Food Truck Festival Ontario - #FTFO

Even though it's officially Fall it felt like an end of summer sunshine filled day at Downsview Park for te FOOD TRUCK FESTIVAL ONTARIO #FTFO today.  There were a whole lot of last days of summer events happening on this end of September Sunday but I headed over to Downsview Park to shoot some pics of all the food trucks and as much food as I could.

FOOD TRUCKS present were:

Bacon Nation, Bake Three Fifty, B.good, Beavertails, Brewing Bean, Busters Sea Cove, Chimney Stax, CORNehCOPIA, Dine Alone Foods, Dolcella Gelato, Fit To Grill, Food Dudes, Funnel Cake Express, Great Canadian, Jerk Brothers, Kevins Burger Obsession, Koi, La Novela, Luchador, Made in Brasil, Me.n.u, Meltdown Cheesery, My Sticky Rice, Prince Edward Fries, Raw on Location, Sweet Spot, Tdots Naansense, The Egg Man, Tiny Toms Donuts, Untamed Chef, Wickedly Sinful

There were also other attractions like:
-Artisans Market
-Buskers
-Drinks Garden
-Kidzone (corn maze, hula hoop workshop,)

TICKETS
-$15 at the gate and the food averaged between $6 to $10 a dish.



I tried a few things such as the People's Chicken Sandwich $10  from Untamed Chef.  This sandwich pretty much filled me up.  It was buttermilk breaded chicken with bacon, lettuce, cheese, fried jalapenos and fried onions.  It was good and filled me up so much that I couldn't try a whole lot of other things.

I started off with (Made in Brasil) Mata Petisco Bar's Chicken Croquettes.  Two for $6. They were really good.  A nice size I think for this kind of festival where you want to try a bunch of different things.  

The first thing I actually got was an Iced Coffee from Brewing Bean. Cheaper than Starbucks at $3.50 but a bit pricey for a food fest but it was good and I needed it standing out in the sun and chowing down on all the fried foods.

I was pretty much full after that even though I wanted to try more I opted for some Tiramisu Gelato from Dolcella Gelato.  It melted pretty fast in the hot sun and I wish it had a stronger coffee flavour.  I could hardly finish it even.  It was $4 for a small one.

It's funny that I don't eat as much as I used to but you wouldn't know it by looking at me.  Getting old isn't fair is all I can say.  I am smarter now but my body can't keep up with me.

After that I had to resort to following people around and taking pics of their food since I didn't have room in my stomach or the money to keep buying more food.  It adds up pretty quickly.  Since it was at Downsview Park none of my friends were there.  Even my food blogger friends were absent surprisingly but there were so many other events happening that they were probably all over the place.  So I didn't have anyone to share food with otherwise I might have been able to try more things.

Overall I think it's a nice event for families if you pack the whole family in the car and bring a blanket or chairs to sit on because the chair situation isn't enough sometimes and there is lot's of grass to spread a blanket on.  


Another tip.  There is either grass or gravel so leave those spiky heels at home and bring the sneakers.  I was wearing flat shoes but still found it uncomfortable standing around on the gravel.  
And then there is the porta potty situation.  Not my favourite thing so just so you know that's the deal with this type of event.  

I would really love to see a developer build a Food Truck Mall like a lot of places in the U.S. have.  We don't have any suitable locations for these types of events.   Yes I would create one if I had the money to do it.  I think Downsview Park would be great if they built a permanent type of event area to accommodate these types of things.  

Make sure you bring lot's of cash because you need to pay to get in and at each vendor but they do have ATM machines on site.

The Food Trucks also competed for a Trophy that attendees vote online for and the Winner was BAKE THREE FIFTY.  Too bad I didn't have room to try something from their truck.  Here's the Trophy they won.  Congrats!

For more info go to their website: http://www.foodtruckfest.ca/

Event - Toronto Food Trucks Festival

 This past weekend the first Toronto Food Trucks Festival was held at Woodbine Park in the Beaches area was held and I attended on saturday to check it out and see how well it worked out.  It's no secret that the food trucks in Toronto struggle to find a place to do business without government red tape.  They aren't allowed to park less than 50 metres away from restaurants and only allowed to have a couple of trucks at a time for a 3 hour period on a city street.   So this kind of event is important for local Food Trucks to make a solid amount of business.  Because it was held on private land they were able to set up their trucks all day and operate with a many other food trucks creating a destination for people that enjoy food truck food and a little family entertainment.

