selling Japanese-Hawaiian food, does that elicit more confusion or excitement? I was propelled by both of these two feelings to order their food. I love the appearance of their food truck where you can see many classical Japanese anime figures like chinchillas. 

I ordered a Noodz Hawaiian, which is stir-fried noodles topped with fried chicken. Attracted by its concept of fusion food, I was a little disappointed when I actually got the food. The stir-fried noodles and fried chicken were both nice, but they were not really “fused”. However, I still recommend giving Japanese fusion food a try. In fact, most of us might have tried them, though being unaware that they are the product of fusion. Can you think of the tuna sushi topped with mayo sold in school cafes if you have tried them? Takoyaki, which is fried octopus balls topped with bonito flakes, mayo, and worcestershire sauce, is another good example. In fact, I never thought Takoyaki was a product of fusion food because it was my first impression of Japanese food. But if you think it over, you will realize that mayo and worcestershire sauce are brought from the US. To people who want to try Japanese food but could not accept raw fish or minimalistic seasoning, Japanese-Hawaiian food is a great invention. 

Momo Express

This seems to be another food truck where you have no idea what they are selling. But unlike Young Man, they actually have already put the answer in the name, which is momo! You can understand momo as Tibetan style dumplings, and Momo Express sells authentic Tibetan Himalayan street food. I have a natural affinity to momo in the first place. It has a cute pronunciation. Besides, it looks almost the same as Xiaolongbao, which is the representative steamed dumpling in my hometown Shanghai (I would recommend Xiaolongbao to every visitor of Shanghai, which is also my favorite). While classical momo is also steamed, I tried jhol momos this time, which is the momos served in a flavorful broth made of tomato and a blend of spices. Soaking in jhol, the momos also have a tangy and juicy flavor. When I go back to Shanghai, maybe I should also give putting Xiaolongbao in a broth a try. 

These are the five distinct food trucks I tried in a week. What impressed me is not only the delicious food, but the food truck as an inclusive and convenient medium that allows immigrants to start their entrepreneurship more easily and bring worldwide flavors from their hometown to more people. The food truck is not only a moving restaurant, but it carries the dream of an immigrant family and the mission of cultural dialogue. 

I love how people preserve the original name of their food in the menu. They are written in English, but they still preserve the seemingly weird spellings that correspond to the original pronunciation in their native language. Therefore, it is kimbap but not sushi; it is bulgogi or asada but not steak; it is burrito but not wrap; it is momo or Xiaolongbao but not dumpling; it is ramen or Cho-mein but not noodles. I appreciate the inclusiveness of English in trying to assimilate while preserving the authenticity of another culture. When we try to decipher these seemingly weird spellings, we are encountering another beautiful culture. 

If you don’t know what to eat for today’s dinner, let’s go and find a food truck!

Daniel Yao (he/him/his) is a sophomore international student from Shanghai, China. He is primarily attracted to Carleton because his favorite animal is a penguin, which is also the official mascot of Carleton. He plans to major in Philosophy and Cognitive Science and he loves the trimester plan of Carleton which allows him to explore the intersection between learning science, human mind, and artificial intelligence. On campus, you can usually find Daniel working as a Chinese tutor in the Language Center (LDC), studying with friends in Sayles, or taking a walk in the Arb. When he is not in class, he likes to enjoy coffee and scones in Goodbye Blue Monday or cycle in the Division St. Next fall term, Daniel will work as the student assistant  for AI at Carleton.