Trans Chinese Food

I hadn't planned to write about Chinese food again because I want you to get a good sense of the city and what it has to offer. But, nothing hits the stomach harder than a decadent aroma at lunch time. I was walking to my school's library when I passed Trans Chinese Food and I stopped to savor the smells coming from the truck. They had me hooked! I knew I had to get something.

Trans' menu is pretty simple. You have a choice of chicken, beef, pork, tofu or shrimp; then, you decide what type of that dish you want. They have broccoli, eggplant, curry, spicy, teriyaki, etc... Also if you are so inclined, they also have soup and egg rolls. The price is reasonable; it ranges from about $3.50 to $5.50. Unfortunately, they don't have any deals so you would have to pay extra (i.e. $.75 - $2.00) for a drink.

It was a tough choice for me. I perused their menu multiple times and I really wanted to to eat everything. Eventually, I decided on pork with eggplant. Up until that point, I never really had good experiences trying pork from a Chinese food truck, but I felt I was able to trust them. The eggplant... I love eggplant! I was spoiled growing up eating eggplants because I always got the freshest picks from an organic farm. So it's pretty safe to say that I know if eggplant is good or not.

The food was spectacular! There wasn't one aspect of the meal which I didn't love. The pork was delicious and extraordinarily tender. It reminded me of the pork tenderloin that I cook. I can't even express how happy I was about the eggplant. Eggplant is typically tender, but when it is boiled, which I think it was, it becomes a little more tender and the flavor just pops out. Besides the eggplant, there was other vegetables such as cabbage and broccoli. They contrasted nicely with the eggplant and pork because they were a bit more crunchy. I don't know what type of sauce they put on it, but it was good. I found myself trying to get all the sauce off the bottom of the container once I had finished. Lastly, as I've said before, rice is pretty hard to mess up. Trans had good rice because it was sticky and I like that.

I recommend Trans Chinese Food. For the price and the quality of the food, it's worth it. Trans has gained a customer for life. In fact, I had to go back the next day for their spicy chicken, which was to die for.

Kim's Dragon Chinese Food

Kim's Dragon Chinese food has always had a special place in my heart. It was the first food truck that I have eaten after having moved to Philly. I'm always going to remember me and my friend skipping our chemistry class on the first day of University because we were hungry; the choice was Kim's. Since then, I really haven't eaten at this particular lunch truck. I hear about it all the time and I'm always watching my friends fight over the last spring roll, so I assumed it was good. Even during lunch hour (i.e. 11:30-2 P.M.) Kim's always has a line. From asking around, I found out that the line usually goes pretty quick.

I was very lucky when I went to Kim's yesterday late afternoon (i.e. 4:15 P.M.) because there was no line. I attributed the lack of a line to it being Summer term and Drexel University; trucks tend to stock less food and close slightly earlier because there are less than half of the student body taking classes in the summer. The hardest thing about going to Kim's is deciding what to eat. There are over a dozen different types of food that they serve such as: Tychin, Garlic Sauce, Kung Pao, Spicy Vegetable, etc. with the different variations being: chicken, pork, beef, crab meat, shrimp or scallops.

I decided on the Grandfather Chicken which is mildly spicy and breaded stir-fry. I actually got it through a special which includes: rice, lomein, two (shrimp)rolls, the main dish and a can of soda for $5.50. It is a good deal for food; the poor college student in me considers any food that can be staggered for two meals to a good deal if it costs around $5. Overall, the food was alright. The sauce was very flavorful; it was a little sweet and it left a little heat in my mouth, which was good. I remembered why I don't typically eat there. The chicken was a little chewy and the vegetables were overcooked and wilted (i.e. the broccoli and carrots). The rice was pretty good – it's hard to mess up rice - but the lomein was incredibly greasy. When I say greasy, I felt like I needed a shower after eating it because I felt like I gained it's power to be greasy; the same can be said for the (shrimp)rolls. I had to stop eating them because it was so greasy and it had very little inside. To be honest, I had no idea if I was eating a shrimp roll or a spring roll; it was just a mess.

Will I eat there again? Maybe? Probably not. Like I said, it was a good deal for the amount of food they give you, for the price, and the sauce almost redeemed much of what I didn't like. Ultimately, there are better Chinese-food food trucks that are much more deserving of both mine and your money.