The Food Truck Social

The pasty that started off the Social.

With CAL leaving for university next week, she's been asking for one last gulp of life in the big, vibrant city before she moves to the little town (pop. 26,000) that she'll be calling home.  She's heading to a place where the big excitement is heading to Idaho Falls for all-you-can-eat salad, soup, and bread sticks at the Olive Garbage Garden.  It was easy to say yes to her request because the Food Truck Social was going on today downtown.

Food trucks are making a name for themselves, in spite of the totally inane Food Network show about them, across the country.  Chefs on these trucks are doing some amazing things.  I follow a slew of them on Twitter and have been able to sample a few of them in New York and Portland.  However, in my own backyard, the food trucks have a bit of a rough go.  Why?  Because in Chicago, the ROM (Restaurant Owners Mafia) have decided that food trucks are a serious threat to their business.  They have worked over our politicians, who are genetically programmed to be difficult and/or corrupt (Exhibit 1 - Blago and his hair), so that they've passed ordinances that state food trucks can't make food on the trucks.  The food has to be prepared in off-site kitchens.  WHAT?  Now I'm no lawyer (remember, I chose NOT to go to law school 21 years ago) but that's the jist of the situation here and I believe the legal term for it is: CRAZY.

Anyway, knowing that the Social was supporting Share Our Strength and would give us the chance to sample as many of the trucks that were there as wanted, we headed in to the city for an awesome lunch.  It was a beautiful day to sample the five trucks we hit:

• Bridgeport Pasty - the Boy and I started here, with chicken pot pie pasties.  As soon as I get off the Heathrow Express in London, I grab a pasty from a vendor in Paddington.  I love them and the one I had this afternoon was a delight.  The pasty was infused with curry and that seasoning made even the peas taste better.
• Isla de Cafe - CAL got a sandwich here that she described as a "delicious Puerto Ricany seasoned ham sandwich.
• Tamale Spaceship - SML more than made up for last night's restaurant selection debacle when she got in line here.  Once we saw the menu, the Boy and I decided that the pasties we'd eaten earlier were nothing more than mere palate cleansers and we joined SML in the long line.  SML had the rajas tamal, the Boy had the pork, and I had the Complicate Tamal de Carne.  Flank steak.  Oaxacan Black Mole.  This mole was essentially the best mole I have ever tasted.  Amazing.
• Starfruit Cafe - this was one of several dessert trucks.  The Boy stopped here for kefir-infused mango yogurt, topped with milk-and-honey granola.  Apparently he was channeling a Lilith Fair attendee but that being said, it was good.
• Flirty Cupcakes - the name may be a lot little lame, but their cupcakes are anything but lame.  They were terrific.  The "No Plain Jane" that I had was nowhere near plain.  The Italian Vanilla Buttercream Icing was fantastic.  Five stars here.

Suffice to say, we had a good day in the city.  It was great for the four of us to join a couple thousand other folks for a food truck-apolooza.  If you've got food trucks in your city, support them.  They are doing some great things, things that make people happy.  See below:

Yeah, that's the tamal.  Bliss, people, bliss.

It's been a good day.  Life is good.  No, life is excellent.