When It Goes From Bad To Worse

Greetings, gentle readers. The more astute among you may have noticed that the amount of time since my last post has been right around a year. I've posted in the past the reason for the long gaps and what was true then remains true now: I just don't have the luxury of the time required to write this blog on a consistent basis. So what brings me (temporarily) out of retirement today? A troubling tale I am prepared to tell, involving a food truck, squishy Italian hoagie rolls, and a blatant disregard for the safety of customers.

This isn't the first time I've written about food trucks on this blog. Some of them, including The Orange Truk, Wholly Frijoles, Zydeco Bistro, and Boca Loca Burrito Factory have set out and accomplished the main goal of a food truck: to be unique and serve quality, freshly prepared food to the people for a reasonable price. The best food trucks seek to recreate the same food experience one would find at a great restaurant (at least in terms of the food). Of course, I suppose you can't have the best without having the worst. While I want every restaurant (and food truck) to succeed, real world studies indicate that nearly 60% of restaurants will fail over a three year period. Today's visit to the Nacho Mama Food Truck out of Kent, Ohio proved exactly why this is the case.

Being a lovely sunny day in the low 70's was too much of an allure to stay indoors. Coupled with the announcement I saw by one of the many food trucks I follow on Facebook, I discovered that there would be a "round up" of seven trucks at the Home Depot in Cuyahoga Falls. When I got to the round up around noon, I was relieved to find that the lines were fairly short. After getting my camera equipment set up in the back of my car, I walked around to survey the goods. While I enjoyed the crepe I had at Premier Crepes at a past round up, I wasn't really in a crepe kind of mood today. Surveying my other options, I finally settled on Nacho Mama Food Truck. I had seen it at other round ups, but had yet to try their food. Today was as good as any to give it the college try.

I approached the truck and began to read the menu. The first red flag was that the chorizo dog they were offering was misspelled as a "chirizo" dog. Thinking the misspelling might have been done on purpose as a marketing gimmick, I asked the woman taking orders if that was indeed the case. When she stared back at me blankly, my question was answered without her having to actually say anything. Other menu items for today were nachos (as the name of the truck would imply), burritos, and a few other things aimed at children. My philosophy when trying out a new restaurant (or truck) is generally to buy two or three items, photograph them all, eat one and take the other(s) home for later consumption.

After ordering my chorizo dog topped with the spicy slaw, I set about attempting to order the tequila lime chicken nachos. This was where things started to get a little dicey. While people like to claim that they want choice in their lives, when faced with too much choice, the average human being becomes paralyzed with fear over having to actually make said choice. And with some fifteen toppings from which to choose, it took me a minute to get my bearings. Nacho Mama might be better served by offering a "standard" - beans, lettuce, tomatoes, shredded cheese, and salsa - and then allow customers to modify it to suit their taste. For whatever reason I was feeling in a nacho cheese kind of mood, so I added it as one of the toppings.

After paying the $15 for my haul (I included one of the Pepsi products as well), I walked to the other end of the truck to wait for my food. Within a minute or so, the woman inside the truck handed me the chorizo dog. While waiting for my nachos, she helpfully informed me that the chorizo link was actually from a place with which I am quite familiar, Dumas Meats in Mogadore, Ohio. That, to me, was a good sign. The bad sign, sadly, was the white squishy Italian hoagie bun on which the dog had been served. More on that later.

The last step before handing me my finished nachos was the ladling on of the cheese. Sadly, this happened straight from a very large can that had no cover on it that was labeled, "Nacho Cheese." One might find this type of product at any Gordon Food Service (GFS) / Sam's Club / food wholesale place and would have probably been more correctly labeled "pasteurized cheese food product" rather than just "cheese." Regardless, after the ladling of the cheese, she handed it to me. The first thing I noticed besides the dayglo orange color of the cheese was the heft of the basket in my hand. For $7, you certainly got your money's worth, I thought.

