The Fojol Brothers of Merlindia are one of D.C.'s original and pioneering food trucks. They were actually the first food truck I ever visited, and they really hooked me. Their first truck hails from the mythical land of Merlindia. (You see how it has the word "India" in it?) Their specialty is a daily selection of vegetable and meat curries over rice, and I've yet to find one (the veggie ones of course) that I don't enjoy.

Last year the fine Fojol family added a new truck to their mix, and this new truck is from Benethiopia (Get it, "Ethiopia." Do you see a pattern?). The Benethiopia truck stocks a mix of vegetarian and meat stews served with injera, meant to inspire eating with your hands.

Lucky for my coworkers and me, the Fojol Brothers come to our neck of the D.C. woods most Thursdays (Merlindia) and Fridays (Benethiopia). It's an event many of us look forward to.

Both trucks follow a similar format. Shiny VW bus-like vans with brightly colored panels, brightly painted hubcaps, and speakers with eclectic and upbeat music to entertain the customers waiting in line. 

When the trucks arrive, the staff try to get a parking spot near a park or open space where they can lay out their collection of blankets for patrons to lounge while eating their lunches.

In addition to the blankets, they also bring some large hula hoops, just in case you're inspired to breaking into a little hooping fun.

The staff of each truck wears brightly colored jumpsuits with flowing shirts, and the majority don their signature handlebar mustaches (yep, even the ladies of Merlindia have mustaches. You don't see this quite as often with Benethiopia).

But enough about the trucks, ambiance, and staff. Let's talk about the food.

As I said, Merlindia typically offers a selection of three or four vegetable curries and two meat curries. The dishes are available served over basmati rice in a mix and match format of a "pick two" ($7) or "pick three" ($9). If you just want to try, they also offer a "dingo bite" ($2) to sample just the curry.

I stick with the veggie options and they are absolutely delicious. I also have first hand info from friends that the butter chicken is delicious, but I'm here to talk about the veggie curry. There's always a selection of several excellent curries to choose from, be it the mixed vegetables, cauliflower & potatoes, cabbage & chick peas, etc. You can see the whole menu on their website. But quite honestly, my heart skips a beat when I see pumpkin curry on the menu. On those days I sometimes don't worry about mixing and I just grab a pick two of the pumpkin and call it a day. However for the sake of the blog, I got both the pumpkin and chick peas on this fine day.

It's a meal and a half for sure and never leaves me feeling hungry, but I'm always sad when its all gone.

Gladly, the day following Merlindia's visit typically brings Benethiopia to our area. Though my second favorite of the Fojol group (sorry, it's true), I'm still a loyal patron.

The Benethiopia truck offers Ethiopian style cuisine served with spongie injera bread. As with Merlindia, their menu offers a mix and match style "pick 2" or "pick 3" with one meat option and three or four vegetarian choices. For my liking, hands down, I'm always going to get the lentils, then my other veggie will vary by week.

One other important item to note about the Fojol experience are the Lossipops. Though not always on the menu, they are a cool and refreshing $2 treat. I usually eat mine while waiting for my food and on the walk back to the office, I just can't wait until dessert. What's a Lassipop you might wonder? 

Think "fresh ingredient natural ice pop." They usually offer flavors like mango and ginger, but I'm always excited to see my favorite, cinnamon & ginger.

No matter the day and place, you almost always see a line at either of the Fojol trucks. They've established a solid and dedicated following that has steadily grown over their time on the D.C. food truck scene. We're quite glad to have them stop by our area on Thursdays and Fridays and hope they will continue to do so for a long time.

What do you think? Does it sound good to you? Anyone else a fan of the food truck craze that's sweeping the nation? Any local favorites that inspire you to chase after these four wheeled wonders? 

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Unfortunately, I missed Truckeroo 2 because Wendy and I were out of town. :-( I was quite sad. But I'm in town today, so several co-workers and I headed over to the Nationals Park/Navy Yard area to check out this third installment. 

Martin showing us it is Truckeroo 3

Overall, the event seemed to be more widely attended. Not a surprising scenario since it is far more well known this time around. Even though there were more people, everything seemed to be running just a little bit smoother than the last one I attended. I'll chalk that up to experience. See, no lines out front like the last time.

The trucks were plentiful and colorful. I actually think the colorful and original truck designs are one of my favorite parts about food trucks, and having them all lined up like this almost feels like a NASCAR race with all of the brightly colored and heavily sponsored cars.

