Parisian Places: Le Camion Qui Fume

In general, I am not an enthusiast of burgers in France. It's not that they aren't good, it's just that when I convert the price to dollars and realize that the mediocre ground beef sandwich is costing me almost twenty-two bucks, it makes me a little nuts. (And since I'm already as nutty as the squirrel from Ice Age, adding in more crazy is never good.)

Despite my general derision for French burgers (Le Senequier in Saint-Tropez has a 30€ burger! That's over $40, people!) I've found a few that leave me little to gripe about (and I do love to gripe): the American Diner near Annecy didn't let me down, and in Paris, there's Le Camion Qui Fume. Maybe you've heard of it - it's kind of famous. It was covered in The New York Times and there's even a Camion Qui Fume cookbook now. You know something's a big deal when there's a cookbook about it.

Yep, I Instagrammed it.

So as soon as it was warm enough to eat lunch in the street, I took my chéri and headed down to Madeleine to see if Le Camion Qui Fume would live up to the hype. We got there at 11:15 and only had to wait in line for about fifteen minutes. Score!

Imagine the line an hour from now

 You can see the staff cooking and frying inside the truck, and it seems like they're all anglophones.  (By the way, Kristin Frederick, who completed her culinary studies in France and then kicked off the French food-truck trend with Le Camion Qui Fume, is a California native. Just more proof that, as a group, we rock.) 

 

The first go-around, we tried the Classique and the Barbecue. I have to admit... the Classique was just okay.  It was a little cold (and it took about five seconds to get to our picnic spot - the steps of the Madeleine, across the street) and our minds remained un-blown. 

But the Barbecue! That's where it's at. "Real" bacon, "real"barbecue sauce - yum yum yum.  The Barbecue burger was good enough to get a reprise on our second visit, and I also tried the Porc braisé, which was not half bad either. 

More good news? The burgers are only 8€ (10€ with fries). You can't do much better than that in Paris.

Practical Information:

Drool over Le Camion Qui Fume's menu here

Be sure to check to calendar to find out where they'll be (and remember that, like many things in Paris, they're not driving about delivering delicious barbecue bacon burgers to the masses on Monday)

Go early! They've been known to sell out. 

More information at http://www.lecamionquifume.com/