Food Truck Bazaar

I remember when food trucks first showed up in Orlando.  The very first one I ate at was the Korean Taco Box on E. Colonial Drive.  I was driving by one day and saw this truck so I stopped to check it out.  There were no Food Truck Bizaares then or food truck pods, it was just one or two trucks lining up to feed those that were hungry.  You had to follow the different truck on Twitter to know where they were going to be at any given date and time.  Then, the food trucks got organized and started having food truck pods with the biggest one being the Food Truck Bazaar by DailyCity.  We went to the first on at Fashion Square in 2011 and were somewhat disappointed.  It took an hour to get our food, which was just too long of a wait.  The problem was that so many people had heard about the event, but there weren’t enough trucks to serve everyone in a reasonable time frame.  This was no one’s fault, just how it was in the early days of food trucks.  However, we continued to attend the events on a fairly frequent basis, every other month and sometimes more frequently.  We went to the pod in Maitland and continued to go to the one at Fashion Square, which is our favorite.  Towards the end of last year, we got rather burned out on the food trucks and stopped going except for the Yum Yum Cupcake Truck.  I thought the quality of the food had gone downhill slightly and I was over the whole scene.

I had not been to a food truck event in 2013, when I noticed there was one on Sunday (June 9) at Fashion Square.  We didn’t have anything else going on so we decided we give it another try.  I was really hoping to have a lobster roll from Monsta Lobster, but looked on Facebook and saw that they were not going to be there so I was already a bit disappointed, but decided to go anywhere.  I was pleasantly surprised to see many trucks I had not sampled before.  As soon as we walked in, we saw Dixieland Diner and noticed that they had shrimp and grits on their menu.  I’m a huge fan of shrimp and grits, and have a difficult time finding a restaurant or food truck in Orlando that does a truly good job with this dish.  We immediately decided we would try the shrimp & grits so my husband got in line.  I continued to look around and to my surprise I found Clawdaddy’s who was serving lobster rolls!  I was so excited so I got in line to order my lobster roll.  Right next to them was WakoTaco so we decided to order a quesadilla from them.  Of course, I had to get a couple of cupcakes from Yum Yum Cupcake Truck.

My husband and I split all of the food like we typically do at these events.  It is an understatement to say this was the best meal I have ever had at a food truck event.  The shrimp and grits from Dixieland Diner was the best I have had in Orlando, almost as good as mine.  I have probably had shrimp and grits at 6 or more Orlando restaurants, but cannot find one that can duplicate what you get in South Carolina.  Well, Dixieland Diner does just that — it was delicious.  Next up was the lobster roll.  It too was amazing — best lobster roll I’ve had at a food truck event.  Even the quesadilla from WakoTaco was great.  I don’t know it’s because we had not been to a food truck event in a while or because the food was truly a step up from what I remember.  Whatever it was, I will be back. If you’ve gotten burned out on food truck scene, I’d encourage you to give it another shot.  There are a lot of new trucks to try and the food is better than ever.