(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

So, Chicago used to have a law against food trucks, I have no idea why. Recently, the law has been relaxed to allow food trucks as long as they don't cook the food in the truck or park it within 100 feet of a restaurant. Which basically means we still have no food trucks, because you can't throw a rock in this town without hitting somewhere to eat.

We do have a few, though. There's a cupcake truck. There's a soup and salad truck called The Lunch Machine. And there's the Southern Mac And Cheese Truck.

I have been dying to try this food truck, but it always shows up early and leaves right before I get my lunch break, so I haven't been able to. TODAY, I GOT ME SOME MACARONI AND CHEESE.

...and it's not really very good.

You guys have no idea how sad I am that the Macaroni and Cheese truck makes mac and cheese that is less delicious than the stuff I make myself at home. The pasta is fine -- I mean, it's macaroni, that's hard to mess up -- and for $9 you get a ton of mac and cheese, but they don't seem to have conceptualised "cheese sauce" properly. Maybe it's what I ordered, I don't know. I got the blue-cheese-and-bacon mac and cheese, but I was expecting some kind of white sauce base, like the add-milk-and-cheese-to-a-roux sauce I make when I make it myself. Instead it was literally macaroni stirred up with crumbled blue cheese. I like blue cheese, but it's not a mild flavour, and that's an awful lot to take in at once.

Seriously, my sadness at the mediocrity of the mac and cheese truck is epic. The problem with having a vivid imagination is that reality so rarely lives up to it.

Comments

[priscellie.livejournal.com]

What absurd regulations. One would think that food would stand less of a chance of spoiling if it could be cooked on the truck. The food trucks in New York get along fine!

Sorry about your disappointing mac and cheese.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

As a lifelong avoider of mac n' cheese (I ate it once when I was sick as a child and have disliked it ever since) but also as a total blue cheese fan, the idea of blue cheese mac n' cheese sounds intriguing. Gonna try to work up your own sauce? I'd love to try that one out myself; maybe a base of a milder white cheese cheese with blue cheese as a spice?

[thalia]

You might find this recipe interesting. I've tried it; it's pretty good, but I imagine it could be improved.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I think doing one's own blue cheese sauce should be reasonably easy -- I don't think you'd even need to cut it, because you're adding it to milk and roux which would tone down the flavour. But yeah, if you did need to, a really mild white would probably work. Mozzarella or mild white cheddar -- I'd go with mozz, it's a bit moister.

I've totally spoiled myself for mac and cheese by learning how to cook it myself. I can't make it from the box anymore. It's just so much better home-made!

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I think they're more concerned about health code violations in the truck, or possibly fire code. We're still pretty traumatised from that last big fire. :D

[slice254.livejournal.com]

They have food trucks in my city, but the office park I work in outlawed them.

In completely unrelated news...we've always had ducks and geese in my office park, but now we have a rooster that I saw when I was trying to take pictures of the baby geese.

Just thought everyone on the internet should know.

[stasia]

Once, on a trip through the wilds of the NorthWest, we stopped into a shopping mall/office park thing and ... found a rooster, in full blue-green-black tail and traditional coloring, waiting for Office Max to open.

I think the workmen said his name was Bert.

I have wondered about Ernie ever since...

Stasia

[calliope-jones.livejournal.com]

Do you have a recipe for regular mac & Cheese? I want to learn to make it cause that's the only thing Lil' Captain Jack will eat.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I DO INFACT.

http://copperbadge.livejournal.com/2666979.html?thread=45775075#t45775075

[marymac.livejournal.com]

literally macaroni stirred up with crumbled blue cheese

That's a fairly fundamental failure to comprehend macaroni cheese there...

[seiberwing.livejournal.com]

There was a taco truck in front of the library--I had been wondering what that was about.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The "no food trucks" rule came from Daley, who didn't want any litter on the streets in the loop.

We'll see what happens with Rahm.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I am at the point now where most of the food around me isn't as good as I can make it at home – and I don't consider myself that good a cook. It is depressing, but saves my wallet!

[deepbluemermaid.livejournal.com]

May I please metaquote your last paragraph?

[etharei.livejournal.com]

clearly Ernie was at their taste home-office, sleeping in after making Bert do the emergency office supply run.

[guardantares.livejournal.com]

Clearly, the solution for this is for you to open up a food cart of your own anime-style and set out to conquer the food truck world with occasional breaks to wacky hijinx!

[http://users.livejournal.com/_lady_narcissa_/]

I agree about that mac n' cheese truck. It was okay but not worth the lines that run down the block to get it. The tamale truck is fantastic, however. And the empanada truck is pretty good.

[black-rider.livejournal.com]

Do you have Callender's Grill there? They make an amazing bacon mushroom mac and cheese.

[abby1000.livejournal.com]

I only eat homemade mac n cheese. I have never had any in a restaurant as good as my Mom's or my own.

[lacylu42.livejournal.com]

Hosea Rosenberg, who won Top Chef a few seasons back, had a food truck here in Boulder that was actually in an Airstream trailer (awesome) and they did variations on grilled cheese, among other things. The one I had was sharp cheddar with pork belly and apple preserves.

And lo, it was awesome.

But they stopped doing it because the laws regarding food trucks in Boulder were so ridiculous.

Too bad food trucks mostly stick to urban areas. Us suburbanites get no love. They never come up to the hills.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Sam doesn't need to break for wacky hijinks – wacky hijinks come to him!

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

Oooh; thanks! Think I'll modify it a bit, but it really looks good.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

See, that's the thing-- what I remember is getting horribly sick from boxed Kraft mac n' cheese. My brother did too (we both had the mumps) and he wouldn't touch it afterwards, so naturally neither would I (and the memory of seeing him toss his cookies-- err, pasta-- didn't help a lot.) This, though, sounds decent. And I'd go with Mozzarella too. Just as a side, have you ever made your own ricotta? It's unbelievably easy and a good thing to do if you accidentally let milk get a little too elderly.

[florahart]

Mac and cheese from scratch is easy easy easy, and if the kid has any sense of adventure can be ...added to pretty freely. Today's mac and cheese has tomatoes and beef in it! Today's has peas and mushrooms! Today's is made with a different cheese!

:D

*has definitely never coerced a child to try anything new this way*

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

You certainly may! :)