It’s Street-Food Week over at Gourmet Magazine and each day they are featuring vendors from a different city. Low prices and creative dishes have contributed to the meteoric popularity of these mobile food trucks, and vendors have seen great customer response by using Twitter to share their location and daily specials.

In the Philadelphia coverage, noted Southern food expert John T. Edge explores the streets of University City, hitting trucks that are notoriously popular to students at Drexel and Penn. Partaking in mostly breakfast sandwiches, Edge enjoys the falafel and egg from A&M Halal, and eggs and broccoli rabe at Mikey D’s Grill. There’s nary a mention of salt, pepper, ketchup but a lot of love for sriracha.

It looks like the popularity of street food has finally hit the mainstream media. Of course, Gourmet couldn’t hit all the best trucks in Philadelphia. Let us know your favorites in the comments!

Eight Great Street-Food Vendors in Philadelphia [Gourmet]

What We’re Eating takes a quick look at sandwiches the Unbreaded team can’t get enough of.

In the sea of food vendors that dot Philadelphia’s streets, there are a few that strive to stand out. Realizing the ever growing popularity of these street vendors, Mikey D. decided it was time to grab the bull by the horns. Using his experience from 14 years in the restaurant industry, (most recently as a manager for Tony Luke’s) and a mission to serve fresh, easily accessible food, Mikey D. opened his namesake cart almost five months ago. What sets him apart from the other guys? To start, the bread: every morning Mikey D. picks up fresh baked, seeded hoagie rolls from Sarcone’s Bakery in the Italian Market. All of the sandwich toppings are made from scratch; breaded chicken cutlet, grilled marinated chicken breasts, and rib eye steak that Mikey D. slices himself before opening for business.

This dedication to quality has paid off for Mikey D.’s Grill, as a steady flow of customers are served through breakfast and late lunch hours. Regulars come by daily for the cheesesteak and chicken cutlet parmesan, but the Chicken Niko is the biggest seller. An impressive portion of grilled chicken breasts are cooked in balsamic vinegar, chopped with prosciutto, topped with melted provolone, and stuffed inside a soft hoagie roll. There’s also a grilled chicken with white wine, provolone and choice of broccoli rabe or spinach that’s a huge hit. The sandwiches can be messy but are well worth it, especially for the price, grab yourself a knife and save half for dinner.

Being situated on Drexel University’s campus has inspired Mikey D. to instill all of his food knowledge into his employee, Arturo, who he calls his student. “I’m inspired by these Drexel students, I never had the opportunity to go to college, and I want to provide them with good quality, delicious food while they’re away from home” he says. Even more important is his view on customer service, “My food can be great, and I think it’s the best, but if you don’t treat the customer like a friend, don’t expect them to come back ever.” Mikey D. doesn’t need to worry, with sandwiches like these, we’ll be back again and again.

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Mikey D.’s Grill
33rd Street and Market Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 (Google Map)

It was on a motorcycle trip through Austin, Texas where Tom McCusker found himself eating simple, delicious tacos several times a day. Returning home, Tom decided he wanted to bring these flavors to the streets of Philadelphia with fresh, locally sourced ingredients. Some bank loans later, he purchased a lunch truck and got to work. As a graduate of the Hotel/Restaurant Management program at Drexel University, Tom had acquired the cooking chops and know how to develop tacos of his own.

During the week, Honest Tom’s khaki-colored truck can be found stationed at 33rd and Arch Streets, in the heart of Drexel University’s campus. The location was selected for the amount of foot traffic, as Tom explains. Drexel’s co-op program ensures that students are there year-round, unlike the ghost town that is the University of Pennsylvania in the summer. On Saturdays, the truck pulls up to the south side of Clark Park to during The Food Trust farmers’ market, where Tom frequently buys his eggs and produce. Tomatoes are sometimes sourced from a student-run garden at Drexel, and Tom plans to start planting more vegetables in the near future.

If all goes well, Tom arrives at his regular spot at 8:00 am, and prepares his homemade pico de gallo and guacamole. The morning menu consists of breakfast tacos served in a warm tortilla with scrambled eggs, potatoes, cheddar cheese, topped with a heaping serving of the pico and guacamole. Tom proudly brews coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters, and is one of, if not the only person in Philly to serve it. You’ll only find iced coffee on the menu in summer months, due to the lack of demand for hot brew.

As lunch rolls around at about noon, one or two of four possible tacos are offered. Chicken and steak tacos are in the rotation, but when we visited, fish and vegetarian sweet potato were on the menu. The fish tacos are made with the most fresh, white fish that can be found in the Italian Market that day; usually tilapia, basa or flounder are used. A corn salsa with tomato, onion and citrus adds a coastal inspired, summer flavor. Tom is working on several more vegetarian options but currently only offers the sweet potato taco, made with the signature pico de gallo, guacamole, and cheddar cheese. The sweet potatoes are chopped and grilled on the flat top and are easily one of the tastiest uses for the orange tubers we’ve come across.

Honest Tom’s only opened several months ago, but already commands a loyal gathering of regular customers daily. The truck typically stops serving food at 2:00 pm because that’s how quickly they sell out of tacos. With bold flavors, local ingredients and a price that can’t be beat, it’s obvious Tom has crafted a winning formula and is a welcome addition to the Philly street vendor scene.

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Honest Tom’s Taco Shop
33rd Street and Arch Street Philadelphia, PA 19104 (Google Map)

Beneath a billowing plume of fragrant charcoal smoke at 20th & Market in Philadelphia lies Christos’ Falafel, a small cart run by chef/owner Gus Hristis.  Maker of the most interesting – and possibly the best – sandwiches in all of Philadelphia, Christo’s (also known as the Falafel Nazi, so named with respect and admiration after the Seinfeld Soup Nazi, a similarly passionate and eccentric food vendor) serves up a grilled chicken and falafel sandwich on a pita that pleases and thrills the palate like none other.

The grilled chicken and falafel sandwich comes on a fresh Greek pita, stuffed to the gills with made-fresh daily fillings and sauces (red pepper sauce, shredded lettuce, chopped tomato, hot sauce, cous cous, lots of Greek oregano-even some fresh grapes) and wrapped in foil in a cone to go.  The chicken is char-grilled, sweet and smoky.  The falafel is fried but still tender, flaky and green.

The fillings change daily, so expect some new flavors to tantalize you on each visit.

One of our favorite food vlogs, VendrTV, also gave a wonderful review of Christos’. Check out the video after the jump.