Our Blog | Mei Mei Street Kitchen – A Boston Food Truck | Locally sourced Chinese-American food, made with love

May 15, 2013
by Mei
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BIG OL’ PIG! Comin’ at ya May 21 at Washington Square Tavern…

Hey guys. If you haven’t heard (you’ve probably heard) we’re doing a pop-up at our favorite local restaurant next week – the Washington Square Tavern in Brookline! We love the folks there almost as much as we love their charcuterie plate and we’re absolutely over the moon to be working with them on a serious piece de resistance: the 400lb pig.

We’re working with our pig farmers, the awesome guys at John Crow Farm in Groton, MA on this event. Great excuse to go visit the farm and meet our big ol’ pig.

Like all the meat we buy, John Crow Farm raises a variety of animals on pasture, all with love and care. This time, they’ve outdone themselves with an incredible 2.5-year-old, 400-lb. sow. Irene and Max had a magical afternoon of frolicking in the sunshine with adorable animals.

The best part? As if amazing pork isn’t good enough, we’re going to be working with some of our favorite local brewers on beer and cider pairings! Best news ever. Jack’s Abby, Night Shift, Pretty Things, Bantam Cider, Berkshire Brewing Company, and High & Mighty. Yup, they’re hooking up the best of the best. CAN’T WAIT!

Tickets are available HERE and include seven porky courses, all-local beer and cider pairings, and gratuity. Expect doughnuts, dumplings, and everything in between.

May 14, 2013
by Mei
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Let’s Greenovate Boston!

We’re absolutely thrilled to have won a Greenovate Award from the City of Boston today! Thanks to Irene’s dedicated local sourcing program, our use of compostable materials and our work to make our restaurant green, we’ve been recognized by the City as a sustainable food leader. It was a huge honor to accept the award from Mayor Menino today.

Some other organizations we know and love were also recognized like the Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston University, Spaulding Rehab Hospital, and Community Servings. It was also great getting to chat with old friends and some new faces, all dedicated to making the city of Boston one of the greenest in the world.

We can’t wait until our new restaurant is built as green as it possibly can be! More to come on that soon…

May 12, 2013
by Mei
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To Our Mama and all the Fabulous Moms Out There – Happy Mother’s Day!

Happy Mother’s Day everyone! As you know, we’re a family business, and no one is more central to our family than the Mama Mei Mei, Elaine. Maybe you’ve met her at the truck, where she’ll coax you into eating your first double awesome, or maybe you’ve run into her at the grocery store, where she’s picking up groceries to cover our a**es, or even possibly, you’ve noticed that she joined Twitter and Facebook just to help keep track of and promote her crazy kids. When she heard we had a catering job on Mother’s Day, she shrugged her shoulders and said “when your kids are so great, every day is Mother’s Day.” Little does she know, we’re going to feed her all our leftover foie gras tomorrow night…

She’s the amazingest lady. We couldn’t be a luckier bunch of kids. Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!

May 7, 2013
by Mei
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A Big Food Truck Weekend! Plus, Some Big Dishes for a Great Cause…

It doesn’t get any bigger for a Boston food truck weekend than the Food Truck Throwdown plus the opening day at SOWA Open Market. Woohoo! Luckily it was a gorgeous sunny weekend and we saw tons of old friends and new folks at these two big days.

It sure was quiet when we pulled on to the Greenway at 7:30am…

But it got crowded pretty damn fast! You know it’s a big day for Mei Mei when you have a record-breaking NINE people working the truck. Check out the killer Mei Mei crew packed into the truck like sardines but still pushing out great food like champions.

We served an option of Farmer’s Market fried rice with lots of local veggies or a Magical Kale Panzanella (fancy Italian word for bread salad) topped with your choice of a slow poached egg, Adams Farm braised beef, or our brand new and exciting BACON TRIFECTA. Housemade bacon bits, bacon strips and bacon hollandaise…YUM.

