Day 2: World Record-Breaking Food Truck Rally - Nine More Food Trucks Get In My Belly!

Hello LilyOnTheLam.Com Readers:

Happy Friday!  Last weekend, we went to a two day Food Truck Rally.  I posted Day One right away to give some recommendations for people attending Day Two of the event.  However after that, I fell into a food coma and kept saying "Um yeah I'll post Day Two … eventually."

Eventually is NOW!

Enough procrastinating, here is my Day Two of the World Record-Breaking Food Truck Rally post!  Yay!

(If you haven't read the Day One post, check it out first here.)

When I posted "Day 1" information and pictures, I rushed through the writing because I had an hour before I had to run to a volunteering event.  Because of this, I left out some of the back story on the event … so allow me to correct that oversight here.

Tampa may not be the most cutting edge city in the country, but I feel like we have really embraced and welcomed food trucks.  Now I'm not a food truck owner, so maybe it's really a cut-throat, dog-eat-dog world that I am not aware of (maybe a new TV show idea?) … but as someone who loves going out and trying quality food, I love that Tampa Bay always seems to have a plethora of food truck events.

Now in 2013, Miami held a food truck rally that was apparently world-record breaking in number of food trucks.  From what I gather, our local "Generation Food Truck" group (Facebook, Twitter) which runs (or is also affiliated with) the "Not Your Ordinary Food Truck," decided that Tampa Bay should break that record.  And with that, their team set out to do just that.  And they did!  

With their 100 food truck rally - they expected 8,000 people and had 30,000.  It was an amazing event.  Even with long lines, we were able to try four different trucks (going with a group of people was a good idea - divide and conquer!)  

We had a great day and when we soon heard afterward that Generation Food Truck was now going to attempt a 200 Food Truck Rally and had a sponsor bringing in the Guinness World Record committee to certify the new World Record, we knew we had to be there!

So yes - this food truck event has been on our calendars for seven months - we are devoted food truck fans!  Don't judge!

Now the owner of Generation Food Truck is a colorful character and outspoken.  He may rub some people the wrong way, but he gets attention and actually does what he sets out to accomplish.  So you have to respect that!  He put on an event that has helped many small business owners.  It invigorates the community.  It generates tourism (many people we met at the 200 Food Truck Rally drove 2-6 hours to attend the event).  It promotes a positive image of the food truck industry and their hard-working owner/operators.  

The amount of work Generation Food Truck has done in a relatively short amount of time is astounding.  If more small business leaders thought this big and then DELIVERED this big, imagine how strong our economy could get?  It's inspirational!

OK so enough about the back story, let's talk about the food on Day Two!

Now if you read Day One's post, which hopefully you did … you'll know that we suffered through torrential rain to go to the event.  Well Day Two was a GIFT!  Sunny, warm, just beautiful!

We were sad to realize that not all the food trucks from Day One were there on Day Two - which was unfortunate not only for our stomachs but I have to imagine the trucks made a lot more money on sunny Day Two than rainy Day One.  For the out of town food trucks who were not able to also be there for Day Two, I hope you come back and visit Tampa!  

We were especially sad that South Florida's Hip Pops and Tampa's Mobile Munchiez were not there for Day Two!  At least with Mobile Munchiez we can see them at other events, but we may have to do a Hip Pops road trip when the first In-N-Out Burger opens in Miami (which by the way, does anyone know when in 2014 that is??)

Now before I start telling you about the food we ate on Day Two, I have to say that some of my friends (and Twitter follower reactions) were in HORROR at how much food we tried.  All I can say is - listen people, I ate light the week before the event, worked out, tasted but didn't finish most of what we ordered and then ate light afterward.  I am 2 pounds lighter than before I went to the event, so keep your food-phobic comments on the back burner!  The memories I am taking from this event are in my head, not on my hips!  

Our first food truck was: Gainesville's Humble Pie Wood Fired Pizza.  

My friend had the Granny Smith apple - walnut pizza.  It was DELICIOUS!  I didn't get to snap a picture of it because I was in line at food truck #2, so here is a crooked picture of my laptop screen of the picture on my friend's Instagram page-- sure I could have asked her to email me the pic, but why be logical?     

Humble Pie Granny Smith Apple and Walnut Pizza

This pizza normally is also topped with bleu cheese crumbles, but my friend asked for them to be left off.  I love a good thin crust, wood fired pizza.  The quality of pizza you can get from an oven on a cart outdoors - holy cow, this was good!  The apple was cooked perfectly - thin slices with lots of flavor, not too crisp and not too mushy.  Perfection!  

