PORC Mobile Food Truck: Greatest Pastrami Sandwich I’ve Ever Had . . . EVER.

Today, I honestly wasn’t thinking that much was going to happen for lunch. I checked the local food truck tracker (www.foodtruckfiesta.com) early in the morning, and it looked like the pickings were slim for food truck lunch in the Metro Center area, so I figured I’d just have a salad or something unmemorable. Then, a buddy of mine at work, Josh, came by my office and told me that the PORC Mobile food truck was rolling into our neighborhood—I guess they tweeted their whereabouts after I checked the website.

PORC, which is an acronym that stands for “Purveyors of Rolling Cuisine” is one of my favorite food trucks in the area. On their menu, they always have a delectable pulled BBQ pork sandwich that would give any southern pulled BBQ pork sandwich a run for its money. The pork on that sandwich is luxuriously coated in what I consider a Western Carolina style BBQ sauce—thicker than Eastern Carolina BBQ sauce, but not quite as thick as a Memphis dark brown sugar-based BBQ sauce. When you’re not in the mood for a pulled pork sandwich, PORC also offers veggie joes and meaty regular sloppy joes. Though I’m a meat sloppy joe man in general (I am, after all, my father’s son), I have to admit, I LOVE the veggie joes from PORC. They’re a great combo of beans, portabella mushrooms, peppers, and other vegetables. Veggie or meat, the joes are available coated in one of PORC’s slew of sauces, including the “spectacularly hot sauce,” which more than lives up to its name—even for me.

But wait! This post is not about sloppy joes, but about the greatest pastrami sandwich I’ve ever had: The PORC Mobile Pastrami Sandwich! So let’s get to it!

I had seen the pastrami on the menu once a few weeks ago, and chose the pulled pork sandwich instead because I figured I didn’t want to eat something too heavy for lunch. But the pastrami was on my mind since then, and when Josh (PORC’s owner) recommended I get the pastrami as I walked up, I happily obliged. My order: a pastrami sandwich, with sides of German potato salad and baked beans. The sandwich also comes with a free side of cole slaw.

Right off the bat, after my first bite (which was, strangely, of the cole slaw) I knew I was going to love the entire meal. Why? Because the cole slaw was insanely delicious. Based in a sweet vinegar (apple vinegar?), instead of mayo, the slaw was bright, sweet, tangy, and spicy combination of flavors. The vinegar added just the right acidity, and you could taste clear notes of lemon and ginger along with the sweet crunch of the cabbage and pickled carrots. What made this cole slaw sing was a piquant Asian-inspired spice (my guess is that he soaked whole Asian red chili peppers in with the slaw) that provided a delicate but definite warmth on the back of my throat. I usually get to the sides in the middle of my meal, but this slaw was so good, I devoured the entire cup first before I even got to anything else. I wish I had a vat of it.

Next up on the sides is the German potato salad. Following in the footsteps of its cole slaw PORC’s German potato salad also is not mayo-based. Instead, keeping in tradition with classic kartophelsalats found in Germany and Austria, the potato salad at PORC is based in a spicy brown mustard. Onions, scallions, and peppers add a nice depth, texture, sweetness, and color to the dish. But the key here is PORC’s commitment to, well, pork by adding BACON to round out this dish. It tasted like delectable umami home fries, but with boiled, not fried, potatoes. Such a comforting side dish.

Sadly, the other side dish—baked beans—received my first “meh” of the year. In a grouping of side dishes that were bursting with flavor, complexity, spice, and innovation. These beans, sadly, were just beans. (Note: I’ve had these before topped with the super hot sauce they put on their BBQ pork dishes, and they have been good. I meant to ask for the sauce on the beans, but forgot to. I won’t forget next time.) Without the sauce (and the chunks of BBQ pork in the sauce), the beans were blah. Nothing to write home about, and so I’ll stop writing about them now.

Now, on to the main event: PORC’s handmade pastrami sandwich. As you can see from the picture, the sandwich is a decent sized pile of shredded pastrami with a beautiful peppercorn bark and a homemade yellow-brown spicy mustard (think Gulden’s, but infinitely better) on top of pillowy soft rye bread. No Swiss cheese was served on the sandwich, and I’m so thankful for that because, just like nobody puts baby in a corner, NOBODY puts Swiss cheese on this baby! Between the flavor and velvety texture of the meat, I wouldn’t be surprised if the meat was smoked for at least 48 hours. It was that tender, juicy, and flavorful.

The meat was unbelievably flavorful, taking on a smoky, piquant, savory blend of flavors I’ve dreamt about before, but never had the chance to experience. The peppercorn and spice bark was spot on—it wasn’t so overpowering that you couldn’t taste the sweetness and softness of the meat, but it was there in every bite, dancing on the tongue like a firecracker. The intense flavor of the meat was made even more surprising because there was nary a piece of fat to be found in all of that meat on the bread. If there was fat, it was either hand cut away after cooking, or it melted and took on a juicy coating for all of the meat pieces. In my heart, I want the truth to be the latter, so I’m going with that.

The key to this dish was that the brisket was shredded instead of sliced. (Based on how tender the beef was, however, I doubt highly that slices would have held their integrity for long even if PORC had tried to slice the beef.) Instead of the strips of chewy or stringy meat you normally have to battle with, there were copious amounts of clumps and mounds of red gold coated in tangy mustard.

Some Katz Deli aficionados might quibble with my “best of” ranking. They would rightly point out that Katz offers probably twice the portion size of pastrami than PORC. But, for me, all that extra pastrami is just window dressing. It’s a gimmick. I’d take a half pound of the best meat I’ve ever eaten over two pounds of pretty good meat any day. That’s no slight on Katz or his deli, but it’s a “taste-a-ment” to how good PORC Mobile’s pastrami sandwich really is.

My ratings:

Sandwich – 9.8

German Potato Salad – 9.4

Cole Slaw – 9.2

Baked Beans – 3.0

One of the bunches of tasty shredded bits of pastrami that fell off the sandwich, but eventually still got into my belly!