Street Food City, back after success last year, was an event where 13 (14?) street food trucks from around Vancouver gathered outside of the Vancouver Art Gallery for a few days so people could try a number of different vendors all at once! It was amazing to see so many food carts in one place and the number of choices provided was almost overwhelming! Most of the vendors had specials made up for the event.
Where (and what) we ate
Holy Perogy
- I’ve never seen this truck on the streets before, as according to urbanspoon it is only open for lunch on weekdays (so I’d never be downtown!)
- Amazingly long line up and wait. People were loving it!
Potato Cheddar (potato and cheddar filling topped with sour cream and fried onions)
- This one was my favourite of the two. A classic! Next time I would add sausage or bacon ($2) to round out the dish
Italian (mozzarella, parmesan, and potato filled topped with tomato garlic salsa and sour cream)
- Flavour of the salsa and sour cream on top overwhelmed the subtle differences in the cheese, but the salsa was super fresh so couldn’t really complain!
Re-Up BBQ
- BBQ out of probably one of the tiniest food trucks (trailer) I’ve seen! They have a few trailers downtown last I remember and have opened a full restaurant!
- This was actually the first place I tried pulled pork and sweet tea, so I have a special place in my heart for their sandwiches
Pork and Bacon Raised Pie (DOV special)
- A whole bunch of pork inside of a pie. The slice was gigantic!
- Unfortunately I wasn’t too excited about the pie after I had eaten some of it. It was kind of unwieldy to eat and I’m not fond of the jelly that separates out when its cooked. The pastry was fantastic though
Yolk’s Breakfast
- This cart serves all kinds of breakfast goods
- In terms of design, it was one of my favourite carts!
Hash brown Skewer (Roasted potato, lemon, truffle oil, sea salt, and chives)
- I really enjoyed these. They were relatively small and the first thing I picked up so I could snack while I was wandering between the other trucks. Anything on a stick is fun to eat!
- All of the flavours were very well pronounced but the truffle oil was hard for me to pick up
- These made me really want to try one of their breakfast sandwiches in the future
Guanaco Truck
- Definitely a lot of not knowing what I’m eating on my part at this truck. I’m pretty sure this is the first time I’ve had Salvadoran food
- Wasn’t so busy by the time I got there, but the service was friendly and it looked like it might be family run
Pasteles (beef or chicken stuffed, deep fried, pastries)
- I had no idea what these were really, but when I saw someone order them I had to get them!
- I got 2 beef and 1 chicken. These were stuffed with meat, some vegetables, and cheese
- Served with a slaw (very strong flavour, probably fermented?), and a fresh salsa. I didn’t realize it at first but the slaw was meant to be eaten at the same time as the pastel. I preferred the slaw to the salsa and wished I had more
Sangria (non-alcoholic)
- Since this was the last truck I was at, I was really thirsty! Guanaco had quite a few drinks they make themselves, including horchata which they were out of, but this bottle caught my eye
- It was refreshing, not too sweet, and overall really enjoyable
This was a great event! It was definitely generating some hype about the food truck scene that is starting up in Vancouver, I had people texting and calling me every day asking what they should try. There were a few other locations I wanted to try but they had run out of food by the time I got there, a good sign! I hope it continues to be a feature of Dine Out Vancouver and hopefully they will get it set up a few more times throughout the year!
