Roaming Dragon

Roaming Dragon
No fixed address – food truck
Vancouver, BC

As you already know, the most talked about food news in the last couple of weeks is that of street food in Vancouver, specifically, that of it expanding its offerings and locations (check here). I have written my thoughts about it last week in a post and, for the most part, I am not that optimistic about it. But, of course, there are entrepreneurs who are willing to bet it will be a hit. Among them, that of Roaming Dragon, a food truck that has done its round around town, including the Richmond Night Market. Heck, it has even been featured in local printed media, including the Vancouver Sun. Given my “optimism” about Vancouver street food, I was curious as to what they would be able to offer… And, since I was in the Granville/Robson area on the same day they were there, I thought, oh, well!

When I arrived (around noon time), there was nobody on the line… I guess it was a bit too early? OK, that was a rhetorical answer that was answered later, when I was done with my order. There was a small queue by then. That works both ways in my opinion. Street food is something fast, not something you necessarily want to have a queue. However, at the same time, it is possible that is what they actually want – if people see a queue, they believe something good must be for sale, as a result, it creates that sense of expectation. And what they have for sale?

A couple of days ago, I asked this on Twitter:

Can everybody tell me what is your concept of street food? Confused as to why/how duck confit salad can be considered “street food”…

Truth is, there are things that I have difficulties envisioning as street food. See, in my case, street food should be something simple and that simplicity leads to well prepared food. How? Because by focusing in one or two dishes, they can master it quite well. So, having all these Asian (as in Japanese, Korean AND Chinese) “inspired” (or to quote Sherman, “fusion”) dishes makes me wonder why… Could it be they are following that bandwagon/fad of adding an Asian twist? In the end, I ordered…

Three dishes, which basically means half of the menu. Clockwise, from 12:00, duck confit salad, Korean short rib tacos and Chinese pork belly sliders. Salad aside, had I been with somebody else, most likely would have ordered all of the dishes; the salad was because it was mentioned by the local media.

To start off, the taco – Korean short rib tacos (2): slow-braised Korean marinated short ribs, with sesame sauteed spniach, shiitake mushroms, carrots and kimchi dressing in corn and nori tortillas. Now, first of all, I have mentioned previously that I have no love for Mexican food but, at least, I found La Taqueria to be good in its own ways. So, this is a case of I have something to compare against. To put it bluntly, I don’t necessarily like the Korean twist. Now, had it been something else (i.e., not served as a taco but in a bowl with rice as in a bibimbap), it would have been decent. My problem was that the bean sprouts mellowed the savoury tones. I make an emphasis on savoury as there was some sweetness, probably from the marinate. Furthermore, I don’t think I tasted any of the shiitake at all. Could it be a last minute substitution/switch was made? The portion size was quite generous though so, from that perspective, I won’t complain. However, portion size is not everything; if I rate it against La Taqueria, the later has the upper hand.

The second “dish” was the slider – Chinese pork belly sliders (2): braised pork belly cured in Asian spices, with pickled cucumbers, hoisin sauce, scallions, served in steamed buns.. I guess this is a case of taking a Western recipe and adapt it using Chinese staples, readily available in hand. The emphasis on the pickled cucumber was overrated mainly because any flavour that the could have been added by the pickling process was obliterated by the hoisin sauce used. Similar to what happened with the Korean taco, there was a lot of sweetness, almost ended up being a sweet (from their version of hoisin sauce) on sweet (from the mantou). Compare it to, say, a pork bun. In that case, you have the contrast of savoury vs. slightly sweet. As for the pork belly… Well, it was there based mostly on texture but, again, their version of hoisin sauce was too much. It simply didn’t work for me.

Duck confit salad as street food in #NightMarket is akin to selling ice blocks in the Artic. Sorry, @lexxgill http://tinyurl.com/3345efw

I wrote this when Alexandra Gill of The Globe and Mail wrote about the Richmond Night Market and made emphasis of Roaming Dragon. So, that was the reason I had to order this dish. Again, I will have to admit the green portion of the salad was quite good. I liked the combination of herbs used. The cashews was a good idea but the pineapple and watermelon, while a good idea, the execution was subpar, as they were neither sweet nor crunchy. Had the pieces been larger pieces, probably it would have worked better for me. And finally… The duck confit. At that point, I didn’t really care for it because the greens was taking care of this salad. The reason was that I couldn’t taste much of the duck component, just the saltiness in it.

In the end, the $15 spent on this meal… Well, I don’t believe it was worth it, specially considering my concept of street food. See, at $15, I might as well go to a sit down restaurant! (This is specially considering I had to find a nearby bench for me to put the food down and eat it). Compare it also to some shawarma places – you can get a wrap for as little as $6. As a result, unfortunately, Roaming Dragon didn’t really shake away my “optimism” about street food in Vancouver. While one swallow does not make summer, I only hope this is not the starting point of the street food trend in Vancouver. I can believe we can do better but, otherwise, we might as well not do it at all…

Finally, to close this post, I mentioned I was in Granville Street… Well, part of the reason was that I wanted to quickly check what were the plans for it during summer as they it will be pedestrian only. On that day…

Sorry, didn’t get to try this… $5 for small pakoras…

Tagged under: Asian • Festivities • Street Food • Vancouver