 The great part of this festival apposed to picking up some food truck grub on a street corner was the fact that they had tables and chairs and plenty of grassy area to spread out with a group of people or a family.
They also had the stage set up with live bands and recorded music between the live bands.  Indie 88 supplied the music for the event.
This event was for people of all ages with an area for kids to play on bouncy castles and carnival type  game and caricature drawing as well.

For the adults there was a Mill Street Beer tent and also Mike's Hard Lemonade.   For the Non Alcoholic drinkers they also had some good old regular lemonade too.

It was a very chill type of environment but probably not as well attended on the saturday as it could have been because it happened on a long weekend and also the Caribbean Carnival weekend.  But I am sure lot's of local families were happy that there was something close by to take the kids to.

There was a parking lot available next to the park with lot's of parking but my only complaint about that was that it was $15 to park which is a lot for a family when you have to add food and drinks in the Park.   The lemonade was $6 and most of the foods cost between $4-$12 but some were small portions so most people try a few different things from different trucks.

I tried the fried chicken with Pumpkin biscuit and curry sauce, as pictured above.  It was tasty but not what I expected.  I thought it would be traditional fried chicken.  This was from the Localista Food truck which uses Yorkshire Vally Farms Organic Chicken.

I also tried the Empanadas from Delicious Empanadas.  I got 3 and shared with my friend.  I got the chicken ones.  They were ok but a tiny bit greasy.

I did have one of the lemonade drinks to wash down the food.

The only other thing I had were Pancho's Bakery Churros with Chocolate and Caramel Sauce.  I have had these before and they are always delicious.  After all of these carb loaded treats I was too full to try anything else.  A lot of the trucks had tacos, hamburgers, and lot's of pork products.  The kind of foods you would expect at a family type of event for sure.



Hopefully if it was successful for them they will hold Food Truck events there again in the future.  It was on the same site as the former Soupstock which was so successful that they didn't have to have one again.

My only suggestions if they hold it again would be to have a tented area with chairs for people that don't wish to sit in the sun or if it does rain.  Luckily it didn't rain that day because it would have been a totally different experience because the whole thing takes place on grass.  If there would have been one of the freak summer storms it would have been more like Woodstock than Foodstock.

And my last suggestion is to lower the parking rate to a reasonable $5 because the event was promoted as free admission.   Families, low income people and students are looking for events that they can attend in the summer without it costing a fortune to spend a few hours relaxing.

But it was a nice event that I would like to see return and hopefully more notable music artist will attend  and draw more people in the future.  I hope that it was successful for the Food Truck owners who have been struggling in this city for a while.

Support street food in Toronto

If you have been following my Blog you will know that I support Food Trucks expanding their reach in Toronto.  If any of you watch the show Eat St. you will also know that in most other cities in the U.S. and other places there are many more opportunities for Street Food Vendors, while we are limited to hot dogs and french fry trucks.  While I have nothing against hot dogs and fries I would like to see a lot more variety and something of more value to your health or your money.   There are a lot of great Culinary Artists that start out with Food Trucks because they can't afford the costs of a full restaurant.  It gives them a chance to run a food business without losing their shirts.  The food industry is very difficult in Toronto.  I think it is a good thing that they are able to start out small with carts or food trucks and gain experience, have direct contact with the people that eat their food and get direct feedback and grow their clientele so when they do get too busy for their trucks they are able to expand to a bricks and morter location.   I received this email and have filled out the survey for the city.

Please fill the survey out or pass it along to friends that want to see more street food.  If you have the time and are able to show your support in person there is a link for further information in this email.

Let's get with the times and make our street food a whole lot more diverse.

Thanks..  Linda

Hello street food lovers! You're getting this letter because you wrote (and perhaps tweeted) your city councillor in support of street food at streetfoodto.com. It's been a long road since then, but we've had some success.. food trucks in parks, food carts allowed to a broader menu, and next, an unfair fee for street food vendors to hire employees is to be removed. The City has launched public consultations on street food, for changes to be made early next year. And they need to hear from you! Please fill out this survey to voice your thoughts on more carts and trucks. Attend one of these meetings (see consultation schedule) and say a few words about why you support street food. We can help you prep. Just email Jovic (howland.jovic@gmail.com) to let us know which date you can make. These are the changes we've asked for. Do you know restaurant owners who support street food? Let us know (email Jovic) so we can help them show their support.  Thank you! Darcy Higgins Executive Director, Food Forward

Buster's Sea Cove shows the love of fish on Eat St.

