Loaf isn’t your average slice of food truck.
“Our style of cuisine I would describe as New American with a focus on Memphis and deep South dishes,” says Loaf chef/co-owner Kale Carm. “Also, inspiration from a lot of influences and ingredients from immigrant communities in Memphis.”
Loaf, which opened about two months ago behind First Congregational Church at 1000 Cooper Street, features a variety of unique offerings, including Carm’s take on an East African collard greens dish he learned how to make in Kenya. “It’s collard greens cut thin and quickly braised. It’s not like our collard greens. It’s soft, but a little body to it.” Instead of ham hocks, Carm uses chile ancho, a dried chili. “It has a smoky, umami flavor.”
The Tomato Tomate, a seasonal item, is “a play on that classic Southern tomato sandwich … just a slice of fresh tomato with mayonnaise and salt and pepper. But instead of pepper, it’s based on Oaxacan mole negro. I take mole sauce, dehydrate it, and grind it into a powder.” He uses McCormick mayo. “It’s the No. 1 mayonnaise you find in Mexican and Central American homes.”
Carm was a “very adventurous” eater growing up in Memphis, but after trying sushi for the first time at age 10, he says he “got into eating the most far-out things I could find.”
He began cooking professionally five years ago to earn money for a trip to Southeast Asia. He asked his friends who own Lamplighter Lounge, “Can I bring some food up here and sell it on Friday night?”
He made pupusas, which are “like a Central American pancake but made with corn masa instead of flour and usually stuffed with beans and cheese and pan-fried.”
He also made Thai curries. “I was going to Thailand and wanted to get a feel for the food I was about to eat.”
Carm took notes in restaurants in Thailand, Laos, Taiwan, Malaysia, and Singapore on his trip. “I was sitting as close to the kitchen as I could, watching everything and figuring out how I could recreate it.”
Back in Memphis, Carm started a pop-up called Round Table Food at Lamplighter and Launch Process Coffee. “I would pick a different style of cuisine that we didn’t have in Memphis. Like, I did Japanese home cooking.”
In 2019, Carm moved to Austin, Texas, where he worked as a cook at Uchi, a fine dining Japanese restaurant, until he was furloughed after the pandemic hit.
Back in Memphis, he began cooking for First Congo Food Justice Program, which provides home-cooked meals to those in need. Carm purchased a food truck to continue preparing food while the church’s commercial kitchen was under renovation.
The name fits perfectly. “Our truck is a renovated Airstream. It looks like a big loaf.” And, Carm says, “I am a bit of a loaf. I’m a little lazy.”
He and his business partner Nick Riley operate the truck. “Our tagline is ‘Modern Memphis Cuisine.’ I really want to give back to … and honor Memphis as much as I can.”
Loaf offers a range of exotic fare, but the Memphis Honey Gold fried chicken sandwich — a thigh dipped in honey gold sauce — is the most popular item. “Memphis is known as a city for barbecue, but Memphis has the highest-quality chicken wings. Honey gold sauce is a very Memphis-y chicken wing thing, so I translated that to our honey gold sandwich.”
Carm once took the sauce for granted. “I didn’t realize it was a Memphis thing until I moved to Texas and I couldn’t get it anywhere.”
Honey gold sauce is “something pretty much every wing shop in Memphis has.” And, Carm says, “It just seems very Memphis to me.”
To see Loaf’s menu, go to eat.loaf on Instagram.