The Great Food Truck Race

**discliamer: This post may contain spoilers. All opinions are my own.

Let me begin this blog post by saying that this weekend was already doomed to crazy traffic, long waits at restaurants, and an astounding amount of purple-clad "out-of-town-ers" due to Kansas State graduation. 

However, this year the chaos was a little more tolerable... 

What made the hectic weekend well worth the struggle? The Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race was in town filming for the upcoming season this August! 

 

Why they chose Manhattan, we may never know... But myself, along with thousands of other Manhattanites including a good friend and fellow social networking junkie Maris, did our part to make sure to make that it was a stop they wouldn't forget!

Five trucks rolled into Manhattan, Kan. on Thursday from their previous stop in Denver, Colorado where it was rumored that the Cuban food truck, Cafe con Leche, was eliminated.

Seabirds, Hodge Podge, The Lime Truck, Roxy's Gourmet Grilled Cheese, and Korilla BBQ competed Saturday and Sunday, feverishly cooking to win the hearts of Manhattan line-dwellers (quite the dream for this wannabe mid-western foodie).

The sweet spot of this episode was the challenge the trucks had for the weekend, to make every menu item $.99! I can't speak for the contestants, but Manhattanites were definitely up to that challenge, keeping lines for the food trucks long all weekend! 

I personally stood in line for three of the five trucks (Roxy's, The Lime Truck, and Seabirds), but thanks to the friendly demeanor of fellow Kansans, I was able to try cuisine from all five! The wait for each truck averaged 2-4 hours, but was well worth the experience and the small town excitement.

Originally Roxy's was set up in a different location bordering Aggieville (Manhattan's restaurant/bar district), but was told last minute that they would have re-locate. Apparently Seabirds truck had won the quick challenge the day before allowing them to be the only truck within Aggieville, and forcing Roxy's to find a new location in Manhattan Christian College's parking lot.

After an afternoon of graduation parties, I finally joined my fellow line-rats and waited in line for Roxy's. I had followed some blogs from Denver and was most excited to see what "gourmet grilled cheese" was all about. Around 9 p.m. however, Roxy's had to close down and run to the grocery store. The guys were great and came out to explain to everyone in line the situation, and told us they would try to hurry back as fast as possible.

The twitter-verse was helpful in keeping track of each truck using the hash-tag #GreatFoodTruckRace, confirming that several trucks had to shut down to run and replenish ingredients at some point in the night.

Excitement for Roxy's return from a grocery store hiatus

David and I were excited to eat after waiting 4 hours!

The verdict? Well, after freezing for around 4 hours, it was still ... grilled cheese. My friend Dan's witty Facebook comment sums it up rather perfectly: 

"I can make grilled cheese in 15 minutes".

-- OK, He may be right, but the experience itself made it well worth the wait.

Sunday the madness continued. Korilla BBQ, Hodge Podge, and The Lime truck were all located in City Park where I spent the majority of my afternoon waiting with my friend Shannon to try more food truck cuisine! 

Here I am waiting in line for The Lime Truck...

(kindly ignore the frumpy fleece, it was cold!)

We chose the shortest line of the three,The Lime Truck, and were impressed with the quick, two hour wait!







The menu was diverse and boasted macaroni and cheese, roasted corn on the cob, egg & chorizo tacos, biscuits & gravy, baked beans, mashed potatoes & gravy, and a polenta encrusted fried swiss cake roll. All in all? really, really good. Especially that swiss cake roll, mmmhmm.

Korilla BBQ seemed to have had the biggest following and best reputation here in Manhattan, teaming up with Bluestem Bistro, a popular (and understandably, the best) coffee shop here in town. Not to mention the team offered a Korilla T-Shirt to those who spent $20 or more at their truck (very, clever!)

On our way to our last stop for the afternoon, Seabirds, I was lucky enough to try a taco from both Korilla BBQ and Hodge Podge from my fellow friendly Kansans...
Both were delicious but for me, Korilla's BBQ was better.
As a lover of spice, Korilla's taco was spicier and therefore more flavorful than Hodge Podge.

What I wasn't expecting however, was to find that my allegiance would lie with Seabirds, the Vegan truck from southern California.
A rather ironic contender in a beef-loving part of the United States, Seabirds was the oddball truck for several meat-loving skeptics in Manhattan. As a Kansas State University College of Agriculture graduate student, I will admit that I too, was a tad hesitant to try the vegan fare.

Front of the Seabirds truck

The sweet, eccentric, smiley girl running this truck was obviously having a lot of fun, and was even more fun to talk to! By the time we got there on Sunday afternoon however, the line was short and the menu was sparse.
The pancakes might have been sold-out, but David and I were excited to see what this hummus-fuss was about. I had heard good things about it throughout the morning, and of course I had to know for myself!

The Seabirds truck, like Korilla BBQ, also offered a deal if you spent more than $20; the chance to win a date with one of the Seabirds! 

...A deal that, had I not been there, I'm sure David would have loved to put his name in for

(these California girls were not only nice, but VERY pretty)!

Seabirds also offered two kinds of tea, gypsy and a green-black mixture tea which were both DELICIOUS.

The Hummus Crustini was TO DIE FOR! 

(No really, I was baffled at just how good it really was!)

Although perhaps less elaborate and seemingly less complicated than some options at The Lime Truck, Hodge Podge, or Korilla... the hummus from Seabirds truck was easily the best thing I had from all five trucks!

Cheers-ing to our unexpected favorite, Seabirds truck!

You'll understand my dismay when I very sneakily tune in to Aggieville Live this morning to see the taping of the elimination! Although my silent viewing of elimination cannot confirm anything, I was disheartened to watch the sweet, bubbly Seabirds truck team hug the remaining teams goodbye and drive off.

Many beef-loving Manhattanites may have predicted this from the beginning, but I had a glimmer of hope for the team responsible for the best hummus I have ever tried!
If the winners were determined on taste alone, I am confident Seabirds truck would have swept the board!

Thanks Food Network and Tyler Florence for bringing some excitement to my small hometown! I can't wait to watch the show when it airs on August 14th to see how well Manhattan was depicted for The Great Food Truck Race!

Now I'm left with an empty, and eerily calm Little Apple, holding on to hope that Reality TV will pipe in with their knack for surprises, and bring these girls back in contention to be the Best Food Truck on season two of The Great Food Truck Race. Good luck to the remaining teams in Memphis, Tennessee!