On Demand
President Obama: Grease Trucks Calling
Thursday, July 09, 2009
The President is visiting New Brunswick next week. He's visited burger joints, so why not the famed "Grease Trucks" near the Rutgers campus? Mike Kelly, columnist at The Record, previews the visit, and talks about what Obama should eat.
Help convince the President to visit the grease trucks! Contact the White House here, or post your favorite grease truck order below!- About the Brian Lehrer Show »
- Staff Bios »
- Contact Us »
- Tapes and Transcripts »
- Latest Episode »
- Show Archive »
Features & Series
Podcast
Stay up to date.
Subscribe to the Podcast
YOU PRODUCE The Brian Lehrer Show
Be a listener-producer with facts, questions and people you'd like to hear on the air.
More
The Brian Lehrer Show Scrapbook
Visit the scrapbook for daily photos and miscellany from The Brian Lehrer Show.
More
Shop at Amazon!
The Brian Lehrer Show picks
Start your Amazon shopping on WNYC.org and a portion of your total purchase goes to WNYC.
More
Comments
Refresh
The Grease Trucks are one of the great shames of Rutgers. The food manages to be unhealthy and unappetizing at the same time. The reliance on offensive monikers conceals the essential monotony of the food offered. I'd be really embarrassed for Rutgers if Obama decided to stop there.
Maybe it would send a better message for him to go visit our local CSA, the Cook Student Organic Farm. Or perhaps the newly opened New Brunswick Community Farmers Market, which was designed to bring culturally-appropriate fresh produce to low-income residents.
Then he can go to the grease trucks for a Fat Darrell or a Fat Sam. Who knows, they may come up with a Fat Barack in honor of his visit--chiliburger anyone?
I think Rutgers has many greater shames than the Grease trucks...how about several cut sports programs, dwindling funds for investment in undergraduate education, and big cuts to graduate student support...all while a massive stadium renovation is under way?
Who cares? He has been very supportive of the local food movement. Sometimes you just gotta eat a burger with french fries and mozzarella sticks on it.
Obama at the Grease Trucks would be amazing! Everyone who knows Rutgers knows the Grease Trucks. It would be a lot of fun if the president joined in this Rutgers tradition and had a Fat Darrell. I hope it happens!
I think the President should enjoy the Fat Darryl - chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks, fries, and marinara sauce. Mmmm.
Falafel-hhhot-sauce. All one word.
really he should goto Ta-ta's.
"I need one bread for the president."
As long as he doesn't go to Pizza Sh*tty
No reason why he can't have the Fat Darrell *and* visit the Cook organic farm.
As unhealthy (and sometimes unappetizing) as the Grease Trucks are, they are one of the great uniters at Rutgers, a school that is spread over several different campuses, all with different identities. Almost no where else at the school are you bound to bump into at least one person you know, at any time of day or night. For good or bad, they are one of the New Brunswick's defining features, a place that helps make it, well, fun, to go to RU, and I think it would be awesome if Obama stopped by…then he can hit the farm. Yay Jersey.
As a Rutgers alumna, I successfully avoided the grease trucks. Obama should do the same. If you really want him to see what Rutgers is good at, he should visit the turfgrass breeding program on the Cook Campus, arguable the most successful cool season turfgrass breeding program in the world...
If you have a lawn, play on a sports field, visit a park or golf anywhere in America, you have enjoyed turf bred at Rutgers.
Grease Trucks are an institution synonymous with Rutgers. RW, you're pathetic.
I agree with Cara 100%, I think a visit to Cook's Student Organic Farm or a local CSA would be better publicity for the University.
Don't get me wrong, I get the connection with RU and the Grease Trucks. But with Mrs. Obama promoting local agriculture and our country's obesity rate being what it is, I think it's more important to focus on living healthier lifestyles.
Barack needs Grease Trucks.
If anyone finds the names of the sandwiches to be offensive, they need to grow up and realize that they're living in New Jersey.
The Fat Bitch is the most sinful sandwich ever!!! Obama should definitely indulge!
Say what you will about the Fat Darrell, but you can't go wrong with a classic Fat Cat.
For a 'healthy option' I would suggest the Veggie Fat Cat - veggie burger, fries, lettuce, tomato, onions.
As a long time Rutgersian (19 years and counting) [AND NOT A SCARLET KNIGHT, thanks,—sports is killing this school—]
I agree with all of those who say avoid the death-dealing grease trucks. Why not the Cook farm?
Or La Oaxaqueña I or II, opened originally to serve the local Mexican community.
First, please note, the students at Douglass and downtown arts building do not necessarily go to the grease trucks to eat.
Second, note that there are no good alternatives in the city except the Mexican restaurants
New Brunswick, btw is by far the largest campus, and the oldest, and therefore the best place to go if going to Rutgers, no doubt.. And yes the president of Rutgers is a moral and financial and academic disaster.
This will cause a war among the grease truck owners - they are very competitive!
The President should be advised that for everything you order - they ask "salt, pepper, ketchup?"
Don't do it Mr. President, it is equal to "The Varsity" in Atlanta! Avoid like the plague!
obesity crisis.
I am Rutgers Alum Class of 1999. My favorite sandwich is the Fat Koko (Cheese Steak, Mozerrella Cheese, Mozerella Sticks, French Fries, and Pasta Sauce). Obama should eat the Fat Veggie Indian: Falafel, Mozerella Sticks, French Fries.
Really why are we promoting the eating at a Greese Truck.
The U.S is fat enough.
If the President wants an authentic New Brunswick experience, he should avoid the Grease Trucks and head to the Court Tavern. THAT'S New Brunswick. Also, Brian: You can't get arugala at the Grease Trucks. I don't think arugala is even legal in New Brunswick.
