Monster Food Truck Festival

Last weekend, we spent part of the day apple picking in Harvard, Massachusetts. Usually I prepare a picnic to bring along, but this time since I had cooked for a party the night before, I did not have the time.We decided that after absorbing the peace of the orchard, we would swing by and check out WZLX's Monster Food Truck Festival in Framingham in the Shoppers World parking lot. The event was scheduled 11:00AM to 5:00PM.

My car was filled with apples and people – myself, my wife, Esther, my son, Lenny, his best friend, Griffin, and Griffin’s mom, Li – when we arrived at the festival a little after 3:00PM. We found about a dozen food trucks and outdoor cooking stations, a live band playing and lots of people. “This is a carnival without the rides!” said Li. She nailed it, it was a carnival of food and everyone was there to have fun tasting the goods. Food trucks have just started making the scene in the Boston area. As I understand it, there have been strict regulations and, frankly, New Englanders just don't like to jump too quickly on every trend. So this was really my first food truck rally/meet/festival.

We first made a quick lap around the trucks, lined up back to back, to see what was available. We noticed a couple were already sold out, and most had long lines of excited, hungry festival attendees. My son and I, along with Griffin, ended our lap right in front of Woodman’s fried clams – yeah that place in Essex. There’s nothing like apple picking followed by a cone of perfectly fried belly clams from one of the best places in Massachusetts to make a perfect New England fall day. Esther and Li, disappeared, headed to the long line at Snappy Dog, a funky woman-run dog stand.

Next, I got in line for Spoon, specializing in Carolina BBQ, Lenny and Griffin were in line at Grilled Cheese Nation. Esther finds me and offers me a bite of her Snappy dog with chili and green salsa, it was delicious. Next Lenny gives me a bite of his grilled cheese and bacon. Yes, the Spoon line was long. By the time I'm up to order, many items have been scratched off the list. My original plan was to get a couple of ribs, hush puppies and a pulled pork sandwich, but I ended up with five ribs and a very generous side of collard greens.

Now BBQ ribs are one of the things I cook best, I'm not here to review, every cook that is obsessed with real BBQ has their two cents to offer, so I'm not even going there. I'm just glad they are sharing their love from their food truck. Every bite was eaten by our small team of food truck reviewers. I even kept dipping my bare rib bones in the sauce and sucking it off.

The grand finale was an ice cream sandwich from Frozen Hoagie. I was pretty full, but I had no problem finishing it. Afterwards I lay in the thick grass of an island in the parking lot, thinking another very good day in the world of food. It was the best shopping mall food court I've come across and it was in the parking lot.