Staff Meal

I just had the daily special at Staff Meal, and wow! It was inspired! Perhaps in honor of our recent weather, today’s special burrito was the «Irene v2” – beef tongue chili, Fritos, Rice n’ Beans, Guac, Alex’s Ugly Sauce, and cheese. The beef tongue was very tender, like a well-​made brisket. I was on the fence about the fritos, but I’m happy to say that they were a wonderful/​crunchy addition to my meal.
This was my first time at the Staff Meal, although I keep the Boston food trucks map bookmarked on my work computer (and visit it a lot). The reason is, I’m a native Californian, and I just can’t stomach paying $ 4 or more for A taco (The Taco Truck, I’m looking at you too!). Taco singular. It’s just too much.
Burritos are another story. My search for acceptable burritos in Boston is my personal search for the Grail, and I’ll definitely be hitting up The Staff Meal for some holy relics again soon.

Located on Friday’s evenings near Post Office square I have now been twice and both times I tried their Pig’s Head Burrito and then the taco version. Get it out of your head (pun intended) that you are actually the meat from a pigs head and you will find the meat to be not much different than any other part of the pig. Tender and juicy it comes topped with a black bean mayo, fried rice, and fried garlic. It is the perfect mixture of sweet and savory.

I’ve been to Staff Meal a couple times, and they’re good enough I will travel through the city to search them out when need be!
The first time I had them was on a cold December day. I was just closing out a successful but frigid Christmas shopping trip and the smells coming from this little truck were amazing. When I got back to the car I chowed down on an amazing Chinese Sausage roll and a sandwich of this fragrant beef that had obviously been cooked low and slow with plenty of bay leaf.
You know those meals where you have one bite and it takes you right back to your Mom’s kitchen in childhood? That happened. Seriously, I was like the food critic in Ratatouille with that sandwich. It was warm and produced instant contentment.

First food truck experience went OK. I was in Boston and Staff Meal had been on my list of places to try after hearing of the Foie Gras Baklava. I was in the Faneuil Hall area and saw that they were going to be in the Financial District @ 3 on Friday. I sauntered over there around 3:15, and they showed up around 3:40.
They were out of the Steinberg burrito special when they got there, so I had the Irene special («Pork Neck Chilli, Whole Mess of Fritos, Rice n’ Beans, Guac, Alex’s Ugly Sauce»), the foie gras baklava and the ‘Judge Smails Half & Half.‘
The drink was refreshing, but not really worth 3 $. The baklava had the tiniest flavor of savoriness, and then tasted like an average baklava. I was hoping to get some of that livery goodness mixed with the sweetness of the honey and nuts, but it was mostly sweet.
The burrito was damn good, and packed with stuff! I wouldn’t really call it a chili, but the meat was fall-​apart tender and delicious. However they forgot the fritos, and it would have benefited from the extra salt and crunch. I was disappointed when I couldn’t find any in the burrito. The ugly sauce was tasty, though!
Overall it was a good experience, and I would choose it over Chipotle any day. Now on to some more food trucks!

Eating at a food truck makes me want to own one. I have ideas for them, and I get really excited until I realize that I’ll need a lot of backing to actually start it up. (Insert donation plea here — ha!) Yesterday, I had a delicious lunch at a truck that my husband has been raving about for months, and I finally made it over there. It was definitely worth the walk!
The truck is called Staff Meal, and they have truck-​made chorizo. Yup, they had me at «truck-​made chorizo!» The menu selection consists of four basic choices, with the option of having each as tacos, or as a burrito, as well as a few specials — one of which is Matt’s favorite. The line was long, people were excited to eat the food, and the employees are friendly and helpful!
I finally got my turn at the window, and ordered for both me and Matt. A «Steinberg» for him (half chorizo, half barbacoa, rice n’ beans, «guac» and Alex’s Ugly Sauce) and the Truck-​Made Chorizo, Lime Crema, Radish and Lettuce burrito for me. I added a couple of Judge Smails’ Half & Halfs (half lemonade, half iced tea blasted together) and pulled up the coupon I got on Unilocal for checking in! After saving the dollar, I pulled up LevelUp to pay! I love how convenient they make this!
After toting my purchases over to a lovely bench down the way a bit, I took a sip of the refreshing beverage. It was a great concoction of iced tea and lemonade, not too much of either, but just right. It was just sweet enough, and just tart enough to be the perfect drink for a hot day in Boston!
Once properly refreshed by «Judge Smails,» we both unwrapped our burritos and took a few bites! The chorizo is so fresh, the rice is perfectly cooked, and the sauces are interesting and flavorful. I thoroughly enjoyed mine, but the «Steinberg» was amazing. The combination of flavors made each bite really pop, and the mixture of barbacoa and chorizo was very complimentary! I think it was the guacamole that pulled it all together — that or the red cabbage they threw in there for some crunch — so good!)
I found Staff Meal’s truck in City Hall Plaza, by Government Center, but you can check their website daily, or follow them on Twitter for alternate locations. I definitely recommend checking them out when you are in the mood for tacos or a burrito, because the food is delicious and really satisfies the craving. With fresh ingredients, and friendly faces, how can you go wrong???

