Fast Food is Best on Wheels: Frites 'n' Meats Truck

Update 4/12/11: The Frites n Meats truck exploded yesterday. Luckily no one was seriously hurt besides some minor burns. Hoping they'll come back to the street soon.


I've got wide tastes when it comes to burgers. Sometimes I'm satisfied with a McDouble. In fact, sometimes all I want is a McDouble and nothing more. But on the other end of the spectrum, you just can't beat Minetta Tavern's infamously difficult to photograph Black Label burger. Lately I've been getting my mid-high end fix at Mel's Burger Bar, not too far from my apartment. But Mel's has a wickedly bad wait time and is on the pricey end for what it is. Wouldn't it be nice if great burgers could come to me, cheaper and more delicious? Enter Frites 'n' Meats.
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Recently, food trucks of all different types (Korean tacos and Taiwanese Cravings Truck specifically) have been appearing outside my school. I always thought that outside a grad school would be a great locations for lunch trucks, but maybe students don't have the lunch budgets of office workers around mid-to-lower Manhattan. Hence I haven't seen very much food truck activity before this recent flurry.

My first experience with Frites 'n' Meats truck was actually with their frites and not their meats. Their handcut double fried Belgian frites are golden and crisp. They even withstood the dreaded soggy effect of leaving them in the bag too long when carrying them as takeout. A little on the salty side, but both their garlic aioli and horseradish aioli took the savory edge off a bit.

When the truck came around again, I knew I had to get a burger. They emphasize their quality ingredients--DeBragga & Spitler, Balthazar Bakery and Murray's Cheese Shop. I opted for the grass fed Angus on a potato onion bun topped with goat cheese, onion, tomato and mesclun greens. They also offer American wagyu and skirt steak sandwiches, but my preference for a burger is usually a heartier beef. American wagyu, even though it is a cross breed of Japanese wagyu and American Angus, tends to lack the beefy flavor of pure Angus that I want in a burger. The rich marbling of wagyu is best in small quantities.

As you can tell from the photo above, they make a pretty burger, especially since sandwiches are rather difficult to photograph well. All their burgers are cooked medium-rare, a commendable risk but gives you some confidence in the source of the meat. They even undercook to account for the carryover cooking when you order to go. As I've mentioned before, I've come to really appreciate the beef as the critical component of the burger. Too often, we're distracted by the fancy sauces and accouterments when what is most satisfying is biting into a rich and flavorful patty. Frites 'n' Meats obviously takes their burgers seriously, and I'll gladly patronize a place that loves its food as much as I do.

$5.50 for the burger
$.75 for cheese
$3.00 for fries
fritesnmeats.com
Check their blog and twitter for locations.


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Taiwanese in Manhattan

Baohaus Haus Bao and Chairman Bao

As a kid, I used to visit Taiwan annually. Moving from California to New York, I knew that the demographics would alter the culinary landscape. And until I'm willing to take the long train ride out to Flushing, Queens for good Chinese food, I usually settle with whatever is nearby or out of my own kitchen. Recently, I've been on a Taiwanese bent. Since I won't be going back home anytime soon, I sought out some local options.

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First is Baohaus, the mindspring of Eddie Huang, a second-generation Taiwanese-American. Besides his colorful antics, he also opened XiaoYe recently. Lower East Side is just so far away from me that it took almost a year for me to finally get down there for food. It was well worth it.

I tried three of the signature baos (Taiwanese steamed bun sandwiches) with high-end ingredients like Berkshire pork and free-range chicken. The Haus bao was a red-cooked hanger steak ($4.50). An odd choice of meat for the cooking style. Typical Chinese red-cooked meat is pork. While the haus bao had the right flavors, the texture wasn't quite right. I much preferred the Chairman bao the equivalent bun with pork belly ($4). Maybe it's the traditionalist in me, but the pork fat coated the bun just right in combination with the cilantro, peanuts and pickled mustard greens. I also enjoyed the Birdhaus fried chicken bao with a spicy kick ($4). To finish it off, some fried bao fries with black sesame sauce ($3.50) washed down with an Apple Sidra.

