Left: Trashcan rice bowl from Club Sandwich Above: a customer shows off her “Sweet and Lowdown” slider form Easy Slider Right: a customer receives her slider from Easy Slider food truck (Dallas, Texas) at the Texas Food Truck Showdown. Tasty Tickets at the Texas Food Truck Showdown. Image credit: Unless otherwise noted, all Texas Food Truck Showdown photos are property of Taylor Grantham; used with permission.
Food Truck in Dallas” by D Magazine, Dallas Voice, and Dallas Observer. The hour-long line for the truck proved that its Sweet and Lowdown slider was well worth the wait. The recipe was unconventional (a beef burger with goat cheese, bacon, and strawberry jam), but it worked, and Easy Slider won “Best Between Bread,” the top prize for the burger and sandwich category. Clunkers, a donut sandwich truck from Killeen, also profited from serving a unique dish. Clunkers’ donut BLT was one of the most eccentric dishes at the event. The donut’s sweet glaze contrasted perfectly with the savory flavors of the bacon, lettuce, and tomato. About two hours into the event many of the trucks began to close. Most had run out of ingredients for their specialty dishes due to the sheer number of people attending the event, though some reported equipment failures due to overuse or heat. Event officials even decided to stop selling Tasty Tickets about an hour before the event was scheduled to end. Though no one could buy more tickets, most people still had tickets remaining from earlier in the day and felt the need to spend them. People piled into lines for the remaining trucks,
which suddenly became extremely lengthy. Some people seemed to give up, handing out their extra tickets to those willing to brave the lines. Others complained, saying that the lines were frustrating and they wished the event had been better organized. Waco’s Chamber of Commerce had anticipated a crowd somewhere between two and five thousand people, but it was later estimated that over fifteen thousand people bought tickets at the event. “Nobody was prepared for how much food to make,” Moon said. Though it never closed, Club Sandwich had to pause service a few times to prepare more rice, and Moon changed the recipe of his Trashcan Rice to include chicken after he ran out of pork. Other trucks, like Cowgirl Express from Whitney (which was serving a barbecue pork burger), had to close down just an hour into the event. CNJ Catering from Temple closed temporarily after selling over 400 meals in the first two hours. The note posted on their truck said “Back at 2 with more wings.” Despite this setback, they made out with the Best in BBQ award for their Smoked Chipotle Wings. Even businesses not participating in the Texas
Savor Waco // 15