For the Love of Fish Tacos

Today 2 things I really like came together to show the world how good they go together.   What's that? Well one of my favourite Food Network shows is Eat St.  It shows great food trucks that make unusual but great things all over the world.   And today Eat St. filmed Buster's Sea Cove truck in downtown Toronto.

Both Buster's Sea Cove and Caplansky's Food Trucks were parked at Front and Bay St. in front of the Royal Bank Building.   When I got there at about 12:30 there was a lineup for both of them but I was on a mission to get some fish tacos from Buster's Sea Cove.   Buster's sea cove has a very popular spot in St. Lawrence Market where people line up at lunch for very fresh seafood delights.

Today's menu for Buster's Sea Cove was the Lobster Roll, the fish taco, the shrimp taco and Key Lime Pie.   The truck was opened for business at 11am and by the time I got to the front of the line just after 12:30pm the key lime pie was already sold out.  Darn... I really wanted to try that.   I have had a couple of things at the St. Lawrence Market location but on Canada Day I got to try the Lobster Roll and Fish Taco when the truck was parked at Mel Lastman Square for the Canada Day festivities.   It was a hot day and the Fish Taco was light but had a nice kick of flavour.  Really great on a hot day with a squeeze of lime on top.   I went back later and had the Lobster Roll.  It was also delicious.    But today I wanted to try the Shrimp Tacos.

I added a bit or maybe a bit too much of the hot sauce they had on the side of the truck. I would say a bit much because my lips went numb after eating these tacos.   But they were delicious.  There were 3 crispy medium sized shrimp.. not sure what kind of shrimp but they were nice and tender and not rubbery at all and coated in a great batter and deep fried to perfection.   My only complaint was that the tasty but juicy salsa soaked through the soft taco shells and made it difficult to keep them together  so they were on the messy side.  I was glad that I didn't have to go back to work in an office after lunch just in case.   There were a lot of people in line that were obviously on their lunch from working in the Royal Bank as they were dressed in dress shirts and pants and the women in dresses and skirts.  It does seem a little odd to see so many well dressed people chowing down on sloppy tacos and deli foods.   But it seemed like everyone loved it.

The Eat St. Crew were there to film Buster's Sea Cove's truck and I am not sure when it will air but I am guessing sometime next season.  You probably won't see me as I basically wolfed down my tacos and left not long after that.   But I am curious to see what people say about it.

If you see the Buster's Sea Cove truck and have a chance to stop by and pick up some food I would highly recommend it....but make sure you aren't wearing a white or bring a bib just in case.

Toronto needs Food Trucks

I watch the Food Network show Street Eats and on the last episode I saw they said that Toronto was one of 3 cities that didn't have Food Trucks. They kind of said how sad that was and felt sorry for us. I watch that show all the time and think how cool is it that people that can't afford to start up a restaurant because there food is fast and cheap and needs to be served fresh most of the time. My friends will tell you that we waited in a lineup at a Food Truck event for an hour to get a grilled cheese. There is a want and need for food trucks in this city. The advantage a food truck has over a larger stand alone bricks and morter business is that it can provide food to the customer right off the grill or the fryer or whatever method they are using in the truck to prepare the food. Also as apposed to a big fast food chain they can provide fresh local food because they don't have to stock thousands of pounds of food. They can literally shop at a farmers market and set up a truck nearby and start serving food hours later. How many restaurants can do that? Food trucks also have the ability to change their menus to suit food trends and their customers wants. If a burrito hot dog is popular they can serve it and if it's not then they take it off the menu the next day. They have the flexibility to cater to what people are looking for and adjust quickly.

I love the variety that you can get from a food truck. I have seen shows on Street Eats that are fusions of mexican Japanese or Cajun or Caribbean food mixed with french. Creativity goes. I would like to see Toronto take advantage of our diverse cultures and see what we can do and show off to the tourists that visit the city that you can get any kind of food you desire anywhere you go in this city.

Send a letter to your Councillor and tell them you want more food trucks. We have a few food trucks but they are getting forced out of business by the city by laws. Those city by laws need to be changed to keep up with the times and our culture.

I know a woman who has a hot dog cart who would love to expand her cart to serve other items but the city won't allow it. Why can we get toxic street meat and cancer causing and heart attack inducing fries on our streets but we can't get a food truck that can serve up a chicken burrito? It makes no sense to me and I would like to see this change in our city. I have nothing against the option to have a hot dog and fries but would like to see other options available for those people that want quick, cheap and tasty options that are a lot better for your health.

