We live downtown where there's a Farmers Market every Thursday. I love walking past the different tents and surveying the variety of goods: organic fruits and vegetables, fresh-picked flowers (tulips, daisies, sunflowers galore), homemade tamales, tasty cookies and breads, honey, hummus, nuts...
My son loves going to the Farmers Market for lunch. He's tried the Polish sausages, fire-roasted corn, spinach-and-cheese crepes and artery-clogging pastrami sandwiches. But this past Thursday, we made our favorite culinary discovery to date: Japanese tacos.
It was the first time the Oishii Tacos truck made an appearance at our Farmers Market, and wow! We were impressed! A delicious (or "oishii") meld of Japanese and Mexican ingredients, Oishii Tacos offers up specialities like shiitake mushroom quesadillas and fish tempura platters. My favorite were the shrimp tacos-- perfectly deep-fried tempura shrimp, finely-shredded cabbage, spicy pico de gallo wrapped in warm corn tortillas and topped off with their signature spicy sauce and sesame seeds. OISHII!
My son loved the shrimp quesadilla and quickly became friends with Oishii Tacos chef and founder Claudia Naffa. I found out Claudia wakes up at 5 a.m. every day to prep the truck. She chops vegetables, mixes tempura batter, prepares the seafood... No wonder the food tasted so good!
I've noticed the cross-cultural traveling food truck is becoming somewhat of a phenomenon. Gone are yesterday's "roach coaches" selling grease-soaked burritos and heart-attacks on a bun. They're being replaced by the likes of the Kogi truck (Korean-Mexican tacos), Mama Koh's Chicken (a fusion of Korean and Southern cooking) and now Oishii Tacos.
I say, keep the moveable feast coming! (oishiitacos.com)
