First Bite: Happy Eating Food Truck

Local curio shop

recently relocated from Inglewood/Madison to Berry Hill. (I still haven't been to the new location, but from what I hear it's bigger than the old one.) Even more recently, they've added another vehicle to Nashville's growing food truck fleet: Happy Eating. Today the truck, which I think wins the award for most eye-popping paint job, was parked out in food-truck hotbed MetroCenter, and I got to sample their take on Japanese street food for the first time. Funnily enough, I drove around for 15 minutes trying to find an ATM — since every food truck in Nashville seems incapable of accepting anything other than cash, which I never have on me, not that that drives me nuts or anything, but I digress — only to discover that Happy Eating, happily, accepts debit cards. A MIRACLE OF MODERN COMMERCE.

Anyway, as I perused the menu — check it out here if you like — owner Laura Myers informed me that today's special was "rice burgers," which are not burgers made of rice, but rather, two slider-sized beef patties, each garnished with some pickled daikon and wasabi sauce, and set between a set of rice wheels to form a sticky, meaty treat. That's definitely thinking outside the bun. I and everyone who sampled loved these little beauties, and they came with a nice serving of sweet potato fries, which were lightly dusted with a curry powder of some sort, plus some wasabi mayo for dipping. Several thumbs up.