I don’t know many people who can say they’re not all about that “food truck life.” Working outside the city, I don’t get to hit up as many trucks during the lunchtime hour as I’d like, so festivals and markets are usually my best bets to check out the scene. I had heard of the Vendy Awards for years, but had never known anyone who attended. When they reached out with tickets, promising I would taste 15 of Philly’s best food trucks, I was (OBVIOUSLY) excited to check it out for myself.
The tickets to the Vendys are a little on the pricer side, but they’re all inclusive. In addition to “all you can eat” from their top 15 nominated trucks of the year (competing for prizes like Best Dessert and Rookie of the Year), you also get as much Sly Fox brew and Santa Cristina wine as you can handle. Plus, proceeds from the event go to the The Food Trust and Philadelphia Mobile Food Association. It was held on top of the JFK bridge (visions of Diner en Blanc 2013 danced in my head), and while it was a tad bit warm out, I was ready to chomp.
We started with Foolish Waffles. It was early, and starting with dessert did not seem like the best option, so we both went for the Pork Belly Banh Mi Waffle. It was a little hard to keep the toppings on, but it was super yummy (and looked beautiful, too!).
Next we went over to The Flying Deutschman. They were serving Bratwurst & Currywurst, and they were amaaaazing. Probably some of my favorite bites of the day.
The Butter Food Truck was serving Japanese Curry Chips, which were basically handcut potatoes with sour cream, cotija cheese, sweet white onion, and curry roux. They were really unique, and the curry sauce was my fav.
Our “Homer” donut from UndrGrnd Donuts was literally in. sane. This thing was dunked in vanilla icing with chocolate drizzled on top, and topped with raw sugar and, obviously, bacon. And it was so warm. And perfect. Basically: UndrGrnd Donuts for President.
To continue our dessert kick, I tried the James Brown ice cream sandwich from Jimmie’s Cupcake Co. It was a salted toffee brownie sandwich with vanilla ice cream in between, and I had zero complaints. As per usual.
At SeoulFull Philly, we had a “mini cheesesteak Koreans,” aka Korean BBQ marinated beef, whiz, sauteed kimchee, and onions. At this point, I was very full, but this cheesesteak was so different and delicious, I made a really valiant effort.
Our last stop was Philly Fry, where I ate the Surf and Turf french fries (my mouth is watering as I type this): steak, topped with American cheese, topped with fresh crab meat, topped with Old Bay. On french fries. They were perfection.
There were a few more stops in between (believe it), but these gems were my favorites. After sampling all the food trucks, it was time to vote! The 2015 Vendy Award winners were Foolish Waffles for the People’s Choice & the Vendy Cup, SeoulFull Philly for Rookie of the Year, and UndrGrnd Donuts for Best Dessert (obviously). Well deserved, folks!
You can find all of these food trucks bopping around town, and I highly recommend checking them out. Is there a fav truck of yours that you think I should skip out on suburb work lunch for? Let me know in the comments! xx
Disclosure: I was provided two free tickets to the Vendy Awards. All delicious opinions are my own.