As I crossed the parking lot to my waiting car, I began to notice a problem. The nacho cheese had been poured too closely to one of the edges of the cardboard container and as it settled, had started to ooze over the edge. Not wanting to set this down anywhere in or on my car, I did the only thing a person holding a soda pop and chorizo dog in one hand and a container of nachos in the other hand could do: I decided to lick the cheese off the cardboard. I figured I just wouldn't photograph that side of the dish. I put the cardboard container to my mouth and gently licked the offending cheese off with a quick swipe of my tongue and gasped in amazement: the nacho cheese was ROOM temperature!

Now, those of you reading with no commercial food preparation or restaurant experience may think my negative reaction was due to the fact that I (and probably you) prefer your nacho cheese food product served hot. Tepid liquid cheese is just not something I relish the thought of eating. In reality, my surprise was due to the fact that by not holding the cheese at a proper serving temperature, the Nacho Mama Food Truck folks were playing Russian roulette with their customer's health.

Most food safety guidelines indicate that to avoid bacterial growth, food must be held below 40 degrees or above 135 (some say 140)  degrees Fahrenheit. As for time spent in between those two extremes, the cumulative time must be calculated and the food must be discarded after it reaches four hours. In addition to the inappropriate holding temperature, the can of cheese was just sitting on the counter, completely uncovered. Who was to say that something couldn't fly in through a window and contaminate the product?

So, let me see if I've got my math straight. The food trucks started serving food at 11 am and I was there at noon. Best case scenario, let's assume that the staff opened a fresh can of nacho cheese sauce right at 11 am. So, an uncovered can has already sat there for an hour right in the middle of the temperature danger zone? You can see why I was so alarmed. And honestly, if they can't hold this food at the proper temperature, what makes me think they know how to hold any other food at the proper temperature to avoid potentially getting people sick?

After photographing both items, I turned my attention to the chorizo dog. Upon my first bite, I was rewarded with a nice snap from the dog and creamy cole slaw. Unfortunately, the spicy part of the "spicy slaw" I ordered to top the dog was nowhere to be found. This was straight up cole slaw, and I'd venture to say given the provenance of the other ingredients coming out of the truck, it was probably food service cole slaw. But for me, the bigger issue with the dog was the bun.

The large Italian-style hoagie bun was straight out of squishy white bread hell and couldn't contain the dog and the slaw. Within another couple of bites, the dog had broken through the spine and by the time I got halfway done with it, the bun had completely split along the spine, offering no additional structural support to keep everything together. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to grab a plastic fork from the truck and while I had originally envisioned using it with the nachos, found a more appropriate use for it to clean up the mounds of slaw that had fallen into the waiting basket below. The only real positive for me about this dog was the chorizo link itself from Dumas Meats.

I ended up disposing of the nachos in the garbage can, not even wanting to eat a single bite. I packed my camera gear away, got back in my car, and drove off. I do not plan on eating at the Nacho Mama Food Truck again, really for two reasons. First, the food safety issue (and that is the elephant in the room). Second, the quality and uniqueness of the food just didn't appeal to my sense of adventure. It felt like really bad Americanized versions of Mexican staples and honestly, there are plenty of other places I can already go to for that. You can definitely cross this food truck off of my list of places I'd recommend.

Cleveland's First C-Town Chow Down

It can be argued who started the food truck craze in Cleveland. Of course, the Seti's Polish Boys truck has graced the exterior of Dean Supply on East 30th Street for quite some time. But it wasn't until about a year ago when then co-owners, Chris Hodgson and Jeremy Esterly, started the buzz and eventually opened the very popular Dim and Den Sum that the food truck craze officially became "on." A lot has happened in a year's time.

Today's gathering of food trucks on Lincoln Park in Tremont represented the first time that so many different styles of food had converged at a single location. The good folks from the Jibaro World Food truck suggested the gathering and fortunately, this event appears like it will be monthly, especially given how popular the food truck idea has become. Starting at 11:00 am on Sunday, March 27th, eight of the area's prominent trucks lined West 11th Street and began serving up food to the crowd. By the time I got there, around 12:30 pm, what I encountered truly qualified as masses of people. Even with the temperature hovering around 32 degrees Fahrenheit, it didn't stop at least a thousand cold and hungry people from showing up.

