La Panthère Verte

Wow, so I am posting about one truck, it must be really special. And yes, it is. I tried la Panthère Verte last week and I wanted to write about it right away, but I am a huge procrastinator and I didn't want to post at the same time as First Friday. So I am going to highlight this truck now, because heck, it deserves it.

It's the second year that this food truck appears, and honestly, last year I was not at all interested in it. I can't quite pin down why, but it felt too mainstream, and the fact that they accepted debit made me recoil. Now, that reason is bogus, because many more trucks are accepting debit as well as cash, just because it's more convenient and not everyone always has cash on them. Last year, I had only tried one of their sodas, which look like this : 

Honestly, i'm not that big a fan of sodas, I don't know why, I'm sort of weird. But this one,  is pretty refreshing and bonus points for being organic. 

I don't know why the truck never attracted me until this year. Maybe because I wasn't as open to vegetarian and vegan food, but over the past year, I have become obsessed with vegan stuff, and have several friends who follow that lifestyle. I myself could not become vegan, for personal reasons, but eating vegan or even vegetarian is refreshing and interesting and definitely tasty. 

Since the food truck season began, I have heard many great things about la Panthère Verte's renowned falafels, and that's it I had to try them, one way or another. I was fortunate to fall upon the truck when I did. 

I ordered the falafels and it came in this huge pita bun. Remember the pulled pork from the Monkland Street Fest? This sandwich was the same size, only instead of pulled pork, it was filled with vegetables and falafels. It got me pretty full, but full in a good way. I can't stop thinking about that sandwich and I can't wait to try it again. 

Even before the food truck season will be over, I will be sure to visit one of the restaurant's three different locations :  2153 rue Mackay / 66 rue St-Viateur O. / 145 avenue Mont-Royal E.

For falafels that are out of this world, I urge you all to hunt down this truck and try some. 

ps. Thank you to two of my lovely friends for getting me out of the house and coming with me to try out this truck. 

July's First Friday

I posted last month about going to First Friday and  I went back again tonight, because going to a place where pretty much all the food trucks are gathered in the same place is, for me anyway, absolute heaven.

My experience was definitely better than last month, since they rearranged the space, which means the lines were shorter and it was easier to walk around. We also went a little bit earlier, which I think definitely helped. It also gave me the chance to take some cool sunset pictures.

This is me with two of my favourites in the back, Landry & Filles and ô soeurs volantes : 

It took forever to choose where I wanted to eat. I wanted to go somewhere I haven't been this year yet, but also somewhere where the lines aren't too long. I finally decided on Le Super Truck. I tried it once last year, and had their crispy pork salad, which was delicious. The downside of this truck is that their menu is not very flexible, it's pretty much the same as last year, which I suppose can be good as well, since the grub is pretty yummy. 

We ordered the Super Sandwich and the Cone Salad with Mac and Cheese sticks and some Ice Tea.

 I had the Cone Salad, and it was DELICIOUS. It had duck and apples with almonds, and lots of yummy stuff, it was a party in my mouth. The only downside was there wasn't much actual meat inside. 

The Super Sandwich was chicken with bacon. It was good, but a bit basic. When I'm ordering from a food truck, I always expect something a bit more original and creative, that I wouldn't find in a chain restaurant. 

In Montreal, there is a law that applies to food trucks in which to have one, the owners must also have a restaurant/café/bakery. I discovered that the Super Truck restaurant was called Ariel, on Drummond Street. 

link to the restaurant's page

I definitely would like to visit it in the near future. 

For dessert, I was very excited, because there were FOUR trucks I wanted to try out. There's Lola's Petits Gâteaux, CRémy Mobile, Mr. Crémeux and Fous Truck. I tried out Fous Truck which is a croissant bar. I mean, what can be better than that?! 

I had this really DELICIOUS croissant with Québec Strawberries and cream, called le Fraisier. 

There's something about Québec strawberries that is just so amazing. They aren't in season for very long, but when they are, they are so GREAT and I could rave about them forever. 

As a last minute snack, I had some lime flavoured cotton candy from a CRémy small vendor. It was great and original, but SO sweet. I asked them where the CRémy pastry shop, and it's on Mount Royal, so I am definitely going to check it out, and gorge on doughnuts. 

This is me with my cotton candy (which I pretty much made out with). It's exciting because it's almost as big as my head, and I have a pretty big head. It was cool, because it was one of those real deal cotton candy machines. 

 First Fridays is a very fun experience, and I can't wait for August. In the meantime, I'm excited for all the food truck encounters during the month of July.