Meals on Wheels - The Fire Within

Price: $$$
Atmosphere: Depends on the location
Quality of Service: 3 out of 5
Food Overall: 1 out of 5

Ah, food trucks. Those mobile little venues of mouth treats delivered to a destination within 10-25 miles of your couch.  I’ve always read about food trucks, seen them on TV, but I’ve never really had the chance to get into them (unless you count those so called ‘roach coaches’ that used to pull up at the warehouse with a sammich or sodas during lunch time).

A few weeks ago at Bedner’s Fresh Market (See the ‘Porky & Beth’s BBQ’ review form more info), they had a few food trucks come by to sell their wares to the masses. I grabbed the little woman, my buddy Warren, and his wife and hopped in the car for what we hoped would be a taste extravaganza explosion type of day.

Warren opted to go to The Fire Within (https://www.facebook.com/TheFireWithinFoodTruck ) for his first go ‘round. He ordered the skirt steak skewers on a bed of beans and rice. Now, food trucks can gather quite the line rather quickly, so it took a good 20 minutes or so to get these meat sticks in his mitts, but steak can take time to do right.

Which makes me wonder what took them so long, as this dish did not represent quality in any way, shape or form. You get two decent sized skewers, with a mini-skirt on each stick, and covered with a thick salsa type of chimichurri. Ok, so first things first: If you do something on a stick, it’s ill advised to cover it in a chunky, non-adhesive condiment. As soon as you pick it up, that stuff slides right off.

But in this case, that was ok because for a salsa/chimichurri, it was virtually flavorless. It’s like they sucked the taste right out of the onions, tomatoes and peppers that looked so bright and inviting. Regardless, it’s a condiment. Yes, it should be tasty, but to be honest, he paid 14.00 for the steak, not a spoonful of veggies.

Unlike the salsa, there was nothing ‘virtual’ about the skirt steak. It was COMPLETELY flavorless. No seasoning (that includes SALT) at all, and what’s worse, the steak was cooked to death. Now I get some people have an aversion to rare meat, and that’s ok. But this was dry, chewy meat that just tasted disappointing. In fact, if disappointment was a purchasable spice, I’d say they marinated this steak in it for a week.

The rice and beans were either out of a can (garbage or otherwise), as they too were dried out and flavorless. It just goes to show you kids, looks can be deceiving. I write this review as a warning. Not to stray you from food trucks (see my review on the ‘Cheese Me’ food truck), but to stay away from this Fire.

After all….this food sucks.