Category Archives: Food Trucks

Crabby Patty

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Food Truck Friday

I am a big fan of Friday’s. Food Truck Friday’s are like superstar Friday’s and this week was an FTF.  I already had the truck I was going to hit picked out so all I needed was a parking place and a beer to nurse while I waited to order and then get my food.  Plenty of parking…check.  Live band pumping out Day Tripper, not on the list but…check.  Wristband acquisition…check.  Beer selection & purchase…check.

This month they had free tapered koozies to fit the beer cups which was very convenient and the folks who work the stations were still awesome.  If you’re not sure about a beer they will give you a sample so fast it’ll make your head spin.  I was intrigued by the Shiner Peach and had to try it out.  It’s a wheat ale made with peaches and it was a really nice beer for a warm evening waiting in line.  I got a great whiff of peach as I brought the cup up to sip and the peach flavor permeated every aspect of the beer from the first taste to the aftertaste.  So with beer secured it was time to stand in line at my chosen truck.

The Maryland Crab & Co truck is the first truck I pass each FTF and I’ve never stopped until this month.  The line was long but I already had my mind set on seeing what they could do with crab.  I got the crab cake sandwich with some Old Bay fries.  The crab cake was made with real crab and was overwhelmingly crab, in a good way.  A lot of crab cakes are mainly binder & filler but not this one.  There was so much crab it fell apart fairly easily but I wasn’t going to complain.  It was served on a toasted bun and you could get it with hot sauce or tartar sauce.  I chose to go with tartar and they give it to you in a cup so you can control how much to use.  I went light on it because I didn’t want to overpower the crab flavor.  It was a mild tartar sauce anyway so it was not a problem.  The sandwich was great.  The fries were basically just shoestring fries that had Old Bay seasoning sprinkled on them just before being served.

While I was dining at a table with some other random Rock Hill residents we were treated to the sounds of Liverpool, a Beatles cover band while the fountain did its thing.

I walked around a bit more and found myself with another beer.  This time a Stone Brewing Tangerine Express, and yes I’m counting both those beers as a serving of fruit.  This was an IPA and boy was it hoppy.  I know that’s a characteristic of IPAs but this was almost over the top.  Part of that was probably the citrus taste from the tangerine.  Initially I didn’t get much tangerine but as I drank it the flavor seemed to become more pronounced.  It was interesting but I wouldn’t have another. After a bit more walking and listening I figured a stop by the Art of Baking truck to procure a late night snack wouldn’t be out of line.

The chocolate salted caramel cupcake was the one that got the call.  The cake was a moist chocolate, the icing was a whipped topping that tasted a bit oily but it was also the salt delivery system and of course the caramel drizzle topped the whole thing marvelously.  It was a nice finish to a great day.  Only one month until the next FTF.

 

TGIFTF

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Thank God it’s Food Truck Friday

Almost everyone looks forward to Friday and I’m no exception and when it’s Food Truck Friday in Rock Hill it’s just that much better.  It was another hot one but a quick stop at the adult beverage station to pick up a Windy Hill Orchard blueberry cider made sure I was properly provisioned to peruse the prolific parade of possibilities.  Wow that was a lot of P’s.  Anyway, after careful deliberation I decided to see what Ruthie’s of Charlotte could offer.

What they could offer was a some dinners with a meat and two sides plus a variety of “melts”.  I decided to try their Best Melt sandwich because it was the best, it says so right in the name.  It was a half and half sandwich; half pulled pork & half meatloaf.

The right side that you get the peek of in the photo was the pulled port half and the left side was the meatloaf side.  Like most of the food trucks this was not fast food but it was good food.  In addition to the two meats the implied cheese part of the melt was actually mac & cheese.  Mac & cheese on a sandwich?  Yep, and it was gooood!  The pulled pork was kind of saucy but that just allowed it to meld nicely with the creamy mac & cheese that was clearly made with real cheese.  The meatloaf side I was initially disappointed in because of the thin slice of meatloaf but it turned out to be just enough to give a great taste to compliment the rest of the sandwich and not make you feel overstuffed.  When they grilled this thing they did not skimp on the butter either which  didn’t detract at all.  I chose to try the okra as the side instead of the chips so I could call myself eating vegetables.  They were ok but nothing remarkable.

