Photo: Courtesy of TheFoodTrucker.com
You have heard of the New Food Truck craze going on in the Streets of Los Angeles. You will experience 11 upfront interviews with the creative chefs and the owners behind the Gourmet Food Trucks at the OC Foodie Fest on August 28th 2010 at the Honda Center in Anaheim Ca. The venue was completely sold out with 8500 in attendance to 49 of the hottest and popular Gourmet Food Trucks in California. A percentage of the proceeds did benefit three local charities - Child SHARE, Pretend City , and St.Vincent's Meals on Wheels. We will take you behind the scenes with the three trucks that were chosen for Yelp's "Best of the Fest" Food Truck Award. This award was selected by Patrons who attended the OC Foodie Fest and were able to vote for their favorite Gourmet Food Truck. The winners were OC's The Lime Truck with first place, OC/LA's Chunk-n-Chip Truck was second place and LA's Great Balls On Tires Truck took third place out of 49 food trucks that attended the OC Foodie Fest.
A venue of this size takes a lot of planning. I would be amiss if I did not take a moment to mention some of the star players that made this event happen. Ashley "Ash" Eliot who is the PR MGR for OC Foodie Fest, Virgina Strickland the OC Foodie Fest Co Producer, Co Producer James "Fox" Foxall Aka Taco Dawg, all the OC Foodie Volunteers, Artisans and Vendors, Jade in the VIP area, Anaheim Police, and the Honda Center Event Staff. Enjoy a lil look at the OC Foodie fest before opening.
Now onto the Video interviews of the 11 selected Gourmet Food Trucks at the OC Foodie Fest. Time to get up and personal.
There were many selections to choose, raging from savory to sweet and even bizarre flavors. I would like to take a moment to share my OC Foodie Fest food adventure with you.
My first stop was the Dumpling Station owned by Helen Pan and Chris Aragon who took the time to discuss the building of their successful Taiwanese Gourmet Food Truck. I have eaten at this gourmet food truck many times. Their Food is always consistently great, they provided good customer service by answering their tweets timely, and update there locations timely. Enjoy their video interview and food Pics below.
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Kimchi Beef Dumpling-Amazing!!
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Nutella stuffed fried wonton was simply scrumptious!
We met up with Chef Jason Quinn and Business Partner/Sous-Chef Daniel Shemtob at the OC's The Lime Truck. They were the only truck serving Foie Gras Mousse on a Crostini. Yes you read that right! from a food truck. It was very smooth and rich finished off with Apple Sticks on top a crunchy crostini, Delish! They also were selected as Yelp's 1st place winner for Best of the Fest at the foodie fest by the 8500 attendees that voted for their favorite food trucks. See photos and video interview below.
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Seafood Ceviche-Refreshing and well balanced flavor.
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Foie Gras Mousse with Apple Sticks on a Crostini- Rich and decadent.
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Housemade Drinks from Catus Pear to Pluot (complex cross hybrid of plum and apricot) Limeade. Refreshing on a hot day.
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The Money Shot Yelp's 1st Place for Best of the Fest Food Truck and Most Popular Truck Award.Great Job!
Here is Molly Taylor (On the Right) Owner of The Sweets Truck, a Mobile Cafe debuting the new Jenny Rae (on the Left) Lil Rae Cakes, which BTW are Awesome! Loved the Maple Bacon and Red Velvet Lil Rae Cakes that we tasted. We have eaten from The Sweets Truck many times, due to the quality of her products such as; Cake Monkey, Coffee drinks, and now Lil Rae Cakes. Molly demonstrates great customer service by following up with tweets, emails, special requests, and makes you feel like your part of her family when you come by to chat or buy. Nice to have a such a SWEET friend. There is a Special Video that was captured see what happens when you take an enthusiastic food truck owner and mix in some Sugary sweets. Enjoy!!!!
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After trying some of the Sweets Truck's goodies, this is what you do!