Humble Pie was so good that I may need to schedule a road trip to Gainesville!

Our second food truck had my most favorite food of the entire two day 200 Food Truck Rally - the Bison Burger Egg Roll from Tampa's own Ninja Noms Eggrolls.

Bison Burger Eggroll with the freshest side salad!

First, I have to say there is a gorgeous guy who works this food truck who looks like Louis Maldonado - a Chef-contestant from Top Chef.  So this truck wins the beauty contest!  He was so good-looking, I seriously just considered ordering everything off the Ninja Noms menu and forgetting all other food trucks!

I couldn't believe how good and fresh-looking the food was - talk about gourmet.  I pointed at the side salad and said "Look I am eating healthy!"  

Why was this dish my favorite?  It tasted like the best cheeseburger ever - in an egg roll.  Apparently they use some sort of air fryer, so the egg roll was hot & crispy without being greasy or worse, greasy-tasting.  It came with a mayonnaise-style dipping sauce, that I didn't think it needed.  The Napa cabbage-cucumber-red cabbage side salad had a tart vinaigrette that I really enjoyed.  I could eat that salad every day for the rest of my life.  For the record, this is the only dish I completely finished (OK a couple pieces of red cabbage were left) the entire day.  It was SO GOOD.

On to Food Truck #3!  Jacksonville's "Pink Cupcake" food truck.  

Pink Cupcake had the cutest little girl named Julianna working the truck.  She was probably no more than 6.  I would have loved to have posted her picture, but unfortunately in this day and age - probably not wise and she's not my child, so … but she was just freaking adorable.  Even if the cupcakes were awful, I would have bought something from her!  She wins the "child beauty pageant" at this event!  

French Toast Cupcake

My friend had her eye on the French Toast Cupcake.  She said it was so good, I couldn't even grab a bite before it was gone!  We actually went to this truck twice!  We left the event with cupcakes to go, because their cupcakes were so moist and delicious.  Their Butterfinger cupcake would make a person cry it looked so good!  

Food Truck #4:  Valrico's Cake Bus food truck.  

Since I couldn't get a bite of the French Toast cupcake, this toddler is going to get her own!  And it's going to be a CHICKEN AND WAFFLE CUPCAKE.  Oh yeah baby, you heard me!  Look at this gorgeous creature:

Chicken & Waffle Cupcake

A fluffy light cupcake that tasted like a malt waffle, with a maple syrup-tasting butter cream frosting, the crunchiest but still "chewy like a waffle" mini waffle, a crunchy yet juicy chicken tender piece - and the whole thing drizzled with syrup.  It may sound nasty but it was CRAZY DELICIOUS.  I ate the chicken separately but the rest I ate up together.  At my last dental visit, the dental assistant told me I have a small mouth.  Which surprised me because I have been told I have a big freaking mouth most of my life.  Ha ha!  I managed to eat this thing - not really sure how.  I wanted to gobble the whole thing up, but in my "taste everything, finish nothing" mode I only had 1/3.  But it was AWESOME.

I may become a CakeBus stalker and try the rest of their cupcakes, because if they are anything like this one - I will be in LOVE.

Food Truck #5: Lakeland's FryNSaucer!  

Listen, sometimes you just have to go for the deep fried food!  FryNSaucer has a huge bin of fresh potatoes that they use for their curly fries and ribbon fries.  The oil they use is very clean-tasting - unlike some "Fair Food" where you feel like they've been using the same oil for decades!  Plus sometimes the oil is not hot enough so you get soggy, oil-laden fries -- but not these - both the ribbon fries & the curly fries were crisp, light & tasty. 

Fresh Curly Fries and Deep Fried Strawberry Shortcake

Ribbon Fries

On a whim, we decided to also try the deep fried strawberry shortcake.  YES, YOU HEARD ME!  Deep fried strawberry shortcake!  It was like a jelly roll, dipped in batter and deep fried.  A light vanilla sponge cake with the artificial tasting strawberry gel inside.  We were glad we tried it, but it was not our favorite.  The fries - both curly and ribbon - were delicious though and we had to forcibly stop ourselves from eating more!

Food Truck #6 (yes SIX): Orlando's Sabai Sabai Mobile Thai food truck.

