The African Truck

It starts out simple (the day that is),
1. some robot texts me at 4:28a.m. with the exciting message, «Just saw a news story about a local mom making $ 250 a day. That is such a lifesaver! Visithttp://bootychatter.com on your computer»
2. My nose ring gets yoinked out as I get dressed
3. I look fat in my sweater dress.
Enter Bolat African Truck’s jollof rice, fish and «sauce».
I take my styrofoam container to the dock and shove heap after heap of moist spicy rice into my mouth while mallards, tiny birds and seagulls gather ’round to watch and squawk at me. I feel like an African Mother Goose.
Everything cost $ 6 and I couldn’t even finish the rice. I will never purchase the fish again seeing as it is LACED with bones and therefore inedible. However, next time I will purchase rice and beans and plantains with «sauce».
There is no menu and there are no posted prices. You just have to ask or know. Here’s what I *know* they serve:
–plain white rice
–bell peppers and jalapeño soup [super spicy and best poured over white rice]
–fufu [think moldable mashed potatoes, scoop up everything on your plate with it instead of using a fork if you dare]
–plantains
–fish [order by the piece, there aren’t any fillets]
–goat
–black eyed peas
–sauce [spicey tomatoey perfection from the meat tray]
KNOW THIS:
The sauce and jollof can make it rain… from your armpits. Don’t mess around and eat jollof and sauce on a day when you forgot the Speedstick. Things will not bode well for you socially.

If you are a little more adventurous, and don’t mind eating food off the back of a truck, then give it a whirl.
There were a bunch of other sides and breads in the truck that I wanted to ask about, but there was a line of hungry cabbies forming behind me, so I just went with the goat and rice. It was a lot of food for $ 8. The rice was pretty good, the sauce was nice and spicy, the goat had good flavor but was pretty tough. I’d probably try it again, particularly from the Vee Vee’s truck or Bolat. I’m not sure how much difference there is between them.

When I used to work in the loop a few years ago I would stop by the Vee Vee African Restaurant truck in downtown Chicago for the goat in curry with rice. It was great and a nice change to the traditional places to eat in the area. For only $ 7 you get a lot of food that I would would not be able to eat the entire portion. If you have trouble finding the truck, try and locate a cab in the area and ask for directions or better yet have them take you there to enjoy a tasty meal at the Vee Vee African Restaurant truck.
Todor Krecu

I hit up The African Truck for lunch at Columbus /​Illinois, right near AMC River East around 12:15. The side of the truck says Bolat African Cuisine, so I think it might be part of the main restaurant in Lakeview.
When I walked up with a couple co-​workers the guy in front of me asked if «I was hungry», which I replied «yeah» and he came back with «You know this is African food right» … I nodded and said «yep.» I figured this my chance to see what he recommend. He told be to get the jollof rice with maybe some fried plantains. I took his advice and got the jollof rice but skipped the plantains and got goat. I almost got the fish /​hard boiled egg mixture. My co-​worker Gene got the same thing. One great thing was it was only $ 7 and the same dish at the Bolat restaurant is $ 9.
The lunch was so filling and spicy. I’m not sure if the jollof rice is that spicy or if it was the tomato sauce that they poured on top. The goat was also good… goat isn’t something I order often, I would give The African Truck 5 stars but its a little confusing for a first timer.

I am giving away a secret here. In the desolate loop lunch scene there is an oasis of interesting food… food in a truck… African food in what we would call «the African Truck».
It parks at lunch time on Columbus just north of Randolph next to the Blue Cross Blue Shield building. It serves mostly African cabbies that drive off Lake Shore Drive near there.
I think it is owned by Vee Vee’s African restaurant (I never made it to the restaurant before leaving the city)…the African Truck got me through a long year doing a computer gig in the BCBS building.
There is no menu and it can be hard to get the guy who works there to tell you what he has… he just offers you Jerk Chicken or rice and beans and otherwise demands you somehow know what they have. The solution here is to watch what the other folks are ordering and point at what you like.
As a hint I will tell you they have a mix of traditional Nigerian stuff like goat and some kind of fish as well as Caribbean stuff like Jerk Chicken and (tasty!) meat pies. The big white ball of dough you see people eating is a yam flour dough called FuFu. It is very filling but at least worth trying once with a stew instead of rice.
The best part of the menu is this ecstatic tomato sauce that they pour on everything. It just gets richer through the lunch time because they will pour extra sauces and juices from the meat dishes into the pan to extend it. If you are a strict vegetarian you need to catch him when he first gets there or skip the tomato sauce.
I tried the Chicken and Fish (which was really strange in texture to my palate) but I love it for the various rice and beans dishes you can get for cheap with the tomato sauce piled on. Red beans and rice is richer, black-​eyed peas and rice is lighter. Add a hard boiled egg, a side of sweet plantains, some boiled yam, or a meat pie and you will be STUFFED.
Oh I miss you African Truck.