Our Mayor was up 3 pounds in his diet challenge and says he is too busy to do his weigh ins. Maybe if he had some healthy quick food truck options around the city when he is out and about he would make better choices and be down 3 pounds instead of up. Just sayin...

Make a change...tell them you want Food Trucks in TO.

Food Trucks get no love from the City.

One of the Coolest shows on the Food Network is called Eat St. which is a show all about the Food Trucks in the U.S. mostly. Although there are some in Vancouver.... BUT NOT TORONTO... Why? Because there is a stupid By Law in place at City Hall that says a food truck can only park in a parking lot for 10 minutes. So you can park your car for hours but a food truck can only park for 10 minutes. The City allows Cancer causing Hot Dog and French Fry vendors but forget about Diversity...they tried the A la Carte version but that totally flopped with the ridiculous fees and rules. It's time to Amend the stupid city by law and let Food Trucks Rule. Sometimes you want to grab something quick, tasty and cheap while you are trying to rush through your day. It doesn't compete with the sit down restaurants because if you had the time and money to take a leisurely lunch break you would. Some people just need to grab some grub on the run. Why does the only grub and go have to be street meat and toxic fries?

Food trucks are the hottest thing in the US.. we have some great food trucks here but they just can't do any business other than at special events. Let them operate 365 days a year so they can make a living and feed the rushed masses.

Pleas sign the Petition for the Food Cabbie and for Caplansky's to operate at a Queen St. E. parking lot.

Support FOOD CABBIE'S fight to amend By-law 545-269G Petition | GoPetition

Let's see our food trucks being featured on the next Eat st. series.

The people of Toronto are Hungry for Food Trucks so it's time we get more of them around town.

Mobile Foodie Heaven

A Foodie's dream of an Event happened at the Distillery this past weekend. What was it? Food Truck Eats. What's that? It's the best kind of fast food or Mobile food you can find. Food trucks are a new trend that seems to be sweeping America. There is a new show called Eat St. and another show hosted by Bobby Flay that has different food trucks competing against each other for a big prize. One of the hottest trucks in the US is a Grilled Cheese truck. Well actually 2 trucks and who knows when they will add more. Not just grilled cheese but gourmet versions of grilled cheese and even desert grilled sandwiches like marshmallow and chocolate and who knows what else they add to them. There was a Food Truck called Gorilla Cheese at the Distillery that was easily the longest lineup of all the food trucks in attendance. It was so long that I didn't even attempt to get into that line because I knew the food would be gone before the end of the line was. I saw a lot of happy faces eating their assortment of grilled cheese items.

What did I try? Well lets see.... a Ceviche from CAVA.

It was the first thing i had and it was really refreshing on a hot summer day.

I also had a Po Boy mini fish sandwich which also had some very crunchy tasty fried fish balls.

It was so hot that I got some tasty Peppermint Ice tea twice.. It hit the spot.

Hmmm what else did I have? I tried a pot sticker that was pretty good.

What I didn't try that my foodie friend that I met up with and her friend did try was the very popular Maple Bacon doughnut.

They loved it but about 10 minutes later they started to fade and they were done. They both wanted to have a nap after that donut. So they were pretty much done.

But back to the beginning of the day.... I met up with my friend at the entrance and we were waiting for her friend to show up when she glances over at a parked taxi in front of us and asks "who's that in the cab"? so I glance over and see that it's Bob Blumer who I had just seen the day before at the CNE. Now he is gonna think I am stalking him but no I was there first so obviously I didn't know he was going to show up right in front of where I was standing. But I guess us Foodie people like these cool foodie events.

I have to say that all my friends bailed on showing up at this event even the one guy that lives in the Distillery but my foodie friend Joanne was there right along with me. Last year we went to the T & T night market where we ended up standing in line for over an hour for some skewered beef...was it worth it...well I would have to say sort of. It was good but the line was way too long. The same thing applied to some of the food trucks. The lines were so long and one truck even ran out of food an hour before the event was supposed to end. Officially the event was from 11-3pm but I heard that there were people that paid extra to be the first ones to get food before it opened. Wow.. now that should tell people that this is an event that is in demand. It was part 2 and apparently the first one was well attended as well. There will be a part 3 in October that I plan to arrive earlier for so I can get in that Grilled Cheese Truck lineup this time. I hope this becomes a regular event because there seemed to be a huge crowd of foodies and food bloggers in attendance so I am not the only one posting a blog about this event.

I enjoyed the day and hope to see more food trucks roaming our city on a regular basis real soon.