The city’s newest food truck made its first on-street appearance Wednesday, offering a gourmet-inspired twist on what people usually think street food should be.
Chef Rabih Abouhalka has been in the food industry for over 30 years and wanted to bring different concept of what food from a truck could be when planning began for his Nomad Chef business.
Many of Nomad Chef’s dishes feature game meats, like wild boar or venison, and the menu will change constantly.
“I am not serving your average hamburgers and hot dogs and french fries out of a food truck,” said Abouhalka.
In fact, the Nomad Chef food truck doesn’t even have a fryer and does not serve french fries.
Instead, the custom-built food truck includes a commercial oven and stovetop, as well as a refrigerator and freezer, kitchen utilities and an espresso machine.
“It’s just a restaurant, but it’s on wheels,” said Abouhalka.
The main dishes have names that are either really good or really bad, depending on whether or not you enjoy puns.
Boar-a-Boar-a features wild boar meat slow roasted in dijon mustard and red wine sauce served on Ciabatta bread with Tomatoes and Pickles, while Elk-emist consists of shaved elk meat served in tortilla bread with pineapple chutney.
The chef plans on featuring soups as well as sandwiches, more menu items can be seen on the Nomad Chef’s web site.
“More bad puns to come,” promises Abouhalka.
For 13 years Abouhalka operated Emir's Delicacies Lebanese restaurant on Edinburgh Road south.
“I kept the catering company, we closed the restaurant and I started travelling. I worked in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Europe. I came back to Canada in January and decided to settle back here,” said Abouhalka.
The Nomad Chef truck made its first appearance during last weekend’s Ribfest.
The food truck industry is bigger overseas than in Canada, noted Abouhalka, especially in Europe.
“In Italy, it’s wild. It’s gone crazy,” he said.
Some restauranteurs are preferring to open food trucks instead of having a brick-and-morter location because they can move around with it, said Abouhalka.
“If an area doesn’t work, they can do another,” he said.
