Can Stay at Rutgers Dining Hall All Day

Would you stand online for more than a half hour for a food truck?

Probably not, but Rutgers students do for the tasty value of lunch or dinner at three university Dining Services food trucks, including the brand-new Three Chilies' global take on tacos. All three accept the university's meal plan, said Nick Emanuel, director of operations of Rutgers Dining Services.

Opened last month on the College Avenue and Cook campuses, Three Chilies expands typical Mexican fare with soft tacos from Korea, Vietnam and Latin America, as well as vegan and barbecue variations.

"Writing the menu, I wanted it to be as diverse as possible, while keeping up with current trends in the food service industry," Emanuel said. "Korean and Vietnamese cuisines are very popular, especially on the West Coast, and they add some amazing flavors that you wouldn't normally taste in a taco."

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Students said they  are pleased with value of Three Chilies'  large, black cardboard boxes filled with three stuffed soft-shell tacos and loaded tortilla chips.

At $7.50 each, menu options are a bargain, said Ria Mehta, a freshman public relations/management major from East Brunswick.

The taco menu includes Bulgogi Flank Steak from Korea; Banh Mi Chicken from Vietnam; Spanish-style chorizo; Southern-style Smoked Brisket; a vegan option with lentil, sweet potato, kale and black beans, and two kinds of Mexican tacos — smoked pork or Baja shrimp.

"I think it's perfect because you get some taco and some nachos all for a meal swipe," Mehta said. "It gives us options here at College Ave. The presentation is really good,  too."

Fellow freshman Albert Chen, a business analytics/computer science major also from East Brunswick, agreed.

"The tacos look like they have a lot of meat in them," Chen said. "There's a lot of stuff inside the tacos."

Like the Knight Wagon, which focuses on a gourmet Medieval-themed menu, such as lamb burgers, and a Starbucks truck, which also provides breakfast, Three Chilies' soon will be available on all five campuses, Emanuel said. A peddler's license is expected within a month, which will expand the truck's scope to the Piscataway campuses, he said.

All three food trucks fill a void on the College Avenue Campus, which has fewer meal-plan dining options than Cook, Douglass, Livingston and Busch. The new Café West in the West Academic Building on Seminary Place also helps to fill that void with burgers, Starbucks coffee and grab-and-go items, Emanuel said.

"Eventually, we are going to rebuild the Browers Commons dining hall," he said, "but that won't be a for a while."

Emanuel was a student at Rutgers during the mid-'90s grease-truck craze that turned the fat sandwich into a national phenomenon.

In comparison, the cuisine at Rutgers Dining Services' food trucks is much healthier, especially at Three Chilies.

"Today, students want to eat healthy," Emanuel said. "They don't even know that there used to be grease trucks and fat sandwiches here."

To find out where Three Chilies and the other Rutgers food trucks will be from day to day, follow Rutgers Dining Services on Twitter at @RutgersDining.

Email: bmakin@gannettnj.com

Bob Makin covers Rutgers for MyCentralJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey. To get unlimited access to his informative and entertaining work, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Can Stay at Rutgers Dining Hall All Day

Source: https://www.mycentraljersey.com/story/entertainment/dining/2020/02/12/rutgers-expands-meal-plan-options-latest-food-truck/4691208002/