As is with the last event, a live band greeted guests as they arrived.

And the cornhole boards were actually being used this time.

But we weren't here for music or fun, we were here for some hardcore food trucking indulgence, and there were a lot of trucks to check out. 

Martin and I settled on the Hula Girl Truck. They are a new truck that I've been waiting to try to for a little while, but they've not been near my office. Their truck is very cool, and is made to look like an old woodie surf wagon.

I'd say they did a pretty awesome job on the execution of the design. 

I have to be honest, I felt a little guilty getting food at this truck. I love me some Fojol Brothers of Merlindia curry, but I decided to cheat on them and try out the Hula Girl's Hawaiian inspired food. I purchase a "lunch plate" for $10 which included teriyaki grilled firm tofu and two scoops of sticky rice with a side of their mac salad. I have to say, I was not disappointed one bit. Oh, and the raddish slaw with the mac was outstanding.

I will definitely go again if they come to the area near my office. My friend, Martin ordered t the same, but with chicken instead of tofu. 

As you can see, he also picked up a can of Land Shark Lager for $6 from the beer tent by the band. 

Once we were done eating, we had gotten a little bit hot sitting in the direct sunlight. (Note to anyone from Truckeroo reading this: Truckeroo 4 really needs more umbrellas and at least one more row of tables.) So we decided to head over to the Pleasant Pops truck to get a couple of popsicles. 

Pleasant Pops makes unique flavors of pops with fresh and natural ingredients. They clearly mark their menu and even post caloric information for each pop.

Martin and I both ordered the Caroline's Sweet Tea pops for $2.50 each. They were quite good!

After that, we headed back to the office. Overall it was a great day for Truckeroo 3, and I wouldn't mind going back for dinner. But I didn't leave before taking pictures of all of the various trucks. So here's a roundup of the other trucks that showed up to this great event.

Sol Mexican Grill

Capitol Greenz

Sweet Bites

Eat Stix (they have cake pops!)

Sinplicity

Mojo Truck

Cajunators

El Floridano

Curbside Cupcakes (better than Georgetown Cupcakes in my opinion)

Sauca

Fojol Bros of Merlindia

TaKorean

Red Hook Lobster Rolls

Surfside

Yes, even the D.C. Lottery truck, selling lottery tickets.

That Cheesecake Truck

Sabora Street

BBQ Bus

D.C. Empanadas

D.C. Slices

porc

Eat Wonky

Feelin' Crabby?

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Sang On Wheels

Big Cheese

If you're in D.C. today and are looking for something to do for dinner, head over to Truckeroo. And if you're thinking about coming to D.C. in the next couple of weeks, check out the Truckeroo website to see when their next scheduled event is announced so you can attend. 

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The Red Hook Lobster truck rolled into the vicinity of my office today. As I mentioned during a previous post on Truckeroo, the Red Hook truck is known not only for their lobster rolls, but for their very long lines. It seems that whenever this truck shows up anywhere, they have a line of at least 30 people before they even take the first order. At its height, you can wait more than an hour for your food. 

"Why would you wait an hour for a $15 lobster roll prepared in a truck," you might be wondering? Because, it's really good. You can get your rolls in either Maine style (a lemon mayo base), or Connecticut style (drawn in butter). Either way, it's good.

There were actually four trucks in the area today, Red Hook Lobster, Dangerously Delicious Pies (sweet and savory options), Yellow Vendor Truck (Bulgogi), and Fojol Bros - Benethiopia. Since Red Hook is a rare participant in our area, I decided I would drop by their truck for lunch, so I headed out before the line got too long.

As you can see by the photo, Dangerously Delicious Pies tried to tempt me away from Red Hook, but I was committed. But today, for what ever reason, I decided I was in the mood for their $8 shrimp roll rather than lobster. I got to the truck early and only had about a 10-15 minute wait in line. The person in front of my put in an order for 12 lobster rolls for a grand total of $200 with various drinks, I couldn't believe it. But that massive order still didn't slow them down much, they are a well oiled machine. 

The truck itself is styled like a New England lobster trawler. They also have a selection beyond lobster and shrimp that includes crafted drinks, whoopie pies, and even chowder (I think during cooler weather only). 

When my food came up I took one look at the shrimp and knew I had made the right choice.

Overall, the roll was flavorful and had a ton of shrimp on it. The same can be said for the lobsters each time I've had them in the past. Typically each roll has a lot of thick and tasty claw meat. $15 can feel a bit steep, but I think you get your money worth. Today, I had no trouble feeling like I had gotten my money's worth.

