Burger Box

Despite there being 5 food trucks parked on the narrow stretch of Warren St. that links Rutgers-Newark and NJIT, they are all plagued with the same wandering menu; a jumble of BLT rolls, chicken sandwiches, and lamb and rice platters, with no culinary direction in particular. But now there is the Burger Box food truck, a kitchen on wheels that specializes in gourmet burgers and handcut fries.

Chef and owner Michael Jones decided to focus on, what else, but burgers, with an emphasis on fresh and organic produce. According to him, nothing is frozen on the truck, and the ingredients are all sourced from local purveyors. Chef Jones also makes his patties from a combination of hanger steaks, sirloins, and short ribs.

Burger accompaniments have an artisanal bent, with ingredients like aged vermont cheddar and applewood smoked bacon on their cheddar bacon burger, white truffle oil on their mushroom burger, a blue cheese burger with shallot confit, and a tuna burger made from sushi grade ahi tuna with wasabi mayonnaise. The fries are also hand cut from fresh potatoes and cooked to order.

Chef Jones said the cheddar bacon was their bestseller, which I ordered, while my partner got the mushroom burger, which we topped off with shoestring french fries and shaved onion rings. Burger Box also cooks the patty to your liking, so you can have it however you like. The flames from the grill gave the bun and patty a crispy char, and my medium-rare burger was perfectly pink inside.

While the onion rings were overly battered, the fries were exquisite, not overpoweringly salty, thinly cut and deep fried to perfection.

For more pictures of Burger Box visit ScarletGastronomer
For times and locations of Burger box visit www.burgerbox.org

Jethro Kang

Hailing from Singapore, a city of six million foodies, Jethro Kang has always been interested in food since the day he could grasp a fork. Having recently graduated from Rutgers-Newark with a journalism degree, he intends to travel the world sampling new cuisines, documenting his journeys and salivate over all the good food on his blog, thescarletgastronomer.wordpress.com.