Second, I've been following the NYC Cravings truck for months. It serves Taiwanese pork chops and fried chicken rice bowls primarily. Unfortunately, as a truck, it's never near me at just the right time. And I still have issues traveling to get to a food truck. Luckily, last week it came up to my part of town. I eagerly got there early, anticipating a huge line. Seems no one else got the message. A few customers here and there, but no hungry masses. Good thing too, considering it took more than ten minutes for them to fill my order. Such a delay from a food truck is really not okay. No wonder its Facebook page has pictures of long lines.



I finally brought back pork chop and fried chicken bowls ($7 each) to my apartment. Alas, the meat was one-dimensional. All I could really taste was the "pork sauce," or what I thought was simply soy sauce. Both the pork and the chicken had no pizazz, had nothing to distinguish it from just another piece of protein.

So, one hit and one miss. I'll have to try XiaoYe next*. Or better yet, maybe I should just suck it up and make the perilous journey to the Chinatown in Flushing.

Baohaus
baohausnyc.com
137 Rivington St. (and Norfolk)
Lower East Side, 10002
(646)684-3835

NYC Cravings
nyccravings.com
Location variable
@nyccravings


*Update: Due to Eddie Huang's above mentioned antics, including an all you can drink Four Loko night, he has closed Xiaoye for good. Guess it's Excellent Pork Chop House for me.

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Maryland Blue Crab in Chesapeake Bay

This is a pile of eighteen steamed Maryland blue crabs coated with Old Bay seasoning. Armed with a small knife, mallet, and my bare hands, I dove into the stack. For the uninitiated, and non-squeamish, this is a quick how-to guide to eating these crustaceans.
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I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, tearing apart indigenous dungeness crabs. Those crabs are larger than the blue crabs and have much more meat in the legs. As a consequence of this training, I am fairly proficient at eating crab legs. But as you can tell from the picture, the legs on blue crabs have hardly anything worth salvaging beside what's in the claws.

Step One: Flip the Crab Over and Remove Apron


Almost all the blue crabs served in Maryland are male. There are strict catch limits on the female crabs, especially during spawning season from May until early Fall. To identify male and female crabs, the underside "apron" is shaped differently by sex. The rule of thumb is that aprons shaped like the Washington Monument, as in the picture above, indicate male crabs. The female crabs have rounded aprons shaped like the Capitol Building.

Insert the knife under the apron tab and pry it off. It should come off rather easily. This will then allow you to pry off the top shell, or carapace, from the back of the crab.

Step Two: Cleaning the Crab


Usually even at a Chinese restaurant, which is not afraid to show you the ugly side of your food, the gills and some of the digestive track have been removed prior to serving. When I was a kid, I had seen my grandmother pry off the shell of a living crab before in Taiwan, so this scene wasn't as unnerving as the one I'd seen before. There is some cultural conflict as to whether you can eat the yellow digestive tract of the crab. Many Asians would gladly eat this, especially over rice. In Maryland, it is commonly removed. It has a bitter taste, though it is intensely "crab-like." What people can agree on however, is removing the white finger-like gills on either side.


Step Three: Crack Open the Membrane and Pick out the Meat


Split the crab in two to access the meat underneath the semi-transparent membrane. Also, rip off the legs for easier access. The largest leg with the claw can be cracked open with the mallet to access some kernels of crab meat.

At this point the directions are rather free-form. My advice is to simply pick out anything that's white and soft and eat it.


Closing Details


The carnage from six crabs

Maryland crab season is from March until November. I went to the Crab Claw Restaurant in St. Michael's on the Eastern shore of Chesapeake Bay. It is about four hours away from New York City. Wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty. The price of the crabs vary daily. When I went at the end of October, the crabs were $32/dozen. If you do go to the Crab Claw, the crab cakes are a rip-off at $18 each, even with a side. There are great crab cake sandwiches elsewhere for around $10. Lastly, thanks to my girlfriend for demonstrating crab dismemberment procedures.

The Crab Claw
thecrabclaw.com
Route 33 West / Navy Point
St. Michaels, MD 21663
(410) 745-2900

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