A Jersey Girl in Texas: What's The Big Deal About Food trucks?

This past weekend we set out to discover what's the big deal about food trucks?

What we found... is that there's an entire world of food out there .. a secret foodie society, that we were not aware of before!

These food trucks are serving up some seriously good food, all in an outdoor setting where the atmosphere is fun, festive and casual!

Our adventure and our journey into the unknown began after I read a Facebook post from a page that I follow called 365 Things To Do in Houston.

The post directed me to this article on their website:

365ThingsInHouston

Which led us to..

Haute Wheels Houston Food Truck Festival

Location: HCC Southwest West Loop Campus, 5601 West Loop South Freeway, Houston, TX 77081

What is it? The Haute Wheels Food Truck Festival is a meetup of almost 40 Local Food Trucks set up in the parking lot of Houston Community college. Part of the entrance fee of $16 per person went toward the Houston Community College Foundation, and with your entrance fee you got 5 tickets toward free drinks.

As a Jersey Girl, I would say that the experience was similar to going down the shore, or to a fair. The was Live Music, fun activities for kids, and a wine tent and a beer tent for adults. Parking was free.

Haute Wheels Houston

Our plan: We set out on a mission to taste food from as many different trucks as we could.

The first truck we hit up was called Koagie Hots.

They Feature Korean styled hot dogs and Cheese steaks.

Being the Jersey Girl that I am, I didn't expect to be impressed with a cheese steak from a food truck in Houston, when I've actually had the authentic thing in Philadelphia!

Call me a cheese steak snob if you will, I don't care! But, Boy! was I in for a shock when they served us up a true contender with a prime rib-sliced cheese steak on a perfectly crunchy-on-the-outside and soft-on-the-inside roll. It was Excellent!!

Website:

Koagie Hots Food Truck

Twitter
@koagiehots
Facebook

Facebook/KoagieHots

And FYI, they'll be at The Bayou City Arts

Festival next weekend 3/28/14 & 3/29/14

Next stop was right next door. While hubby was waiting for his cheese steak, I I ran over to Angie's Cake for some cake pop love!

They were $2 each or 3 for $5.

This one is key lime

They were yummy! A little more than 2-bite sized, full of flavor, and a great pallet cleanser in between larger portions of savory food.

Facebook:

CakePopLove

Twitter: @angiescake

Or their website at AngiesCakes

Next we were on a quest for a burger.

Being a competition burger cook, I am constantly on the look-out for inspiration, and I'm always up for eating a burger cooked by someone else!

After making our way through the isles of trucks, laid out in a mish-mosh fashion with no distinct pattern of progression, we were left to wander in and out of isles and sometimes around long lines at more popular trucks. We found ourselves in the somewhat shorter line formed in front of a rig called The Hungry Lumberjack, featuring fresh fish, chicken wings, catfish, burgers and fries.

I ordered the burger and fries.

As you can see, the burger was not the star of the show. In fact, it barely made an appearance in this act. Without down-right accusing, I am going to go on the record saying we "highly suspect" the patty to be pre-formed and frozen.

Now, I need to take the blame here.

I should have gotten on one of those longer lines.

I should have chosen a burger from a truck that listed Burgers as the first option instead of the last.

This was a learning experience for us, as food truck virgins.

Next time we'll be more selective and not just give away stomach space to the easiest burger to obtain. The burger patty was not that impressive but the lettuce and tomatoes were fresh, the service was more than friendly and those fries were seasoned perfectly! Yumm!

Website:

HungryLumberJack
Facebook:

Hungry Lumber Jack

Twitter:
@THEHUNGRYLUMBER

At this point it was getting warm standing in the sun, and we wanted to find a seat and get some drinks so we headed over to the beer tent where 1 coupon got us a soda, or 2 coupons got us a beer or wine.

There was live music, and besides the tent there were also tables with umbrellas scattered around the outside. We met up with the kids who were sharing a funnel cake

This is my daughter Lizzie and her boyfriend Reed.

While I was eating my fries and nibbling on the kids funnel cake, my hubby stepped away to double back for a closer look at The Happy Endings Truck.

Website

Happy Endings Food Truck Houston

He returned a few minutes later with these

absolutely delicious little treasures called

Taco Baos.

Taco Baos are taco-shaped, steamed, sweet buns, a traditional Taiwanese food turned into a convenient street food by shaping it for folding it over to make it hand held, and user friendly. One was filled with pork, the other beef. I got one bite of the beef and just loved it, but when I went for a second bite they were gone.
Disappeared!!!
Not pointing any fingers.. Just sayin.

Not to waste any time, I spotted the Kona Ice Truck from the table and decided to hit that up next. For $3 you get a small cup of shaved ice, and syrup is available in a self- serve fashion.

This added an extra level of fun for the kids, and also a layer of stickiness to your hands.

Watching the little kids customize their own flavors.. their faces full of smiles.. That alone was worth the $3!

Plus, none of those little kids were mine and I didn't have to mind their stickies .

Www.konaicefun.com

After the refreshing ices we headed across the far side of the festival and found The Fork in the Road Food Truck.

From what I understand, this truck is owned by HEB, and is normally parked and serving food in the HEB parking lot at Montrose. The menu had pulled pork sliders, sweet potato fries and truffle fries and several really fantastic looking tacos. We settled on a shrimp taco with pineapple and zucchini slaw.

This thing was off the chain good!

Twitter @ForkFoodTruck

After the taco it was time to start thinking about heading home.

We wanted to stop first and grab some sweets so we headed over to the Chocolat d'arte food truck

Grabbed ourselves a 2-pack of dark chocolate covered caramels with Sea Salt. Yumm!

Website:

http://chocolatdarte.com/

Twitter :

@chocolatdarte

Facebook:

Facebook.com/chocolatdarte

Also, we couldn't leave without making sure to grab a few cupcakes from Frosted Betty Bake Shop

Website:

Frosted Betty

All-in-all the day was a great one. We enjoyed spending time with the kids, and getting ot of the house. We enjoyed eating new foods, and meeting a lot of interesting people too.

By the time we left the festival we were full, happy, and laughing. Letting ourselves spend time with the kids in a stress-free outdoor setting was priceless and we all agreed that we'd love to return again next year.
That's when we discovered that we don't have to wait a whole year, and food trucks assemble together every weekend through out most of the year. We had only to find them! We'll definitely be making a hobby of this!

Here are some links to help you find the trucks too!

Roaming Trucks

Houston's Top 100 Food Trucks

A Very Nearly Comprehensive List of Houston Food Trucks

And finally...