Boricua Soul

I tried Boricua Soul at the Durham food truck rodeo and was impressed. As you can tell by their name, this truck blends together latin food and traditional soul food. I tried all three empanadas and thought they were good, though a little dry. I was really impressed by the mac n cheese which was delicious. The thing that stood out most about this food truck to me was the staff– they seemed to know many of their customers by name and you could tell that they really take time to get to know people. The woman at the register went out of her way to walk the person in front of me thru the menu and you could tell she really cared about the food. You could tell that they put love into their food, and it shows in the quality.

I dig this place– it gets American soul food, and understands that soul food is basically immigrant food that’s adapted and adopted to/​by the place that it lands. Puerto Rican food that’s tinged with some southern soul is also MY personal food background, so I get what Toriano is doing here. Just like soul food, this food feeds the soul– riffing on the standards, improving, using what’s fresh. It’s the taste of the island, of Nueva York, of DURM.
Why do I dig this truck? Because they serve empandillas like my abuelito used to make, or tostones like the ones we used to beg for as they came out of the skillet, or a Cuban sandwich that is actually IMPROVED by serving NC-​style pulled pork between two hoecakes. Put these folks on your food truck rodeo radar– it’s worth the drive to find them.

Listen. I’m a food fan and am particularly fond of food trucks. Somehow Boricua Soul hadn’t made it onto my radar. I don’t know why because I love Puerto Rican food and Soul Food and warm gooey cheesy food. My friend told me they would be at Fullsteam Brewery this afternoon and that she would be there with her family. I agreed to venture out on this cold day to check it out.
If you have read any of my other reviews I’m not an easy critic. I try to provide a comprehensive review and touch on the good, the bad, and in some cases the ugly. In this case there’s only the good. If I’m being really honest, I ordered enough food to properly show support, but went in with mid-​range expectations. I’ve 7been let down by some of the «popular» food trucks over the last few months, so I wasn’t expecting much.
I ordered the mac and cheese and pimento hoe cakes. Mac and cheese is one of those dishes that you either get really right or really wrong. The mac and cheese is BANGIN’ y’all! Now… the pimento hoe cakes were almost a set them up to fail item. I’m not a big pimento fan, nor am I a big hoe cake fan. It was cold, pimento seems to be super popular in North Carolina, and I figured why not? I wish I would have come out earlier and been able to order more food. Dead serious. I ate every last bit of my food and wished I hadn’t waited until the end of their time slot to come out. The hoe cakes were a perfect consistency, texture, cooked just right. Nothing was dry, mealy, or overcooked.
Now that I have covered the food, let’s talk about the staff. Family run and friendly! :) Smiles, warm greetings, heck they’ll hug you if you want! The enthusiasm and the genuine sincerity that oozed from them was fantastic! I don’t write fluff reviews and was a little worried that if the food didn’t live up to the customer service that it would pain me to have to write some critiques about the experience. Luckily the food was on point with the customer service!
I’ll gladly be adding Boricua Soul to my food truck list!