There's a secret, stigma
reaping wheel
Diminish
a carnival of sorts
Chronic town, poster torn
reaping wheel
Stranger
stranger to these parts
Another Tuesday... another Taste! We've got a change of pace in this post-August Long Weekend edition: rather than a deep dive into a single establishment, this past weekend I was able to check out a few of the selections at the Toronto Food Truck Festival in Woodbine Park.
There's a whole history of obstacles and regulations prohibiting Toronto food trucks that I won't get into here, although it is why Toronto's food truck scene is still a relatively young one. I will mention the organization of Canadian Food Truck Festivals (CFTF), which operates not just this Toronto one but others in Hamilton, Pickering, Burlington and Brampton. From what I can gather via their fundraising efforts for Sick Kids Hospital, CFTF has been a thing since 2013 although whether the Toronto one has been happening that entire time I can only speculate (I've seen at least a few years of biking past their signs around Woodbine Park).
Anyhow, enough backstory. Lets sink our teeth into some of these meals on wheels. The festival ran four days (August 1st-4th) and seeing how admission was free (my favourite price) I was a multiple time visitor.
DAY 1
It worked out rather nicely that a friend of mine wanted to meet up in this Friday evening in Woodbine Park anyhow... so after catching up (he'd recently returned from a family trip to Spain) we wandered into the festival and explored around a bit. He commented on the Rebozos truck (more on them later) being a place near his sister's house, however neither of us were feeling tacos and so went another direction.
While the food trucks were the main attraction, festivals such as this tend to have a few other events or features to pull/keep people inside. There were various vendors, ranging from farmer's market/homemade wares to brand giants like Vitamin Water, selling their goods under tents or stands. Adult beverages were also for sale (meaning my friend had to stash his Creemores in a bush near the entrance) at predictably inflated prices... and this is coming from someone who serves the stuff at concert venues. Some bouncy balloon spots for kids (admittedly I was very very tempted to try the balloon basketball one, just for a second) and several scheduled eating contests for kid-like adults (glad my timing was on point to miss witnessing those).
However, it wouldn't be a summer festival without some live cover bands, now would it? Headlining this Friday night was The Hip Experience, a tribute to... you can probably guess. My buddy and I could hear them before we entered the grounds and I was struck by how much the singer was nailing the late great Gord Downie's vocal tics... like the impersonation was nearly flawless. Once we could see the stage, sure enough the dude also had the same style of hat Downie would wear during their final tours... not to mention moving and dancing around the stage the exact way he did as well. Someone did their homework! I almost expected him to break into sporadic stream-of-consciousness poetry at some point too. It got eerie at times.
I'm glad to say that overall, the band did a fine job rocking out these classic Tragically Hip tunes. Maybe lacking some of the intangible soul and crunch of the originals, but a good mix of the older and newer hits played adeptly. As far as faithful covers go, these at least kick the s**t out of Weezer's Teal Album (eeeech).
My buddy got himself this jerk poutine from Coal Pot Jerk, which he was kind enough to let me sample some of (makes me feel rather jerkish myself for getting an unsharable sandwich as my choice).
This is a case of two things that can in theory work well together... but only one does. The jerk chicken aspect of this? Terrific. It's got some sneaky heat to it, lots of flavour in the sauce (a thick brown sugar hint, sliced peppers and a bit of sour I can't identify). All that stuff is great. The poutine half of this... well as I've mentioned many times, my experiences in Montreal have made me a serious poutine snob and it's extremely rare that I've found anything outside of Quebec worthy of even sniffing a worthy comparison. That said, just as fries and cheese this is on the weaker side. The fries just aren't crispy whatsoever and have too much of an undercooked floppiness to them. A bit like the cheap fries you get from the food trucks usually sitting outside City Hall (or the UofT campus).
A shame because with even average-to-good fries this dish would be a total winner. The flavours again are great, earthy and sharp... even some crunch from those orange peppers. It's that texture of a lesser french fry that drags it down somewhat. Still, I'd get this jerk chicken (without fries) any day.
I likewise got chicken only of a different variety and region. This is the chipotle honey butter fried chicken sandwich from Los Vietnamita Taquerita, with some slaw, an adobo aioli (I think) and a lot of cilantro.
Los Vietnamita is meant as a fusion of Mexican and Vietnamese cuisines and while a fried chicken sandwich isn't quite an even example of that mix (their huge single tacos lean much more into that shared lane) this is still an extremely tasty sandwich nonetheless. Not much spice (the adobo aioli is a bit lost in here) but there's an incredibly fresh and herbal flavour coming from the slaw/cilantro mix (it's all very similar to the dressings of a banh mi sandwich).
The chicken portion is sizeable with a honey-like sweetness glaze (an incredibly sticky one to eat!) The crunch is great too: airy without being dry with a buttery cream within the batter itself. Definitely a hearty hunk of chicken as well. Tender, juicy with plenty of it on nearly every bite. Combined with a lightly toasted soft bun... this is definitely a fried chicken sandwich I'd come back for. I would've liked a bit more zing to the sauce to really complete things... but overall the mix of honey sweet, buttery and leafy flavours is quite enjoyable. Not your typical fried chicken and I like that also.
DAY 2
Following an afternoon spent in Hamilton I returned to Woodbine Park with my guitar and appetite right as the sun was starting to set. The band onstage this particular night was a tribute to grunge/early 90s rock and well... I didn't know you could kill the Cranberry's "Zombie" (isn't it already dead?) but these guys found a way. For the most part they were actually okay-ish (I chuckled when they played "Alive" since my Hamilton bandmate is such a Pearl Jam head) except for that one number which was a rough listen.
