Cu l i Nortnary h Served

Dining Out Street Food Wonders

by CARLY SIMPSON

There’s a touch of whimsy in every dish Chef Ryan Mateling passes through his food truck window. Pipettes filled with nước mắm to squeeze on soba. Delicate rice paper that reveals charcoal grilled skewers of octopus beneath it. Fizzy, soda-charged whipped cream that tingles your mouth.

The truck, Aiko Street Food, and Mateling’s menu are influenced by his Japanese heritage and his grandmother, Aiko, who was incarcerated on the West Coast during WWII. Following her family’s release, Aiko moved to the Midwest to start a new life. Her name means “little loved one,” a fitting description of how Mateling feels about his tiny kitchen.

On his flagship menu, the spicy kara-age yaki sando (a Japanese fried chicken sandwich with red cabbage jalapeño slaw, red onion, Kewpie mayo) is a favorite, as is the kokonattsu soba (soba noodles with pulled pork, coconut cream, bacon confit, pickled carrots and daikon radishes, crispy shallots, a slew of fresh herbs and that pipette of nước mắm).

“We’re trying to push the envelope when it comes to our technique and plating,” Mateling says. “I want every dish to have a ‘What’s going on here’ moment. Something that makes you say ‘Wow.’ That interactivity is very Japanese. In the fall, for example, you’ll get a bamboo plate and there will be a smoking maple leaf garnish—they play with the seasons.”

Mateling, a “Bellaire boy,” does, too. His menu has a handful of constantly rotating, seasonally inspired dishes. This spring saw grilled asparagus with maple tahini sauce and a foraged leek and shallot serrano relish paired with citrus-soy marinated shrimp.

The Great Lakes Culinary Institute grad got his start in Northern Michigan kitchens—Grand Traverse Resort, L eland Lodge, Harbor 22, Lulu’s Bistro—before diving headfirst into Detroit’s restaurant scene. He shucked oysters at Voyager, leaned into French cuisine at Antietam and began developing Aiko on the city’s pop-up circuit. “When this brand first took off, I was more into global cooking, it was a lot more fusion,” Mateling says. “I was safe, so safe. Until I had a conversation with Gary Jonas [co-founder of The Little Fleet] that sparked me. He said, ‘Come on man, you’ve got all five of my food trucks on your one truck. You’ve got to focus on you.’”

Great advice, Gary. And keep on being you, Ryan.