Food truck offers Kosher food

By: Jonathan Simmons/Contributing Writer

A little crunch. A little mush. Texture and flavor. That, said Michael Rosen, is what it is all about.

Rosen, who goes by Miro, is new to the University. He has been here since Aug. 22, and a lot of students, he said, still do not know he is here yet. But every weekday morning, Rosen arrives early at the Modesto Maidique Campus to open up his custom-designed food truck, Miro’s BBQ, and serve sandwiches, burgers, wraps and salads to students, faculty and staff passing by on lunch break or between classes.

But there is something special about the new food truck parked outside the Green Library: all the food there is certified by the Orthodox Rabbinic Board. Miro’s is the only place at the University that offers kosher food.

For students who only eat kosher, the presence of a kosher food option on campus is a major improvement in quality of life. Graduate student Tali Berman has been at the University since 2004, and described what it was like to deal with long days on campus before Miro’s, when there was no place to eat: “You basically bring your lunch or starve all day,” she said. “You have to carry your lunches with you, and you have to bring something that will keep all day—it’s hard.”

But observant Jews are not the only ones relieved by the presence of a kosher option on campus. “Most—well, maybe 50 percent—of my customers are Muslim,” Rosen said. “The first two weeks, everybody was telling their friends it was halal [permissible under Islamic law].” Rahiq Noor, a freshman, says he goes to Miro’s every day for lunch. “I’m a Muslim,” Noor said, “and it’s halal—it’s kosher, and Muslims can eat kosher.”

Rosen discussed his business over the sound of pop music (Aerosmith) playing on a radio in the truck. “The music helps bring in the kids,” he grinned, dumping a dollop of deep-gold home-cut fries onto a Styrofoam plate next to a wrap and handing it to a waiting customer. When asked what his most popular dish is, Rosen said, “They’re all over the chicken—chicken sandwiches, chicken fingers. Wow, they’re chicken, chicken, chicken all day.”

Rosen had wanted to become a chef since he was young. “I’ve really cooked all my life,” he said. “I always wanted to have a restaurant, but these days it’s hard to have a steady restaurant. So I cooked in other restaurants. I worked for [the Orthodox Rabbinic Board] in Boca Raton and Boynton Beach as what they call a ‘mashgiach,’ someone who oversees the preparation of kosher food in a restaurant. Then two years ago,” he said, “I got the truck. I went to office buildings, temples, lots of catering events. And six months ago I got a call from Rabbi [Saj] Freiberg.”

The effort to bring kosher food to campus was a lengthy one, and Freiberg, of the University’s Jewish Collegiate Learning Exchange, helped lead it. The difficulty was finding a way to make it profitable. “In order to have kosher supervision, you have to have an Orthodox Jew who obeys all the laws watching over it, and that’s an extra employee,” Freiberg said. “So we had to find somebody who had a truck [and] who was an Orthodox Jew. If they’re a one-man show, then it’s economical.”

Freiberg emphasized that Miro’s was designed to appeal to the University population and not just to students looking for kosher. “We wanted it to be that the Jewish community would have what it needs, and that it would also add to the food options on campus, because you can’t really get really fresh stuff like he makes easily on campus.” But he also said that the presence of kosher food was a breakthrough for the Orthodox community. “If you’re Orthodox,” he said, “[the fact] that the University has a place you can eat really makes you feel at home.”

As the lunch rush drew to an end, Rosen sold a “Miro dog,” something his mother used to make him just for fun. “It’s rolled in mustard relish, and then breadcrumbs and then it’s deep-fried,” he said. “It’s sweet-salty savory … a little crunch, a little mush, texture and flavor—that’s what it’s all about.”