Here was a shot of the crowd from the northern end of the park:


And here was a shot from the southern end:


Before getting in any one particular line (because trust me, with the crowds today, you had to pick just one), I decided to walk down the line and take a picture of each truck participating in the first C-Town Chow Down:

Seti's Polish Boys

Fahrenheit

Dim and Den Sum

Traveling Treats from Cakes Plus

StrEat Mobile Bistro

Jibaro World Eats

Umami Moto

Babycakes

After walking the gauntlet, I decided on trying out StrEat Mobile Bistro, in part because good friend and former owner of Market Gourmet @ Montrose Jeff Winer was now on board, and partly because fellow foodie Stuart Spivack was waiting in line and had texted me to get my attention. Between the time I joined him in line and the time we made it to the front was probably a good thirty to forty minutes. I was concerned as we approached today's menu that we would get to the front and find that they were all out of food.

Fortunately, they still had some items left:


After placing and paying for our orders, we simply had to wait just a few minutes before we could finally collect our food. Miraculously, we found a small table in the park where we could sit for a few minutes and eat.

Here was a shot of Stuart's Asian Ginger Turkey Sandwich:


And we each ordered some of the waffle fries:


While these pretty much felt like a fried-from-frozen product, the fry job on them was actually pretty good. Since StrEat had been moving through so much product, pretty much anything out of the fryer was hot and fresh. These particular waffle fries had a bit of a spicy kick to them, probably from a bit of cayenne in their seasoning. On a frigid day, these were a nice way to warm up inside.

While Stuart went for the sandwich, I went for the Buffalo Macaroni and Cheese:


Studded with tender white meat chicken, buffalo sauce, and various vegetables, the macaroni and cheese was a modest success. The flavor was good, but as one could imaging, holding cooked pasta for a long time before serving it led to it being slightly mushy. Nothing terrible, mind you, and given the number of people each of these food trucks fed today, actually quite remarkable. That being said, were I served this at a "normal" food truck visit (where there weren't 990 other people competing to be served), I might have been a bit less forgiving.

Our main meal now finished, Stuart and I thought about packing it in, but decided to give the Traveling Treats by Cakes Plus food truck a try in order to finish our meal with something a little sweet. Stuart decided on a simple brownie pop (if I remember correctly), but I decided to get two of their brownies to go for later-in-the-day consumption.

First up was the Raspberry Chambord Brownie:


And second was the Triple Chocolate Brownie:


Both were immensely dense and almost fudge-like. Both had great flavor. However, both were a bit too sweet and the texture had an almost crystallized sugar-like grain to them. I liked that they contained chocolate chips, as this contrasted nicely with the smoothness of the brownie batter. On the whole these were okay, but I didn't find myself clamoring for more.

All in all, a very successful trip up to Cleveland to experience some of the latest food truck offerings. While the event officially ended at 3:00 PM, by the time Stuart and I were standing in line waiting for our dessert, most of the trucks had already run out of food. The second C-Town Chow Down is this coming Sunday, April 17th in Lincoln Park from 11 am until 3 pm. Since the weather is supposedly going to be much nicer this time around, I am expecting that the number of people could easily double from last time. My advice to you, gentle reader, is to get there early, early, EARLY! Better yet, go with friends, and then you can each stand in a different line so that you can experience a variety of foods.

I have to admit that I find the allure of the food trucks to be compelling and they definitely add a coolness to Cleveland's already cool dining scene. I encourage you to head out to Lincoln Park on Sunday and discover a bit of this cool all on your own. Perhaps I'll even see you there.

This Just In ... News You Can Use

I don't often put up posts talking about current events or linking to other items I find on the web. However, today I have some happy and some very sad news. Let's start with the sad news first.

I learned just yesterday that a favorite local gourmet market and sandwich shop, Market Gourmet @ Montrose, will be shuttering its doors for the last time today at 3:00 PM. I received a message from Jeff Winer, owner and chef, stating that while he made a valiant effort to stay profitable over the last ten months of existence, with the lack of customers and the skyrocketing food costs, it just didn't make sense to continue losing money. While I have no financial stake in Market Gourmet, this has been my go-to lunch spot for the last six months at least twice a week. I personally will miss his sandwiches, especially the homemade roast beef and the roast turkey.

