Food trucks / street food.

[stui magpie]

My routine on a Sunday is to go cruise some Sunday markets. The Kingsbury one, Kingsbury Drive Bundoora in the Latrobe Uni carpark, is one that I go to. Apart from the usual trash and treasure, plants, arts and crafts and shit, it has a great assortment of food trucks/street food.

All sorts of stuff, from Aussie BBQ, Japanese cabbage based pancake things, crepes, pies, couple of different Turkish ones, curly spuds, roast meats, kebabs etc.

Today I tried a new one. Had to google later to find it was Filipino street food.

Tried a dish called Sisig. Diced Pork belly, ears and jowls, with onion and chilli, citrus, served on rice with a fried egg on top.

Cooked fresh to order, only took 5 minutes, bloody tasty. Could have used more chilli but quite enjoyed it. For street food I'd give it 4 out of 5 stars.

There used to be a sausage truck at the Camberwell market. My go to was a spicy Debreciner sausage with hot English mustard and sauerkraut. That truck isn't there anymore, the one that is is OK but not as good.

So, had any good street food/ food truck tucker lately? market stall food? Let us know where and what and how you rated it.

[stui magpie]

Thomastown Market is another favourite. Settlement Rd, between Bunnings and maccas, it's a trash and treasure market that's like the united nations for stall holders. $2 entry. Junk, plants, clothes, pirate DVD's, lots of tools, mowers.

In the past 25 years the one food source there, the canteen, hasn't changed the menu. It's straight out of the late 70's/early 80's.

4&20 pies
Hot chips
Steamed Dimmies
Hotdogs
Salad rolls, with or without ham. (old school long roll, iceberg lettuce, tomato, cheese, onion, beetroot, no fancy shit)

If you want a coffee it's instant international roast in a polystyrene cup and if you want milk it's full cream cows milk. Forget your oatmilk latte, not happening here.

[pietillidie]

^Sounds like the menu in Oakleigh when I was a kid! I don't think I've ever seen steamed dimmies here, nor potato cakes, worse luck!

Kebab vans are the way to go over here. Fish and chips don't meet Aussie standards; van, shop or anywhere, whatever you may read. Occasionally you get a good souvlaki from a van, but again not in the same league as Melbourne.

Which reminds me to ask, has flake been banned in Australia yet? Nothing used to beat flake except maybe John Dory, with the fish over here, including cod, not even coming close. That said, I always assumed flake would be eventually stopped for environmental reasons given sharks sit at the top of the food chain and many are endangered, as much as it was the best for fish and chips.

[stui magpie]

^

Dunno about Flake, I haven't had fish and chips from the local shop for ages. When I eat it out I usually go for barra.

[eddiesmith]

Flake still the no1 choice at the Fish and Chip shops!

We’ve got a couple of great local shops, try to go the old traditional fish and chips on a Friday night!

[Jezza]

Which reminds me to ask, has flake been banned in Australia yet? Nothing used to beat flake except maybe John Dory, with the fish over here, including cod, not even coming close. That said, I always assumed flake would be eventually stopped for environmental reasons given sharks sit at the top of the food chain and many are endangered, as much as it was the best for fish and chips.

No, flake is still widely available in Australia.

I personally prefer King George whiting (grilled rather than fried), but flake is a good alternative as well.

[pietillidie]

^I forgot about whiting. It's defo one of the best in Victoria. I can't recall John Dory being widely available in Vic, but it was common in NSW Central Coast fish and chip shops, where I lived for several years in my early 20s.

The best fish of all was the bream I'd catch off the rocks on the NSW Central Coast, but the shop version was never as good. Some fish seem to deteriorate quickly or change too much on freezing. I always suspected flake is so consistently good because it stores better.

Speaking of vans and stalls, if you're ever in Sydney, go to the Pyrmont Fish Market, which is my go-to when stopping in Sydney.

Damn, I miss Aussie fish and chips and seafood.

[stui magpie]

^

You'd think you'd be able to get decent fish in England.

The thing though about the food trucks that struck me at this market was the diversity of different cultural dishes. There's at least 3 different middle eastern ones all doing different stuff. Next time I go, I'll make a list.

[stui magpie]

OK, so I cruised Latrobe Market today and made a list of all the food offerings. Some trucks, some just stalls.

Keep in mind this is not a huge market. Each of these is a separate stall or truck.

Crepes and waffles

Donut van

Pizza and Danish

Fresh squeezed juices

Variety of Iced Teas

Quiches

2 x Coffee places

Souvlakis. Greek style with the meat on skewers

2 x Pie shops selling assorted Pies, Pasties and Sausage Rolls

Sicilian Donuts

2 x Turkish places with different takes on Sucuk and that spiral pastry filled with either meat or cheese and spinach plus other stuff

Japanses joint making 2 kinds of Okonomiyaki which is those grated and fried cabbage pancakes

2 x cake and pastries stalls

Curly Spuds

Ice Cream and Gelati

BBQ joint doing sausages, bacon, eggs in bread or rolls. (Kransky in a roll with onion, cheese and sauce is yum)

Falafal joint

Seafood and chips, mainly Calamari.

Korean fish shaped savoury buns

Brazillian Churros.

There was at least 2 regulars missing, one that sells fresh and cooked mussels and Paella and another that does these Lebanese parcels out of that really flat square bread with either the mince or the cheese and spinach inside, heated on the flat BBQ, folded in half and served with lemon juice and chilli flakes.

For me, that's a fair variety of food offerings at a relatively small market.

They also have 2 fresh vege joints, plus another selling fresh honey and another selling artisan bread.