Food Trucks at our Market This Season

Anchoring one end of our market is the bright orange Bully Food truck.

Food trucks are one of the trendiest things on the foodie landscape, and if last year at our market is any indication, they are a definite draw, pulling people together to experience a vibrant local food scene. 

After placing your order, it is so fun to visit with friends and other food truck aficionados while waiting in the pick up line for your fresh food to be prepared, taking in the atmosphere of the market, listening to musical buskers, and watching children swarm all over the inflatable slide. There's really nothing quite like dinner up at the market with friends and family on a warm summer night.

Food trucks have picked up quite a local following:

Yellowbird Food Truck is a brightly coloured fixture at our
market, serving up delicious Japanese-fusion style food
and delicious Italian sodas.

• There is an Eat St. app that you can download for free on iTunes that links your current location to the nearest food truck so that you can, on a whim, get your fix of gourmet comfort food. 

• There is the wildly popular Food Network show of the same name, Eat St. which is actually a Canadian show that features food trucks, that shares their recipes, that interviews their chefs, that tells their stories and that shares the chefs' inspirations with its viewers. 

• And food trucks are popping up all over the place, with Calgary and Edmonton hosting some of the hottest food truck scenes in Canada. This year in Edmonton, like last, there are a number of new food trucks on the scene.

Wendy, serving Bully's food to a customer at SWEFM
last season.

Essentially gourmet kitchens on wheels, food trucks usually offer up comfort food, cooked fast and fresh on site, often using locally-sourced ingredients. 

With our old view of food trucks as hot dog, hamburger & fries stands and carnival fare, they have made us redefine our notion of what a food truck can and should be. Take a look and see what I mean...

Bully Truck (gourmet comfort food). 

Wendy & Dean will be back, using food sourced from local vendors who are at our market, making wonderful things and sumptuous food offerings like Mac & Cheese, Poutine with Sausage Gravy, Turkey Burgers, Fresh Vegetable Salad topped with Smoked Meat and Black Garlic Aeoli, and Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Yum! Wendy and Dean make a point of using food sourced from local farms and producers when they can, enhancing the "local" nature of the delicious food they serve. You can find their bright orange truck, located next to the children's slide area at the market. Wendy is the kind, warm and friendly face who greets you at the truck window.

She shares, "I am Dean’s wife; you can call me executive wife… lol. I met Dean over 20 yrs ago when we worked in a hotel together. We flirted for a while until he eventually asked me out for coffee. The rest is history. Dean has worked in large hotels in this city for years and when he finally decided he no longer wanted to work for the man, we agreed to buy a food truck and my daughter Janaya worked with him for the fall of 2012. When it came to 2013 I had to make the decision to leave my guaranteed paycheque job to work with him, or let him experience his adventure on his own. Well.... I took the plunge and quit work for the unknown. Who would have known it was the best decision I ever made. Sure the hours can be long and the sleep is scarce, but it's a job with huge rewards that allow us the satisfaction of serving some of Edmonton finest foodies. Here is to another decade of happy customers."

Yellow Bird Food Truck

Yellow Bird's Yakinaku Wrap

(Japanese fusion cuisine). 

Ayumi and Masa will be back again, serving up delicious rice bowls, yakiniku wraps (a Japanese take on a Philly Cheesesteak with sesame dressing, shreds of daikon, sautéed red peppers, and generous shavings of beef seasoned with soy sauce, garlic & brown sugar). Their bright red food trailer can be found in the centre of the market, next to the ATM machine. 

Their foods are light, healthy and delicately seasoned, making for a wonderful evening dinner. Complete with wooden chop sticks (or forks and knives if you prefer), you can have an authentic eating experience. Top it off with one of their Italian sodas over ice and you have the mixings for a delicious food truck meal.

Wraps served with mild or "heck hot" sauce and curry chips
 are a popular item at Sailin' On's food truck.

Sailin' On (vegan food) 

Mike & Garret will be back at our market this year, serving up their popular veagan takes on fun foods like tacos and B.L.T.s. People rave about their Seitan Reuben sandwiches and curry chips. 

