Chow Truck

Address: Wherever they are in Salt Lake City (schedule available at http://www.chowtruck.com/about.php).

Review: Chow Truck is a Salt Lake City pioneer in the increasingly popular food-from-a wheeled-apparatus movement. It's particularly special because most of the apparatuses in Salt Lake are in the form of food carts driven by good old Fred Flinstone power, while Chow Truck is just that: a truck (and a scorch-your-eyes-yellow one at that).

So, what fare is divulged from the bowels of this yellow beast? Asian-inspired fusion, of course. Specifically, tacos sliders, root veggie chips, etc.

I ordered a taco and a slider.

The taco was filled with pineapple, ginger, pork, Asian slaw, cilantro, and fired wanton skins. Immediately upon biting the taco, a wave of pineapple hit. That was followed by the fresh, cool slaw and the crunch of the wanton skins. (The wanton skins were a very thoughtful textural contrast that made the taco far more interesting than it would have been otherwise.) The pork was juicy and tender, although it was more of a background ingredient than anything else.

The slider included the identical asian slaw and wantons skins, but it featured panko-crusted fried tofu and a cilantro pesto. The tofu was the unmitigated star of this slider. It was crunchy, flavorful, and had a slightly silken feel on my tongue. Very impressive element. I found myself longing for something other than the slaw and wanton skins I had already eaten though. This tofu deserved topping all its own.

Other than the redundancy of the toppings, my own real critique regarding Chow Truck is the use of standard, supermarket-quality corn tortillas and slider buns. It really brings down the overall quality of the product. I know it's fusion food and they want to use at least some standard American ingredients. I get that. But if the thought and care that went into the fillings also went into the tortillas and buns, Chow Truck could produce truly killer food. As it stands, they produce pretty good food with spectacular tofu.

Rating: 6.5/10 (5/10 is average).