Kobe Beef Slider

Thai Street Noodles with Chicken & Kobe Beef Sliders

By this point in the game, our stomachs were starting to say "um, what's up?"  But we pressed on.  My friend had the Thai Street Noodles with Chicken.  She found them a little greasy, but I thought they were pretty authentic - as a person who has had street noodles in Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Japan, Hong Kong and Macau!  The Kobe Beef sliders were decent but really could have used a nice sauce and maybe a slice of cucumber.  I'd definitely try more of Sabai Sabai's food in the future.  

I stole my friend's noodles and they were my dinner for The Walking Dead season finale!

Food Truck #7: After filling our bellies with some protein, it was time to hit the deep-fried end of the spectrum AGAIN with Lake Worth's Fry Daddy food truck!

Deep-fried Oreos and Deep-fried rice krispy treat

The interior of a deep-fried rice krispy treat 

Hello deep fried oreo

Fry Daddy has a menu that will make any fried food lover weep with appreciation.  My friend had never tried deep fried oreos, so she was in for those.  I just had to see what a deep fried rice krispy bar tasted like.  I had had deep fried oreos once at a Tampa restaurant I will not name.  They were gushy and gross.  But the one from Fry Daddy was excellent - big fluffy batter with a still somewhat crunchy Oreo.  It needed some whipped cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce - because hey, I don't think it has enough calories!

The deep fried rice krispy bar was interesting - the cereal was still somewhat crunchy and you heard that snap, crackle, pop!  It was a nice flavor with melted marshmallow.  I probably wouldn't get this again, but it was cool to try.

Food Truck #8:  Clermont's "The Whip" Food truck- 40+ flavors of custom blended soft serve ice cream!  

When you are one truck at a 200 Food Truck Rally - putting something memorable on top of your truck is a great way for people to find you.  We had made many laps around the fairgrounds to try to burn off calories in-between eating, so when we decided to go back to The Whip all we had to do was spot the truck in the distance that had the happy little ghost on it!  

Custom blended root beer soft serve ice cream

My friend had the root beer flavor soft serve ice cream.  She enjoyed it but said she would have liked a little stronger root beer flavor.  The Whip had all these amazing flavors I would have loved to try, but my heart was set on Hawaiian Shave Ice from our next truck ...

Last but NOT least … Food Truck #9: Belleaire Bluffs' Lolo Ono Hawaiian Shave Ice. 

For the record I did not visit this food truck because I used to have the best cat ever who was named Lo Lo - just a happy coincidence.

I love proper Hawaiian shave ice - where the ice tastes almost like powdered snow.  The syrups taste fresh and not chemical-like.  And the hidden inner center of ice cream is fresh-tasting not gooey with chemical thickeners.  I have been to Hawaii many times and I have high standards for shave ice!  Lolo Ono's shave ice tasted very authentic and their food truck is super cute!

Believe it or not - this is the small shave ice!

Inner center of vanilla ice cream

I chose the "Sunset" flavor which is mango and strawberry.  There are three flavor stripes on the shave ice - 2 mango and 1 strawberry - I would have preferred 2 strawberry and 1 mango, but other than that - this was pretty much the perfect ending for our 200 Food Truck weekend!

Secret Food Truck #10 - As I stated before, we actually made a 10th spot - back to our Food Truck #3 - Jacksonville's Pink Cupcake- to get cupcakes to go.  

I bought a French Toast cupcake (because my friend doesn't know how to share! Ha ha - kidding!)  I devoured this 2 seconds in to the finale of The Walking Dead.

Whereas my friend took a selection.  She's skinnier than me and has impulse control.  If I had bought more than 1 cupcake I would have eaten them all while watching zombies eat people.  I own my lack of impulse control!

Other friends raved about the jambalaya at the King Creole food truck that came from North Carolina to be part of the rally.  I never got a chance to try the wine ice cream from Rochester, New York's Wine Not food truck - but maybe next time I am in Western New York - as I have friends in Buffalo, Rochester & Syracuse.

It was a fun day of eating!  We did a few more laps to try to digest and burn off some calories.  I would have loved to stay longer because it was a gorgeous day with lots of people, but my Food Truck pal and I both had afternoon & evening commitments - so off we left with Happy Bellies!

Thanks Generation Food Truck, your sponsors & all the vendors who made the world record-breaking 200 Food Truck Rally a big success!  We can't wait to see what you do to top this one!  I'll start dieting now in anticipation!