Roast Turkey Sandwich on Pretzel Bun

Homemade Chicken Enchilada Soup

Because he needs to get rid of as much inventory as he can, all wine has been marked down by 15% and the other gourmet items have been marked down a WHOPPING 50%! Market Gourmet carried high-end chocolates, oils, vinegars, spices, cheeses, charcuterie, and many middle eastern items. While I am sad to see Jeff's hard work end this way, it just goes to remind me that making it in the food service industry is incredibly difficult. Jeff had great products, but many times, having a great product just isn't enough to succeed.

Jeff's next move will be to join the crew of the StrEat Mobile Bistro food truck in Cleveland. Which serves as a very convenient segue to my next, happier topic for this morning.

This coming Sunday, March 27th from 11 AM until 3 PM, there will be a conflagration of food trucks happening at Lincoln Park in Tremont, Ohio. While Dim and Den Sum sort of started the mobile food truck craze in Cleveland, there has been an explosion in available options for diners willing to track these trucks down. Represented on Sunday will be:

- Seti's Polish Boys
- Dim & Den Sum
- Cakes Plus
- Traveling Treats
- Umami Moto
- StrEat Mobile Bistro
- Jibaro
- Pranzo Forno Wood Fired Pizza
- Oh! Babycakes

From what I've been told, there will also be live entertainment, although exactly what, I'm not entirely sure. The weather forecast this morning indicated dry, cold weather for Sunday, but hopefully a nice warm front will move in and make this a sunny and warm outing for lots of hungry customers. It appears that this may be a fairly regular gathering if enough interest is generated, so I plan to be there to grab some snapshots, lots of food, and will write it up on the blog for all of you to see for yourself.

And, finally, my happy news.

When I did the inaugural Lenten Project last year, honestly, it was a time in my life when I had a lot of time on my hands and was looking for something exciting to do on a Friday night. At the time, I don't know that my blog was popular enough for me to get more than a smattering of interest from curious readers. When I contacted Lisa Abraham at the Beacon Journal and told her of my plans, I'm sure her first thought was probably, "Whatever, crazy person!"

But, by mid-summer, I noticed that quite a few people had read part or all of the original Lenten Project series, and by the time I was contacted by Lisa to do an actual newspaper article on local food bloggers (Mike Vrobel, author of the fantastic blog DadCooksDinner being the other blogger she interviewed), she made a point of mentioning the fact in her article about my Herculean fried fish and pierogi journey.

After announcing the schedule for this year's Lenten Project, I was surprised to see many more people engaging me through email, Facebook and Twitter making suggestions, asking questions, and generally being interested. While the list of churches, clubs, and organizations from which I drew was the one published in the Akron Beacon Journal, fellow food blogger Alicia and her husband Hans from Poise in Parma have embarked on their own version of the Lenten Project, looking for good fish fries in their neck of the woods. In fact, as an extra treat next Friday, April 1st, we will (hopefully) be teaming up forces to review a fish fry somewhere between Akron and Parma.

Not to be left behind, Lisa Abraham ran a piece in the food section of the Akron Beacon this week doing her part to contribute to the fish fry love that is happening during Lent. Instead of evaluating church fish fries, she went out to the local fast food restaurants (which included Swenson's, too) to see who had the best fish sandwich. While I don't know that I'd want to eat five fish sandwiches in a day (much less a single sitting), I admire her willingness to go that extra mile for her readers.

Well, that's it for now, folks. I'll be having my final sandwich, the roast beef on pretzel bun at Market Gourmet for lunch today, and then it's off for two fish fries for dinner. Feel free to join me at either dinner if you'd like, I'm always up for some company. In case you are curious, my fish fry schedule is on the Community Calendar on the right hand side of the blog.

A Trio Of Trips To Dim And Dem Sum

The last time I wrote about the guys at Dim and Den Sum, Cleveland's newest wave of mobile food trucks, they were just getting started and still trying to establish their menu, weekly locations where they would be serving up their food, and building a loyal following of customers. Part of the trouble that I initially had was that they were either on the opposite side of town during lunchtime or only serving food to the post-bar crowd late at night in Tremont. Neither were good for my schedule.

