Chef Shack Food Truck – St. Paul, MN

Wednesday had rolled around, so it was time to meet friends for our weekly food truck lunch in downtown St. Paul. I arrived before the others and scoped out the offerings. I had to trick some of the others into meeting me downtown since it was just ont he verge of raining. But Myrna and Garrison are suckers for peer pressure and gave in. I finally decided on exactly what I wanted when Garrison arrived and talked me into something else - Chef Shack.

Today, I was going to try the Moo Mee sandwich. From what Garrison described, it’s a Thai meatloaf sandwich and it’s delicious. So, I popped in line and listened to about 10 people in front of me order the Moo Mee and carry off a delicious looking sandwich. Everything the Chef Shack uses is local and they’ve been around a while, so they know what they’re doing.

My order came up and I was handed a delicious looking sandwich (underneath all the pickled cabbage and carrots) and a side of chips. They encourage you to use their hot sauce on the sandwich and the chips, so I did. They will also warn you it is made with habanero peppers and to be careful – I was.

The sandwich was worth the switch and I’m glad I caved to Garrison’s suggestion. Really soft meatloaf-like meat (spruced up with the habanero pepper sauce), and fresh veggies on top. The baguette was firm but not tough and enhanced the flavor of this sandwich more than I expected. I’ve eaten a few different meatloaf sandwiches in my day (traditional, Cajun, spicy, etc), and this one was distinctly Thai – perfectly seasoned without being overwhelming and it also didn’t taste like some run-down diner’s version of meat loaf. This was quality stuff.

I was even more thrilled with food truck Wednesday when Garrison suggested we pop by the Cupcake Social food truck on our way back. That was the right move, especially since it was three blocks away.

We were both bummed that the lady in front of us had ordered what was the last of the Caramel Macchiato cupcakes, but we managed to find replacements.

We were also super nice and chivalrous and bought our respective ladies their own cupcakes. I bought a Key Lime Pie cupcake, a Lemon Coconut cupcake, and a Red Velvet cupcake. I was also smart enough to give D.Rough first choice of which cupcakes she wanted.

All of the cupcakes were really good (despite the fact that there was an “incident” with the Red Velvet on the way home – hit a few too many bumps in the road). I was pleased with all of them, since D.Rough was nice enough to share with me. She liked the Lemon Coconut and we both really liked the Key Lime Pie since the lime wasn’t overpowering. Awesome dessert!