gyspy kid.: Cafe Adventures; The Foodtruck Garage

Super healthy fast food. Not a phrase you hear very often, and one that brings to mind either $25 raw-vegan lettuce leaf “burgers” or other fast foods claiming to be 'super healthy' with only 3 times your daily calorie intake. Because quite honestly the concept of healthy, delicious and cheap food breaks the golden triangle of eating out.

You can have healthy and delicious food but its usually expensive, and you can most definitely have cheap, tasty food but its not usually too forgiving on the figure. But a restaurant that serves healthy, cheap AND delectable food!?

Don’t worry; I was cynical at first too.

Now if you haven’t already heard of NZ tv show ‘The Food Truck’ here’s a little background. Basically in 2010 Chef Michael Van de Elzen decided to go on a quest to reinvent fast food, believing that he could replicate popular fast foods for the same price just as delicious, but healthier! Sufficed to say with resulting restaurant “The Foodtruck garage” and a second cookbook in the works he was pretty successful!

Regardless of the fact that the night before I had the delight in trying out Better burger (posts to come) somehow I still had a hunger that only the perfect combination of meat, vegetables and brioche bun could put an end to. So it was impossible not to look past the burger that was the Metro 2013 winner of the best gourmet burger! The ‘beefroot’ was insanely good with an amazing hummus/aioli type sauce, fresh vegetables and soft burger buns, but that’s not even the best part!

Now imagine a patty… only half of it is made up of shredded beetroot, carrot vegetable goodness…but you can’t taste any vegetables. Unable to comprehend how such wizardry was possible, I put my confusion aside and tucked into the rest of my food as well as a side of kumara and potato chips. While the potato chips probably weren’t as good as the infamous maccas fries and the burger was quite juicy, we left feeling totally satisfied but guilt free.

So if you’re looking for a place to enjoy your guilty pleasure foods but without the guilt, check out the Food Truck Garage at 90 Wellesley Street.