I'd suggest a sandwich to honor Obama's Hawaiian background. Not a cliche like putting canned pineapple on it, something like a Loco Moco on a sandwich: hamburger patty, brown gravy, fried egg, and a scoop of rice. Call it a Fat Moco.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loco_Moco
No matter what his choice is -
One Word : salt-peppa-catsup-buddie!
Sounds like a variety of pretty disgusting combo's. Putting French fries on a sandwich ruins both the fries and the sandwich.
As a Rutgers Alumna, I find it my duty to recommend the Veggie Indian, a staple of my collegiate diet.
The Grease Trucks are by far one of the least great shames of Rutgers. It's not some place where large groups of degenerates hang out and party everyday. It's where students and kids, like me and my friends, from the neighboring towns go to have a good time, get a sandwich that will fill you up, chat with the truck owners that are a great time to just have a little chat with, and relax for a little bit. It's practically a landmark of Rutgers so you can in no way say it's a "great shame of Rutgers". And the reason why NOT to avoid the Grease Trucks and go to the Cook farm or whatever, is because the Grease Trucks has such a huge following in this area. You can't walk around my school and hear someone talk about the Cook farm down in New Brunswick. No. It's always about the Grease Trucks. And I'm pretty sure that Obama is looking to try out foods that are most popular in specific areas of the US. He could go anywhere for a little organic food restaurant. He can only get the Grease Trucks in one place.
That all being said, I definitely think that the President should go for a Fat Darrell. That's what I get whenever I go so I think he'll definitely enjoy it.
I vote for a trip to the farm for the educational value (this is the Garden State after all) and the trucks for the kitsch factor. Any sandwich invented in his honor should include TAYLOR HAM, a 'delicacy' that seems to be largely unknown outside of NJ.
"Second, note that there are no good alternatives in the city except the Mexican restaurants."
Are you kidding? There are a ton of great restaurants in New Brunswick!
Fat Sam, definitely. (cheese steak, grilled chicken, french fries, etc.)
Ken from Soho, you know not what you speak of so butt out. And to RW: seriously? one of the "greatest shames"?
I could certainly ramble off at least 10 greater shames than the grease trucks, starting with our University president, athletic program (especially the football coach), and terrible budget cuts.
Rutgers and Grease Trucks go hand-in-hand. There is nothing wrong with a little indulgence as long as you combine exercise along with those indulgences.
Prez Obama enjoys a good hamburger and I think he'd get a kick out of some of the most unique sandwich combinations in this country.
I say visit the grease trucks AND take a tour of Cook College (NOT SEBS), the oldest Land Grant College in the Country; where he can taste the Jersey Tomato, visit our CSA and the turf fields.
Barack must have the Fat Daryll. I'm super healthy and while I no longer indulge in anything unhealthy (I'm all about organic, home grown, no HFCS) I feel the Rutgers experience is incomplete without the grease trucks. They were the place where future deals were made, where (in my day) $5 made you full. Just think...mozzarella sticks, chicken fingers and fries all in a sandwich. Yeah, it's delicious. In fact, I'm craving one now. It's ok to indulge and sin once in a while.
Grease Trucks are of-the-people (for better or worse). Eat like a proletariat, Mr. Obama! Perhaps you'll empathize with the broke college student.
I propose the Fat Prez:
Burger
Fries
Bacon
Hot Sauce
Mozzarella Sticks
Jersey Tomatoes
Lettuce
Onion
Fat Veggie Indian all the way!
What day is President Obama coming?
Pat from NJ
The Presidential visit has just been moved this evening from Vorhees Mall at Rutgers (one of my favorite places on Earth) to that anodyne Arts Center on the Parkway that's named after a bank (until that bank goes out of business and they sell the naming rights to another bank); maybe he can get a beer there.
Does Corzine even care about Rutgers University? Nah. This move just proves my point. He could've had the Rutgers football stadium and a good-sized chunk of Busch Campus to situate 52,000 people on, but, instead, he moves the rally to the smaller PNC Bank Center. If he really cared about the State University he would've done something to support it. CHRISTIE ALL THE WAY, BABY!
Hey President Obama, I work in NB at UMDNJ - I can take you to lunch at the grease trucks if you then bail me out of my credit card debt please? Thanks
President Obama should not visit the Grease Trucks. In the Spring of 2005 they were at the center of a controversy over the names of the Fat Sandwiches, names which displayed incredible cultural, sexual and racial insensitivity. It was, in fact, hate speech.
Search The Daily Targum's archives for "Grease Trucks" at http://www.dailytargum.com/ and see for yourself.
Of secondary importance is the fact that Grease Trucks by definition represent the opposite of the First Lady's initiative to improve nutrition in America.
I used to visit a friend who went to Rutgers and order a grease truck sandwich, I forget what it's called, but it had french fries, chicken fingers, mozzarella sticks and white gravy. Mmmm...It really soaked up the alcohol inside.
Fat BediBoy - Mayo, No Marinara.
Skip the Grease Trucks and dine at the dining hall, Brower Commons. Once you're in it's all you can eat! Go for the chicken patty with cheese sauce, a side of fries and a glass of milk.
This cannot be important enough to bother with!? Why so much attention for such an irrelevant topic?
How about if Christie-Almighty goes to the trucks. One order from him could single handedly keep one of those trucks open for a year.
Leave a Comment
Please stay on topic, be civil, and be brief.
Back to EpisodeEmail addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments. Names are displayed with all comments. WNYC reserves the right to edit any comments posted on this site. Please read the WNYC.org Comment Guidelines before posting.