Vancouver Food Trucks: Loving Hut the Sequel

I spent a beautiful fall day last week surrounded by gorgeous leaves and eating yummy junk food. Most of the leaves still haven't gotten around to changing here. It seems like it always happens all at once. Green leaves, then brilliant colors then a few days later, the streets are full of piles and piles of brown leaves. The fall colors are something to enjoy while they last, that's for sure.

 

Speaking of enjoying things while they last, that's exactly what I did with my lunch at the Loving Hut food truck! The sun was really bright and I wasn't sitting on the best bench for photos. I couldn't get any decent pictures of my sandwich and I took tons from all different angles. Oh, well. Just imagine some extra yumminess in there if you can.

 

I'm kind of cheating by visiting Loving Hut's food truck again. It's just around the corner from my office, which is pretty rad. There are more to discover, but some days I just don't feel like traipsing around the city at lunch, you know. That sometimes depends more on what kind of shoes I'm wearing than anything else, I'm afraid to say.

 

I'd been really looking forward to trying the crispy chik'n sandwich so that's exactly what I ordered. There are sides now, too, which is great. You can choose between zucchini sticks or yam fries. Zucchini sticks sounded quite a bit different than what you can normally get with your lunch, so I got some of those, too. This stuff may be vegan, but it's definitely junk food.

 

There were so many zucchini sticks, they were definitely not being chintzy on that. Thick, fried pieces of zucchini. I don't eat fried stuff all that often so it was a bit much for me. I don't really care for mayonnaise based sauces (or mayonnaise at all for that matter, usually) so I tried the dipping sauce but didn't really eat it much after trying it. I think most people would like it, it's just not my thing. It's also a bit sweet which I also don't tend to care for. Keep in mind that I think things are sweet that most people think are not sweet at all, so you can't judge too much by that. I think there are some red peppers or ketchup or something mixed in there that gives it that sweetness.

 

The crispy chik'n burger was doused in that same sweet mayo sauce. I bet most people would like that stuff, it looks to be the same color as the "secret sauce" that you see on things all the time. Though, how secret can it be if everyone knows about it? There was also some guacamole, lettuce, tomato and this yellow apricot/jalapeno relish along with the sauce and the chik'n burger. I ended up getting quite messy. I saw another guy eating his with it still partially wrapped up in the paper. I should have done that instead of taking it out like I did. I really liked this, but I think that next time I'd get it without the sauce for sure. It was delicious and I think it would be even more delicious without that. But, again, it's just not my thing, you might like it with the sauce.

I noticed they're still selling those cookies, but now instead of $2, they're $2.50. Each! Yowza. Guess what I'm never buying with my lunch?

Vancouver Food Trucks, Part 1

Earlier this year (or maybe late last year, I forget), Vancouver passed a city ordinance allowing food trucks. We already had hot dog stands but that was it. I think it's taking the city a little bit to get used to the food trucks for some reason. I don't really know why, I think they're pretty awesome, personally. There are a few that have vegan things, but not very many. The ones that do pretty much just have veggie burgers, but that's okay. Those particular ones also set aside a spot on the grill just for veggie burgers so they never come into contact with the meat. Pretty awesome. I'm going to try and visit some of those for lunch this month, too, so more on that later.

While this is awesome, what everyone has been waiting for (at least I have been) is the Loving Hut food truck. I guess they had some trouble getting the truck built so they missed out on all of the awesome summer weather when people are most likely to be walking around and buying street food. Bummer. No more waiting! The Loving Hut food truck is open as of today! I'm super stoked because I work right around the corner. I'm only there for another few weeks, though so I'm going to have to hit up the street food while I can.

They're starting out with just a limited menu, but it all looks excellent to me. When you include tax in the prices, they round up to the next dollar so you don't have to worry about having a bunch of random change, either.

I tried the Ruben Sandwich today. It was pretty good. I was starving so I think I might have eaten it in record time. I kind of wish I had gotten two of them, actually. The only bummer about the sandwiches is that they're kind of small. They're delicious and not tiny, don't get me wrong, but not huge either. I wish there was some kind of side to order with the sandwiches even if it was just a bag of chips or a small prepared salad or something. Hopefully that's the kind of thing that's on its way as they get going a bit more. There were some gluten-free chocolate chip cookies, but they were $2 each. I wanted a cookie, but I didn't want to pay that much. $1, I would have paid, but not $2 for just one cookie.

The vegan "ham" on my sandwich was really thin and the sauce was yummy and not too messy. I was worried about that; I have the worst luck at getting sauce all over my fingers when I eat things like that. I didn't have that problem with this at all. The bread was toasted just right and the caramelized onions were a nice touch and added a nice extra flavor to the sandwich. I do wish there had been a bit more sauerkraut, though. But maybe that's just me, I like that stuff and it's part of what makes a reuben really awesome. I've only ever had vegan reubens and everywhere seems to make them differently. This is the best one I've had yet. Just a bit more sauerkraut and it's perfect.

If you're out and about in Yaletown, you can find the Loving Hut food truck in front of the Roundhouse Community Center at the corner of Pacific and Davie. They open at 11:30am, but I'm not sure what time they close.

Vegan Poutine

I had a big plate of vegan poutine for lunch today at Loving Hut.  It was awesome.  If you don't know what poutine is, it's fries with gravy and cheese.  I didn't know what it was before I moved to Canada, either.  It's super tasty and Loving Hut is the only place that I know of where I can get a vegan version.  I've found lots of places to get fries and veggie gravy, which rules even on its own, really.