Many people look forward to Fridays because it signals the end of the week. For me, it means it’s #FoodTruckFriday and I get to leave the office and enjoy Staff Meal.
I’ve only known the Staff Meal food truck in its most recent incarnation as a purveyor of innovative and eccentric tacos and burritos. And the fillings are delicious. I’ve enjoyed Chinese sausage and fried rice, chorizo, barbacoa, chicken paprikash and barbacoa tacos. While now retired, the chicken paprikash came with bacon jam that was divine. I still dream about it.
Of late I’ve been enjoying the Irene — a monstrous burrito packed full of pork neck chili, fritos, guac, rice and beans, and ugly sauce (with a name like that it has to be good). This burrito is so good it even garnered the attention of Frito Lay on twitter.
Have I mentioned the foie gras baklava? I haven’t? I’d rather you not know about it, because if you don’t know about it, it won’t get sold out — and that means more for me. Sure foie gras baklava sounds strange, but savory and sweet go so well together, and this dessert is another example of that principle.
They also offer chips and guac — the guac is garlicky and is pretty good — I just wish you got more of it. I hold guacamole to a higher standard than most — I’m Mexican, grew up with the best homemade stuff, and continue the tradition by making it more often than I should. The chips, however, are nothing to write home about and have a tendency to be oily. In fact, when they were offering them, the fried chicken skins were the less oily option for scooping up the guac goodness.
Their offerings are creative and delicious, and with the burritos you’re definitely getting a value. They’d get 5 stars, but I’ve encountered a crunchy bean or occasionally overcooked rice more often than I’d like to admit, and the wait can get pretty long during Friday lunch.
One more thing, these guys are all over social networking. Follow and interact with them on twitter, check-​in on Unilocal and get $ 1 buck off. Also, if you use LevelUp, you’ll be glad they accept it as payment. So not only do you get to enjoy yummy food if you come back again and again, you’ll earn loyalty discounts! Delicious and economical.

The burritos and tacos that come out of this truck are pretty ridiculous.
I’ve had both, with the various fixings and types, and all of them are on par with each other. Just pick the one that sounds most appealing, and the quality will be there.
I’m less of a fan of their drink, but the food has me coming back over and over.
Ugly sauce. I mean… Ugly sauce. It’s awesome.

Just had the chicken paprikash burrito from the food truck at City Hall — arguably the best burrito I’ve ever had in my life. Ever. Anywhere. It was really the bacon jam that made it sing — I’m going on Amazon to order a tub of it to throw on other dishes.
The burrito is huge compared to their taco portions, and reasonably priced ($ 7). The guac was also good, but the chips they served it with were a joke — I’ve had better chips with neon yellow cheese at Fenway Park, and I expect more from a taco truck.
Give it a shot — get there early, cash out, with an empty stomach!

I’d eat their chicken paprikash taco anytime.
These tacos are pretty well stuffed. The chorizo could’ve been more moist and the beef barbacoa was good but that chicken paprikash! So tasty and tender! Guacamole was okay but I thought the chips could’ve been better. Friendly service though. I’d say 3 and a half stars.

