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| Tacos from The Jolly Pig truck |
Tacos seem to be the heart-and-soul of the current food truck revival -- traditional, Korean, exotic, almost any variety of meats that you can put inside a tortilla.
Jeff Givens of
Southern Skies Coffee Roasters continues
his guest series posting about food trucks that hit up Howard County, including the National Business
Park when he was working there. Today's, it's the Jolly Pig truck:
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| The Calwells |
Tad and Joann Calwell offer a variety of tacos with most of them using inspiration from flavors worldwide. When they first began, they started with Korean-style tacos. They now offer around 10 varieties at any one time, with others offered on a seasonal basis.
Like many other food truck operators, Joann and her husband Tad didn't start out in the restaurant industry. hey used to be in the mortgage business as title searchers, but when the mortgage crisis hit, they decided to start a food truck. Joann had always thrown big parties for her family and friends so preparing food and hosting meals came naturally. They searched around for more than a year to find the perfect truck and opened for business in early 2012. By August of that year, they had already garnered enough recognition to be rated one of the top 10 food trucks in Baltimore by the Baltimore Sun.
Joann is always experimenting with new flavors and intimated to me that she’s developing a Moroccan-spiced taco right now.
I had the Korean, the al pastor and the Thai tacos. Wrapped in a flour tortilla, the ingredients were very fresh, and the flavor profiles captured the essence of their inspiration.
As always, Twitter and Facebook are the best way to track these trucks. You can see when the Jolly Pig will be near you by watching
its Twitter feed.
Unrelated comment: Bagel Bin in King's Contrivance has closed. Did they all close? Any good places to get a breakfast sandwich in North Laurel?
ReplyDeleteI believe the bagel bin in Enchanted Forest shopping center on 40 is still open. I'm pretty sure my wife bought some bagels there last week. (Sorry that doesn't help you for North Laurel, though.
ReplyDeleteBagel Bin Clarksville just remodeled and I bought from Cafe Bagel off 103 this AM. Used to live in North Laurel and KCBB was where we went. No great ideas for an alternate.
ReplyDeleteBagel Bin Clarksville just remodeled and I bought from Cafe Bagel off 103 this AM. Used to live in North Laurel and KCBB was where we went. No great ideas for an alternate.
ReplyDeleteCafe Bagel off of 103 is quite good. I prefer it to Bagel Bin and if I'm going out specifically for bagels I will head there. Bagel Bin is much more convenient - I hope Cafe Bagel expands.
ReplyDeleteFYI - Beef Brothers, in the same shopping strip as Bon Appetit Bakery near Rt. 40 & 144, has opened. I tried it once and did not care for their signature beef sandwich. It was the same shaved beef style as Arby's and I prefer thicker slices of beef. The french fries were the thin, crispy kind and tasted fine. They also have pizza, but I haven't had a chance to try it yet.
ReplyDeleteWow. My family loves the beef brothers place. Best subs and fries around here by far. Kids love the pizza. Youre missing out.
DeleteIt appears the Smash Burger and Pie Zone pizza place on Rt 40 are open now. Tonight there were people inside both but I couldn't tell if it was just a soft opening or training. I didn't see any spotlights or dancing inflatable noodle guys.
ReplyDeleteWhere is How Chow?
ReplyDeletePie Five did open this week in the new shopping strip on US40 west of Bean & Burgundy (which still has a good lunch buffet). Pie Five does not take reservations and they do not deliver, but they have a special way of cooking the pizza so that it bakes in 2 minutes and it is ready for you 5 minutes after you order. You can specify your own pizza, choosing from five different crust types and four sauces and a variety of toppings, or you can use one of their pre-arranged combinations.
ReplyDeleteI tried three (pre-arranged) pizzas: the BBQ pizza, the Buffalo Chicken pizza, and a meat pizza (I forget the name) with one of their thin crusts and two of their thick crusts. I thought the thin crust was good, better than Domino's, not as good as Ledo's, and the thick crust was good as well, better than Pizza hut, not as good as what I've had in Chicago. The BBQ sauce was on the sweet side, with a hint of smoke and went well with the chicken. The meat pizza was good, with a good balance of salt and spice. The buffalo chicken wasn't what I expected, there was not much buffalo sauce, just some jalapeno peppers. It's a pretty crowded market so I wish them well. It's worth trying out.
Bangkok Delight near Rt 100 and Rt 108 has closed. A sing on the door said they lost their lease.
ReplyDelete@Jim S, thank you for the update! I was just thinking that I hadn't been for a long time and was planning to go this week! :(
ReplyDeleteCinco de Mayo (Mexican) http://www.cincodemayorest.com/ is scheduled to open next year in the old Royal Taj spot on McGaw Road.
ReplyDeleteI went to the new Royal Taj location today, check out my blog post for more info.
ReplyDeleteR and R Taqueria is moving around the corner to where the Jessup Lhasa is any day now. They are opening a burger spot in their existing location in February. More information can be located here: http://www.rrtaqueria.com/important-announcement-form-rr-taqueria/
ReplyDeleteWhere the hell is Mr. HowChow?
ReplyDeleteSaw a sign for a new ramen place on RT 40 located between Boston Market and Lighthouse Tofu a couple weeks ago, although it wasn't open yet when I drove past it.
ReplyDeletehowchow...we are missing you...you have gotten us to try so many new places...please come back
ReplyDeleteFYI: Homeslyce which looks like pizza apparently just opened, and Nalley Fresh is coming into the old Garbanzo space.
ReplyDeleteHere are more details on the previous post ...
ReplyDeleteHomeslyce is a Baltimore pizza spot. "Our signature is a "Slyce- a boat shaped pizza" and we have an extensive menu of appetizers, sandwiches, salad and desserts!" It's address is 9400 Snowden Parkway which puts int the same shopping center as Mattress Warehouse & Chutney.
Nalley Fresh is a bowl/salad Baltimore spot. The new location will be in Dobbin Center. I've been to the one in Hunt Valley. Its pretty good, but not as good as Sweetgreen. :) Now that I see the calories, it's a little too much ... (salad + dressing+ protein) http://www.nutritionix.com/nalley-fresh/menu/premium
My husband and I went to Jersey Mike's last night for dinner and we noticed that Pisco (by the Columbia Trader Joe's) was totally dark. There was a sign on the door from the Howard County Sheriff's office stating that they have been evicted. We never made it there, but by all of the Yelp reviews it doesn't seem like we missed out on anything.
ReplyDeleteSome great places opening. My fam is obsessed with the beef brothers or bb deli. Whatever it is called. Great menu abd we have loved wverything on it. Possibly the best delivery place too for lazys like us. Real food delivered my wife says. Cant beat that. Thanks for the updates.
ReplyDeletePie Five does not take reservations and they do not deliver, but they have a special way of cooking the pizza so that it bakes in 2 minutes and it is ready for you 5 minutes after you order. You can specify your own pizza, choosing from five different crust types and four sauces and a variety of toppings, or you can use one of their pre-arranged combinations. اسعار الخيام في الامارات | خيم عزاء
ReplyDelete