After enjoying my meal and listening to live music courtesy of the Flatland Tourists I wandered a bit more and found some coffee entrepreneurs offering some cold brew coffees and a couple of their own varieties of coffee beans.

After some conversation with the enthusiastic couple from Knowledge Perk I decided to give their bourbon barrel aged cold brew a try.  I wasn’t sure what I was in for but it was quite good.  It wasn’t as dark and robust as I like generally like my coffee since it was made from a medium roast but that allowed the subtle bourbon taste to ride the coffee wave across the taste buds.  One of the proprietors mentioned he liked to have it with a pump of caramel syrup which really kicked up the bourbon taste and sweetened it.  I also bought a couple of packs of their beans and was amused by the interaction.

Him: (Face looking kind of sad that he’s got to ask this question) Do you need this ground?

Me: (What am I, a barbarian face) No!

Him: (Smile like a proud father) That’s great! Do you use a French press?

Me: (Less superior) Well, actually I grind it and use it in reusable K-cups.

Him: (Mild disappointment accompanied by visible deduction of cool points) Ok, well um, sometime you should really try a French press.

The coffee smells great and I can’t wait to try it.

Overall another good experience and I hate that I have to wait a month to attend the next one.

Meals & Wheels

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Food Truck Saturday

After taking a couple weeks off during vacation I hit an event I’d been waiting on for a couple of months.  The folks who run Rock Hill’s Food Truck Friday rescheduled the July event to coincide with the Saturday opening ceremonies of the BMX World Championships being held right here in Rock Hill, SC.

In addition to the usual area around Fountain Park loaded with food trucks and live music they blocked off a few more streets, doubled the number of food trucks, added a kids ride and bounce area, increased the number and location of tables to sit and dine, had twice the beer tents,  another stage with music, and finally an area where they had guys doing bike riding stunts.  Whew, that’s a lot of stuff for a Saturday evening.

It was hot.  At 6:00pm it was 96 degrees or 36 depending on your flavor of temperature.  So naturally my first goal was to secure a beverage from the closest beer station.  The beer stations had local craft brews, some not so local craft brews and a couple of national beers.  I was trying to decide between a stout and a brown ale which I figured would be lighter on this semi-hellish day.  The woman waiting on me said “You want to sample it” when I voiced that thought.  It took a second before I realized she wasn’t asking me and she had the tap going before I could respond.  As she gave me the cup she told me she and her cohort had just sampled both and I needed to make an informed decision.  I was also presented with a sample of the coffee cream stout.  Both were actually good but the brown ale was a bit hoppier and more bitter than I was expecting while the stout was smoother and went down well so that’s was the starter beer.  First hurdle cleared it was time to examine the food options.

There were a number of taco & sandwich trucks as well as BBQ of different varieties.  Ethnically inspired trucks, a couple of seafood trucks and desert trucks with those ice cream & Italian ice doing a brisk business.  I settled on Thai meatball sliders with cilantro lime rice from the Plated Palette food truck.

The two beef meatballs were covered with a Thai sweet chile sauce and served with a cucumber slice and spinach on a soft slider bun.  They were good but I have to admit they were a tad awkward as they wanted to shoot out of the bun with each bite.  The rice seemed light on the lime and just a little better on the cilantro so it turned out to be mostly just rice.  I did find a nice place to sit which occasionally got a wind assisted spray from the fountain.  A bonus was it was only a short jaunt to the BMX trick area for some after dinner entertainment.

