This barbecue food truck has been on the Stony Brook campus since Fall 2012, and over the past few…read moremonths I've tried several of their sandwich and side items, with mixed results. I'll say 3 stars, but to be honest I'm feeling generous.
- Pulled Pork Sandwich + coleslaw side ($6.50): This sandwich is pretty decent: pulled pork with a flavorful barbecue sauce served on a soft potato roll (presumably Martin's). It's basic, but the flavors should speak for themselves. I've always gotten it with the coleslaw on the sandwich, which has been a nice contrast against the pork.
- Smoked BBQ brisket sandwich + coleslaw side ($8): As a sandwich, basically inedible. The whole point of barbecue brisket is to convert the tough, collagen-packed connective tissue in the meat into smooth, silky, tender gelatin, which takes hours of slow cooking over low heat. In this case, however, four of five strips of uncooked or par-cooked brisket were browned on the flattop, then placed on a potato roll and drizzled with sauce. Upon biting into the sandwich, my incisors stopped hard at the meat layer, unable to cut through. After a few more attempts from different angles, I gave up and disassembled the sandwich. I was able to tear apart the meat strips with my teeth and chew the muscle fibers with my molars, but it was (literally!) tough going even then. I left behind the 1 1/2 strips that were just unrendered slabs of fat. I guess the flavor was fine, but it was hard to focus on it with all the mechanical problems; my hands did smell smoky for the rest of the afternoon, so that's something. To top it off, the miniscule container of coleslaw I received on the side was only about half-full, containing at most 2 1/2 forkfuls of salad.
- Baked Pit Beans with Bacon ($3.50): Had as a side with the Pulled Pork sandwich. Nice, creamy beans in a balanced sauce, but nothing spectacular. I didn't discern any actual bacon pieces, but maybe the sauce is made with the drippings.
- Mac-N-Cheese ($4): Although the sauce was sufficiently cheesy and creamy, this suffered from the same problem that all standing pasta dishes have: over time, the pasta absorbs more and more moisture from the sauce and becomes increasingly mushy. The macaroni elbows in this were still solid, but pretty limp by the time I ate them; this is probably better earlier in the day.
- Classic Pork Dumplings ($4.25): 5 generic dumplings, microwaved and browned up on the flat top. The browning wasn't extensive enough to add any additional flavor, though, so all I tasted was meatiness from the pork and a lot of saltiness (assisted by the ponzu sauce).
I'll probably keep coming back here for lunch occasionally, but I think I'll stick to the pulled pork sandwich, and maybe the beans too if I'm especially hungry.