First, I’d like to start off by saying that I was disappointed to find out that the Staff Meal menu had changed to all-​tacos-​all-​the-​time since I had purchased my Unilocal Deal Nov 2011. I was looking forward to the opportunity of trying their inventive sandwiches and the enigmatic sounding foie gras bakalava… but that was not to be.
At the time when I had purchased my deal, they did not have a location convenient for me, so I figured I’d try to make the special effort sometime to try them out. But now they have a spot at the Government Center Plaza for lunch on Wednesdays and Thursdays. Quite do-​able!
In anticipation, however, I’ve peeked at their daily menu — current menu available on their website — and have been a bit sad to see that their menu has been identical two days in a row with the following items:
Chinese Sausage, Fried Rice, Black Bean, Mayo, Fried Garlic — $ 3
Truck Made Chorizo, Lime Crema, Radish, Lettuce — $ 4
Chicken Paprikash, Bacon Jam, French’s Onions — $ 4
Beef Barbacoa, Baja Sauce, Pickled Slaw, Plantain Chips — $ 4
Side of Chips (or Fried Chicken Skin $ 4) and Garlicky Guacamole — $ 3
Where’s the Morracan lamb taco and the Bicol Express taco and corned beef taco touted by other Unilocalers?
Well, anyhow, I decided to order one of each menu item. Service was pleasant, but they were unfortunately out of chicken skin for the day, and yes, I went early, so they must have out of it completely.
I personally (aka I did it myself) adjusted my tacos to one layer of tortilla apiece and ate…
Chorizo — looks like ground meat. Kind of dry, not very tasty.
Beef Barbacoa — great flavors and moistness
Chicken Papriskash — lots of shredded chicken, also moist and flavorful
Chinese sausage — topped generously with the lap cheong coins, but when biting into this, try to get a mouthful of whole coins at a time, as trying to chew through the sausage casing and juggle the taco was a little tough — the little bit left behind tried to jump out of the taco to land against my lips as it threatened to fall onto my lap. The sausage was room temp, while the rice was slightly chilled… tasty but would have been better warmed.
Chips — thick cut, unfortunately oily, but with a highly satisfying crunch, the lightly salted triangles were a good foil for the…
Garlicky guacamole — decently garlicky, cool temperature, creamy, satisfying
Two tacos and split an order of the chips with a friend, and this gal’s appetite would be satisfied.
With an order consisting of 1 aluminum foil tin, 2 styrofoam clamshells, and 1 bag o chips, I would have expected them to hand it to me in a bag of some sort. But no. I don’t know if it was environmentally conscious of them, or they are just used to customers who only order what they can safely consume in one seating, or they ran out, or he just didn’t think to offer one. Not a deal breaker though.
Listen up for your name — that’s how you’ll know your food is ready. Prices are inclusive of tax, which means no spare change! And they take LevelUp.
*** 8÷2÷2012 ***
Peeked at their online menu — they now have taco or burrito options for the same daily fillings, AND the Foie Gras Baklava is back on the menu, for $ 5! Guess I’ll have to pay them a visit sometime.
*** 10/​11/​2012 ***
Spotted a handwritten sign saying that they do not accept credit cards, but only Level-​Up or cash. I don’t know if this is a temporary thing, or something more permanent.

So far… so bleh.
Today was my first visit to this food truck. I wanted the Moroccan Lamb tacos, but they were out of them. That was a bummer. So, I went with the Chinese Sausage tacos. I got 2. They were OK. Definitely nothing to write home about. The sausage was really chewy. I absolutely abhor chewy food. And the tacos were a luke warm. Meh.
On a positive note, the staff was friendly :-)
I do plan to go back and try the Moroccan Lamb tacos, and when I do, I hope to be able to update with a better review. We shall see!

