Remember This Iconic New Hampshire Food Truck That Used a Secret Language?

Food trucks are where it's at these days.  They are popping up in places where there are a lot of people, and those people will, eventually, get hungry.

At one time, on UNH's campus, there was one food truck where you could get all the greasy food you wanted in the middle of the night sometimes, with named items on the menu that would make the wildest frat boys blush.

Karl, the truck, the food, the grease, and the lingo to get the food, was the stuff of legends for many UNH students.

Do you remember Karl's?

My friend and well-known DJ then and now, Scott Langlois, a Wildcat himself, talked about the legendary food truck and the man who owned it.

Scott told me that Karl was the ultimate character.  Like most diner cooks, Karl would want to give the orders different names.  For instance, if you want french fries smothered in Velveeta, you can just say, "I'd like an order of 'Snotties.'"  If you wanted ketchup on a cheeseburger, you would have to say something that I would never say here.

My burgers wouldn't have ketchup just because of that. No way, Jose.

Some other menu items:

• Mustard was "baby poop", but they didn't use the word 'poop'.
• Lettuce, tomato, and pickle on your burger was called "On the Garden".
• Pickles were called "Sneakers".
• A small cheeseburger was "A Little Guy".
• A cheeseburger sub was "A Big Guy", which was a foot-long bun and three-quarter-pound burger topped with Velveeta. If you wanted lettuce, tomato, and pickles, you would order a Big Guy On the Garden with Sneakers.
• "Big Guy Abused" meant that you didn't want any vegetables, just the bun, burger, and melted cheese.
• A Brown Cow was a chocolate shake.
• An Orgasm was a foot-long hot dog with melted cheese and chili on top.

Scott said that Karl was a very different person when he was not in the truck, so much so that you almost wouldn't recognize him. It was his way of putting on an alter ego when he was frying up his latest batch of snotties.

When he was cooking, that was his stage.

If you were a student-athlete or a regular, you could put your order "on the wall," which meant that you could run a tab.  You could add to the tab and pay it down anytime you could.  Scott said the writing on the wall looked like a scene from "A Beautiful Mind."  He would only do it with people who he trusted.

Sometimes, people would give Karl tips, and when that happened, he would yell, "That's one for the dinger!" and DING a bell he had on the truck.  People would tip him just to hear him say that.

To get a sense of what it was like at Karl's, check out this YouTube video.  If you are sensitive to "bad" words, you may want to keep the volume down, as there is some NSFW language.

Unfortunately, Karl passed away in March of 2018 of congestive heart failure, according to Scott.

Did you ever go to Karl's? Where was your favorite food joint in college?