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Maple and Bacon-White (Bacon Strips) , Red Velvet-white (Red Sprinkles), Peanut Butter and Chocolate-Tan (Black and White Sprinkles), Vanilla-White (Multi-Colored Sprinkles), Chocolate-Dark Brown (Multi-Colored Sprinkles).
The lovely lady holding one of the best banana pudding and wings is non other than the famous Nana Queen, Janel Prator. I have heard about the pudding, but I will tell you this gal can throw down some wing sauce too. I tried the Original Banana Pudding, oh man its was off the hook and then the Carmel Banana Pudding was equally as great! The pudding was sweet and creamy like a nice custard with a hint of vanilla and of course banana. The Wings were nicely cooked and the wing sauce was tangy and well balanced, I was not up for sharing! =) The potatoes reminded me of a deconstructed delicious potato skin but without the skin. Janel had impressed me one night regarding customer service, when she twitted to her customers "NanaQueens We apologize. We always try 2 inform of r location changes thru twts. Plse feel free 2 stp by nxt tim & we will giv u a discount on ur order 7:37 PM Aug 17th via Twitter for BlackBerry®." This is an important thing to remember when in business, is customer service, without customers you have no business! Great Job Janel and Great Food! Enjoy their video interview below.
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Banana Pudding with Carmel (on the Left) Banana Pudding Original (on the Right)-Delish!
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BBQ Mango Wings was nice and tangy with a side of Taters-Yummy!
This was the first debut of the Chunk n Chip Ice Cream sammie Truck. Owner Claudia Gonzalez says that her product is an artisanal cookie ice cream sandwich roaming boutique. I will tell you that they're amazing! All of the cookies we sampled were big, soft and well balanced in flavor with a creamy homemade ice cream center. They were the only Ice cream truck to win the coveted Yelp's 2nd place Best of the Fest award out of 49 gourmet trucks selected by 8500 attendees, not bad for a new food truck debut. Watch for them on the streets of OC/South Bay/LA near you. Ice Cream Sammies as you know it will never be the same! Enjoy their video interview below.
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Owner Claudia G sharing her samples of Moo-lan Rouge-Sweet soft Red Velvet cookie with smooth creamy White Coco Fudge-Decadent, Goober Doober-a Mix of Chocolate Chip upper and Chocolate Brownie soft and sweet cookie with a smooth and creamy Mint Chip and Vanilla Bean ice cream-Amazing!, and Mumbo Jumbo- Creamy Peanut-Butter ice cream Surrounded by a soft and sweet Chocolate Brownie cookie-Off the hook. These are the most incredible Sammies out there. The award speaks for itself!
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The Family and the Chunk N Chip Crew Enjoying their 2nd place Yelp Award for the Best of the Fest gourmet food truck. The only ice cream truck to receive this award. Great Job!
I met the Great Balls on Tires crew Aka GBOT back in July at the Long Beach Street Food Fest. Michael Brombart pictured above in the background to the left is one of the owners of the GBOT team. Mike is an important part of what makes GBOT so successful along with Partner in crime Clint Peralta. There is a new World Class baller you will meet during the exclusive interview with GBOT. The GBOT crew won the coveted Yelp's 3rd place Best of the Fest award out of 49 gourmet trucks selected by 8500 attendees at the OC Foodie Fest. We sampled the new inspired incredaBall with a new smokey flavor and the OC inspired OC Foodie Fest ball, a mix of savory, a risotto orange colored well balanced flavored ball with smooth creamy mozzarella oozing out at first bite with a side of Sweet, orange flavored flakes surrounded a creamy semi sweet cheese cake ball was Ballicious! Amazing Job GBOT Crew!
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New World Class Baller Chef Michael David joins GBOT with OC inspired ball package. Amazing!
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Chef Michael David's newly inspired Incrediball-Smokilicious Perfection.
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The GBOT Crew enjoying their Yelp's 3rd place Best of the Fest Award. Great Job!
Check Out page 2 of the OC Foodie Fest last 5 Gourmet Truck interviews!
(Also, you can Scroll down below to view page 2of 2)