Fortunately, after Case Western Reserve University (incidentally, my alma mater) turned them down their request to set up on campus, the much more cool cats at the Cleveland Institute of Art saw the unique experience that these guys were trying to provide to the culinary scene in Cleveland and graciously allowed them the use of the parking lot at the Cleveland Cinemateque from 11:30 AM until 2:00 PM every Tuesday (and as it turned out, sometimes other random days as well). And since my daytime job has me a mere five minute drive from this location, I have taken it upon myself to check them out several more times since my first review.

The Cleveland Cinemateque was located at 11141 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106. While there is a number listed for the Cinemateque, it really has nothing to do directly with the Dim and Den Sum guys, so there isn't much point listing it here. That being said, you can always go to their website here or contact them via their Facebook page here or their Twitter account here to learn about the daily menus or where they will be serving up their delicious eats.

The one lesson I learned early on was that while they usually have one or two classic items from their introductory menu, many days the chefs presented what was fresh, local, and in-season. Showing up for some grub meant that I had to roll with the punches as not every item was offered every time. At the same time, this meant I got to try a variety of their off-the-cuff culinary techniques and flavors, which I greatly appreciated.

Here was the menu the first time I visited the truck:


While "tots" are almost always on the menu, every time I've seen them, there has always been some variation. Today's tots were supplied with a generous portion of Maytag Blue Cheese and a homemade hot sauce:


Just like my first visit, the tots were fried perfectly. While I thought the blue cheese was quite an assertive flavor for the tots, as always these were crispy and delicious, from first bite to last. I think some flavors work better than others with the tots and while this wasn't the best pairing, neither was it the worst.

Along with my tots, I ordered the Dim Burger cooked medium. Here was what I received after just a few more minutes at the pick-up window:


And a shot with the crown removed:


Adorned with smoky pepperjack cheese, lettuce, tomato, and a spicy sauce which was vaguely reminiscent of the sriracha mayonnaise that came on the PBLT, this local beef burger had been cooked perfectly to medium. I know that many of the dishes that the guys serve at the truck are cook-ahead-and-reheat types of foods (like beef shank and hot dogs). It was nice to see them tackling made-to-order food and doing a good job of it as well.

The burger itself was a much better success than the tots were today. The flavors definitely blended together and I had to employ a hunched over stance in order to avoid dripping anything on my work clothes. For an extra $2 I could've added some pulled pork on this sandwich, but I figured that might be gilding the lily just a bit too much. I think the burger was quite good the way it was.

Here was a shot of the chalkboard menu on my second visit:


What struck me about my visit this time was that they had put out a call on their Facebook and Twitter accounts requesting what people would like to see on the tots. Apparently Sarah won today with the Jalapeno Popper tots. Being a sucker for that now ubiquitous (and usually poorly prepared) bar food, I couldn't help but order the tots. When considering my options for a sandwich, I definitely wanted to try something unique and new, and Phil's Meatloaf Melt seemed to fit that bill quite well.

After paying for my meal, I walked over and waited for my food while watching the chef prepare it inside. The one odd thing I noticed that felt out of place was an opened bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue sauce sitting on the prep counter. I didn't give it a whole lot of thought (other than the fact that it was odd to see it someplace where they pride themselves on making so much of the food from scratch), until I received my food and took it over to a spot where I could photograph it.

Here was a shot of my tots and my still wrapped sandwich:


Here was a shot of the Jalapeno Popper tots by themselves:


Comprised of tots, sour cream, bacon bits, cheddar cheese, and topped with fresh Jalapeno slices, these were pretty darn tasty. I liked this incarnation of the tots than the ones I had eaten on my previous visit as the tots didn't get lost in the layers of flavor. The Jalapenos, while adding some heat, didn't overpower the rest of the dish. In my mind, these were a definite hit. Sarah definitely knew a good thing when she suggested it.