I’ve been eager to try this food truck for a while and finally did so today. Thanks to the Unilocal deal, I got a fantastic dinner for two for $ 10:
— 2 Corned Beef tacos with pickled red cabbage slaw, thin fried onion strings and whole grain mustard… these were fantastic! The corned beef was tender and the slaw was crisp and had a nice light tang to it. This was definitely my favorite of the two tacos we got!
— 2 Chorizo tacos with radishes, lettuce and lime crema… the chorizo was tasty, I like that it wasn’t greasy, but it could have used a bit more spice and heat. Overall it was good.
— Chips and Garlicky Guacamole… the chips were thick, handcut and tasty and paired nicely with the chunkier guacamole which was good but not as «garlicky» as I was hoping for.
Looking forward to trying new options in coming weeks! Oh and they accept credit cards — AMEX, Visa, Mastercard even Discover (does anyone actually have this card, really??) so not having cash is not an excuse to miss out on their food!

I have a huge crush on tacos and the guys at Staff Meal. The food is interesting, delicious and unlike anything you’ll find anywhere else in Boston — either at a food truck or a brick and mortar joint.
Get the corned beef taco while you can. It’s a don’t miss for sure! And be sure to linger creepily outside their truck for awhile… they listen to the best music!

I fucking love these guys. They’re always coming up with new delicious things for me to cram down my gullet.
The best current offering is their Bicol Express taco, which is pork braised in coconut milk, filipino style. They top it with some pickled green papaya and throw it in a taco. A close second is the fried chicken skin, pumpernickel purée and chopped liver taco.
What are you waiting for? GET IT IN YOU, NOW

YUMMERS! These guys are geniuses!
I’m so glad I first tried out Staff Meal when they still had sandwiches, soups and foie baklava! But I’m super sad I missed out on the Titanic Menu, especially the Pickled Welfleet with warm leek fondue! Bumming out since New York is so far away and I can’t come up for every single wild and woolly menu change!
This last visit was a very nice new departure from all of the above — the entire menu was tacos! Wahoo! You have not lived until you’ve had a duck tongue taco! I’m not kidding! It was sumptuous in its texture and flavor — roasted broccoli and five spice onions providing a perfect foil for rounding out the exotic tongue. Can you tell I’m mad for the duck tongue?! (I see that they have added pigs ears to the duck tongue mix on today’s menu! So clever!)
I could have been happy with two (or three or four) of the duck tongue! However, since I only get to Boston so infrequently, we ordered the entire menu to share. Brilliant! I have to admit that I was resisting the trend to mix seafood with cheese, but the crab and scallion cream cheese taco won me over. Had to double up on the butter poached shrimp, since our tastes turned into gigantic bites and the treats weren’t making it around for everyone to sample and savor.
Salivating from the memory of those innovative tacos! These guys never disappoint. Bostonians, don’t miss out on all of this amazing grub. You’re SO lucky! Adam and Patrick are the real deal.
PS. Congratulations to Staff Meal for winning The 2011 Food Truck Rookie Of The Year award!

The Staff Meal Food Truck is easy to miss. It’s plain, white, boring, and doesn’t stand out from the rest of the food truck chain. However, their menu opened up my eyes and lured me in to give this truck a shot.
I ordered the bibimbap sandwich which contained short rib and kimchi. I was hoping that the contents of the sandwich would have had more, because in a typical bibimbap, it’s a mixture of more seasoned vegetables, pickled items (not typically kimchi), and rice topped with a spicy chilli bean paste (gochuchang).
After a short wait and a little walk down the street, I finally got to sit and give this sandwich a shot:
First Impression: Still warm, and there’s so much meat! Holy cow!
After First Bite: I need napkins! The bun [especially the bottom one] fell apart in my hands due to the saucyness/​juicyness of the meat. Cry. Dislike. Stars taken away.
After devouring the entire sandwich: Stupid bun. And, although tasty, the meat wasn’t as flavorful as traditional kalbi/​bulgolgi that I’m used to. Also, there wasn’t a good kimchi-​to-​meat-​ratio to leave me wanting more.
Maybe Staff Meal had an off day? Either way, sure, I’d give it another shot, but I definitely won’t be going out of my way for another chance!

