Food Cart Dining - Madison, WI

[MKEFOODIE]

I just started working in Madison this week after living in Minneapolis/Milwaukee for the past 10 years. A previous poster had mentioned eating at the food carts for lunch in Madison. Does anyone have recommendations/reviews of the various carts? Any have to try items?

Thanks in advance.

[BabyChiChower]

Check out last week's Isthmus in the food & drink section...a comprehensive rundown of the food carts.

Link: http://www.thedailypage.com/

[Mitch]

If you have time to visit the Library Mall regularly, I'd suggest working your way through all the carts. They all have their virtues.

Among my favorites --

--Dorowot (an Ethiopian dish) from Buraka.
--Jerk Pork or Chicken with red beans and rice from Jamerica.
--Spicy Crazy Noodles from Sukkothai
--A wonderful eggplant stir-fry (I forgot its name) from Thai House...though it never seems to be on the menu any more.
--Ayam Semur from the Indonesian cart. The krupuk crackers are addictive.
--Fried catfish from Val's Cookout Express.

My absolute favorite cart is the least exotic one on the mall: Ingrid's Lunchbox. Ingrid's menu is based on the sorts of items you'd find in a small-town cafe -- sort of a Chatterbox Cafe on wheels -- but cooks the food with the subtlety of a trained chef -- which she is, so it's really good. My favorite is beef rouladen with onion soup (which she hasn't served for a while, unfortunately) but it's all good.

By the way, if you go to the carts for lunch every day, you'll hear a lot of piccolo solos. Hope that's OK.