Dorami stands out as a kid-friendly food truck option | Hanna Raskin
Published on May 20, 2025 at 12:44 pm
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
With the Jacksonville City Council’s recent ban on food trucks’ serving food at gas stations, much of this year’s food truck news has centered on the flames that the wheeled kitchens produce. For eaters, though, what’s more interesting is the dishes they turn out, especially since an empirical study of what’s being served on the streets is nearly impossible. There are 1,330 licensed mobile food dispensing vehicles in Jacksonville, according to state records.
Many of the best-known local names in food trucking got their start before or during the pandemic, when chefs who weren’t shackled to indoor dining rooms had a slight competitive advantage. Food truck owners who’ve started their businesses in the last year or two sometimes grouse about trying to win over customers who bonded with certain trucks at the uneasiest moment in latter-day hospitality history.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
Still, existing loyalties haven’t kept newcomers from trying to impress with their cooking. It’s a gambit that’s worked out well for several recent arrivals to the scene, including the following three standouts.
Lagash Food
Mudhhr Alrubaye, a 52-year-old Iraqi immigrant, knew something about trucks before he and his wife started selling chicken shawarma and falafel. Alrubaye was a long-haul truck driver, but “the money wasn’t cutting it.”
So now, rather than spending weeks on the road away from his family, he’s jostling with them for workspace within their teensy-weensy white trailer, parked on a recent day on Glengarry Road. “It gets tight and cramped in here,” he admits. “But it’s good.”
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
While the setup is miniscule, its flavor output is massive. Alrubaye attributes the quality of Lagash’s stunning kebabs to halal beef and lamb from Australia, as well as “special spices” that he declines to identify further. Yet ingredients alone can’t account for the harmonic complexity of these fat-enhanced skewers, which benefit from being sized correctly and left to mingle with the grill for the precise right amount of time.
Clearly, there’s plenty of talent and expertise behind these kebabs, served with either rice or flatbread. I’m partial to the latter, if only because it’s best to forgo all cutlery pretensions and pounce on the platter completed by blistered tomatoes, roasted garlic and creamy garlic sauce.
Since opening a few months ago, Lagash has adjusted its menu in accordance with patron preferences. “People like the kebabs,” Alrubaye says. Sounds like Lagash has already found some smart customers.
Souse Sistas
Longtime fans and first-time customers alike are prone to associate Souse Sistas with meat, since “oxtail tacos” is a phrase most eaters can’t get out of their heads.
Truck owner Jamoca Everett tucks off-the-bone beef into a tortilla with shredded queso and fresh cilantro, then grills the bundle until it’s almost as juicy as the souse consommé with which it’s presented. But the name alone, whether posted on social media or written on an A-frame sign along Moncrief Road, burrows into the brain with its promise of pleasure.
The irony here is that what really distinguishes Everett’s operation, which until 2023 was conducted out of the trunk of her car, is vegetables. The secret to her eponymous broth is produce and herbs, rather than the typical pig scraps.
“My momma made it with hog jowl and pig feet,” Everett recalls. “I don’t eat none of that. I didn’t even eat it (growing up). I didn’t like the texture; I just never really liked meat, period. So, I cook it totally different.”
Everett’s magnificent souse, poured over tender beef or chicken and rice, gets its earthy character from sweet peppers, sweet onions, sweet potatoes, and “lots of herbs.” Flush with enough good-for-you components to strain its to-go container, the stew tastes like what a yesteryear physician might prescribe for a flagging patient.
Unfortunately, it’s only available when Everett feels like making it. “It’s really a hobby,” she said of her cooking, prompting me to ask whether she has another job.
“No,” she told me. “I have a husband.”
Dorami
Food trucks aren’t rated like movies, but if there was a classification system based on content, lots of them would merit parental guidance. Their names are suggestive; their vinyl graphics are racy, and their menu items are frequently amped up with chili crisp and other trendy condiments out of whack with juvenile taste buds.
Mario and Victoria Chabrani, by contrast, wanted their food truck to be “kid-friendly.”
“When I go to underage places, it’s acceptable,” Mario Chabrani says of his colorful 18-month-old truck, named for an anime character he admired when he was young. Dorami, a yellow robot cat with a fondness for melon bread, says things like, “Your dreams will come true if you put in the effort.”
According to Chabrani, an Indonesian immigrant who went to culinary school in Switzerland, he and wife are putting tremendous effort into their chicken teriyaki, Japanese-seasoned fries and spring rolls.
It shows, most notably in their signature onigiri. At first, Victoria Chabrani had to spell out the construction of the sushi rice wrap for every customer. “It’s not a burger or a hot dog, so we have to explain,” she says. “I would say it’s very simple, but delicious. I eat onigiri every day, honestly.”
And why not? Mario Chabrani, who served as Nori Restaurant’s consulting chef before setting out on his own, makes sure the seasoned rice is always warm, and the chosen seafood at its center is fresh. Plus, Dorami’s onigiri weigh in at a whopping 6.15-ounces, which means each one is big enough for a meal—and there’s ample space on its cellophane wrapper for a cute cartoon.
