Santa Anita Food Truck Festival [ADVENTURE]
Did any of you Southern California Foodbeasts out there stop by to check out the Santa Anita Food Truck Festival this weekend? We decided to swing by, enjoy some food and listen to some music. Mostly the food. The event was held at the Santa Anita Race Tracks this past Saturday 28th. Hosted by KROQ, the event hosted over 50 food trucks from all over the state. And when you put over 50 food trucks in one place, you can be sure people will come.
The day started off with the original Greasy Wiener from the Greasy Wiener truck. A wiener covered in mustard, grilled onions, peppers, a spear of dill pickle and their famous “truck-made” chili. We also ordered some Chili and Cheese fries which was also made from “truck-made” chili and “truck-made” cheese.
A major hit of the event was the Grilled Cheese Truck which boasted an enormous line the entire day. Hundreds of people throughout the day waited in line for their cheese fixes. I neither had the patience nor the stamina to wait in line to see what the fuss was about, but I did get to talk to some people.
“We’ve been waiting here for 30-50 minutes in line. We were sitting next to girls who had food from here and it looked so good,” said Nicole Luna, a resident of Anaheim who attended the event with her friend Christy Whitaker.
“They were raving about how good it was. They told us we should get in line before it gets even longer. We came to another food festival where the truck was there as well but the line was so long I didn’t try it. This time I said let’s do it. It’s a once in a lifetime thing,” Luna said.
Most of the people I talked to ordered the original Plain and Simple Melt.
Going back and forth through such a long line talking to people was pretty exhausting, especially in the heat. So we headed over to the Mustache Mike’s truck for some Italian Ice.
There, we ran into sisters Gaby Mendoza and Ivette Mendoza who heard of the event through Facebook and headed over from Chino to check it out. They both got the Big Daddy (cherry, orange, and pineapple swirl) and we tried the Juicy Rancher (watermelon, lemon, and sour apple swirl). Cooled and refreshed, the adventure continues:
The Slummin’ Gourmet truck served us a delicious Kuraboto Pork Belly Slider with a side of homemade potato chips. The slider was made with fresh tomatoes, a homemade slaw, their special BBQ sauce.
Lightning and DJ Omar from KROQ held contests and gave out prizes to fans throughout the day as they waited for Jeremy Dawson and Carah Faye of the band Shiny Toy Guns to perform a DJ set in between the horse races. Families sat on the grass, got tons of food, and enjoyed some great music.
The Santa Anita Food Truck Festival was a very enjoyable and exciting experience. The lines were pretty long and the heat was pretty intense, but man was the food delicious. All this for only a $5 entrance fee.
