Elina Shatkin
It's a bit cheeky naming your business “The Bomb,” but that's essentially what Brazilian food truck Ta Bom (@ta_bom) has done. The one menu item that lives up to the title is their pastel.
Ta Bom dishes out several street snacks including bland chicken and cheese-filled croquettes known as coxinhas; sweet brigadeiros, which look like rum balls filled with guava paste instead of chocolate; and hamburgao and cachorro quente, a Brazilian spin on hamburgers and hot dogs. The meat for both the burger and the dogs seems to be of marginal quality. Both are overloaded. There's mayo, mustard, ketchup, canned corn and crisp fried potato sticks. The burger adds on an egg, bacon, lettuce and tomato. Too much quantity, not enough quality. But with the pastel, Ta Bom gets it just right.
Similar to an empanada, the pastel ($5) is a rectangle of crisp fried dough that gently flakes when you break it open. Among the three savory options (chicken, beef or cheese), the tasty ground beef enlivened with a few carrots and green peas is the best, but you won't go wrong with the ooey gooey chese (we recommend the spicy pepper jack). Ta Bom also makes a damn fine dessert pastel. Filled with sliced bananas and nutella, it could stand up to a crepe any day, any time.
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