Food Truck Friday

With the Food Truck trend growing around the country, St. Louis and Sauce Magazine have created a fun monthly event where all of the local food trucks come together in one location and serve the masses.  This past Friday, July 22, in Tower Grove Park, over 15 food trucks set up shop for the Second Food Truck Friday.  Despite it being 95 degrees out, over 800 people showed up to try the different cuisine and beverages offered.  The First Food Trust Friday, last June, sold out by around 6pm, so we decided to get there early, at 5:15, to beat the crowd.  Luckily we did, by 6 the lines were at least 15 people deep and walking space was limited.  So, the earlier the better!!!

We didn't know where to start first, there are so many options, so I grabbed a $3 Schlafly beer to sip on while I checked out each truck.  We first grabbed a yummy beef short rib taco with crispy red cabbage lime slaw and a light flavorful sauce from Cha Cha Chow.  Delicious, simple and not too filling.

Jessie in line at Cha Cha Chow

Beef Short Rib Taco

Next, we head straight for the truck we've been eyeing for a while, being Italian and all, the Mangia Mobile.  I pretty much wanted everything on the menu (including meatball sub, mozzarella tomato caprese panini, and St. Louis faves toasted ravioli), but we were intrigued by the arancini balls, which are balls of risotto rice with melted cheese and meat in the center with a fried crust around the outside and marinara sauce to dip them in.  Jessie and I split an order (warning: you have to wait 10 minutes since they are cooked fresh to order) and these arancini balls were monster sized!  We had to each them with a fork, but they fell apart really well and tasted amazing.  Several people in the crowd even stopped us as we walked back to our picnic table and asked what we had and where they could get it.  I would say it was the hit of the event.

Mangia Mobile

Arancini Balls

Inside the Mangia Mobile

While we waited the 10 minutes for our arancini balls, Joe went to go check out the hot dog selection at Papa Tom's Gateway DogHouse.  Joe came back with a Hawaiian hot dog and a Bavarian hot dog.  The Hawaiian dog had a good amount of fruity pinneapple on top of it (I'm not a fan, but if you like Hawaiian pizza I imagine that you'd love this hot dog).  The Bavarian hot dog was out of this world!  It had a pretzel bun, with a thick long pickle sitting on top of it and a slice of bacon underneath the dog.  It had a cheesy mustard sauce topping that I was a little worried about since I am not a huge mustard fan, but the sauce has a perfect saucy texture and a salty and spicy flavor that blended so well with the pretzel and hot dog.  I was in hot dog heaven!



Papa Tom's Gateway DogHouse

 

Top: Bavarian Dog

Bottom: Hawaiian Dog

To wash everything down, I tried the Basil Watermelon Lemonade from Southwest Diner.  It was crisp and refreshing and surprisingly had a strong, but clean, basil aftertaste.  It was very good.  Jessie and I really want to learn how they infused the basil flavor into the drink and would love to try to make some fun basil drinks ourselves!

Josie enjoying the Basil Watermelon Lemonade

Overall, Food Truck Friday was a really fun event and it was great people watching and seeing other St. Louis Foodies out and about, swapping stories about the food they tried.  Our tips for attending this event in the future would be (1) get there early, (2) bring cash (the credit card lines are a pain and some trucks don't even accept credit cards) and (3) share each thing you try with someone so you can try more!  Next time we go, we have our eye on the pear, goat cheese, honey, arugula crêpe at Holy Crepes and the Korean BBQ tacos at Seoul Taco.

In case you want a deeper look into the new Food Truck trend, MSN recently created a slideshow of popular food trucks around the nation.  Representing St. Louis (in slide #25) is the Pi on the Spot truck which has an actual pizza oven inside the truck and creates Pi's signature Chicago style pizza that you would expect to get at the restaurant.