With our bellies stuffed UN-style with Peruvian-Japanese, Chinese-Mexican, and straight-up Indian street food, The Astronomer and I probably should have thrown in the towel and called it a night. However, dwelling on the East Side, we had no idea when another opportunity would arise for us to come face-to-face with this many gourmet food trucks again. A combination of fear, gluttony, and scarcity inspired one last stop at Marked5, a truck specializing in “old school Japanese and new school American.” Say what?
According to Marked5’s website, its name is derived from the number of partners behind the truck, the price of the food sold on the truck, the number of senses the food will open up, and the number of fingers it takes to hold said food. Five.
Heeding the advice of the Marked5 customers served before us, The Astronomer and I avoided the Torakku Beef Burger and ordered the Katsu Pork Burger, which was described as “tender, boneless pork fried to golden perfection served with Marked5 special Katsu sauce, along with fresh cabbage, and our signature handmade rice buns” on the menu.
The highlight of the burger was the thin slab of pork that was properly crunchy and fried to “golden perfection.” The Katsu sauce wasn’t exactly horrible, just a little sour tasting and overly liquored up. The least effective component of the Marked5 burger was the “bun.” It is of utmost importance that street food be transportable and neat enough to be consumed on one’s feet. Marked5’s prized rice buns disintegrated at first bite, leaving my hands glazed with sauce. I would have been willing to deal with the annoyance had the bun actually been tasty, but such a mediocre product did not merit that much of an effort.
Follow Marked5 on Twitter @Marked5.
POWER RANKINGS
India Jones Chow Truck > Dim Sum Truck > World Fare Bustaurant < Border Grill Truck > Cool Haus > Lomo Arigato > Don Chow > Kogi > Marked 5 > Dosa Truck > Phamish
I was similarly disappointed by Mark5. If your street food needs a disclaimer about handling it carefully so it doesn’t fall apart, then it’s not street food. I got the pork katsu burger as well and the thin slice of pork was at the same time too dry and too saucy.
I like these trucks I really do, however sorry to hear about your disappointment.
What a disappointment. 🙁
aww, too bad. i was looking forward to running across them one of these days. the rice bun sounded intriguing, but perhaps not.
Too bad for the bad grub. Your cookies from your last post looks much more delicious! =P
I have to say, I too was disappointed. I ordered the same thing and thought it was too dry and was definitely lack of any flavor. I think it was the product of mass productions on a busy night. Maybe if they got more time to do this and prepare it properly, it might make a difference.
It’s too bad because I have high hopes for this truck as well.
After hearing people rave about this truck, I am SO happy to hear someone who agrees with me that Marked5’s food is average, at best! I was really disappointed in both the taste of their meat (and their katsu sauce) and how messy and, overall, not worth the effort the “bun” was.
I’m a little dismayed that you only tried one thing on their menu. Out of all of the trucks that I’ve sampled, and trust me there has been a lot, me and several of my friends liked Marked 5 the best. The special spam and egg wrapped in rice and seaweed was enough for all of us to follow them on twitter and hunt them down. It seems they no longer have a route and we are sorely disappointed. They get an “A” for ingenuity because most of the food trucks out there are not worth the money or a second try.
Anna – We would’ve liked to have tried more items, but it was our final stop during ArtWalk, and we were stuffed. Sadly, Marked5 is no longer rolling… The Spam snack you described sounded very intriguing.