Both P and I felt that there may have been more people at this event than our annual Taste of Edmonton festival that takes place in the same location! Although, I like to use Taste of Edmonton as my chance to sample delicious things from the slightly pricier restaurants that I may not otherwise dine in for financial reasons.
Before heading out, P and I made sure to bring our own water, so that we could save our cash for the food items rather than the cans of pop and bottles of water that we could get elsewhere. It was extra handy that the map and menus for the event were made available as a PDF, which I downloaded to my phone. That way, we could use our waiting time in lines to decide on where to go next! We also took the bus downtown knowing that parking would be quite a feat to achieve.
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| Once we got to Churchill Square, people were lined up everywhere! I wish I could have gotten a better picture of exactly how many people were on the Square, but alas, I am a bit vertically-challenged. |
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| Our first choice was also the first business that P took photos for in his magazine shoot - One Cool Cookie! I was thinking along the lines of "dessert before dinner". I crossed my fingers while waiting, wishing and hoping that they wouldn't run out of ice cream before we got to the order window! Once we placed our order, we were advised that it was going to be a 40 minute wait, so rather than waste time standing around for 40 minutes, we took the chance to browse around at other trucks. |
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| We decided to join the queue for Jimmy Poblano's after noticing that their line was a bit shorter, and seeing some great-looking chimichangas pass by. Unfortunately, by the time we got to place an order, they had run out of everything aside from cheesecake, lemonade, and water. That's what we get for coming to the event so late! We will have to wait until next time! |
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| Another shorter and quicker line was spotted at the Spice Rickshaw, so we decided to go for it! |
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| We were glad we did, because it resulted in some tasty food! P and I opted for the Chaat Papdi or "Indian Nachos". There were peas, green onions, cilantro, chili powder, yogurt, and whole bunch of other flavours going on and it was nice to have on a hot day like yesterday! |
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| When we returned to One Cool Cookie, we got a pretty stuffed ice-cream sandwich! Our choice was the Skor-bacon cookie with salted caramel ice cream, and it was absolutely delicious! The cookie was perfectly chewy, and the ice cream - well, how can you go wrong with Pinocchio ice cream? |
When we went to What the Truck?!, I was expecting there to be a lot of people, especially because we came around 6:00 (i.e. the dinner rush time), so waiting in line wasn't too troubling to me, although I know that there were other people who felt otherwise. A downside to all of the hype of a food truck event was that so many people attended the event, and the orders ended up being quite backed up, but honestly, it shouldn't be too unexpected. Sometimes, people don't realize that if they *really* didn't want to wait in line for their food, they didn't have to. They could have chosen not to attend the event, and eaten at a sit-down restaurant or eaten at home, but they chose to come. The What the Truck?! organizers even put together a helpful "tips and tricks" webpage for non-frequent food truck diners, which some people in the lines with us obviously didn't read over. It's worthwhile to appreciate all the effort that these 2-6 person teams inside those food trucks have to put in for the thousands of attendees. You can't exactly fit too many more people inside of a truck that's stocked with ingredients and kitchen appliances, so patience really is a virtue :)
A great, big kudos to the organizers and food truck vendors who worked to make this event a success! It was really something to see so many people excited about great food, while taking advantage of the giant checkers and chess games in Churchill Square, and dancing to the DJ's music!
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| Even at 8:00pm, the scheduled closing time of the event, lineups were still going pretty strong! |
I'm looking forward to see all of the photos that P took during What the Truck?! :) They should be featured on his website and/or Twitter in the near future, so be sure to check those out!
I'm also pretty excited about the vegetables and fruits available in the markets now! I hope to try a few new things out this summer!
-M