I like the Red Hook truck so much that I really can't pass them up when they come to our area. It's too bad they are in such high demand that they rarely roll around our area.

If you're a DC local, have you had Red Hook and what do you think? If you're not local, would you buy a lobster or shrimp roll from a street vendor truck? I know some people feel very uneasy about buying seafood from a street vendor.

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Washington, DC is sweltering this time of year. The height of summer brings heat and humidity that often border on oppressive, and 2011 has not been an exception to this rule. Lucky for me, a new food truck in DC recently launched and made a stop near my office today. And as a testament to how hot out it is, the truck had a line more than a dozen people long within five minutes of its arrival.

The new (launched last week) food ice cream truck is called the "Orange Cow" and specializes in high quality and tasty hand dipped ice cream in a variety of flavors. We're talking high end ice cream here, not your local neighborhood ice cream man with rocket pops (though, rocket pops are pretty friggen awesome). For those of you wondering, hand dipped means it is scooped out by hand, not soft serve. The end result, hand made, delicious, and flavorful ice cream that isn't overly sweet, has a lot of good flavors made with natural ingredients, and scoops that stay very firm.

I picked up two scoops for $2.99, which included peanut butter cup and strawberry as my two flavors of choice (think peanut butter and jelly ice cream). My co-worker, Martin, got the same first two as me, but added banana cream pie as a third scoop. Sadly, they were sold out of my favorite, cookie dough. Hopefully they'll have more next time they come around.

In addition to ice cream, they offer the added option of a classic sundae packaging. We didn't get the sundae this time, but I saw one that someone else got and I think I may get that next time.

While I was waiting for my ice cream (probably about one minute) I checked out the truck. It is hard to miss since it is made to look like an orange cow with purple spots.

My favorite feature is the truck's headlights, which have eyelashes, and the pink front bumper with a smile.

Unfortunately, I was so excited to eat the ice cream that I forgot to take a photo until after I ate about half of it. My bad :-)

I give this truck a enthusiastic thumbs up and hope they come to my neck of the woods more often. One thing is for sure, I'm going to try several of the other flavors next time, they all looked very good.

Ok, I'll leave this up to you. Are you sick of my food truck posts? Would you rather I stop talking about them, or are they worthwhile for a small post? Either way, if you see the Orange Cow grazing around DC, I'd say it is absolutely worth a look if you are in the mood for ice cream.

Update...

Ok, since I totally messed up and ate half of the ice cream, then took a photo in bad lighting the other day, Martin and I had to go back to the truck two days later to get some more...for photography reasons of course. This time Martin got a Quad. Yes, that's 4 flavors. White Chocolate Blueberry, Strawberry, Vanilla Bean, and another good flavor I can't remember. 

I got a Sundae...and forgot to take a picture. You can see me holding it in the shadow on the ground in the photo above. It was quite good. I'm horrible remembering to take photos while eating ice cream game. I guess I'll have to go back again next week :-)

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There's another new food truck on the block, and I found it pretty much by accident. My coworkers and I saw that the Pi Truck DC (deep dish pizza) was in the area so we formed our small group and headed out for lunch. 

As we walked towards the Pi Truck we noticed a white truck with a few customers and no obvious logos parked a few trucks back from Pi. With our interests peeked piqued, we checked out the other truck.

Low and behold, it was a new food truck called "Curbside Crabcakes." In a play on the now famous Curbside Cupcakes, this truck was serving a Maryland style lump crab cake sandwich, seasoned fries, and slaw.

My coworker Doug and I decided to order both a pizza and a crab cake sandwich to split. We figured if the crab cakes were sub par we had the pizza to fall back on.

As expected, the Pi Truck pizza was quite good, but DC food truck fans already knew that. It ran us $12 for a 9" pie, large enough to split with someone else.

But the crab cake sandwich was great! The crab was thick and plentiful and contained no filler. It wasn't overdone with mayo or sauce, but also wasn't overly crabby. 

I talked with the owner of the truck for a second and was happy to learn that he would be coming back to our area every other week, and that his white truck was so new that it hand't even had the paint job applied. Once we see him with the updated paint scheme, we'll surely update this post with a follow up photo. There is such potential for a good paint job when dealing with crabs.

My verdict, crab cake and fries for $12 may sound a bit steep at first, but a good quality and thick crab cake that stands on the crab and not all of the seasoning or frying is well worth the price.

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