 

After that it was time to obtain another brew and contemplate dessert possibilities.  This time I went the opposite direction of the stout and opted for a Catawba Brewing White Zombie witbier.  It was lighter and a little more refreshing than the stout.  I found a nice spot with a reasonably regular breeze to nurse my zombie and people watch as I continued to contemplate dessert.  This really was a world event as I saw folks from not only USA teams but from Canada, Costa Rica, Puerto Rico, Australia, South Africa, and from their speech some from eastern Europe.  Those were just the ones who advertised their teams so no telling how many other countries were represented.  Nice exposure for the local area.

I finally decided on dessert and since it had plunged to 94 degrees by 8:00pm I elected to have a root beer float from Hillbilly Bob’s Homemade Soda.

Here’s what I can tell you about Hillbilly Bob’s root beer float.  It is not sugar free, it is quite good and they float a single serve vanilla ice cream cup, Blue Bell in this case, on top of that root beer.  Well not the cup, just the ice cream.  I didn’t bother to check my blood sugar when I got home because I didn’t want to blow the glucometer.  To go with my dessert I was treated to a band of 4 white dudes doing a credible job on a Prince tune.

Despite the heat it was a great evening and even though it won’t be as grand I’m already looking forward to next month’s Food Truck Friday.

 

Fork Me

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And Then There Were Cupcakes

I was minding my own business at work and decided to check my twitter feed and a food truck I haven’t checked out before tweeted they were at a location only a few miles away.  I chunked the lean pockets in the freezer and jumped in the car to check out the Roaming Fork food truck.

I found them parked in a busy office park along with a couple of other trucks.  I was hoping to try one of their fried deviled eggs but they weren’t on the menu so I kept it to their special of the day, Korean fried chicken plus a side and drink.

They had three choices for the side; something, something cauliflower, truffle fries and a fresh fruit cup.  The cauliflower was never in the running and the truffle fries just seemed a better match for the chicken.  In hindsight the fruit probably would have been a better choice.  The chicken was lightly coated with seasoned flour and drizzled with a honey Korean barbeque sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds.  I got two small wings and a breast in the meal so the portion was nothing to complain about.  The taste of the chicken was pretty good by itself but the drizzle of sauce did compliment it well.  My one gripe with it was that the breast was cold in the thickest part.  I don’t mean like not hot, room temperature kind of cold but a been in the cooler for a while and not heated long enough to drive out the chill kind of cold.  Fortunately I like cold fried chicken well enough to power through but it was disappointing.  The truffle fries were ok but not as good as I was hoping for. The flavors were good and I’d try something else from them without hesitating but this trip would only get 3 out of 5 forks from me.

On the other end of the scale was my happy discovery.  I noticed all three of the people in front of me ordered and then immediately walked over and ordered something from this blue van so it must have been some kind of rule right?  Turns out that little blue van was Cupcake Delirium.  Well since it was a rule I had to try one and as the gentleman running the window said I could save a bundle on the unit price if I bought 4.  Lord knows I like a deal so since they were out of the Red Velvet cupcakes I had to settle for; Pecan Pie, Death by Chocolate, Bourbon Caramel Bacon, & Nutterbutter Fluffernutter cupcakes.

Now lest you think to yourself “that boy don’t need all them cupcakes”, I did give half of them away, ate one at lunch and managed to save the other for an after dinner snack.  The one I had with lunch was the Pecan Pie cupcake and I have to tell you it was a very, very good cupcake.  In addition to the decorative pecan nestled atop some damn fine buttercream frosting drizzled with caramel the cupcake had a hunk of pecan pie baked in. You heard me, it had pecan pie in the cupcake.

Quite the tasty treat.  I have reports that the Bourbon Caramel Bacon had the best bacon ever tasted on it and the Nutterbutter Fluffernutter was the best cupcake ever.  Personal experience let’s me tell you the Death by Chocolate was not lethal but it killed any chance I had of losing weight that day.  In case you can’t tell I’m a fan of these folks and not just because of the awesome cupcakes but I like the way they operate.  When I got the 4 cupcakes the guy said if I brought the box back or took it to their store and bought more I’d get a free cupcake (a $3.00 value).  Plus the packaging for their cupcakes is a plastic cup turned upside down and the cupcake bottom fits perfectly in the lid rim.  Ingenious money saver!  If you make it to Pineville, NC look these folks up on Main St. or if you see them at a food truck rally make a point of grabbing a cupcake or four.

