As delicious as food trucks are, it’s often difficult for me to find one that meets the requirements of both my stomach and pending dietetics degree. To optimize healthiness without sacrificing flavour is a challenge. That’s why I was very pleased to stumble upon Mangal Kiss, a Mid-East BBQ food cart that serves delicious wraps (and more) loaded with veggies.
Mangal Kiss was offering combo special: Shawarma + Small Soup = $10. This was perfect lunch option for me.
The soup that day was a Moroccan Spiced Yellow Pea Soup. Wow! Although the bowl was small, it was brimming with flavour. There was a sweetness (reminiscent of butternut squash) that was at the forefront, with an underpinning smokiness of toasted cumin and tahini. I wanted more… I could’ve easily eaten another bowl.
For my shawarma, I picked the Beef Rib-Eye for my main protein. It was served on a Taftooon, a traditional Iranian flat bread. Enveloped by the chew-to-the-tooth bread, there was hummus, tahini, purple cabbage, beets, pickled turnips, cucumbers, moroccan spiced carrots, radish and tabouleh.
I loved all the veggies, especially since they were the kind that I usually don’t eat enough of… the purple ones! Reflective of its colour, beets and purple cabbage are high in anthocyanin, a type of antioxidant. Also, everything was so fresh – it was a crunchiness palooza!
The meat itself wasn’t seasoned that hard, so it was slightly lacking in flavour. However, the sauces totally made up for that! There were three types loaded in this wrap: Baharat (spiced BBQ), Amba (sweet and savoury mango) and Zhug (middle eastern hot sauce). Pow Pow Pow went my tastebuds!
I can easily see myself eating at Mangal Kiss for lunch all the time if I worked/lived closer. It’s a shame that I have to sit at home and only look at food photos, instead of satisfying my craving #lazysundays.
Final Bytes
- Conveniently located outside the Vancouver Art Gallery
- Combo saves you $2
- Closed weekends (Sat & Sun)
Foodobyte’s Rating
