With Cantina Mobil being the only food truck circulating Sydney streets for some time now, it is definitely exciting to have a second truck, Eat Art Truck, making its way through the city. Wednesday this week saw Eat Art Truck officially launching at Queen’s Square. There was a bit of a delay with the opening but that didn’t really defer the massive queue that stretched for at least 10 metres well before they opened. However, I’m sure the calibre of the head chef has something to do with it. Stuart McGill is ex-sous chef of Tetsuya’s after all.
The concept of Eat Art Truck is to have the food truck in operation whilst an artist would work on their artwork on the other side of the truck. I was told that live artworks would happen at least once a month. Phibs had the honour of kicking things off; and what an impressive work of art it was! The only problem we found with the live artwork was the amount of paint fumes we inhaled, and I don’t think it’ll go particularly well with food.
After a little over 30 minutes of waiting, the crowd cheered as the door of Eat Art Truck opened.
The menu is sectioned off into Intro EATs, Main EATs, Sweet EATs, Drinks and EAT meal (where you get 2 of the cheapest intro EATs, a main and a soft drink for $25). I noticed that the menu had “Menu A” on it, so I’m not too sure if there will be a rotation of various menus; surely something to keep an eye out for.
Service was extremely efficient and once you’ve placed your order, the wait for your food wasn’t that long.
There was a little stuff up with my order. One of the staff come out and tells me that they’ve accidentally deleted my order on the system but will have it made straight away; they even went a little further by refunding half of what I paid because of their mistake. They really didn’t need to do that because we didn’t mind too much and it was understandable that there will be a few hiccups on the opening night but we appreciated the kind gesture.
First up was the chicken sembe ($5). Not knowing what sembe was, I later discovered that is Japanese rice crackers. However, this version of sembe seriously kicks ass! All I need to say is.. Crispy. Chicken. Skin. Drizzled with a mild chilli mayo, kind of like the Oporto’s Bondi Burger sauce. Delicious!
The kingfish ceviche ($10) was a dish I was pretty excited for. C’mon, you really can’t go wrong with ceviche… Tender cubes of fresh kingfish is lightly tossed with lime/lemon juice, chilli, cherry tomatoes and spanish onions. With every biteful, you get an explosion of flavours and the bed of crisp tortilla corn chips slightly soaks up the wonderful juices. So simple, yet so amazing.
Ant’s choice of main steers him in the direction of the BBQ beef bun with slaw ($12). You have a choice of mustard or hot sauce, he went for the hot sauce option but didn’t find it too hot. Soft bun and chunky pieces of smokey and tender beef. Absolutely perfect. I had a bit of food envy here. A slightly picked carrot and gherkin was also provided on the side.
Confit spatchcock ssam ($12) borrows Korean influences to create this messy-to-eat lettuce wrap. Shredded pieces of spatchcock, which appears to be marinated in ssamjang, is also heavily drowned in a chilli oil. Deep fried vermicelli noodles top the ssam and provide much-needed crispness.
A couple of fresh juices were on offer so we chose the apple and pomegranate juice ($4) which is kinda of like a blended fruit shake and not a juice. I am surprised to find pomegranate arils in this drink.
Always having the need to end a meal with a dessert, we ordered the only dessert on the menu. Annindofu ($6) is an almond milk jelly, topped with seasonal fruits (pine and toasted coconut chips. The light creaminess of this dessert ends our meal perfectly.
As I look around, I loved seeing people sitting just about anywhere to enjoy their meal. This is what street food is about.
More trucks please!
