Like finessing the ball into the hole from 30 feet out on the green, there is an art to assembling loaded fries. First, the fries need to be sturdy and collect little bits of meat and sauce, for which crinkle-cut do the job. Then there’s the action: tiny shreds of thinly sliced steak, cooked with red and green bell peppers. It sits on the flat top, getting hot and crispy, while provolone, like a blanket, melts over the heap. Boom boom sauce, a spicy mustard, adds color and zing (both in flavor and name), and then it’s finished with sumac, a tell of the restaurant’s Afghan heritage. The resulting affair, while heavy and indulgent, balances flavors and textures like any proper dish.
It started, says Cheesesteak Express and Kabob Depot owner Yusuf Popal, during his time operating as a food truck in Tysons Corner. Guests didn’t want the bread for a cheesesteak, hypocrisy aside, so they ordered meat (chicken, brisket, steak) over fries. These open-faced cheesesteaks, says Popal, are one of his biggest hits at the counter operation he now runs inside of a gas station. Kabobs are juicy and lightly charred and the accompanying chickpeas are soft and saucy. Though it’s hidden in an off-the-highway strip mall in South Riding, there was more than a 20-minute wait on a mid-week lunch order: it’s popular, and food is cooked to order.
Cheesesteak Express serves as a catering vehicle these days, and Popal launched a separate truck for Kabob Depot and is hunting for a second space.
The friends behind Egg Karne, a Filipino breakfast-focused spot located inside of a golf course, are also already looking for new places to nest inside.
Alvin Barnuevo, Travis Gafford and Jonathan Ling bought a food truck and were ready for the grueling life of cooking food before dawn and hunting for parking spaces in Arlington, when the Town of Herndon accepted their bid to run the cafe inside of Herndon Centennial Golf Course.
They sold the truck—“Let’s just not wake up at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Barnuevo remembers telling his business partners—and concentrated on the stationery version of Egg Karne.
There’s purple-tinged ube bubble waffles for brunch, which Barnuevo managed to fudge the sugar-baking soda-flour ratio to create a crispy crust. There’s Spam fries, straightforward slices of Spam battered and fried and served with a sriracha-mayo ketchup. And, there’s arroz caldo fried balls, a Filipino spin on Italy’s arancini. Originally a rice porridge dish, the chicken broth is cooked down so the porridge can tighten up and be rolled in flour and fried, though it has the same garlic and ginger seasonings as its prototype. The resulting interior yields soft and creamy rice studded with chicken and garnished with calamansi, fish sauce and cilantro.
Far from the standard duffer’s fare—though a burger, hot dog and tuna salad sandwich remain as options—Barnuevo, who is Filipino (as is Ling) pitched this concept as utilizing fresh, local ingredients with an eye toward Filipino flavors translated into America’s breakfast culture. “They saw something different in us,” says Barnuevo.
For the longanisa sausage, Egg Karne uses a grind from Valentine’s Bakery & Meats (the farm in Orange sells at NoVA farmers markets), seasons it and forms it into a patty, inflecting the brioche breakfast sandwich with one the Philippines’ signature meats. The sweet sausage contrasts with the tangy Karne sauce (a Filipino barbecue sauce).
Opened since March, Barnuevo is still playing with the menu, especially weekend brunch, when filling up with fried rice, a runny egg and longanisa sausage—a traditional Filipino day-starter—can bring luck on that front nine.
NOTES
Egg Karne (inside of Herndon Centennial Golf Course)
909 Ferndale Ave., Herndon; eggkarne.com
Open from 8 a.m.-7 p.m.
Entrees and sandwiches: $5-$12
Cheesesteak Express and Kabob Depot (inside of a BP gas station)
24651 Southpoint Drive, Chantilly; 703-957-4705
Open from 10 a.m.-9 p.m.
Entrees and sandwiches: $9-$12