Next up was Phil's Meatloaf Melt:


And a shot with the top slice of bread removed:


As you can see, the sandwich reveals the Dim and Den Sum guys' love of pulled pork. Here you had a slice of meatloaf which had been warmed back up, pulled pork, grilled onions, a slice of Cheddar cheese, and barbecue sauce. When I saw the barbecue sauce, I put two and two together and realized that had been the purpose of the commercial sauce sitting on the prep counter at the truck. Regardless, I replaced the top slice and gave it a bite. The first item that stood out to me was the bread. A hearty rye bread, it definitely kept its integrity, even after I had taken several bites.

The meatloaf was a touch spongy, which was a texture I didn't care all that much about, but the flavors were quite good. The richness from the pulled pork added another layer of savoriness and the slight tang from the barbecue sauce helped somewhat to cut through the fattiness of the rest of the ingredients. Personally, if they were going to use a commercial sauce, I wish that they had gone for a more vinegary, less sweet version like Stubb's Original BBQ Sauce. I think it would've added a better overall balance of acidity.

For my third and final trip to the truck, I ventured a bit farther from the Cleveland Cinemateque location to a corner in Tremont where The Treehouse was located. Apparently, a Tweet-Up was going on inside The Treehouse and the Dim and Den Sums guys decided that it would be a good location for a Thursday night visit, offering free plain tots to anyone attending. Having gotten off work rather late, I decided to head there and grab a bite for dinner before returning home to Akron.

As with my previous two visits, here was a shot of tonight's menu:


While I've been in the habit of getting the daily tots and a sandwich, tonight the tot offering was simply with the sausage gravy that was being offered on the Redneck Breakfast Taco. I decided to forgo the tots by themselves tonight and instead ordered two of the tacos, of which I had tried only once in any of my visits. While I normally just get a bottle of water, tonight they had run out and the only other non-sugared offering they offered was an unsweetened can of Japanese toasted green tea:


Having never had this served in a can before, I definitely have to comment that it had an interesting taste. While the English on the can didn't say anything about the green tea being smoked, once I tasted the cold liquid inside, I was almost sure that this was what I was drinking.

It always amazes me how fast the guys can turn orders around and literally after just a minute or two of paying, I was presented with my duo (or should I say dos) of tacos:


To the left was the Redneck Breakfast Taco and to the right was the Chicken Confit Taco. First, let's talk about the Redneck Breakfast Taco:


Comprised of pepperjack cheese, homemade sausage gravy, smashed tots, lettuce, and a tomato salsa, this was quirky and delicious. It was certainly an odd combination of items, but they really worked well together. Actually, the thought of sausage gravy, tots, and cheese seemed to have come straight from a casserole recipe from the likes of Paula Dean, but the tomato salsa added a brightness to what would otherwise have been a pretty heavy flavor.

The other taco, a Chicken Confit Taco, took me from Paula Dean's neck of the woods to a more exotic locale:


Besides the chicken confit, this taco contained lettuce, a peanut sauce and a green curried creme fraiche. The chicken was moist and delicious and the combination of the peanut and green curry flavors definitely evoked the distant lands of Thailand. The curry in the creme fraiche wasn't overpowering and just subtly wove its way through the other flavors in the taco. Of the two, I think I enjoyed this one more than the Redneck Breakfast Taco, but in all honesty, I rather enjoyed them both.

I continue to remain impressed with the level of creativity and execution of the food coming out of this mobile kitchen. Clearly they have started to build a cadre of loyal customers as the truck has always had people at it whenever I go. In fact, the guys who run Dim and Dem Sum, Jeremy Esterly and Chris Hodges, are already in the works of adding at least one, if not two, new trucks to help cover Cleveland even better. While the new truck won't be exactly the same menu as the current one, they will still provide unique and tasty mobile food experiences to what I perceive to be an eager Cleveland crowd.

Take the time to track them down. You won't be disappointed.

Extra Helpings: Dim And Den Sum

I first became aware of the newest food concept in Cleveland, mobile food, several months ago through social media giants Facebook and Twitter. It seemed that two guys who had cooked together at Fire Food & Drink in Shaker Square had begun nursing a concept that has proven to be popular in other major metropolitan locales. Given that Cleveland has had some long standing rules governing food trucks, they had an uphill battle in making their vision a reality.

