As I walked toward the Fan Boy Food Truck location in South Campus, my stomach and my mind were telling me two things.
My mind was firmly convinced that Boston University’s new food truck would be mediocre, seeing as it stocks up at the George Sherman Union kitchen every morning. If I was going to eat at a food truck, I’d rather it not have the disingenuous gourmet flavor of a Rhett’s burger or Copper Kettle soup.
My stomach was telling me something entirely different: “If some Asian fusion fries aren’t inside of me in the next few minutes, I’m staging a violent coup.”
With my starving mental dichotomy in tow, I walked down the back alley toward the aggressively colorful truck. Licensed to BU by food truck developers and managers Mobi Munch, Fan Boy is one of five food truck brands the company offers to businesses, events and campuses nationwide.
I kept this in mind as I contemplated what to order: maybe not all of the ingredients were from BU dining. There are specialties on the menu that are specific to the truck, like their T.K.O. sauce — a mix of kimchee, Seoul sauce and garlic Kewpie — and “Samurai Specialties” like their K-Pop Taco and T.K.O. Lettuce Wraps. Most intriguing was something the menu called Ninja Dust, described as “ancient, secret and yes, it’s spicy.”
I ordered after my two-person entourage of fellow late-night gourmands, ensuring that I would get a few bites of their food first. My first bite of Fan Boy’s food was their Sumo Egg Rolls — classic fried vegetable rolls with a side of sriracha Kewpie dipping sauce. The rolls were extremely disappointing and clearly reheated to order, a fact I didn’t care about because of how enamored I was with the sauce.
Kewpie, I have since learned, is a Japanese brand of mayonnaise that uses rice vinegar instead of distilled vinegar, giving it a smoother texture and a creamier, less tangy flavor. Mixing this with sriracha was a stroke of genius. I would have eaten stewed boot with a side of sriracha kewpie.
Next I had a few bites of fried rice with “crispy tempura chicken,” which was neither crispy nor tempura. The chicken was definitely not fried to order, and the batter tasted like normal chicken fry with maybe one different ingredient – nothing like the oily, crispy lightness that tempura is supposed to be. There was no Kewpie to save this dish, and I was under no illusions about its quality. Oh, and the fried rice needed more soy and egg.
Moving on, I had a taste of the vegetarian curry with white rice. At least white rice can’t disappoint me, I thought. It isn’t trying to trick me with any stray flavors.
The curry was actually quite nice, although I wish there had been more bean pods in it rather than the piles of overcooked cabbage that accompanied it. My original apprehensions about Fan Boy were being affirmed with every bite I took. At least it was cheap.
The negative review that was brewing within me was assuaged when my food came. I started by digging into the Fan Boy Fries, by far the best thing I ate from the truck. Slathered in three different kinds of sauce (all hail garlic Kewpie) and then seasoned with Ninja Dust, the beef-and-cilantro covered waffle fries were sweet, spicy, juicy and more fun to eat than a foot-long chili dog. It was refreshing to eat a heart-stopping plate of fries that didn’t rely on cheese or American chili. The beef is the main event, and every other ingredient in the dish conspires to complement the meat’s savory umami. Plus, the bigger waffle fries allowed me to fold them into whimsical little Asian-fusion potato tacos.
The fries were so exquisite that they made my final dish – the T.K.O. lettuce wraps – taste mediocre in comparison. The wraps were the spiciest things I ate at Fan Boy. The kimchee and seoul sauce had me breaking a sweat by the time I had scarfed down the first wrap. Unlike the complementary balance of meat and other ingredients in the fries, the kick from the wrap’s supporting cast supercharged the grilled chicken. The wraps were almost too savory thanks to the abundance of soy sauce and sesame seeds.
Fan Boy was a mostly disappointing experience that I’ll probably return to. It’s the late night BU dining service I never knew I wanted, even if I’ll probably stick to only two dishes on their menu. Fan Boy gets a begrudging two thumbs up, even if I wish it was called “Fan Boy Waffle Fries: Where We Only Serve Fan Boy Waffle Fries.”
Sarcasm is a great tool to use when speaking or writing, it’s really an art form that should be used carefully only by trained professionals. But sarcasm is not recommended when writing food reviews. I see what you were trying to do, but it didn’t come off that well.
The “about section” on Author Ross Hsu is more interesting than this article..