Tag Archives: Rock Hill

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.

 

Naughty or Nice?

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Christmasville

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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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Ooo Wee

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Food Truck Friday

This weekend was the last Friday this year for the Food Truck Friday at Fountain Park in Rock Hill and I wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity.  It actually turned out to be quite a cool windy evening so a stop at one of the beer trucks seemed like a good place to start as I strolled and perused the menus.  I went with Legal Remedy’s The Executioner Imperial Pumpkin Stout.

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It is 10% alcohol and quite the hearty beer.  The pumpkin taste wasn’t that prevalent which was ok with me but that alcohol content was pretty noticeable.  As I was strolling around listening to the opening act belt out Wagon Wheel I sort of had my choice made for me when I got to the Ooo Wee BBQ truck.

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If you click on the picture with the menu board you can see they have an item called a BBQ Sundae that is a layered concoction similar to the Pig in a Jar my sister saw earlier this week at the NC State fair that I said I would absolutely try.  Well here was a chance to try something very similar so I had to keep my word.  Warning to those who can’t stand for their food to touch, scroll fast past the picture or you’re liable to get woozy.

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I’d say this was superior to the one from the NC fair because in addition to the baked beans, meat, sauce and slaw there was a scoop of smoked mac & cheese.  While I wouldn’t choose to have all my meals served this way it was not bad at all.  The top layer is a just a bit of slaw, more like a token, followed by a bit of meat (you had the could select from any meats available you weren’t limited to just the pork) then the smoked mac & cheese and finally the baked beans as the foundation.  Every bit of it was good but I wouldn’t have minded trying some of the mac & cheese just by itself.  The stout paired well with the sundae and both were finished in quick succession.  I needed something else to occupy a hand as I walked around and at the other beer truck I found a Naked Apple Blackberry Gold hard cider to fit the bill.

My plan had been to hit one of the dessert trucks for something sweet then grab a spot to listen to the next band for a bit.  With the cider I decided that was dessert enough so all I had to do was grab some bench and enjoy Chicago Reloaded.  Overall it was a good way to spend a Friday night and it was also nice to see how food brought out a diverse cross section of the community to mingle and enjoy the evening together.  I hope they continue this event in 2017.

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Food Truck Friday

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New Direction

When I started this blog the focus was, as the title indicates traveling to other countries via my taste buds and sharing the experiences with any who chose to read it.  Well I am just about out of unique country / restaurant combos and the couple I have left are so much better with groups that I’ll have to do some actual planning to make it happen.  At this point I assessed my choices to be; stop doing the blog, only blog if I come across a new restaurant representing a country I hadn’t done, repeat countries with new restaurants or change the focus of the blog.  I don’t want to stop the blog so that left the others and after evaluating them I decided to serve up a combo.  If I find new restaurant /country combos they get added along with a Tell Me More page.  Visiting new restaurants representing old countries will help fill in some weeks and offer a comparison to the already visited restaurants so that will fill in some weeks.  The new part is an additional focus rather than a complete change and as the title didn’t have spoiler tags you probably figured it out.  I’m going to chase down food trucks and check out what they have to offer so I’ll be looking for meals on wheels, roach coaches, street meat, whatever you want to call them and I’ll let you know what I think.

I couldn’t think of a better way to kick it off than Food Truck Friday in downtown Rock Hill.  I only wish I’d started coming out earlier because there’s only one more Friday left and I will be there.  I got to the area just after 6:00 and parking was pretty easy to find within short walking distance.  There was already a nice group of people there and the live music was going.  Yep, dinner and a show.  They cordon off a couple of blocks around Fountain Park and the food trucks park along the streets.

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My first stop was the Beer ID & ticket tent because you can’t walk around trying to make decisions on which mobile kitchen is going to be your source of sustenance without a proper drink.  They beer trucks have some local microbrews and some wee little bottles of wine.  My first try was a Beneford Brewery Irish Honey which was quite tasty and kept me going as I walked up and down in a first pass to see what options I was presented with.

After walking the area I decided to start with a couple of Jamaican Me Crazy Sliders from Street Spice.  I got the pictures of the truck but ate the sliders before I remembered to snap a shot.

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This particular mini burger came with ghost pepper cheese and was on a bed of pineapple slaw and was quite good.  I also got some mac and cheese bites which were the best version of those I’ve ever had.  The outside was a thin crust and inside the cheese was gooey and the noodles were still soft and al dente.  The few other times I’ve tried fried mac and cheese they had been fried so long the noodles were hard and chewy or harder rocklike.

A stop at the beer tent to pick up a truly local Legal Remedy Double IPA and I was walking and enjoying the music and looking for a truck with just a little something to sample and not a full meal.  Hiya did it for me with their fried dumpling special.

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I got 4 kimchi dumplings and 4 fried chicken baby dumplings (I don’t think they were made with baby chickens).  Both were delicious but the kimchi dumplings paired well with the double IPA.  Overall this was a nice experience and I would certainly encourage any of you who can to think about going to October’s Food Truck Friday, I know I’ll be there.