I have written about mobile food before, namely my review on the taco truck in Akron. However, as anyone who checked it out will tell me, the taco truck is more a taco cart because it is mobile only after hooking it up to something with an engine. The twist for Dim and Den Sum was that it would truly be a truck that changes location daily and dispenses food right from the back.

As the Food Illuminati got wind of Chefs Chris Hodges and Jeremy Esterly's plan, there was a groundswell of support. Here was exactly the kind of success story that foodies love to talk about with anyone who'll listen. Having finally taken care of all the start-up tasks associated with opening any business, the duo began targeting a few initial locations to begin gauging where they'd have the most impact. Sadly the first couple of opportunities to visit the truck were inopportune times for me, such as 11 PM - 2 AM on a Friday or Saturday night in Cleveland. When I heard that they would be making some lunchtime appearances via their Facebook and Twitter pages, I was thrilled to finally be able to track them down myself.

Last Thursday, my friends Nancy, Edsel and I met up over on the southeast side of Cleveland on Emery Road. Sure enough, as I pulled into the parking lot and down the drive, I spotted the brightly painted truck. After parking and getting closer, I took this photograph:


While the entire menu is available on their website, every day is just a little bit different in terms of menu offerings. I'd imagine that there will always be good sellers, like the PBLT, but as ingredients come and go, items will be added and dropped accordingly. Here was a shot of the menu during my second visit:


Unfortunately, I didn't get a good shot of the menu the first time I ate at the truck.

Having read others' impressions of some of the menu items, I knew that I needed to get one of three things: the Jjang Dawg, PBLT, and Sum Tots. For my first visit, I decided to go for two of the three. I walked up to the front of the truck, where Chef Hodges sister was working taking orders and making change and ordered the dog, tots, and a bottle of water. I paid my $9, dropped the remaining $1 in the tip jar and prepared to wait for my food.

Even though the line wasn't too long at that point, I was impressed at how fast the food came up in the rear of the truck. I took my dog and tots to a nearby picnic table sporting an umbrella to shade us from the mid-eighties sun.

Here was a shot of my Jjang Dawg:


This was a locally produced hot dog with pulled pork, tangy slaw, smashed tots, and topped with a soy BBQ sauce. The first thing I noticed, and this seemed to be fairly true of all the food served at Dim and Den Sum: This was messy food! Tasty, but messy. The hot dog had been grilled nicely and the casing gave it a nice snap. While the tots on top were tasty, they didn't really do a whole lot for me. This was a nice hot dog, but to my taste buds, it lacked a strong impact. The pulled pork was there, but really only in texture. For me, it was missing that great balance of flavors, sweet, salty, spicy, sour. It was a good hot dot, but not a great one.

The Sum Tots, however, were outstanding:


I don't know how they fry these little golden morsels of potato-y goodness, but each tot stayed crisp from the first to the last, even having been covered in a slightly spicy and sweet sauce applied right before serving them to me. I can't speak to the provenance of the tots, but the execution in frying them was simply superb. Having seen them on two different menus now, it was also apparent to me that the chefs were willing to take more liberties with them; the toppings tend to change often.

As we were eating our meal, Chef Hodges stopped by our picnic table to garner some feedback. I made an offhanded comment that I expected the sauce on the Sum Tots to be a little spicier than it was. He then told me that they also have a homemade hot sauce and asked if I wanted to try it. Both myself and my lunching partners all agreed that we would. After he returned with a sauce bottle, he applied a bit to the corner of my cardboard tray. I have to say that this was definitely hotter, reminiscent of a Louisiana cayenne pepper sauce. The sauce definitely added some zip and heat to the tots, which were eagerly gobbled up by the three of us.

Before finishing up our lunch, Nancy offered to let me try one of her Chicken Nachos:


Her portion had been fairly large and between the nachos and her very own order of Sum Tots, she found that she didn't have any more room in her stomach. The flavors of the nacho chip were nicely balanced. I can definitely see myself ordering this for lunch the next time it is on the menu.

Having finished our lunch, we cleaned our spot up and pitched the trash in the canister in front of the truck and returned to our respective places of business, each eager to return and try something else of the menu.

