Foodies had a taste of what Edmonton’s food truck scene has to offer this summer at the What the Truck kickoff event on Sunday.
“Some people bring their own cutlery, napkins, they’ve printed out the menu, they have a game plan,” co-organizer Mack Male said. “I’ve seen people huddle around in a circle and they have their marching orders. People get really into it. Edmontonians love their food trucks.”
The first-ever event was held back in 2011 with just seven trucks taking part.
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On Sunday, 35 local food trucks were on hand to officially launch the season at the Northlands Expo Centre from noon to 7 p.m. But that’s just a sampling of the city’s food truck scene.
“We’ve got 100 different food trucks on our roster for 2017,” Male said. “It just shows how much the scene in Edmonton has grown.
“Some of those food trucks are brand new, others have closed and opened restaurants over the years. It’s been great to see it grow from a really small number into a huge industry.”
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Food truck chefs were serving up the latest and greatest culinary delights to hundreds of hungry customers.
Crews like Bully Food Truck, Calle Mexico, Drift, and Krazy Bull offered menu selections like Bacon Sushi, Mini Sopes, Buttermilk Fried Chicken Sandwich, and the Original BIG Cheese philly cheese steak sandwich.
“Most surprising are probably the fusion ones,” Male said, “food trucks that are combining a couple of different cuisines like Mexican and Asian flavours or something like that, those are the really intriguing menus.”
There was also a family-friendly beer garden and live music.
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“What the Truck, we’re only doing two events this year. A kickoff event, which is today, and a wrap-up event sometime in September.
“Throughout the rest of the summer, we’re going to promote the food trucks themselves and all of the other events that have food trucks,” Male said.
“Unlike when we started, there’s now more than 350 events a year that we connect with food trucks, so there’s no shortage of opportunities.”
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For more information, visit the What the Truck website.
“We’re going to profile events every week that are coming up and have food trucks,” Male said. “The other thing is we recommend people download the Street Food app, which is a mobile app you can get for iOS or android that’ll list all the locations and where the food trucks are.”
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