Tag: food trucks
Toronto’s Street Food Block Party
This past weekend in Toronto 3000 foodies descended on the Brickworks for the Street Food Block Party, a combined effort between TUM (Toronto Underground Market) and Food Truck Eats. Tickets for the event, which went on sale back in April for $20 a ticket, quickly sold out in a matter of hours. Attendees weren’t disappointed as there were a multitude of delectable items (many Cinco de Mayo themed) to choose from the 20 pop-up vendors and 10 food trucks in attendance.
Here are highlights from some of the vendors we visited:
Commonly found at Toronto’s Food Truck events and one of the first trucks to ever hit our streets, El Gastronomo did not let us down. They offered up a menu of Taco’s starting with the Reef+Beef: twice-cooked beef cheek, white anchovy, jalapeno aoili, quickled cabbage and lime. Their Pescado Picante Taco featured tempura cod, smoked tomato, habanero aoili, red cabbage+green apple slaw and lime. They also had the Drunken Monkey, a banana fritter, with smoked chocolate and tequila ice cream with candied jalapenos that we had wanted to try but we were just getting started and weren’t ready for dessert yet.
One of my favorite food trucks, we hit them up early knowing that the line would grow huge quickly! We had their Sarducci, balsamic drizzled tomatoes, red onion, fresh basil and jensen’s mozzarella on multi-grain. We also tried their El Gordo Queso, a collaboration with Mex-i-can (a Hamilton restaurant), featuring seasoned ground chorizo, creamy salsa verde, red onion, cilantro and jensen’s mozzarella cheese on white bread.
This new truck on the scene was one of the best surprises of the night. They offered up a lobster roll, which although pricey at $12, was delicious! I had really wanted to try the lobster roll and lobster poutine from Rock Lobster Food Co. as well, but their lineup was huge. Buster’s lobster roll featured Nova Scotia lobster, mayo, celery, chives and lemon juice on a toasted top split bun.
Fidel Gastro was putting on a show while being interviewed by the media. His stall featured the Havana Club with ham, pulled pork, caramelized onions, and chili cilantro aoili. His other offering, the Sgt. Slather had bbq ribs, homemade bbq sauce, creamy guacamole and tortillas.
Comida Del Pueblo returned with their popular Jalapeno Cornbread Grilled Cheese with gaucamole and crema. Their other offerings were a Conchita Pibil Springroll with ramp aoili and an Ontario Water Buffalo Banh Mi with pickled ramp salad.
Elle Cuisine and Sullivan & Bleeker
Lauren Mozer of Elle Cuisine had Cinco de Mayo themed dessert nachos with dark chocolate, caramel, and whipped cream. These were a great snack while waiting in line for other food.
Sullivan and Bleeker had one of the more interesting dessert finds of the night. They were offering cakes in mason jars with flavours like oreo, cookie dough and s’mores.
Tromba Tequila and other refreshments
Tromba Tequila was on hand doing what they do best offering their Blanco Tequila available as a margarita or on the rocks. Other drinks were also available from a multitude of Ontario wineries and craft breweries including Lake of Bays and Spearhead, with it’s Hawaiian themed pale ale.
The success of the Street Food Block Party proves that the appetite for street food is alive and flourishing in Toronto. We left stuffed and wishing we had room in our stomachs to try more. Looking forward to the next Block Party event!
Toronto Food Trucks Featured on Global News
The food truck on your corner is a small part of a growing trend, now with it’s own tv show, it doesn’t seem to be stopping soon. Minna Rhee reports.
Food Truck Court Comes to the World Financial Center in NYC
The World Financial Center in NYC is undergoing renovations to some of its retail and dining areas so workers and nearby residents have fewer dining options.
Food trucks to the rescue! The owners, Brookfield Office Properties, have brought in a brigade of food trucks to the financial center for the next year.
“The Food Truck Court”, in association with the NYC Food Truck Association, will feature four different trucks each weekday.
Trucks include the Bongo Brothers, Frites ‘n’ Meats, Eddie’s Pizza, Cupcake Crew, Kimchi Taco Truck, Rickshaw Dumpling, Red Hook Lobster, Mexicue and Schnitzel & Things.
The Food Truck Court can be found at 4 World Financial Center, North End Avenue at Vesey Street, Mondays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., through 2013
[Business Insider / Image: Kimchi Taco Truck]
2012 Restaurant Trends
Diane Chiasson, President of Chiasson Consultants Inc., a restaurant and foodservice consultancy firm in Toronto, foresees these food trends for 2012:
Communal dining
More and more new restaurants will be designed with long communal tables in the centre of the room, as opposed to single tables or booths. Counter and bar dining will also be played up. In order to enhance the dining experience, many restaurateurs want to create camaraderie amongst its customers by having them sit together. Some restaurants will even go so far as to serve everyone at the communal table the same food at the same time.
No-time dining & Snacking
As our culture continues to move away from the 9 to 5 workday, a restaurant’s hours must also reflect this shift. Expect to see more restaurants offering all-day breakfast, longer lunch hours, afternoon snacks and more late night fare. Our culture is also moving away from eating three square meals a day. Many diets and health food experts encourage people to eat six small meals a day, so expect to see more snack, tapas or dim sum items on menus, as more customers will want to pop in for a small snack as opposed to an entire meal, or share a selection of snacks with their dining partners.
Mobile restaurants
High-class street food will soon be available on every street corner. The growing popularity of food carts, food stalls and food fairs has helped make street food a serious competitor to great restaurant food. Today’s street food goes far beyond a hot dog stand. Many food cart operators offer unique and delicious items that can’t be found anywhere else. And most importantly, street food is still cheap.
iPad ordering
Servers in restaurants will soon be trading their pads and pens for iPads or iPods to take your orders. This modern POS system combines cloud computing, wireless technology and touch-screen interface to allow servers to take and send orders from within the network, so that even before the server has left the table, the order has already been sent to the kitchen. Payments can also be processed using the iPad at the table. At quick-serve foodservice operations, expect to see iPad kiosks where customers would be able to order their own food.
Read the full list over at Restaurant Central.
