A Feast of Food Trucks - The Village Voice Choice Streets Food Truck Event

DATE: May 8th, 2015

LOCATION: Intrepid, NYC

When I heard there was going to be a food truck event, my taste buds were already salivating.  At first though, my wallet was a bit skeptical about attending The Village Voice Choice Streets Food Truck Event.  But I decided to go out of food-FOMO, since the rest of the Sundry Tomatoes & Co were venturing this food truck festival.  Held on the pier by the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum, over a dozen trucks were slated to be there.  Before I go on about the experience of the event, let's go down the lists of trucks we got our munchies from:

Domo Taco

5 spice braised pork served on toasted corn tortilla with miso slaw, pico de gallo, monterey jack cheese and sesame crema

I don't know if it was because I was hungry waiting on the line to get into the festival and this was the first truck in our sights, but this taco was *THUMBS UP*  The pork tasted well seasoned and marinated and melded well with the slaw and crema.  This was a good start to our food truck frenzy.

Big D's Grub Truck

Bangkok basil spicy pork fried rice with a runny egg on top

This was a fresh and decent dish, but it didn't have any special, wow nuance to it.  To me, as an Asian, it was too reminiscent of a homemade fried rice, when you have nothing else to make but throwing together a bunch of lazy scraps and leftovers.  Considering I am not a very adept cook (as I've mentioned before in my bio), I wasn't over the moon for a dish that felt similar to something even I could make in my own kitchen.  The runny egg on top appeared to be a fun twist, but the real letdown was I barely saw any spicy pork in the fried rice.

Mike 'N Willie's

Taco

Unfortunately, I can't remember what kind of taco this was, beef or pork?  I do remember thinking the taco wasn't too distinct from Domo Taco with the slaw and sauce toppings.  Since these tacos were so similar, I couldn't help but compare the 2 and felt Domo Taco was ever so slightly better.  This is not to say though, that Mike 'N Willie's taco wasn't good.

Pizza Luca

Margherita Pizza: made with San Marzano tomatoes, mozzarella di bufala, extra-virgin olive oil, fresh basil, and Sicilian sea salt

Neapolitan pizza made in a wood-burning oven, this pizza was crafted well with fresh, quality ingredients.  I thought this was a pretty good (albeit SMALL) slice UNTIL...

Valducci's Pizza

Thin crust Sicilian pizza

Ohhhh, this tasted WAY better than I thought a Sicilian could taste! ;)  I'm still dreaming of the luscious sauce on top of this perfectly crusted pizza.  Not soggy nor over crisped.  Just perfect.  I was hoping that Valducci's would also have a physical restaurant, but it looks like I'll just have to stalk & look out for this truck. 

Sweet Chili

Sriracha fries topped with sweet & spicy sriracha & sriracha aioli

Fries + sriracha + aioli = yes please!!  Need I say more?

Snowday

Maple grilled cheese sandwich, with sharp cheddar, sourdough & maple syrup

The maple syrup was a nice, sweet and surprising taste to go with grilled cheese!  An innovative take that works delectably on an old but goodie sandwich.

Langos Truck

Crispy dough topped with sour cream, grated cheese & garlic

This is a Hungarian specialty, a popular European street/fair food that is probably akin to a funnel cake at an amusement park.  The crispy dough was warm and fresh, while the sour cream and grated cheese were like tasty palette cleansers after devouring lots of other good eats that were laden with sauces.  I enjoyed it, although the rest of Sundry Tomatoes & Co did not take as much delight as I did with the langos

Gorilla Cheese NYC

Grilled cheese with bacon & tater tots

This was one of the last food trucks we went to, and I almost did not want to wait on the line to get my order.  But since it had bacon in it, I thought I would give it a try.  Gorilla Cheese can't go wrong with this, as grilled cheese and tots are a pretty good staple and they do a great job with it.  Enjoyable but if I was able to get only 1 grilled cheese that night, I would've gone with the maple grilled cheese from Snowday.

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of going to this food truck festival.  You walk around carrying a cardboard box, like the kind you get at a ballpark to hold all your food/drinks.  And you're given a plastic cup to fill & refill for all the drinks you'll try.  I ate a lot of good food, plus got some extra stuff aside from the listed menus.  There were tents full of other vendors giving out wine, cocktails, iced coffee, drinks, other snack foods, etc.  The success of this event though is a bit mixed.  Because the day was forecasted for rain, half the food trucks that were booked pulled out thinking it was going to be a rained out day.  That's 1 HUGE strike, considering a ticket cost $60.  It was disappointing that there were some dishes I was looking forward to trying but the trucks weren't there.  Also, it's not like an all-you-can-eat-buffet, so once your card is stamped at each respective truck, you can't come back for another order.  Portion sizes also seemed smaller from some of the trucks than what you may normally get.  

On the up side, we still did eat a lot of food and we were full even with the lesser than expected amount of trucks.  We still got more than the value of our ticket with the amount of food trucks we ate from and the drinks we had.  Oh, and depending on if you're viewing the glass half full or half empty... there were long lines at each food truck.  The lines sometimes moved smoothly while the higher in-demand trucks seemed to take a bit longer.  The pro of this was it gave our stomachs time to digest and make room for the next serving.  But this could wear on a some people's patience, especially if you're not with fun company (as we were) to pass the time.  Another perk, if you're really interested in the Intrepid musuem, the ticket covers exploring this place as well.

The question remains though... would I go again?  Was it worth it?  The answer is, no, I would not go again.  It was a great and fun event, to experience ONCE.  And even though we got more than our values worth for the ticket, in the end, it is still $60 for food truck food.  For that kind of price tag, I would rather be getting served at a nice restaurant.  Just a fun thing to check off the food bucket list.

Bottom Line: The Village Voice Food Truck Event, it is a fun, one-time experience with good company.  The winners for me were Domo Taco and Valducci's.  Domo Taco was my favorite that day, but I am still feigning and craving for a Valducci's slice of Sicilian, even 2 months after this feast has passed.  Overall, all the food trucks were satisfying and worth a try if you come across them while roaming the streets of NYC.

Happy Noshing, Jeanne