# Food Truck Competition



## sw2geeks (Jul 23, 2012)

Food truck are getting pretty big here in Fort Worth. The Texas Department of Agriculture sponsored 3 Food Truck Competitions this past weekend. 2 in Austin and 1 here in Cowtown.

I was lucky enough to be a judge at the one here in Fort Worth. The food was all excellent! Plus, it was a lot of fun. 

This is probably the first benefit I have had from my "actions shots" that I was posting on the knife forums turning into a blog.

Here are some pics of some of the food I was eating, I mean Judging!


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## Eamon Burke (Jul 23, 2012)

Yum! Such a bummer that Keller is being a cranky pack of weirdos and disallowing the food truck park up there. They said they are afraid the trucks will displace local brick and mortar restaurants--absurd. The trucks up here(as opposed to Austin) are crazy elite. They are all nicer than some of the actual kitchens I've worked in.


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## Dave Martell (Jul 23, 2012)

Wow that sure doesn't look like roach coach food to me.


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## Deckhand (Jul 23, 2012)

Good times. There is a lot full of them Wednesdays by my wife's work. Great food.


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## Kyle (Jul 23, 2012)

Wish I had known about this event!


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## Kyle (Jul 23, 2012)

Deckhand said:


> Good times. There is a lot full of them Wednesdays by my wife's work. Great food.



Is that over at the OC Marketplace? I always wanted to go to that but never got a chance before I moved.


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## Deckhand (Jul 23, 2012)

Kyle said:


> Is that over at the OC Marketplace? I always wanted to go to that but never got a chance before I moved.


Teller lot in Irvine.
http://www.yelp.com/biz/food-truck-roundup-irvine
Usually 8-10 trucks there. Hope things are going well for you. If I remember correctly you moved from riverside.


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## sw2geeks (Jul 23, 2012)

Kyle said:


> Is that over at the OC Marketplace? I always wanted to go to that but never got a chance before I moved.



Here is a link to the story we did on the event. 
It was at the Cowtown Chow Down food truck park in Fort Worth. I think there is a link to the location in the story.


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## DeepCSweede (Jul 23, 2012)

Steve, you don't look like you were enjoying yourself at all - lol. I'm sure that was a fantastic afternoon of great food.


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## [email protected] (Jul 23, 2012)

Looks amazing  ! 

... i've never had anything from food truck in my life (real shame considering that i live in LA). i really want to have food truck food during my lunch, but we don't enough time to go to food trucks in the area.

when i do, i will post photos too!

Any recommendations for food trucks in LA?


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## Eamon Burke (Jul 23, 2012)

I am sure it is a dull suggestion to Angelenos, but being from outside LA, I'd want to eat at Kogi--its the Bob Kramer of food trucks.


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## [email protected] (Jul 23, 2012)

i like all of his restaurants - they are always fun places to eat  i saw a kogi truck (like below) and was really busy! next time i see it, i will not just take a photo but will eat there too...


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## Kyle (Jul 23, 2012)

I'd much rather eat out of some grimey taco truck. 

In fact that's the one thing I miss about California: tacos. Good Tex-Mex is really delicious, but somebody needs to tell these people that a taco doesn't come with lettuce, tomatoes, yellow cheese and a crunchy shell.


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## Deckhand (Jul 23, 2012)

Kyle said:


> I'd much rather eat out of some grimey taco truck.
> 
> In fact that's the one thing I miss about California: tacos. Good Tex-Mex is really delicious, but somebody needs to tell these people that a taco doesn't come with lettuce, tomatoes, yellow cheese and a crunchy shell.


Love grimey taco trucks in downtown Los Angeles. Carne asada tacos with pickled carrots and radishes on the side.


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## sw2geeks (Jul 24, 2012)

DeepCSweede said:


> Steve, you don't look like you were enjoying yourself at all - lol. I'm sure that was a fantastic afternoon of great food.



It actually was a great event! Although it was a little hot.

The Texas Department of Agriculture sponsored the Competition and the ingredients had to come from Texas for each original dish made just for this contest. This week the trucks are to sell these dishes from the contest and the proceed goes to the area Food Bank. The dishes can stay on there menu after that if they want. A lot of the trucks make some pretty fance stuff.

We judged each dish individually with a score sheet similar to what they use Iron Chef with an add use of Texas ingredients category. The contest was pretty close with ties for 1st and 3rd. the State had a representative there and was called in to break the tie using tiebreakers from best scores in Texas ingredients. The simplist and coldest dish ended up winning which was the strawberry sorbet. It was 105° outside, so that may have had something to due with it. It had tied with one of the full course meals we received from another truck but won in the tie breaker.

There was actually a pretty big turnout, considering it was 105°. One of the judges was a local tv news anchor who had been on tv here for 30 years. She had a lot of fans that came out to see her. 

The trucks also gave out free samples to the public (wait, maybe that was the reason for the crowd) and a chip for them to drop in a can in front of the trucks food they liked best. 

The fan favorite was the shrimp dish with the cucumber and watermelon salad. Another cold dish. 

A live band finished out the festivities.


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## [email protected] (Jul 24, 2012)

Kyle said:


> I'd much rather eat out of some grimey taco truck.
> 
> In fact that's the one thing I miss about California: tacos. Good Tex-Mex is really delicious, but somebody needs to tell these people that a taco doesn't come with lettuce, tomatoes, yellow cheese and a crunchy shell.



Coming from Japan, I'm really not that familiar with Mexican food, but I'd love to try taco trucks... I wish those trucks would come and park nearby our store during the lunch hours.


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## Keith Sinclair (Aug 11, 2012)

Hawaii has always had plate lunch wagons,2 scoops rice & mac. salad.We have a gathering last weekend of the month all the wagons together in a huge parking lot.All diff. kinds of food,some reasturants have their own food trucks as well.

I've gone to 2 of them wt. my sweety,place is packed,hard to squeeze in a spot at the picnic tables.My fav. is local style curry wt. fresh ginger big chunks of potatoes,carrots,onion.Pork,beef or shrimp.

I can see that they have become popular on the Mainland.Some of that food looks good,garlic shrimp yeh!I have to exercise to keep doing one of my favorite things EAT.


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## SameGuy (Aug 11, 2012)

We are in one of the last jurisdictions in North America (and the world) that bans street food. We have none, not even hotdog or pretzel carts. And we are indeed a foodie Mecca. There is a new movement afoot that hopes to legalize street food, and I surmise that trucks and pop-ups will be HUGE here.


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## ecchef (Aug 12, 2012)

Kyle said:


> I'd much rather eat out of some grimey taco truck.



+1. There used to be one at the intersection of Roosevelt and Elmhurst avenues, under the #7 train railway. Had many a late night snack there.


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