Staff Meal is a food truck which has a great concept, offering high-​end street food inspired by restaurant staff meals. The owners have backgrounds at Bravo at the MFA and Bistro du Midi and really flex their creative culinary muscles.
The simple white, Staff Meal truck can be found in the Back Bay at the Boston Public Night and on Washington Street near Peter’s Park in the South End on various evenings. Some of the items being served the day we saw the truck include hot dog arepas, chinese sausage in steamed bun, foie baklava (pyllo and duck liver), steak bomb, cassoulet sub (garlic sausage, white bean stew and duck confit) and griddled pound cake (grilled in chicken fat and apple butter).
Currently, there is a new iteration of the steamed bun with latin inspiration with rice and beans and chorizo. I definitely want to try that. The steak sandwich as of late is a salisbury steak sandwich with hash browns. I loved the homage to artist Shepard Fairey and Parks and Recreation’s Ron Swanson. (In my opinion, he the best character on the show, with a close second to Leslie Knope).
I really appreciate the high end dog treats for $ 1, Chicken Heart Dog Madeleines.
The $ 4 hot dog arepa was so delicious. The melty cheese, caramelized onion, salty hot dog went so well with the crispy cornmeal arepa. I hope this circulates on the menu again.

The best, most original, highest-​craft food truck in Boston, two former fine-​dining chefs doing amazing, modestly-​priced food in a mobile setting.
A few years ago, Boston’s street-​food universe was tightly limited in scope, ambition, and geography. There was little to see beyond a few trucks and carts peddling so-​so hot dogs, burritos, and American-​Chinese fare, mostly in Downtown Crossing and around the MIT campus. That’s changing fast with the advent of excellent new vendors like the vegetarian Clover Food Lab and Bön Me, a gourmet Vietnamese truck. Staff Meal, the brainchild of two fine-​dining chefs — Patrick Gilmartin of Bravo at the MFA and Adam Gendreau of Bistro du Midi — has upped the ante further, bringing seasonal sourcing, old-​timey kitchen craft, and a delectable gastropub sensibility (sans the alcoholic beverages) to meals on wheels.
The menu varies weekly: a recent sampling reveals an offal-​loving, snout-​to-​tail focus and an admirable dose of in-​house curing, pickling, and smoking. Bruschetta ($ 2) spreads two slices of toasted baguette with cream cheese subtly flavored with roasted marrow, and tops each with a perfect white anchovy. Arepas ($ 3) are a brace of griddled white-​cornmeal pancakes (reminiscent of thick Rhode Island jonnycakes) flanked with a curtido-​like slaw of lightly pickled, julienned carrot and watermelon. Foie gras baklava ($ 4), a small wedge layering phyllo, chopped pistachios, and fattened duck liver, is a fascinating savory variant of the Ottoman pastry, garnering a hint of sweetness from a drizzle of vincotto syrup. A substantial chowder ($ 4/​pint) boasts fresh sweet corn, a generous helping of sliced fresh morels, chopped bacon, and a broth thickened with starch from cubed potatoes.
The early showstoppers here are the phenomenal sandwiches (all $ 6). Fat slices of superb, chunky, house-​made pork head cheese are dressed with thin-​sliced Manchego, bacon-​accented grain mustard, and mesclun greens on a fluffy, commercial-​bakery bulkie roll. That same roll is flattened to crisp discs in pressed sandwiches like an outstanding meatloaf of beef, ground bacon, and black garlic topped with a thick slice of excellent house-​cured pastrami, house-​made pickles, and «BBE sauce» (mayo plus barbecue sauce). Sliced grilled «chorizo» (actually a mild, kielbasa-​like Brazilian chouriço) is crowned with Manchego, marinated red peppers, and a vivid chimichurri with a kicky raw-​garlic zing.
Drink options are limited to American canned sodas and bottled water ($ 1). Even by the humble standard of food trucks, Staff Meal is homely, its boxy truck embellished only with a simple stenciled sign. But Gilmartin and Gendreau are bringing a nearly unprecedented level of creativity, kitchen chops, and love of charcuterie to the mobile-​food-​vendor format, raising the bar for a Boston street-​food scene that is finally starting to get really exciting.