 

 

SF for a Berry Good Time

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Strawberry Festival

Since it’s festival season and festivals have food trucks and tents it seemed like a good opportunity to support a local event by heading to the SC Strawberry Festival.

I met up with friends and we toured the car show, crafts, kids play area, and then the food zone.  The choices were many and varied from corn dogs to fried soba noodles with deep fried most everything and the heart healthy Krispy Kreme burger.  Here’s a shot of a small portion of the food vendors.

From this cornucopia of culinary concessions we settled on Georgie’s Just Good BBQ and their array of smoked and grilled goodness.  The BBQ nachos were a leading contender early on but by the time we hit the front of the line the power of suggestion won out and the Carolina Cheesesteak was the choice for lunch.

This bundle of beef brisket on a bun was served with grilled onions and cheese sauce and a bag of chips.  The brisket was tender and had a nice smoky flavor that was enhanced by the grilled onions and the gooey cheese sauce guaranteed you were going to use a napkin or sport a cheese mustache and goatee.  Very tasty indeed but not so filling as to keep one from having a little dessert and of course at a strawberry festival there’s gonna be shortcake.

I might have forgotten about pictures until I was 75% done but from the remnants I’m sure you can see the scarlet strawberries smothering shortcake & strawberry ice cream topped with a bit of whipped cream.  Yeah that was worth eating plain oatmeal for breakfast to conserve calories and stomach space.  The meal was accompanied by good conversation and the Carolina Rhythm band provided the soundtrack.

Good meal, good friends, good day.  They do it every year make plans to check them out next year.

 

FTF – South End

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Food Truck Friday

I took a break from the blog for Easter but I did hit Food Truck Friday in South End on Good Friday.  This is a regular event hosted by Sycamore Brewing a local brewery with a nice taproom, beer garden and a big parking lot they corral the trucks in.  Sycamore is on Hawkins Street in Charlotte and this is a very popular event.

The normally quite sufficient parking lot is blocked off for the food trucks and patrons so here’s a caution for anyone planning to go, parking is a bear.  The event is from 5:00pm-10:00pm and I had arranged to meet a friend at 5:30ish and I arrived at 5:20 and it was quickly evident there was going to be a walk in my future.  I drove around for a while before parking at a business off Rampart St. hoping they wouldn’t be the towing kind.  Some of the businesses had signs up explicitly stating they would boot or tow.  Fortunately the weather was good so the short walk wasn’t bad.

I met my friend Jody and we did a circuit of the 8 trucks we had to choose from and I decided to try Queen City Sliders but they were having technical difficulties and didn’t take an order for some time that exceeded my patience so I jumped into the line for Tin Kitchen.  These folks have several trucks and a pretty regular schedule so they are easy to find if you need a fix. 

The menu has interesting tacos, quesadillas, nachos & sliders as you can see from the menu below.  I thought hard about the Special but I’d had my mind set for sliders so I decided to go that route.

I got two Korean BBQ sliders and one of the Balsamic Portabella Stack.  It took about 10-15 minutes after ordering for the food to come up but it was worth the wait.

The Korean BBQ sliders were made with beef topped with what they called 30 minute kim-chi and some hoisin sauce on a brioche bun.  The meat was tender and moist with a good flavor, slightly sweet with a hint of spice and more filling than they would appear at first glance.  I got the portabella stack just for variety with fairly low expectations of a meatless slider but was really pleasantly surprised.  The portabellas were balsamic marinated and there were grilled red peppers and fresh mozzarella cheese plus basil and tomato aioli on a brioche bun.  That was so tasty I forgave it for the lack of meat.  The tang of the marinated mushrooms and the mildness of the cheese plus the textures all worked well together and honestly if I was to do it again I might get one BBQ and two portabella sliders.