They started off on the food truck path years ago, with an annual event on the front steps of their home in Garneau, where they made vegan corndogs for their friends and passers by. This event became quite popular, and so, after much preparation & research, they took the leap last year from making their immensely popular vegan corn dogs to expanding their menu and jumping into the Edmonton food truck scene, "bringing vegan street food to the masses." 

On their website, they proclaim, "Gripping hard to their punk rock roots and DIY work ethic, they built a truck, tested and re-tested their menu through pop-up and special events, learned to look good in hairnets and rocked plenty of tight jams along the way." Check out their particular flavour, style and the creative take that they bring both to the food that they prepare and to the atmosphere of our market. You're sure to be surprised, delighted and satisfied... 

Knosh's Coronation Chicken Sandwich

Knosh Food Truck (British comfort food). 

New to our market this year, Stuart is excited to bring his take on traditional "Brit Foods" to us. 

Some of his regular menu items are a Yorkshire Pudding with Braised Beef and Rosemary Gravy, Pulled Pork Belly Sandwich with Purple Cabbage and Beet Slaw, Pork and Apple Burger with Brie and Carmelized Onions, and Irving Farms English Bacon Sandwich with Fig Jam and Grilled Tomato (their take on a BLT), Cornish Pasties, Steak and Kidney Pie, and Corn Beef Hash with English Pancakes and a Poached Egg. 

He uses local producers when he can. He also has an in-house made Ginger Beer that is very popular. And for those who feel British to their very toes, even on our hot, sunny Edmonton summer days, there is Earl Grey Iced Tea and Fresh Scones with Clotted Cream and Strawberry Preserves. Yum!

With a wide array of toppings, La Poutine
Food truck is sure to meet your craving.

La Poutine (many versions of a traditional Quebecois comfort food favourite: fries, gravy, cheese & toppings). 

La Poutine will be a regular at our market this season. La Poutine was created by an Edmontonian and a Quebecois who have enjoyed poutine from east to west. They have fused their two worlds together in one comfort food item to deliver a terrific taste sensation. Their fries are hand-cut from fresh russet potatoes and fried twice in canola oil that is free of trans fats and low in saturated fat. 

They offer both traditional gravy and beef gravy. The traditional gravy is vegan and is considered Quebec-style while their beef gravy is thicker, darker, and considered western Canada-style. Their cheese curds are locally made and are so fresh they “squeak.” And their dipping sauces are made in-house from real mayonnaise and sour cream. By offering traditional poutine and many other unique poutine creations, La Poutine has something for everyone. 

Insights Into The Food Truck Scene...

Listening to CBC's interview of the Food Network's James Cunningham, producer of Eat St. gave me fascinating insight into the food truck world. A successful Food Network show that tours around North America, Eat St. films and interviews the chefs behind popular food trucks. (To hear the interview, go to http://www.cbc.ca/albertaatnoon/ and scroll down to April 12, 2013 at the 16:30 minute mark). He was in Calgary, filming one of their food trucks there. Though it is a Canadian show, Eat St. does most of its filming States-side, partially due to the fact that there are far more trucks down south where the population is substantially more numerous and the climate allows for trucks to be open for far longer seasons than it does in Canada. However, we Canadians are a resilient bunch, and are coming out to support food tucks, hand over fist! So we have a definite presence on the North American truck scene map.

Wendy & Dean of Bully Food Truck

Cunningham made some really interesting points in his radio interview. He stressed that the chefs who rent or own and operate these trucks had to be a bit crazy and super passionate about food to run a food truck, as it is a lot of work. And he likened what is happening now, on the food truck scene, to what he called a Food Truck Revolution. Food trucks are a phenomenon that have absolutely exploded onto the street scene because of two serendipitous things occurring in North America a couple of years ago.

First, there was the down turn in the North American economy. 