Ironically, I had mentioned during my first visit how much I would like it if the truck was a little closer to where I work. Today's trek basically had me taking a two hour lunch, with an hour of it just in driving time alone. Apparently, someone must have heard and agreed with me because it wasn't a day later that I read on Facebook that on Tuesday, June 1st, the truck would be in the parking lot of the Cleveland Cinemateque on East Boulevard right next to the Cleveland Institute of Art and across from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Knowing that this was literally a five minute drive from where I work, it was a no-brainer to make the decision to return for a second visit.

I parked on East Boulevard closer towards Severance Hall at one of the pay meters. As I got close to the location, I spotted a now familiar sight through the pine trees:


Technically, the Cinemateque was located at 11141 East Boulevard, Cleveland, OH 44106, but since food truck isn't associated with CIA or the Cinemateque, the phone number listed on Google won't do you much good.

It was good to see the gang back in action after such a busy weekend in Oberlin and doing publicity on Channel 3 on Monday morning. Apparently, they were completely slammed the entire weekend and a lot of their supplies were used up, like the homemade bread they had been using for the sandwiches. Since I had already had the tots, I decided to go with two sandwich items instead. First up, I ordered the Beef Shank Taco. This was actually what Edsel had the last time we went. Here was a shot of what he ordered from our previous visit:


And a shot of what I ordered today:


Filled with long braised beef shanks, corn-cilantro relish and drizzled with a teriyaki glaze, they were served in a soft flour tortilla. The beef was definitely tender, but unfortunately in my first bite, I received a huge piece of fat. While certainly chewable, it didn't have a particularly good mouth feel. However, once I removed that piece from my mouth, the rest of the taco was tasty. As with the Jjang Dawg, the taco was good, but not great. It lacked the same burst of flavors that I missed when I tried the hot dog. I also think that for $3 per taco, there should be a little more meat; it was just a wee-bit skimpy.

Having finished my taco, I turned to the PBLT:


And here was a shot with the crown of the bun removed:


Think of this as a regular old BLT (Bacon, Lettuce & Tomato) with luscious pulled pork. With the addition of a Sriracha mayonnaise and thick cut bacon, this sandwich was a complete knock-out. I absolutely loved the flavors of this sandwich. The thick cut bacon added a wonderful smoky saltiness and the tomato was perfectly ripe, adding that necessary sweetness to cut some of the other bold flavors. I noticed that the sandwich had been served on a regular hamburger bun instead of the freshly baked rolls that Chef Hodges had been bragging about last Thursday. Apparently the rolls were one of the casualties of the Oberlin weekend. I look forward to trying the sandwich when it is seated on the proper bread. It's hard to believe the sandwich could get better, but I'm certainly willing to try it again (and again).

As with last time, as I was finishing up my PBLT, Chef Hodges came over to me and asked what I thought. At first I thought it seemed odd that this was the second time in two visits that he was soliciting feedback, but as I thought about it, it began to make sense to me. Dim and Den Sum had really only been serving food for about a month now and any new restaurant that has only been open for such a short period of time should always be tweaking and adjusting the menu so that every item really stands out on its own. I gave him the same feedback you are reading here and he seemed genuinely interested to hear it. I hope both he and Chef Esterly continue in this tradition of garnering feedback from customers, whether or not they are food bloggers, because it shows me that they are committed to putting out some seriously tasty food.

I was also pleased to learn that the invitation by the Cleveland Institute of Art to sell their wares every Tuesday from 11:30 AM - 2:00 PM at the Cinemateque was open-ended. I know that I won't be able to make it every Tuesday for lunch, but you can bet I'll be there at least twice a month. I know it's kind of cool to be able to tweet your location every day to your followers, but having some regular stops can only help to establish your name and reputation.

I highly recommend that you search out this novel Cleveland food gem wherever they land for the day. The food was tasty, the concept was pretty nifty, and the chefs running the mobile kitchen obviously care about using quality local ingredients. Sure a few of the offerings need to be tweaked a bit to maximize their flavors, but given how long they've been operating, it doesn't surprise me in the least. Now the hard part is just having to wait until next Tuesday to go back.