Jody decided to try out Papi Queso, which has been featured on a previous blog but I will share a shot of the Pig Mac she got.  This is a pulled pork and mac and cheese grilled cheese that was apparently really filling and delicious based on her feedback.  If it was anything like the quality of the sandwich I tried before then they are two for two.

We ate our meals sitting on a low wall between the beer garden and the parking lot.  So here is another caution for those interested in checking out FTF, this is a dog friendly event and that is taken to heart.  The website says dog and child friendly but we saw twice as many dogs as we did children.  Now all of these animals were on leashes and their owners kept them under control pretty well so there were no incidents but I caught a malamute eyeing my sliders pretty hard.

After finishing our food we adjourned to the taproom to try an adult beverage.  The bar was several people deep so it took a few minutes to get to it and get some service.  I opted for their honey toasted amber and Jody got a Windy Hill Orchard peach cider.  They also have some wines for those who go that way.   The beer was decent but not really noteworthy.

We found a small table near a window so we have a view of the live music outside but couldn’t hear much because it was loud in there but we were able to toast a successful venture to expand our palates.

I’ll be hitting Food Truck Friday again this year for sure but I’ll consider a couple of lessons from this trip.  First if the weather isn’t too hot I’ll probably take the light rail to the East/West station with is just a couple of blocks from Sycamore Brewing.  If it is hot then I think trying to get there before 5:00 and trying to find a parking place then or wait until after 6:00 when the other businesses are almost guaranteed to be closed.

 

WTF at FTS

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What the Fries?

This weekend I actually hit food trucks in Augusta, GA and Charlotte, NC both times with friends and live music so it was a pretty good weekend.  I didn’t take any photos or note the name of the truck in Augusta because I am a slacker sometimes.  That being the case I’m going to focus on Saturday evening’s food truck but want to give a shout out to the folks who made that polish sausage on a big roll with grilled onions and peppers plus slaw but sadly no napkins.  It was a miracle we didn’t wear more of it than we did.  Also thanks to Renee, Mike & Kim for sharing the evening and enduring some good and not that great cover bands on the Commons in Augusta for St. Patrick’s day.

Saturday evening I had my stuff together a little better and met with friend and fellow food enthusiast Jody at Food Truck Saturday (FTS), sponsored by The City Kitch and Wild Wing Café in northeast Charlotte.  We had been stalking a food truck called What the Fries Charlotte for a while trying to find a time and place we could meet to check them out and this event worked out.

From the skies you’d never know we had a short rain delay but the evening turned out to be a fantastic one for eating outside.  As you might expect from the name the headline truck specializes in fries but not just any fries.  They had a number of different and interesting selections and we settled on the Truffle Parmesan fries and the Smokey Bacon Fries.

One of the great benefits, aside from good company, to bringing a friend is you get to try more things that you would on your own without being a total glutton.  I was the primary on the Smokey Bacon and Jody was the primary on the Truffle Parmesan.  Both were good but the general consensus was the Smokey Bacon was the better of the two.  The sauce on the Parmesan Truffle was creamy, truffley and parmesany and the fries were good.  The Smokey Bacon was really good. Applewood bacon, shredded smoked gouda, tomatoes and scallions on fries that were cooked through but not crunchy.  The flexibility of the fries let you fold them around the great toppings like a potato corral and scoop up the tasty results for a delightful bite.  After downing those we decided we had to try at least one more thing from one of the other 6 MoFUs (that’s Mobile Food Units I learned from the City Kitch blog).  Since we were in topped carb mode we strolled over to Bebo’s Mac Shack and grabbed a small Chili Mac and Cheese and two forks.

This was some serious comfort food.  The base is their straight up mac & cheese which has pesto cream cheese, smoked gouda & cream topped with chili, shredded cheddar, scallions, sour cream and a few jalapenos to keep it interesting.  This was definitely worth having and without a partner I’d not have been able to hit two trucks without ditching some food.

