The Kanawha Valley is home to a new food truck: Joey's Rockin' Dogs and Tacos.

This area is no stranger to hot dogs or tacos, so I'll be honest - I wasn't overly excited to check it out. However, I was driving through the area and caught the bright red and yellow food truck and decided to give it a go. It was very cold on this day, so I did a little turnabout and pulled up alongside the truck. Convenient and warm? I'll take it.

So tacos include carne asada, pulled pollo, and grilled mahi. You can also get pulled pork, chicken wraps and quesadilla. On the hot dog side, there is a Chicago dog, a baked bean dog, a chili dog and more.

And I had to try a little of column A and a little from column B: Pulled pollo taco with homemade marinade, fresco cheese, avocado, fresh cilantro and lime juice. And then a classic dog with sweet green relish, raw diced white onions and yellow mustard.

Both of these were delicious. I was absolutely blown away by the quality of the taco. That fresh cheese, the fresh avocado, the tender chicken. The bold flavors blended beautifully. It was really, really good. I could've eaten like five of these.

But don't sleep on the hot dog! I'm not usually a relish person. But I liked this sweet relish with the mustard and onion and the dog was like fried. All these flavors together made for a dang good hot dog. I would eat both of these again, hands down.

Grade: A

Bubblefish is a new bubble tea and poke bowl restaurant in downtown Morgantown.

What are those, you may be asking.



"Bubble tea is a Taiwanese tea-based drink. Recipes contain tea of some kind, flavors of milk, and sugar. Toppings, known as "pearls", such as chewy tapioca balls, popping boba, fruit jelly, grass jelly, agar jelly, alovera jelly, sago and puddings are often added." Wikipedia



"Poke is diced raw fish served either as an appetizer or as a main course and is one of the main dishes of Native Hawaiian cuisine. It is often served over rice with soy sauce, green onions, and sesame oil. Others include furikake (mix of dried fish, sesame seeds, and dried seaweed), chopped dried or fresh chili pepper, limu (seaweed), fish eggs, wasabi, and Maui onions." Wikipedia
 

I ordered brown sugar milk tea with boba (which the folks working said was the most popular). And, yes, it does taste like tea, with sugar, and tons of delicious tapioca boba at the bottom. And it comes in the cutest cup with a little heart on top.

 

And I made my own poke bowl: sushi rice, crab, shrimp, edamame, corn, pineapple, teriyaki sauce, yum yum sauce, masago eggs, nori, tempura crisps and avocado. Feel free to copy this combination because it was delish.



Grade: A

Rounding out my trio of brand-new BBQ spots in Charleston is Smoked Up, Sauced Out.

Located in South Charleston, this restaurant replaced Lem's Meat Varnish - but it is still selling their sauces. 


It is takeout only, which I didn't realize, so make sure you have somewhere to go to chow down on your lunch.

For my entree, I went with pulled pork nachos and got sides of the tangy gold, and sweet & smokey BBQ. I think putting the actual BBQ on this will make it a bit saucier and delicious, but this was still solid. I wouldn't hate the cheese to be melted and more sour cream. But not bad.

Grade: B

Oryza is one of my favorite "new" restaurants in all of Morgantown.

When they first opened in the Suncrest area, I fell in love. And now, they've opened a second location at the University Town Centre.



Oryza is a fast-casual Asian grill concept where you order at the counter, they make it right in front of you, and it's all fresh.

You choose from a few options:
1) Format: Bowl, Salad or Wrap
2) Protein: Chicken, Spicy Chicken, Steak, Chicken & Pork Meatballs, or Organic Tofu
3) Veggies (pick 3): Black Beans, Sauteed Vegetables, Asian Green Beans, Charred Corn, Kale, or Egg
4) Sauce: Garlic Yum, Ginger Yum, Spicy Yum, Sambal Salsa, Thai Curry, or Sweet Sriracha Red
5) Toppings: Herb Salad, Carrot, White Raddish, Cucumber, or Cheese
6) Finish: Sesame Seed, Crispy Garlic, Crushed Peanut or Thai Chili
So I went with a bowl with red rice, with chicken, suateed vegetables, Asian green beans, charred corn, garlic yum, cheese and crispy garlic.
 
It's just delicious - and fairly healthy! That is, until you add a caramel tart (and you should add a caramel tart).

Grade: A

All of a sudden, there's an influx of BBQ into Charleston. I mentioned the new counter service spot in the mall. And, now, there's Danny's BBQ Stand - from the former mayor of Charleston.

Located on Quarrier Street, the restaurant is plastered with momentos and memories from Danny and seats a handful of tables.


The menu features ribs, BBQ sandwiches, salads and a couple sides. It's a small menu that's reasonably priced.

The ribs appear to be the best-seller so far, so I ordered those, with sides of baked beans and cole slaw. I'm typically not a baked beans fan, but I wasn't sure of another side and decided to give it a go.

The meal was plated right in front of me, and I was on my way back to the office to dig in. 

Ribs aren't typically my BBQ of choice. But these... were really good. They were so tender that I could use my fork - and not get messy. The BBQ was smoky and just a touch sweet.

The baked beans were surprisingly good, too. Maybe I'm just becoming accustomed to them. The slaw was standard.

Though I know some folks are either excited considering the former mayors politics or not so much, I just wanted to check out the food. And I think you might like it, too.