by Laura
Today our fellow grub-loving friends Stephen & Helen took us to a Food Truck Rodeo in Durham’s version of Central Park. Of course, when invited to anything involving food trucks, the first rule of thumb is to say yes and then prepare to stuff your face with tastes of local, fresh goodies.
The nice thing about all of these mobile units gathering in one place is that, well, they’re all in one place, instead of having to track down each one individually via social media. Plus, we’re really enjoying that the food-on-wheels craze has spread down South and become part of the community landscape.
We were faced with two rows of trucks and choices that included ice cream (The Parlour), snow cones (Kona Ice), both regular (Pie Pushers) and deep dish pizza (Klausie’s), crepes (Parlez-Vous), sliders (Slippin’ Sliders), burgers (OnlyBurger), and grilled cheese (The Grilled Cheese Bus).
Most of my companions went for OnlyBurger, which has been a lunchtime fixture around Durham for a couple of years now and even won a Food Network contest. I wanted to try something new and went for the Grilled Cheese Bus. I liked that it serves as a work program for a nonprofit looking to teach young people about entrepreneurship and social changes. Besides, my sourdough with cheddar and bacon and its standard side of tomato soup wasn’t half bad, although perhaps more appropriate for colder months. I also couldn’t resist trying a couple more flavors at the Parlour, where they were scooping malted cinnamon and blackberry peach options as part of an impressive, innovative menu.
It was nice to see so much good variety and a few trucks even coming in from Raleigh. Next time, we hope we’ll also get to sample from a few more local favorites, like KoKyu BBQ, Bulkogi, and the Indian Food Truck. Yum!
Laura
Harold