According to the website they will be doing this a couple of times a month (1st & 3rd Saturdays) with a rotating line up of food trucks so I will definitely be going back for seconds.  A couple of tips if you plan to go; parking was tight at 6:00pm when I got there so be prepared to walk a short ways, there are places to set up a chair if you are so inclined or you can pull up a curb, there is a limited beer and wine selection, and I didn’t see any public restrooms but I wasn’t looking for one either so I could have overlooked them.

Anyway I’d recommend the event, What the Fries & Bebo’s Mac Shack food trucks.

 

Cheese, Coconut & Weird Yoga

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Papi Queso

Well this weekend was another food truck lunch.  I happened to see a tweet that the Papi Queso Truck would be at an event at Sycamore Brewing.  It was a brunch for the Salty Coconut Can Release.   How could I pass up a gourmet grill cheese truck at a brewery.

The brunch was from 9-12 and I got there around 11 so it wouldn’t be too early but hopefully they wouldn’t have run out of too many things.  I guess I should mention you won’t just notice Sycamore Brewing as you’re tooling around town as it’s kind of on a side street but that means they have lots of parking on the street and in their spacious lot.  They were already serving up draft beer in the taproom and selling cans of the aforementioned Salty Coconut beer (more on that later).

In addition to the regular menu Papi Queso had a couple of special items for the event, a Salty Coconut French toast and a croque monsieur sandwich.  I went for the croque monsieur because if you’re going to get a fancy grilled cheese you might as well have one with a snooty French name too.

It was taking them about 10 minutes per order so I went in and grabbed a pint of the Salty Coconut Red Ale and a 4 pack of the cans to help bide my time (just the pint not the 4 pack too).  This was a very interesting beer.  You immediately got the coconut taste and then the smooth red ale washed it away until the next sip.  I wouldn’t want to make a steady diet of it but this was a great change of pace beer.

 

The croque monsieur was a really tasty grilled cheese as you might expect from something made from French rosemary ham, gruyere cheese on French Pullman bread with sea salt and scallions sprinkled on the top plus a side of truffle mornay sauce for a little dipping.  I’m thinking any of the menu items would certainly be worth trying and like any good grilled cheese provider they offer tomato soup as well so you can get all your comfort food needs met at once.

I was going to just go sit in my car and eat the sandwich but the Sycamore Brewery has a beer garden plus additional seating at picnic tables and on one of these tables was a lady on all fours and a guy was taking her picture with two other folks standing there watching.  Well I figured I might as well have a show while I ate and sauntered over to one of the other tables to observe this spectacle.  By the time I got to table the young lady was contorted into some odd pose with her hands on the table and her legs up around her elbows which made an impressive centerpiece for the picnic table.  Based on my observations the story I decided on was that it was a photo shoot for some yoga studio or classes or something.  One of the other folks was the posers husband and joined her in some of the shots doing some tai chi looking stuff.  It was an interesting accompaniment to brunch.

Final judgements; Papi Queso Truck – Yay Cheese!, Sycamore Brewing – Yay Beer! also they have food trucks regularly on site, Yoga show – Yay yoga pants!

 

Lunch Lady

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The Dumpling Lady

This weekend was one for chasing down a food truck (of sorts).  My quarry was The Dumpling Lady and fortunately they were pretty easy to find since they are routinely at Atherton Mill on Saturdays.

It was quite a great day for outdoor dining and long strolls which turned out to be a good thing.  I’d never been to Atherton Mill before but it is apparently popular judging by the very full parking lot.  I grabbed a spot at the edge of the lot and got a nice walk in to the other end where The Dumpling Lady was parked.

