Local Travel: The Local Meatball Food Truck

My year as a flavor correspondent exploring the food truck trend for Sargento has been a revelation. The food truck trend is clearly gaining traction across the country and the reason it is doing so is because a lot of the food they are serving is so good. I’ve eaten quite a range of food truck cuisine in my local area – crepes, pizza, lobster rolls and, now, meatballs – and the cooks really know what they are doing with their specialty. Also, food trucks are taking on all kinds of different forms. Last month I tracked down the Skinny Pines pizza truck and found it is actually a wood-burning pizza oven towed by a large van. This month I had to pleasure of finally indulging in The Local Meatball food truck only to discover that it is a Fiat pulling a portable meatball stand!

The cool thing about The Local Meatball is that it serves only meatballs and, usually, only two or three kinds per set-up. When I was lucky enough to catch it – they are constantly booked for private events – I had my choice of Serious (classic beef) or Kick in Da’ (spicy pork). Naturally, we gave both a try and my husband actually went back for seconds!

To prove that amazing food trucks don’t need much to function the The Local Meatball operates out of what looks like a mini portable hot dog stand. The meatballs are made fresh in a commercial kitchen and then cooked in the sauce in a large pot fired by a single burner. After that they are kept warm in the stand and serve in hamburger buns, slider style, or on split rolls, grinder style.

Amazingly, the meatballs we tried were moist and flavorful. The spicy pork had just the right amount of kick and was serving on a soft, fresh bun. The Serious sliders were moist beef that were juicy and cook perfectly all the way through. The tomato sauce was also beautifully made. Silky soft with a mild tomato flavor it is was the perfect complement to the meatballs because it didn’t overpower them in taste or texture.

Of all our the favorite food trucks we’ve enjoyed so far this one might go down as our favorite. Now, the next thing these trucks need to do is expand their fleet so we have a better chance of finding them every day!

(Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Sargento. The opinions expressed are my own. Thank you for supporting the sponsors that make The Naptime Chef possible. )