"Approachable Indian food" is the theme for Spice box!
As you can tell, we @mealightenment love our food trucks in Indianapolis! I can't decide if it is the originality of the food, the awesome owners, the great taste, or the excitement that a good truck brings to a curb near you! The one thing I do know for a fact is you can certainly find a truck that has tasty food for a good price!
That is what I stumbled upon when I went to #clustertruck with @spicebox. #clustertruck is a gathering of food trucks similar to #FFFTF but done throughout the week! Food trucks are a great commodity that have slammed onto the market thanks to things like the Superbowl and Indy's growing desire for flavorful dishes! @spicebox started preparing to launch during the Superbowl a couple months prior to it arriving.
Spice box came from Nitin's own passion for food. These recipe's are what they grew up on, it's home made Indian food at its finest! When I asked Nitin about starting his truck, he told me that owning a restaurant was impossible because of the financial cost of opening a restaurant, not that food trucks are cheap, but they are less expensive and easier to set up. Nitin loves what he does, and it shows! We discussed him opening up a store front, but he told me," Everyone looks at the big picture, but sometimes you need to look at the little picture. We are focusing on what we do day by day." This quality shows through his food and personality! When Spice box started they followed the suggestions of their customers on where they should go to serve up their approachable Indian food. Now in the past three months, they have noticed where they have the best customer base, and that is where you will most likely find them! If you are looking for them , check out their updated schedule every Monday for that week!
I met up with Nitin Naidu, who was in the truck serving up his tasty treats. He greeted me with a smile and some great service! I said hello and asked him what I should try! He told me I had to try the spice box! This came with an option of 1 entree for $7 or two entree's for 9$. So, the choice was obvious... 2 entree's here I came! I started asking what the various items were on the menu; Chicken Tikki, Spicewraps, Mumbai Meatballs, Garbanzo, Spinach and cheese. Nitin gave me the low down on each dish and I decided to go with the Chicken Tikki, and a spicewrap. Through him describing the dish to me, the next person behind me exclaimed she wanted the same thing! After some good conversation offered up by Nitin, my food was served up shortly after ordering, so I made my way to a table and ate with my friend Rob who had joined me on this adventure.
The Chicken Tikki was served with a red tomato based sauce and had great flavor. You can order different levels of spice in your dish, and I grabbed the hot. The spice wasn't all too spicey, but that was because they tuned it for the audience they were going to see. If it is a more family friendly area, or a new area, the heat level drops a few notches. At the downtown chow downs, they kick it up a few notches because that is what the customers like. Everything is freshly made, and the sauces are always made that morning and adjusted to where you will find them! The spice wrap was great. It has marinated chicken, caramelized onions, a secret blend of spices, all wrapped up in a Roti (Indiana tortilla) Rob hates onions, and when he ate his half of the Spicewrap.... He even spiked an interest in how the onions didn't have the texture that he despised and ate the whole thing. (Which I was sad about, because I wanted his half after devouring mine) The white rice that was served with the Chicken Tikki blew my mind as well. This isn't your normal everyday sticky rice you find thrown in a little white box and served up with MSG filled food. This rice comes from India and is a long grain. It has a good texture and isn't bland at all. I was surprised at the fact that something so simple, could actually be delectable by itself!
Spice box also offers a lot of vegetarian food as well! This is something that is hard to find amongst food trucks and most restaurants. Most places offer a vegetarian substitute, but doesn't focus on the flavor of it. Spice box takes that norm away and hits a home run with their vegetarian flavors!
If you are interested in Indian food, or want to have a "Gateway" food into Indiana food, stop by Spice box! The price is right, and the food is great! I highly recommend Spice box, and I know I will be finding them again! Check out this video from Channel 8 of Nitin and Mo showing you a little bit about Indian food and even let you in on a couple recipe's!
Eat on,
--JT
No comments:
Post a Comment