NY Food Truck Lunch: Pork Belly Buns From Fun Buns NYC
Perry, the voice behind New York Street Food, brings you his latest review on New York City food trucks and carts.
There's a new food cart from the brother and sister team behind the Bian Dang and Fishing Shrimp food trucks. Fun Buns NYC serves Taiwanese buns with fillings like roast pork, lemongrass chicken and spicy beef.
Last week we ventured out to 4th Ave & President St. in Brooklyn to check it out. Since it was only their second day on the street, and they want to roll things out slowly, they only had one item, Five Spice Pork Belly Buns, which cost $3 each.
The buns themselves were pillow soft, but are made for eating right away. The juices from the meat soak through where the bun folds fairly quickly, so try not to travel too far before eating it.
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The pulled pork was slow cooked and really tender. The meat was topped with crushed peanuts, cilantro and the same chopped mustard greens that are also found in Bian Dang's dishes.
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Overall it was pretty tasty, but was saltier than I like. I could taste the five spice powder, but would have liked a stronger hand on it. Everyone's taste is different, but a little less salt and a little more five spice powder is my recommendation. Don't get me wrong - it was still really good. This is more along the lines of fine-tuning than a major overhaul.
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Thomas told me the next bun rolled out will be lemongrass chicken marinated with garlic and shallot infused fish oil, and topped with homemade daikon and carrot relish.
The final bun they expect to roll out is spicy beef shank stewed with star anise, cinnamon and cloves and topped like the pork bun, with pickled mustard greens, crushed peanuts and cilantro.
As for where they will be parking the cart, Thomas told me that will be a matter of trial and error. The first two days were in the Financial District, but it was tough finding a good spot.
One thing that seems certain is dinner in the 4th Ave/President St area of Brooklyn. It's only a few blocks from the commissary where they park the cart overnight, so stopping there for a few hours for dinner makes perfect sense. For those of us who don't live around there, the cart is right by the Union St station on the R train.
I'm looking forward to trying the other two buns, especially the spicy beef. Cinnamon, clove and star anise is a popular spice combination in my house, and it should be delicious with some heat on one of these buns.
You can follow Fun Buns NYC on Twitter here.
