• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

One of several Clover Food Lab trucks, which serve vegetarian cuisine around the city.   (Photo: Courtesy of Clover Food Lab)

Boston arrived late to the food-truck party, but this year the city is swarming with mobile dining options. Bon Me, the winner of last year’s first-ever, citywide Food Truck Challenge, serves bánh mi ($6) alongside build-your-own rice bowls and noodle salads topped with barbecued pork, spice-rubbed chicken, or tofu ($6) and tea-marinated deviled eggs ($2) from a former DHL delivery van.

Track down Boston’s only mobile gastropub, Staff Meal, the love child of two classically trained, snout-to-tail-minded chefs. Several items fall somewhere between entrée and dessert, like baklava layered with foie gras and pistachios, and bacon-fat-fried pound cake ($4 each), while the sandwiches are similarly decadent; recent choices included a Korean-style bibimbap made with braised pig’s feet, rice, and kimchee ($6).

Try vegetarian street cuisine at Clover Food Lab, which has multiple trucks stationed around the city and uses locally sourced produce in its menu of creative meatless fare. Top marks go to the chickpea fritters—lighter and crunchier than falafel, served with pickled red cabbage, carrots, and housemade tahini ($6)—and to the barbecued seitan sandwiches, stuffed with carmelized onions and melted cheddar ($5).

Published on Sep 16, 2011 as a web exclusive.