This year the San Leandro Farmers’ Market has a new food post: Roli Rotí. They sell rotisserie chickens, cooked right in their special truck. The chickens are free range (but not organic), not fed animal bi-products (unlike Foster Farms’) and fresh. They aren’t brined but just rubbed with an herb mixture. They are $12 for a full chicken, $6.40 for 1/2 and $6 for a 1/4 chicken with a portion of roasted rosemary potatoes.
We got half a chicken for Mike and I. It was packed to take home (not in a container we could eat it from nor did it come with forks, though I imagine we could have asked for that) and came with a lime. It was quite good, very moist, with a sharp herb flavor on the skin. It didn’t have that weird metallic taste that most commercial rotisserie chickens have, probably because it’s not brined. As good as it was, however, it wasn’t any better than the rotisserie chickens I make a home.
Roli Rotí doesn’t say how big their chickens are (and I forgot to ask), but a full chicken is supposed to serve 4 adults. I’d say that’s accurate, if you are eating other sides. They didn’t have roasted potatoes when we went (go later in the evening for them, as they are cooked in site), so eating the chicken solo left us hungry.
Roli Rotí is specially famous for their porchetta sandwiches, which get amazing reviews in Yelp. However, they only sell them at the Ferry Building Farmers Market. Still, if enough people in San Leandro ask for them, perhaps we can convince them to bring them here. So next time you get a chicken, ask for the porchetta sandwich (apparently pronounced “porketta”).
Roli Rotí Gourmet Rottisserie
http://www.roliroti.com/
San Leandro’s Farmers’ Market
W 4 – 8 PM
San Leandro Restaurant Reviews
I had the potatoes the week prior and they’re excellent.