Food that's going places: Eat Art Truck

It’s taken me some time, but I finally caught up with a food truck in Sydney. There are several of the trucks in action now, serving outdoor and takeaway eaters across the city in City of Sydney approved locations.

While this means some of the mobility and spontaneity of food trucks is lost, the trucks have turned up at community events and festivals, and for Eat Art Truck, catered for private events and parties.

Eat Art Truck in Sydney Park carpark, Alexandria/St Peters

Spotting the colourful artwork on the side of Eat Art Truck in the Sydney Park carpark (there is a new artwork now, as part of their dynamic, ongoing support of local artists), we pulled in to lunch on the truck’s first outing in the inner west area.

There wasn’t too much of a crowd when we ordered, about an hour into their lunch service, which was lucky for us as we nabbed the very last pulled pork bun.

Pulled pork bun with lettuce and pickled carrots

The bulging pork bun was impressive; its bloated, shiny and soft Asian-style sweet bread stuffed to the brim with saucy and smoky pulled pork – smokier than I remember the smoked kalua pork in Hawaii.

The white bun also hosted shredded cabbage and a sauce, while the too-lightly pickled carrot logs on the side seemed a little out of place.

Shichimi chicken wings

More of a snack than a meal, the deep fried chicken wings offer pretty decent value at $8 for six pieces. 

The plump, well-cooked pieces of mid-wings and drummettes (sous vide before being fried on the truck, I think) were dusted with Japanese shichimi chilli seasoning and squiggled with a creamy, orange-hued mayonnaise.

The dark, crunchy coating seemed to keep the chicken moist, although it was a tad too salty for my tastes on my first visit.

Spatchcock ssam

The other more substantial offering on the menu on the day was the spatchcock ssam, which we ordered having no real idea of what to expect. Opening the biodegradable packaging, it was a pretty sight of deep fried vermicelli noodles above a fiery-red filling that greeted us.

Sitting in a couple of lettuce leaves, san choy bow or indeed Korean ssam style, the filling of spatchcock pieces and vermicelli noodles was heavily dressed in a spicy ssam jang chilli bean sauce, which made it a particularly messy package to pick up and eat.

While my fingers looked bloodied and red sauce dripped everywhere, Eat Art Truck’s pulpy pear and rhubarb juice cooled the palate with a sweet, innocent flavour. The apple and pomegranate juice on another visit was equally delightful with cinnamon, though it bordered on baby mush fruit feed.

Overall, some items on the Eat Art Truck menu worked well while others might need some rethinking. But that’s hopefully one of the advantages of a food truck – more flexibility to move the menu about as they zip around the streets of Sydney.