We were seriously excited to also offer some super specials in support of a cause near and dear to our hearts, Spaulding Rehab Hospital. We don’t get to cook with very high-end ingredients on the truck very often and this gave us an opportunity to use fun stuff like foie gras and lobster and all in support of a good cause. Check out our super specials below, named for our mom, dad and godfather Bob!

We’re very grateful to all the lovely people who ordered this dish and helped us write this check to Spaulding today. Like the amazing Aimee who bought a Godfather for her crew – you rock our world Aimee!

What an awesome day! The food truck community in Boston kicks ass.

And we got to do it all over again at our first time at SOWA on Sunday….the summer of food trucking is finally here!

April 29, 2013
by Mei
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Some April Events We Loved

It’s been a pretty awesome month for special events – private parties, charitable events, cook-offs and more. The truck drove all over the place to feed some lovely people and support some great causes.

For the first time, food trucks showed up at the Taste of the Nation Boston to help fight childhood hunger! It was a great night full of notable Boston chefs cooking up small plates down by the waterfront.
Earlier in the month, our Copley Square regular Sean threw a surprise 30th birthday party for his fiancee Christine! We <3 you guys.

Sean put together a great menu of truck favorites, keeping in mind all the vegetarian eaters and bourbon lovers…and there was a magician! FUN.

Irene and I also had a great time at a very unique event – a Boston College charity cook-off! The amazing students of the Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Charity & Service Committee put together an fantastic event to promote the richness that is APA diversity, history, and culture and support Second Harvest Asia. Irene and I were seriously honored to be invited to speak to the group and judge the cook-off. Tasting tons of delicious dishes all afternoon…rough life, amirite?

Six teams competed to show off their dishes for the judging, cooking all day on tiny little stoves to perfect their meals.

We got to try so many awesome dishes – starting in the upper left corner and going clockwise, we ate Filipino beef lumpia, pineapple fried rice from the Real Food group, curry potato wontons from the Chinese student group, pork over rice noodles from the Vietnamese organization, Taiwanese pork belly over rice, and spam musubi from the Hawaiian group!

I particularly loved the fried spam musubi (fried food? me!?!) and the flavors of the Taiwanese pork belly, but everything was so good it was a tough call to make.

The winning team, selected by the four-person judging panel turned out to be…the Chinese team! Congrats on your inventive and well-executed dish.

Thanks so much to the lovely folks of the BC APAHM committee – you guys organized a really fun and inspiring event! Thanks so much for having us, we had a wonderful time.

If anyone else ever wants us to judge a cooking competition…we’re here for you. Starting the stomach training now….

April 10, 2013
by Mei
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Love Local – Killer Donuts, Jewel Toned Juices and an Exciting New Neighbor!

This issue of Boston Magazine is seriously making us hungry.

We’ve been lucky enough to work with the very talented food team at the magazine a few times and they’ve outdone themselves with this issue.

First off, we’re so psyched for the fun stuff to come from our buddy Josh and his team at Union Square Donuts/Culinary Cruisers. They opened recently with a huge bang and sold out of tons of delicious product straight from the get-go. They’re now taking a few weeks to make some changes and come back with a vengeance…oh, so excited for the donuts to come.

Then there’s the kickass crew at Strip T’s and their upcoming restaurant in Washington Square…and it’s walking distance from our house. This is gonna be dangerous.

Last but not least, we’re über excited for the debut of the Mother Juice truck here in Boston. I want to drink all those colorful jars right now. Can’t wait till they open in just a few weeks!

Be sure to check out these delicious and exciting things to come. Can’t wait!

April 9, 2013
by Irene
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Awesome Like Sunday Morning

Best ever way to wake up on a Sunday morning? Getting to sleep in knowing there’s no prep scheduled for the day AND getting this with your Sunday Globe:

EEEK! We’re on the cover of the Boston Globe Magazine! Commence freaking out. We’d been working on a story with the awesome food writer Rachel Travers and photographer Webb Chappell but we weren’t sure it would be on the cover . How amazing did that photo turn out? We’re so happy and honored to be featured, so a huge thanks to everyone involved.

Things got even more surreal – we knew we’d been mentioned in the New York Times Frugal Traveler blog earlier in the week, but didn’t know that it would be in print in the Sunday Times. WHAT. Major life goal achieved.

