It was a nippy Wednesday evening and of course I didn’t dress accordingly for the weather. However, having been to the previous Village Voice Choice Eats event, I made sure that I had eaten light for the occasion. The volunteers and security led us to the press table where we were given a special ticket tag and later we were given a tasting glass. The jumbo tag listed all the food trucks parked along side the Intrepid. This ticket was promising me a happy belly.
I decided to go to the first truck in line and work my way down the parking lot in a zigzag form. I couldn’t describe the excitement of having each truck hole punched by a Choice Streets volunteer on my tag! As I received my sample from each truck, I was snapping pictures of each plate and sending them via Snapchat to all my friends (I was being a show-off). Each truck offered something different in taste and in culture.
Each vendor left me wanting a bigger portion but by the time I was done with one sample, my tag was already being hole punched for the next sample. I thought I was prepared but who was I kidding? There was too much to handle for one stomach. I made it around the parking lot to 13 out of 23 food trucks! My top 5 are as follows:
#5: Kelvin Natural Slush Co.: Serving me an all-natural frozen adult beverage, I will definitely be paying them a visit this summer with my girls!
#4: Coolhaus: Keeping it sweet and cool with this amazing Mint Ice Cream Sandwich, I can’t wait to try more of their flavors on a hot summer day.
#3: Mike ‘N Willies: This Lil Piggie went to Choice Streets and this Lil Piggie never made it home! My favorite part of this pulled pork sandwich was the homemade chipotle BBQ! Yum!
#2: Luke’s Lobster: The Shrimp roll was perfection! I couldn’t go back for seconds but I’ll be making my way to the truck for a meal very soon.
#1: Carl’s Steaks: I’ve never been to Philly but this NYC Philly Cheesesteak is claimed to be the boss of all Phillies and my belly can agree! It’s mouthwatering to even think about!
Along with the food trucks, each of the sponsors of the event also had their own table on the parking lot. Casamigos Tequila was serving up some citrus cocktails that demanded a second round after the first sip. Barefoot Wine and Bubbly offered some choices for more than one type of wine lover.
I decided on the sweet summer red wine – it was a great choice. My favorite sponsored pit stop was the Official Photo Booth Presented by Fairway Market. There were some props if you wanted to be silly or you could just photo bomb for fun! I did a solo session and came back for another session where I made a new friend named Adam. I think the photos speak for themselves.
Contributed by Denise Pina
Jessica Tiare Bowen lives in the juicy Big Apple with her adorable pink-nosed chihuahua, Gillman. He’s the inspiration for her first published children’s book, “Park Avenue Pound Puppy.” The book is the combined result of her two greatest passions: pooches and penning stories.
Her passions include art, urban hikes through Manhattan, drinking coffee with 3 creams and 6 sugars, making extremely detailed itineraries and traveling to far away places, singing along to Broadway shows, Netflix movie nights, discovering incredible treasures at Goodwill and thrift stores, and listening to stories from little people under 7 and big people over 70.
She started her career as New York City Teaching Fellow, teaching elementary school and theater arts at a special education school in the South Bronx for 6 years. She is now a Special Education School Improvement Specialist working in public schools throughout New York City. She is the Editor-In-Chief of the online New York City travel magazine, Used York City. The magazine focuses on finding the best of New York…as used by New Yorkers. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and an ASPCA Ambassador.
