ALZ Food Truck Block Party

List of the trucks on the first street

Last week B and I headed to Irvine for a food truck block party benefiting the Alzheimer's Association.  It featured over 20 fantastic food trucks.

If you aren't already aware of the massive food truck trend then here is your evidence.  The days of the roach coach are long gone!  Maybe that's not true, I know they are cruising around out there still.  BUT there is a huge trend of gourmet food trucks satisfying the cravings of the most dedicated foodies.

We did a little research before we headed in and I had a short list of treats I wanted to try.



These food trucks are incredibly popular and many have a huge following.  Social media like twitter and facebook enable trucks to announce their locations and fans to plan out their meals (and destinations) for the week.

The downside is that you often find yourselves standing in line for food.  We waited between 15 and 30 minutes for the trucks I was set on visiting.  The trick is to split up and wait in separate lines.

I dropped Peanut off in the Bacon Mania line upon arriving.



We started with the Bacon Ball Duo.  They were out of the bacon-wrapped Mac'n Cheese so I'll have to hunt Bacon Mania down again.

On the left is the Dog Nut.  Yes, I know.  Its a pepperoncini wrapped in carne asada and then wrapped in bacon.  On the right is a bacon-wrapped pb & j which tasted like a bacon-wrapped pb & j.



My personal favorite (of course) were the brownie bites.  Bliss.

I don't care if the whole chocolate and bacon trend is overdone.  I love it so very muchly.

This is a brownie wrapped in bacon and deep fried.  It's crisp on the outside and then warm, gooey and rich on the inside.
 
I dream about these.  I am determined to make these.



Meanwhile B picked up some chili fries from Spudrunners.  I liked the fries and the fact that they topped it with sour cream.



The trucks themselves are very individual.  They are definitely recognizable and some are really full of personality.

One of the reasons I love food trucks are their relatively small portions which really allow you to try a whole smorgasbord of food.



I got in line for the Lime Truck.  It was a long line and they had a mishap but they handled it so incredibly that I will be a fan for life.

Plus, the guys working there were hilarious and fun and very into the customers truly enjoying their food.



On the right is the crispy gnocchi with this really smokey tomato sauce.  They weren't able to fill our original order so they gave us a free ahi tuna poke instead. 

There would have been a time where the thought of raw ahi from a food truck would make me cringe.

May I just say that I am so glad our original order fell through.  I have had a lot of poke in my life and this one was really unique.  Along with the ahi and avocado they add macadamia nuts and a mango/passion fruit puree.  It's fresh and flavorful and I will definitely be tracking them down to have this again.



B and Peanut stood in line for The Burnt Truck.  You can see the look of anticipation on Peanut's face.



The Burnt Truck features gourmet sliders of all different kinds.  It was really hard to choose.  So we got 4 of them.  :)

They all come on Hawaiian rolls which I loooove.



Starting top left and going clockwise:
The buffalo chicken slider.  Fried chicken in buffalo sauce with a blue cheese slaw on top.  Loved this, loved the slaw.

The cheeseburger.  Angus beef, american cheese, avocado spread, grilled onions and B added a fried quail egg to top it off.  I have no idea how this was because somehow I missed a bite of this one.

The spam slider.  We love spam.  I realize it's this gross looking unidentifiable meat product that comes out the shape of the can it's in, but it's good, especially pan-fried and crispy on the outside.  This also has the fried quail egg along with some nori strips.

My personal favorite: The Fried Chicken Slider.  It has buttermilk fried chicken, garlic mashed potatoes AND it's topped with country gravy.  Hello lover.

That concludes our food truck tour for today.  The fact that I broke even at the next day's weigh in was nothing but a miracle.

Having you eaten at a food truck?  Is there a food truck you favor?