And then proceeded one of those awesome Sundays that just make life so good. Our kickass Mei Mei team planned a staff bike ride from our BU West spot over to the new Shake Shack in Chestnut Hill. Will bike for burgers. And Shack-cago dogs, slathered in mustard and bowing under the weight of tangy pickles and spicy peppers. And malted chocolate milkshakes. Okay, if you insist.

Our bike gang zoomed from BU down Beacon Street towards BC. Important photo opp stop by our buddies at Roxy’s!

Beverage break by the reservoir was obviously a must.

After off-roading over sticks and stones and dead leaves and up and down hills through the Newton woods – seriously – we hit a dead end and lugged our bikes back to the road. No worries – Shake Shack was in sight.

We locked up our bikes and got a place in line while the rest of the crew headed over to our fave Urban Grape to stock up on drinks for later.

And then, finally….Shake Shack!

Oh yes. We demolished a table’s worth of burgers, dogs, shakes and fries and then headed back to our house to cook more, eat more, drink more, and play some ridiculous board games. What a Mei Mei Sunday. Yup…life is good.

March 30, 2013
by Mei
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New Food Truck Season Starts April First!

Don’t be fooled by the typical shenanigans of April 1st – it may be April Fool’s Day, but our brand new April Schedule is for real. Check it out down below and remember – we recommend our ‘Find Us‘ page to check on our regular schedule, but as always, please check Twitter in case of last minute changes and issues. Looking forward to seeing old friends and new faces out there!

MONDAY
8am-3pm: Dewey Square
NEW 4:30pm-7:30pm: 220 Clarendon St. at Boylston

TUESDAY
NEW 11am-3pm: City Hall Plaza (YAY!)

WEDNESDAY
NEW 11am-2:45pm: Stuart St. at Trinity Place
4:30pm-7:30pm BU West by the BU Bridge

THURSDAY
10:30am-2:45pm: BU East on Comm Ave by Morse Auditorium
NEW 4:30pm-7:30pm: Belvidere St. by the Prudential

FRIDAY
11am-2:30pm: Fort Point/Seaport by the Courthouse T Stop
3:30- 7:30pm: 220 Clarendon St. at Boylston

SATURDAY & SUNDAY
Our summer is chock full of SoWa Open Market, Egleston Farmer’s Market, weddings and parties! Check our Twitter feed to find out what we’re up to.

We’ve also got some fun and exciting special events coming up – come say hello!

SPECIAL EVENTS

April 6: Of Course! at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education – tickets still available!

April 18: Taste of the Nation to benefit Share our Strength – tickets still available!

April 20: Earth Day Mulch Sale at Taza Chocolate Factory – come and see us 11am-3pm.

March 30, 2013
by Irene
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Mei Mei & SoWa: Together at Last!

It’s the announcement you’ve all been waiting for, folks: Mei Mei will spend the summer at SoWa Open Market!

via BostInno.com

Here are the dates: May 5, May 19, June 2, June 16, July 7, July 21, July 28, Aug 11, Aug 25, Sep 15, Sep 29, Oct 13, Oct 20.

We’re so excited to join an awesome community of fellow food truckers, art and crafters, and amazing farmers for roughly every other Sunday of the summer, 10am-4pm. Can’t wait to see you there!

March 30, 2013
by Irene
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Mei Mei Fun Times at Cochon 555

Last weekend, Max and I got a taste of Cochon 555 – the national tour that visits eight cities and each time, features 5 chefs, 5 heritage breed pigs, and 5 wine makers. Plus lots of cider, beer, and whiskey, oysters and cheese, and all sorts of other good stuff.

Not only did we get to eat some amazing porky treats from chefs Jody Adams (Rialto, Trade), Colin Lynch (Menton), Michael Lascola (American Seasons), and Michael Scelfo (Russell House Tavern and the upcoming Alden & Harlow), but we also got to help our friend, Brian Young of Citizen Public House and general badass, prep for the event. Photos and deets after the jump:

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