Happy Friday everyone! Since I leave soon for the culinary mecca known as Italy, it’s only fair that I have my last pre-vacation post be about food! And my favorite kind of food: street food.
That’s right, it’s Street Food Friday!!!
Doni, Gretchen, Lacey and I are highlighting trucks and carts in Chicago, Portland, Austin and New York and this week, it’s my turn! So let’s take a closer look at the Godfather to Chicago food trucks: The Gaztro-Wagon.
Twitter handle: @wherezthewagon
Website: http://www.gaztro-wagon.com
What is it: Bringing popularity to a new kind of sandwich, the naan-wich (all sandwiches made with naan bread) and specializing in modern street fare. It was started by Matt Maroni (on the right in the below photo), who actually staffs that truck 12 months a year (I’ve been out there in -1 degree weather, and he’s there!)
What I ate: Wow, I wish I could list everything I’ve had here. Because the menu rotates, what I get varies weekly but this week, I soothed my Nola-missing nerves with a sandwich called The Bayou. It included crawfish and Andouille sausages and tomato creole. And it was pretty d*amn tasty but the crawfish got a little lost with the Andouille. Looks like this will be my only trip to The Bayou.
What else is on the menu: The menu varies daily in terms of what is available and below is what was left when they stopped at my office.
But for the larger menu, I have my eye on the warm lobster and hash, pork Pozole, wild boar belly and pheasant thighs. Yes, they all sound amazing.
Verdict: I do love the Gaztro-Wagon and end up hitting it up at least once a month. The naan-wiches are hearty, tasty and a really nice blend of ingredients and flavors I wouldn’t normally make myself. My only complaint is that as the wagon gets more popular, food selection isn’t as wide, especially when they make two stops in a day. As you can see in the photo above, several options were sold out when they got to my office. This is a larger issue with Chicago food trucks, since it can’t be prepared on-site but it’s still frustrating when you’ve been looking forward to it all day, only to settle for your third or fourth choice sandwich, which is still $8-12.
But then again, I’d rather deal with that than lose the food truck movement here overall.