The Charles River Food Truck Festival

Rain was in the forecast today, but it managed to hold off until the late afternoon hours - and then it let go full force- luckily for The Charles River Food Truck Festival at DCR's Artesani Herter Park in Brighton, MA, which was scheduled to take place from 11:00 AM to 4:00 PM (ET), and those who went to enjoy it.  


While I know that we were highly recommended to use public transportation (subway then bus) as there are few parking lots near the park, since I was headed over a bit late (arriving in the area shortly before 1:30pm), I decided to risk driving in.  Annoyingly, however, they had blocked the vehicle entrances to the single large parking lot by the Publick Theatre, so I had no chance at parking at one of the handful of vacant spots that I could see... just... over... there...  But I did manage to find myself a parking spot without too much trouble and to make my way across Soldiers Field Road and to the festival that was sprawled across the three smaller parking lots and a couple of fields....


Tickets were available on site at one of the three ticket tents, or could be purchased ahead of time via Eventbrite:
20 Taste Tickets $25 + $2.37 fee
30 Taste Tickets $37 + $3.03
40 Taste Tickets $48 + $3.63

Tickets were also available on site for $13 for 10 tickets.  So, the taste tickets basically ranged in cost (pre-fee) from $1.20-$1.30 apiece.

At the first incarnation of the Food Truck Festival held at UMass Boston, prices were set at $30 for a general admission ticket ($35 day of), which included one serving from each of the participating food trucks.  Yes, I have heard that it was a horrendous experience for many of the attendees, with the super long lines, and many of the trucks running out of food around 2pm.  With the assist of an offer through Groupon, 4,000 tickets were sold and yet each food truck was asked to bring only a minimum of 1,000 portions; I must say that sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.  But still, I couldn't imagine how much it would cost to taste a single item per truck under this new taste ticket system.  Fortunately/Unfortuntely, I wasn't really planning to find out though, given the physical limitations of the human stomach.

As a guest of a sponsor, I was armed with 40 tickets and off I went to see what damage I could do.  The longest line between the first two clusters of trucks I came through was the one for The Taco Truck with its short simple menu of Baja Fish Taco (5 tickets) and soda (2 tickets), and that was perhaps 25 customers long.

Now, remember, with a value of $1.20-$1.30 per ticket, that places the value of a 5 ticket item at $6-$6.50, while the Pescado Taco on The Taco Truck menu is listed at $5.  The Taco Truck wasn't the only truck with such a price differential from their normal prices, but I guess that's what happens when you enact a food ticket method of pricing.

Anyhow, on to the food.  I had the opportunity to try a few items.  Some I didn't particularly care for, as they were not very flavorful...

Go Fish Seafood Fritters Sampler with lobster, crab & grilled corn

Some rather tasty, although I'm not too sure they were worth the rather long wait as the bread griller got caught up with the orders... (although that didn't quite explain the long wait for my fried veggies while I watched my slider sit cooling on the counter)...

Compliments Truck Sirloin Slider & local fried veggie sampler

or tasty, yet filled with mainly claw meat...  at one point, I briefly considered creating myself a little lobster tasting as 3 different trucks offered some variation of lobster rolls or sliders (or both), but I decided against it for the opportunity to try a variety of food instead.

Lobsta Love Lobster Slider

While a complete list of the trucks' offerings and the ticket prices was missing from the ticket tents, volunteers stood around with signs advertising their truck's menus for our convenience.

Volunteer Menu Holder

It was an enjoyable afternoon's repast, filled out with drink samplings from among the variety of business tents.  With my strip of tickets I was managed to try 9 items from 6 trucks.  My one regret was the missed opportunity to expend some energy at the Bounce & Boogie area, but my belly was inconveniently rather full by then, as were my hands.  When I stopped by Gabi's Smoke Shack at 2:45pm, they had unfortunately run out of their pulled pork.  Other than that, the only other menu items I had noticed crossed out was the St. Louis Ribs and pulled pork slider at Red Bones when I had first arrived at the festival.  Not too bad.  And good thing too, since there was still a rather good sized line at the ticket tent when I left at nearly 3pm.

3pm ticket line

Given the inconvenient (public transportation-wise) location, a rather wise transportation alternative was to bike there, as a good number of folks elected to do.  Real smart, I thought...

Bicycle parking area

Truck Sighting - Cookie Monstah

Lookee what I spotted yesterday!

Cookie Monstah Truck - new to me even if not new to you!

Cupcakes for Charity

For a limited time (July 17-22), you can buy a cupcake ("The Green Monstah,"), contribute to a charity (100% of the sales will be donated to Jason Varitek's Pitching in 4 Kids), and beat New York (Georgetown Cupcakes' Sophie LaMontagne is teaming up with Bernie Williams to sell a special New York “Pinstripe Pretzel” cupcake baked with gourmet butterscotch chips and crushed pretzel and topped with a butterscotch-infused buttercream frosting... yeah, that sounds good!) with a single purchase!

Georgetown Cupcakes is open on Newbury Street, at 83 Newbury Street, Boston, MA  02116, 617-927-2250 or go to www.georgetowncupcake.com to order your box of "Green Monstah" cupcakes!

As a special treat however, Jason and Katherine, with the help of his wife and her mom, came out to Faneuil Hall this afternoon to personally hand out free cupcakes to the masses, of which, I was one. :)

Jason Varitek hands out "The Green Monstah," a limited edition Green "Red Velvet" flavored cupcake

Katherine Kallinis of Georgetown Cupcakes and TLC's DC Cupcakes

The goods (ours anyhow) -  "The Green Monstah" and coconut

Ming Tsai at Macy's

Ming Tsai of "East Meets West" fame, chef of Blue Ginger of Wellesley, father of two sons - one of which was diagnosed with a number of food allergies which ignited his interest in allergies and to become a spokesman for FAAN (Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network), and member of the Macy’s Culinary Council, showed up at Macy's Boston yesterday to take part in Macy’s Great American Chef Tour.

Ming was quite entertaining and engaging as he demonstrate two recipes from his new cookbook, Simply Ming One-Pot Meals: Quick, Healthy & Affordable Recipes - Shrimp, Mango, and Local Herb Summer Rolls and Wok-Stirred Vegetables and Rice Noodles Salad.  Screens were set on either side of him to show us a clear view of his hands in action, and healthy sized delicious samples were made fresh for us from behind the curtain and were carefully handed out to the audience by his black dressed helpers.  It was great!

A lady in the back was super excited when she heard her name called for the drawing for a KitchenAid mixer.  And afterwards, we had the opportunity to buy Ming's new cookbook and to have it signed, or, alternatively, to receive a personally signed photo.

The demo was originally meant to be taped for a brand new cooking show, however, I was told that due to rescheduling, that this was no longer the case.  Well, there goes my 5 minutes of fame.
  

A Week of Food Trucks at Government Center in Photos

Monday (5/21/2012)

Anthony's Gourmet to go

The Dining Car

The Dining Car

Go Fish

Go Fish Specials

Wednesday (5/23/2012)

The Taco Truck

Chubby Chickpea

Staff Meal

Thursday (5/24/2012)

  

Paris Creperie

 

Staff Meal - same menu as the day before

Bon Me

Friday (5/25/2012)

Grilled Cheese Nation

Lobsta Love

Clover

 Tuesday (5/29/2012)

The Froyo Truck

Savory Food

Savory Food

Savory Food

M&M Ribs

9/10/2012 - Lately I've noticed Staff Meal and Paris Creperie at another location when they were previously found at the Government Center Plaza... check out the official City of Boston site for their current locations.