The Flying Deutschman

Food Truck
Media, PA
(610) 333-7908
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2SP is a new-ish DelCo brewery complete with a canning line and they have gotten quite a bit of publicity recently. They focus on beer, and typically have a different food truck serving hungry drinkers on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. I have been wanted to try the Flying Deutschman for quite a while, after seeing it zipping by on the highway many a time, and it JUST HAPPENED to be at a brewery, so I decided to take one for the team and go drink some beer and eat. Selfless, as usual.

The truck is painted like a ship, and is quite cool. They offer a variety of specials mixed with standard menu items, of a German variety. There is a tablet for paying, so you don't need cash. Always a big plus in the old PP book.

You can get a couple types of schnitzel and wurst, and all can be served sandwich style. This means put on a roll for those with comprehension issues.

The truck has a nice clean work space. You can see the ordering tablet in the below shot.

I tried the currywurst sandwich, the jaeger schnitzel with mushroom sauce, and a side of cucumber salad.

I loved the currywurst. The curry sauce was packed with flavor, the wurst was juicy and had a great snap to the casing. I like the toast marks on the roll. My complaint is on the price. The sandwich was $8 I believe, but the side of cucumber salad was a whooping $5. It was a small portion for the money. I DO believe that this is some extremely fresh, homemade German-style food, on par or better than most any German restaurant in the area. So it does even out. But be warned, this isn't a cheap food truck meal.

I could have easily eaten two of these delectable sandwiches.

The jaeger schnitzel was another winner, with a thin, well fried and seasoned cutlet smothered in mushroom gravy. You can see the black pepper flakes speckled throughout the creamy sauce below. It was served with a roll, which coincidentally made quite the sauce mop for anything left behind.

The thin cutlet was was easily sliced with a plastic knife, and the seasoned crispy breading soaked up the indulgent creamy sauce. It was a great schnitzel, even though white sauces tend to be not very photogenic.

And the beer at 2SP was not bad at all either. I will be back and even if it's not the Flying Deutschman, I'll be happy to give another contender a try.

1st Ward Sandwich

100 Morris Street
Philadelphia, PA 19148
(215) 551-8000
Website

Only 4 years after I moved out of Pennsport, the neighborhood starts to look more appealing. Don't get me wrong, I prefer the old school Philly neighborhoods before gentrification, but there's something to be said for that stretch of time in-between when the mix of old and new struggle to find balance. The 1st Ward is one of those newcomers who has all the appeal of an up-and-coming neighborhood joint and so I went in with high hopes.

The decor is pretty basic, but it's tastefully bright and welcoming for being on Front Street right under 95. They have a clean presentation style and serve the sandwiches on cutting boards. Everything seems pretty good so far. Their menu is small, think of a pseudo-Paesano's style set of options, but fresher; well, not fresher but maybe healthier?

I went with the fried oyster po'boy and my friend tried the schnitzel. I was somewhat surprised to see my po'boy come out on an Italian seeded roll. I understand the 'fusion' they're going for here, but I think maybe this was taking it too far.

It comes served with "fried Chesapeake Bay's, spicy mayo and lettuce-tomato slaw." This sounds good but the execution definitely fell short. The slaw wasn't a slaw at all, it was more of a large-chop which made it sort of difficult to eat. The oysters were small, sort of heavy on the breading, but the flavor was there. Actually, for looking so wet, the whole thing was kind of dry and literally had no resemblance to a po'boy (and believe me, I've eaten my way around New Orleans enough to know the truth).

I mean, just call it an Oyster sandwich.

My buddy's schnitzel boasts, "thinly pounded pork loin, greens, fried egg, grain mustard on a butter roll." First off, there was no butter roll in sight. It was the same long seeded Italian roll. Which is fine, but again, let's just call it like it is. Another very dry sandwich. Weakly seasoned all around. Meh. I don't need to say more.

But hey, the fries were awesome. I asked if they had any aoili sauces for dipping and the cook said, "you mean like mayonnaise?" and I sadly replied, "I guess." She proceeded to spoon mayo out of the jar into a little cup for me. What about that spicy mayo that was on my oyster sandwich? Throw me a bone here people. Maybe they've worked out the kinks, but I don't expect I'll ever go back to find out.