This non-profit, volunteer-run food truck festival has been a part of Dine Out Vancouver for now nine years. With premium food trucks from a plethora of cultures, it gives the people of Vancouver a wide variety of foods to try and range of prices. The ambiance is what anyone could expect at any food truck festival. With lots of available seating and music for everyone to enjoy makes this polished and cleanly event very appealing for anyone to come to eat and relax in the core of downtown Vancouver. Food trucks are chosen based on their quality of food, uniqueness and their ability to obtain the sustainability rules (i.e. recycle bins) that the food truck festival has set out. As they state on their website, “Our goals are to promote street food in Vancouver, bring vitality to the streets and to provide the highest quality of food available”(Streetfood Vancouver, 2020)1 .
The four food trucks that we chose to explore further are;
- Cannoli King
- El Cartel
- Disco Cheetah
- Tacofino
Cannoli King
The name “Cannoli King” was created in 2013. Sam, the owner, first worked at his family’s bakery “Fortuna” at the age of eight. He eventually decided to leave the family business to pursue and different career. However, in September 2001, fifteen years later, joined the world of pastries making Sicilian cannoli’s and opened “Italia Bakery”.
Middle: Pistachio
Right: Raspberry
Cannoli’s are known to be deep fried pastries, filled with a mascarpone cream. The cannoli’s from Cannoli King are exactly what to be expected when you think about a perfect cannoli. They were light and flavourful, but not overly sweet like most desserts can be. These miniature version of cannoli’s were being sold at $10 for a portion of three, which is good price for the size of cannoli’s you receive and how fantastic they taste.
El Cartel
B.C is a multicultural Province; hence, it is very easy for you to try all delicious foods from all over the world, most popular being Chinese cuisine. Mexican food, however, is also another one of the most popular restaurants in B.C. Mooney showed that “Mexican food had been ranked number two in term of the popularity while the Chinese food was the most popular search for foods in B.C.” (Mooney, 2020)2. It is not difficult for you to have the original Mexican foods in B.C. but if you are food adventurers and want to try out the new and creative Mexican foods, El Cartel Food Truck, that offers the globally inspired foods, will be the perfect choice. DH Vancouver Staff mentioned that the “El Cartel owners had created menu items based on the combination of cross cultural culinary” (2018)3. People who stop to try the food from this bright blue truck should expect to try dishes such as, El Chapo Chicken rice bowl, Bliss Bowl, Tacos with fries and many more.
This colourful combined rice bowl has quickly become the top selling dish at El Cartel Food Truck. The perfect marriage between the tasty grilled spice-rubbed chicken breast and the spicy and sweet bulgogi steak, all topped with a Jalapeño lime sauce, would make anyone want to come back and try more items from this creative fusion menu. The $12 rice bowl, which is huge in terms of the proportion, will absolutely satisfy the really hungry people who want to get more calories to push them through the afternoon.
Disco Cheetah
The Disco Cheetah Korean Grill Food truck was launched in back in 2014 by the owner, Kyungmin Kevin Lee. Kevin Lee had told the newspaper, Georgia Straight “that the name means fun and fast, two things that are a demand in our current times” (Takeuchi, 2019)4, which is a great description of what people in Vancouver want when it comes to food options. The menu, inspired by South Korean street food, offers a variety rice bowls, wraps, Korean tacos, salad and more. Not only does this food truck give the flavours of Korean BBQ to the streets of Vancouver, they also have a restaurant that had opened up back in April of 2019.
Among the most popular options are the signature Korean fried chicken rice bowl; which contains Korean fried chicken on a bed of perfectly cooked rice, topped with a sweet chilli glaze and pickled red radish. The chicken was crispy and the addition of fresh vegetables made flavours have a harmonious balance. It was priced at $12.50 which is a great price for the portion of food you are given.
Tacofino
Tacofino was started in 2009 by owners Kaeli Robinsong and Jason Sussman in parking lot of Tofino, Canada. Since then, this company grown with now eight restaurants and various food trucks in both Vancouver, Victoria. In Vancouver specifically, there are two different food trucks, one being pink and the other being blue. Although the Tacofino trucks don’t have one particular address, returning customers will always find a way to get there delicious food items. The pink truck move locations around the streets Howe and Robson, whereas blue truck move in the areas of Dunsmuir and Burrard street. These trucks have the same menu where they serve different types of tacos and burritos with vegetarian and vegan options as well.
As Tacofino is famous for their tacos so, we chose to try two chicken tacos among there 6 varieties of tacos which cost us around $13. Both tacos contain pineapple and lettuce with our choice of meat being fried chicken and smoked chicken. The quality of the food was excellent and tasted very fresh additionally the level of creativity was very impressive as they give food in the paper box which is able to recycle so this seems that they are also taking care of the environment.The crispy chicken with the combination of lettuce and pineapple all in a soft taco shell made a perfect balance of flavors and textures that would satisfy any taste buds.
Overall Reviews
Street Food City 9 is a great place to check out if you want the convenience to try many different food trucks without having to walk all around downtown Vancouver to find them. With all the different food trucks to try, you will for sure hit all the cravings that you are having from savoury to sweet.
Location: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby St, Vancouver. Dates: January 31st-February 9th Hours: Weekdays (11:00am-3:00pm) Weekends (12:00pm-6:00pm)
References
- Streetfood Vancouver. (2020). Retrieved from https://streetfoodvancouver.com/about-us/
- Mooney, H. (2020, January 12). Vancouver is the Mexican cuisine capital of Canada, study suggests. February 12, 2020, Retrieved from https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/vancouver-is-the-mexican-cuisine-capital-of-canada-study-suggests
- DH Vancouver Staff. (2018, January 2), “New food truck El Cartel hits the streets of Vancouver”, News, DailyHive, February 12, 2020, Retrieved from https://dailyhive.com/vancouver/el-cartel-food-truck-vancouver
- Craig Takeuchi. (2019, March 26), “Disco Cheetah food truck chooses Davie Village for first brick-and-mortar location in Vancouver”, The Georgia Straight, Retrieved from https://www.straight.com/food/1219296/disco-cheetah-food-truck-chooses-davie-village-first-brick-and-mortar-location