To say that I’m not the world’s most motivated person would be the understatement of the year.
Examples that will make you judge me:
1) Bought a Bluray player and surround system in November 2010. Still not set up.
2) Netbook broke down in April. Still under full warranty. Whoops.
3) Friend broke my TV when I moved in May. It’s on my TV stand with a busted screen.
4) Other laptop died in October. Finally used the netbook warranty, bought a laptop, and left it at work for a week.
It was still sitting in the box until I had Staff Meal for dinner. I came home, unpacked the laptop, found my wireless password (been missing for over six months), and set it up JUST TO WRITE THIS REVIEW.
(Don’t you hate when people wrote annoyingly long intros to reviews? Yeahhhh… me too. Well this is my review and I’m high on food love, so I’ll do what I want)
So on to the actual food/​experience.
Staff Meal is what dreams are made of. I love the concept: meals made by the restaurant staff for the restaurant staff (only now I can get it out of a truck. That’s what we call a «mini-​life victory»)
We’re going to work our way up on my preference list:
Steamed buns: had these come from anywhere else, they would probably be my favorite thing on the menu. The sourdough bun was chewy, yet soft; rice and beans were well portioned; the two slices of chorizo were yummy; and the saffron lime crema can turn any frown upside down. HUGE BONUS: you get two of these suckers for $ 4. Yeah, really.
Pressed sandwich: The deliciousness of this sandwich makes me want to drop all the sayings I hate (omigosh, nom nom nom, I can haz some more, etc). For another solid $ 4, you can have this slice of heaven. It’s cut like a pizza with pure love in the middle of the slightly burnt, perfectly crisp bread. Just in case you were wondering, pure love is homemade garlic sausage, carmelized onions, tomato sauce, and cheese. I don’t want to knock the grilled cheese trend passing through Boston right now, but I’m yet to try anything that measures up to this.
Cassoulet Sub — I didn’t review Staff Meal the first few times I came here because I kept ordering the Cassoulet. Just. Do. It. Seriously.
Description: Homemade garlic sausage (heavenly) and white bean stew. Hmmmm… that does sound delicious. And then you find out that the white bean stew has bacon (even I liked it), bread crumbs, and duck confit (!!!). Oh dear. Seriously. Seriously. And… it’s only $ 7.
My father is a meat-​a-​holic. When I want to spite him, I throw out all the meat in the fridge or cook a vegetarian dinner (maturity is my middle name). I went home after I first had the Cassoulet and told my dad about it. I think he teared up when I told him how much I loved it. He told me it was the proudest he’s ever been (apparently college graduation and home ownership at 24 don’t hold a candle to falling in love with a sausage, bacon, and duck confit sandwich).
I’ve told myself I will only get the Cassoulet every other time until I work my way through the menu so there will be some foie gras bakalava ($ 4), salisbury steak sandwich with hashbrowns ($ 7), and pig’s head mac and cheese ($ 6) in my near future. Mmmmmmm.
Staff meal is easily the best food I have had in Boston for under $ 30. Yeah, I’m willing to make that BOLD statement. I will see you again for dinner on Sunday, Staff Meal (yes, I already have it planned. I’m not even a little sad about it). Anybody want to join me while I make out with my sandwich?

While checking out the SOWA market with a hotdog in hand, I walked by this nondescript food truck. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted the menu and did a double take:
Foie Gras baklava
Head cheese and Manchego sandwich
Bone marrow and anchovy bruschetta
WTF? Was I run over by a bus and sent to foodie heaven? Awesome food w/​o the pretense! Why should diners be relegated to sitting in stuffy restaurants and paying through their noses to get decent food? At that point, I knew what I had to do – quickly dispatch the hotdog, walk it off, and return to the food truck for my date with destiny.
The foie gras bakalava — such a ingenius idea. Why not make an already rich and tasty treat even better with duck liver fat and figs? The foie gras flavor was feint, but I you definitely get a sense of meatiness. I recommend it!
Bone marrow and anchovy bruschetta. The bone marrow was creamy and the anchovy was fresh, salty, and melted in my mouth.
Head cheese sandwich… OMG, so freakin porky and gelatinous — two of my favorite qualities in food. I took a quick look at their blog, and I THINK they make the headcheese themselves. The headcheese is rich, but the greens and mustard cut through the richness. Very well constructed and thought out sandwich.
Much respect goes to these guys for being pioneers and bucking the trend. Hopefully Staff Meals this is indicative of a change in the way we think of food.
Good food should be accessible to everyone.