For round 2 we've got an "Island Carbonara" fries from Twisted Gourmet & Co, a sister truck of Los Vietnamita (look closely and you'll see it has the same branded paper underneath). Fries, crumbled bacon, more jerk chicken, carbonara sauce, pecorino romano and some green onions.
Upon the first few bites... I wasn't all that impressed. Once again we've got several limp, undercooked fries (these are especially bad) that mess up the texture of those bites (fried potatoes should not have the consistency of an apple). While waiting for the order (and suffering through that cover) I noticed they poured the entire dish from a pan into the box for my order, fries and sauce and all... which well sure is one way to soften up those potatoes and get a consistent flavour throughout... but good luck getting any crispiness from those fries.
The mix of flavours is definitely different: rich and creamy meets gritty and earthy, an almost chimicurri kick to the seasonings, with a hint of saltiness from the bacon... if not for those uninspired fries this would be truly delicious. Entirely possible this is a combination that might clash for someone else's tastebuds but to me this was like having a decadent savoury pasta dish with a favourful spiced up chicken piece on top. Not a whole lot of heat to the "jerk" element of the chicken either... just a slight tingle but nothing more... which is totally fine since there's a lot going on here when you get a lot of that sauce.
Overall a mixed bag: I'd say beyond the exceptional carbonara sauce the general quality of what's in here is pretty average. The chicken itself is tasty/juicy enough and so is the bacon... but it does taste of pre-packaged in bulk type of fare. Hey, it's a busy weekend I get it... and aside from those pitiful high volume fries this all makes for a fairly tasty and different snack best shared rather than solo.
DAY 3
At this point I wondered if the security dudes checking bags at the entrance would recognize me by now. "It's that weird guy again who keeps stashing his non-alc drinks in the bush over there!"
On my third visit to the festival I'd essentially given up on anything involved with french fries. Having just worked a shift at the pesky third job and serving one table an order of fish tacos... tacos were especially on my mind this particular afternoon. Time to try Rebozos, a Mexican family-run taqueria and churro joint (churroeria?) up on Rogers Road that opened up in 2004... joining the food truck game to make their tacos mobile just the past decade. I was a bit excited for this one, having seen said food truck before throughout the years at various spots... although sadly they were not offering a fish taco this day.
On the menu were their "pastor" tacos which you see here... marinated spit-grilled pork plus some diced onions, pineapple, cilantro. Not particularly large tacos (you can see via the quite average sized lime wedge for contrast) resulting in even three of them amounting to a pleasant (slightly filling) large snack... for me anyway.
That pork is the main attraction and is certainly no let down (and hangin around). I quite like the spice on here: modest heat, slightly vinegary red pepper taste... pairs well (perhaps even amplified a bit) with that bit of squeezed lime. The meat itself is tasty as well... occasional fatty bits and mostly tender with the right amount of chew.
The soft chunks of pineapple on here, juicy and covered in the same juices as the pork, are indeed an inspired addition. A great pairing. I quite like the tortillas (white corn?) also: there's a thickness to them able to hold all this in (rather than shred and collapse) but they're still quite soft all throughout without any stale edges (an issue I often encounter when warming tortillas at home).
Frankly, these Pastor tacos are quite simple but extremely tasty. I wanted to eat more of them but alas my wallet was already feeling the emptiness of visiting this festival three straight days.
DAY 4
I was in St. Catharines so I didn't go. Obviously would've been a bit out of the way.
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Overall... a worthwhile culinary venture and experience trying out these various trucks. That said, this was also a fairly expensive experience sampling all these items... to which on a scale of 'money spent' to 'level of food satisfaction achieved' I have some critiques. I get that it's a food festival and such events are generally going to have inflated prices... but 22 bucks (tax and tip in) for three fairly small tacos is tough, my friends.
That in mind, I also have to say that nothing I tried really blew me away all that much. Everything was good-ish to pretty good, with the fried chicken sandwich from Los Vietnamita coming the closest to a true "wow". So in this regard, the level of quality here didn't exactly match the premium price tags. Kind of like paying a player the going rate for an all-star but he or she is really just a good starter/regular.
That critique aside, I overall enjoyed checking out the Toronto Food Truck Festival and would happily do so again. While I sampled a good amount there were still intriguing trucks I didn't go try (I'm not made of airports) such as Tornado Fries, Greta or We Burger... not to mention any of the more dessert focused options out there.
The festival itself also wasn't all that crowded, the wait times/lineups for food were mostly reasonable and they did a good job keeping the park clean and presentable all three days I was there. Compared to my experience at this year's Beaches Rib Fest (waiting 45 minutes for chewy ribs tends to make you not come back again the rest of the weekend) this was a blast.
I believe CFTF have a couple more events happening this summer, one in Pickering (this very weekend) and in Brampton (end of August) so check them out if you happen to be in the area and admission remains free. It is pricey but not completely obscenely so (maybe half-obscene) and there is some pretty good stuff from what I encountered... just don't expect much from the fries.
Tuesday Tune
Once again I can't believe I never knew this existed (or that this EP was their first official release). Great song, awesome energetic jangle pop.
That's all for this week! Until next time... stay safe, stay cool and most of all... don't spill that mustard.
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