As we were driving through Mira Mesa last Monday, we noticed the familiar shape of food trucks by the Epicenter, a local youth center. We immediately u-turned, found ourselves a parking spot nearby and headed toward the enticing scents.
We asked someone what was going on and were informed that recently, several participating food trucks set up shop here every Monday evening and donated 10% of their profits to the youth center. Very charitable! There were about 7 food trucks that night but we decided to dine from the Devilicious food truck, who were on the second season of The Great Food Truck Race. They were also at the Del Mar Food Truck event this year but we didn't try them at that time.
Veg N' Out - This slider was different than the vegetarian patties you find at the grocery store, and the onions were cooked a slight bit raw.
Eddie's Philadelphia Steaks - We selected the beef with american cheese sample. The meat was slightly underseasoned but the bread had a nice toasty feeling in our mouths. I like when philly sandwiches aren't overly cheesy and greasy yet still have a decent taste.
I've heard so many good things about the food in North Park so when our schedule suddenly cleared up that day, we ventured to test out this theory. Taste of North Park 2011 was held on Saturday Oct. 8 from 11am-4pm. Between the generous five hours and the proximity of most restaurants, we were able to sample all 46 locations!
At the Gourmet Experience, visitors have their choice of live cooking demos, food competitions, and gourmet foods and products! Besides the vendors, there were three different stages that showcased various chefs and their foods: the Gourmet in Action state, the Outdoor Grilling Stage, and the Kids Cook Activity Stage. We attended on Sunday Oct. 9th 2011.
We had passes to the Gourmet Experience for Sunday Oct 9th. After looking at the schedule, our eyes were drawn toward one big thing: the Fish Taco TKO Competition!
This was the first year for the Fish Taco TKO Competition and the friendly Emcee, Josh Kopelman of Dining Out SD, introduced us to the 7 fierce competitors:
At this point, we were almost halfway through the restaurants for our Taste of Downtown San Diego 2011 journey. I'm not sure exactly when they removed the Little Italy restaurants but it makes the trip a lot easier to hit more restaurants in such a short amount of time!
We finally made it out to Taste of Downtown this year. Many new restaurants have popped up since the last time we sampled in this area (2006, 2007p1/p2)! The event was originally set for Septemeber 8 but due to a huge blackout, it was moved to September 29. This year there were 49 restaurants on the list to visit between 5-9pm.
The Gourmet Experience is a premier cooking and home entertaining showcase that is heading back to the Del Mar Fairgrounds October 8 & 9. This upscale expo is your one-stop-shop for all contemporary kitchen essentials, fresh farm food resources, live cooking demonstrations, celebrity chef discussions and of course, plenty of tasting opportunities.