As you can see it’s not a truck but more a food trailer and what you don’t see from this side is the line to order.  Whatever else you want to say about the Dumpling Lady popular has to be part of the description.  I got there about 11:45 and as I was in line a guy who already ordered was talking to the young lady in front of me and they were already out of 3 popular items when he got there at 11:30.  A couple of points worth noting: they source their ingredients from local farms and suppliers & this is not an express lunch so plan to be in line for a few minutes.  When I got to the window I chose the chicken & mushroom dumplings since they were out of the sweet pork belly that was my first choice.  They also have noodles, steamed buns & wontons for those who might not be enthusiastic for dumplings and they were moving these in good quantities as well.  When you order they give you a pager to let you know when it’s ready so you don’t have to hover around the window for the 10-15 minute wait.

This is the large with 10 dumplings, they have a smaller one too but I wasn’t paying attention to how many were in it when the guy taking orders mentioned it.  The dumplings were steamed and the texture was tender but not mushy.  The filling was ok but it was really outgunned by the sauce.  I don’t know what all was in the sauce but it was flavorful, reddish in color and slick.  It made eating the dumplings with chopsticks an adventure.  Some of the ingredients I believe were in the sauce were cilantro, ginger, garlic, chives or really small scallions, lemongrass, and possibly chili oil among others.

I washed the dumplings down with some green tea that despite the name wasn’t quite ice cold but was very interesting nonetheless.

There is plenty of seating in the area in the form of benches and tables near the market.  The market deserves a mention because most of the suppliers of ingredients used by the Dumpling Lady have stalls in the market.  Another item to mention is this is a very dog friendly venue so if you have one bring it, if you don’t like dogs maybe skip it.

I enjoyed the dumplings and the day provided a great excuse for a drive and lunch outside but I’m not sure I’d make the drive again just for lunch.  If I ran across them at another venue I wouldn’t hesitate to try them again or recommend them to someone else.

Naughty or Nice?

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Christmasville

Image result for Vintage Christmas Tree Clip Art

This weekend I had visitors who joined me on a visit to Christmasville to grab some lunch off a food truck.  Christmasville is kind of like Brigadoon in that it’s only accessible for a short period of time, in this case 4 days once a year in downtown Rock Hill.  My visitors were my youngest sister, niece and nephew. I’m not going to spend much time talking about the festival as you can click the link and see all the details on their website.  I will say it was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon with family and it had food trucks!

We walked the main street checking out the camels, polar bears, gnomes, the Grinch and listening to Christmas music from some local choral groups.  After scoping the situation I opted for Spoon’s BBQ and my nephew joined me.  I got the Jordan hot dog and he got the BBQ cheese fries.

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The Jordan dog is a grilled jumbo hot dog with, bbq pork, chili, onions, cole slaw and bbq sauce.  I chose mac and cheese as the side.  As you might imagine it was quite filling and pretty good as well.  You really get more texture than taste from the bbq pork because of the other strong flavors.  The mac & cheese was also good but would have been even better with just a couple more minutes in the oven.  I’d definitely try Spoon’s again. My nephew was quite pleased with his fries.  They came with a generous amount of bbq and cheese plus some bacon bits and there was plenty enough to fill him up.

My sister and niece, Paige, picked the Plated Palette (say that three times fast) truck.  They got the London broil cheese grill and southwest chicken quesadilla respectively.

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Both dishes were well received and per my niece the quesadillas were “soooo good”.  They both got the red skin potato salad that looked pretty simple but according to my sister was loaded with garlic.  I did have a bite of the London broil and I can confirm it was as delicious as it looked.

After a quite filling lunch it was time to stroll and after Jesse Spidermanned his way up a rock wall check out the arts and crafts.  We studiously avoided temptations like red velvet funnel cake, kettle corn fresh from the kettle, fried Oreos and some drink in an actual pineapple.  It was a tough gauntlet to run but we made it.  And to answer the title question the verdict would have to be Nice and I would definitely recommend Christmasville if you’re from or in the area next year.

I’d like to thank Dee, Paige & Jesse for joining me this week and thanks Dee for taking the picture of me with the kids.

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