PGH Dining: Franktuary Food Truck

When my in-laws were in town we stopped at the Lawrenceville Farmer's Market, and there it was: the famed Franktuary food truck. Ever since Pittsburgh's first restaurant week, I'd been hearing about Franktuary and their delicious offerings {no pun intended} at their location downtown.  It was on my list of places to try, but it jumped the line quickly when I saw the truck in the parking lot of Goodwill.  

Food Trucking: Enticed

In the heat of summer, sometimes the only remedy is more... No, not cowbell.

Snow cones!

Dallas is not blessed to have a ton of good snow cone places, which gives the Enticed truck a good amount of market share. This 'food' truck does many private parties, but we happened to catch them on a extremely hot night. (I apologize for the terrible android photos in the twilight!)

I enjoyed the HUGE snow cone we ordered, but would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have to throw away a portion of it because I couldn't finish it all. See, they had run out of small or regular cups, so therefore you weren't going to get a snow cone if you didn't order a large, which could have been renamed as MANSIZE.
That aside, our sugar free Tiger's Blood snow cone was decent. The ice was a good texture, but it didn't hold the liquid as well as a 'gourmet' snow cone would be expected to. I was appreciative of the sugar free flavor selection, though, so there are bonus points to be had.

Result:Customer Service: 8
Taste of snow cone: 7
Price: 4

Food Trucking: Nammi Truck

It's time for another Food Trucking blog post! An evening last week we went to have dinner at the Nammi Truck, which was parked on the corner of Montfort Drive and Belt Line in a Walgreen's parking lot in Addison. We had heard about the Vietnamese @NammiTruck on Twitter, and decided to go try some of their fare.

Nammi Truck

Menu on the blackboard

 After checking our their modest menu, written on a chalkboard affixed to one end of their truck, we decided on a chicken rice bowl, a traditional barbecue pork bahn mi sandwich, and two lemonades. Check out that option for adding pate to your dish! After we paid {VIA iPHONE!}, we were handed our lemonades; however, these were no ordinary lemonades. They were BASIL lemonades! In my opinion, it was the best thing I had!

My BBQ Pork Bahn Mi

Michael's Chicken Rice Bowl

I would definitely go again, especially for that basil lemonade. They also had a few homemade sauces - cilantro cream and spicy mayonnaise - to add to your rice bowl or sandwich. Great job, Nammi!
Result:Customer Service: 9
Taste of Bahn Mi/Rice Bowl/Lemonade: 7.5
Price: 7

Food Trucking in Dallas

Austin has always been cool. To me at least. Austin has a lot going for it - nature, outdoorsy activities, unique shopping, and FOOD. In the past 10 years, Austin has been collecting and growing it's food truck scene, as have other large, 'cool' cities in the United States. Dallas is just now catching up. Within the last 6 months Dallas has adopted an ordinance allowing for mobile food units, aka Food Trucks. Go Dallas! It's about time.

Originally I heard about this news on Twitter. I came across a food truck reporting twitter feed, and the rest was history. Original Source: @BigDFoodTrucks
D Magazine is trying to catch up. End of story.

First Round
Il Cane Rosso "Food Truck" - Wood-oven grilled pizzas
I'm not sure who first tweeted about this "food truck," but it is definitely a "Portable Oven." It even says that on the Il Cane Rosso's Web site. So, that's was a letdown when we arrive on a weeknight to the Sigel's parking lot on Greenville. They were parked outside under the awning of the liquor and spirits store. We were told by the oven workers to go inside for a quick wine tasting, then peruse their menu before ordering. Once inside, the wine tasting folk told us they only had 4 dough balls left, and could only make that many more pizzas. With no wine in hand, we rushed back to the cash register to order a pizza quickly. Once we ordered, we started making conversation with the Pizza Maker and Manager. I said I was thrilled to come try the pizza and didn't know it existed before hearing about them on Twitter. The pizza maker asked if we wanted the dough recipe. We said sure. He said, "It's water, flour, salt and yeast," or something to that effect. I replied that's how pizza doughs are usually made, but I'd need the proportions in order to make it correctly. He said "yeah right" and went on making our pizza. Attitude much?
We went back inside to get away from Tacky the Pizza Maker, and looked over the selection of pear and raspberry liqueurs. I looked up after a while and the Oven Manager was holding up my pizza and shaking it towards us. No one came in to let us know it was ready. So after being told to go in, quickly pay, harassed about dough, etc., I was finished with Il Cane Rosso. Maybe I insulted them by saying I'd never heard of them, but that was no cause for rudeness. Plus, the pizza was overpriced and nothing fantastic.
Result:
Customer Service: 2
Taste of Pizza: 6
Price: 3

Stay tuned for the next Food Truck I try!