Often, he pointed out, the people behind the gourmet food trucks are 5 star chefs. during the economic downturn, some were out of work (and, he added almost sheepishly, some were simply office workers who desperately wanted out from behind their desk to do what they love) but they still wanted to be gainfully employed in the culinary arts in which they were trained and were passionate. They were nervous to roll the dice and open up their own restaurant in the height of a recession. So these chefs rented or invested in trucks, hit the pavement and took their inspiration to the street to do what they loved.

Sailin' On will be back once a month with their popular vegan fare.

There is a flip side to this point as well. With the downturn in the economy, especially in the United States, many people were no longer going to expensive 5 star restaurants. But they still had a passion and a desire to be eating gourmet food.  So these people began turning to more expensive, but gourmet, street food as a replacement for eating out in fine dining restaurants.

The second thing was the social media explosion that has occurred in our society

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest are all the rage and have the possibility to make things popular, to make things go "viral," and to get news out almost instantaneously. Food truck chefs can tweet out their information throughout the day. And their customers can retweet or "like" that info out once again to their friends, who "like" or tweet it to theirs, and so on. When it comes to food trucks, this can include menu items, their location for that day, and what is hot & popular on a given day. As a result, food trucks have their fanatical followers, and lineups at the trucks can be insane. James Cunningham likened it to a gourmet flash mob where there's an energy and an enthusiasm in the line up & the air is a-buzz with excited "What are you getting? What did you get? What's good here?" chatter.

Knosh Food Truck serves up traditional Brit Food

The success and popularity of the food truck phenomenon has made another important thing happen. Cities like Edmonton and Calgary are recognizing what a great thing having a vibrant food truck scene is for the atmosphere and profitability of their cites, and they are giving parking spots to the food trucks along with their licences in prime, downtown locations. 

The chefs in these trucks are beholden only to themselves and this creates a unique opportunity to blend influences from their upbringing and fuse them with their own unique style in preparing comfort foods. The gourmet result is a surprisingly delicious and inspiring fusion cuisine. A carte blanche, if you will, to do what they want & to bring their inspiration to the street.

Edmonton's food truck scene has taken off this year with some new trucks hitting the pavement and setting up on our streets.  

Sailin' On's popular Green Chili Sauces.

There aren't many opportunities in Edmonton to see multiple food trucks gathered together in one place. Our city seems to licence them in a way that attaches them to a particular street corner or location that is isolated from other trucks. Other than What The Truck! events, and some special downtown & summer festivals, rarely do you see them collected together en masse. Our market will feature 4 food trucks throughout the season It is a really cool "must-try" experience. 

Come out and see what all the fuss is about. 

Make Wednesday night Dinner-At-The-Market Night 

for your family and friends. See you there!

Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Follow this link to read up on the profiles of trucks at our market: http://www.swefm.ca/food-trucks--concessions.html
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee

A Little More About Food Trucks & Our Market

Food trucks are one of the trendiest things on the foodie scene:

• There is an Eat St. app that you can download for free off iTunes that links your current location to the nearest food truck so that you can, on a whim,  get your fix of gourmet comfort food. 
• There is the wildly popular Food Network show of the same name, Eat St. which is actually a Canadian show that features trucks, their recipes, interviews with their chefs, that tells their stories and that shares their inspiration with its viewers. 
• And food trucks are popping up all over the place, with Calgary and Edmonton hosting some of the hottest food truck scenes in Canada. 

Essentially gourmet kitchens on wheels, food trucks usually offer up comfort food, cooked fast and fresh on site, often using locally-sourced ingredients. And, from our old view of food trucks as hot dog, hamburger & fries stands and carnival fare, they have made us redefine our view of what a food truck can and should be. Bully Truck will be at our market this year, using food sourced from the local vendors who are at our market, making wonderful things like sumptuous food offerings like Mac & Cheese, Poutine with Sausage Gravy, Turkey Burgers, Fresh Vegetable Salad topped with Smoked Meat and Black Garlic Aeoli, and Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Yum!

I was driving around earlier this month, listening to CBC's interview of the Food Network's James Cunningham, producer of Eat St., a wildly successful show on the Food Network that tours around, filming and interviewing the chefs behind popular food trucks throughout North America. (To hear the interview, go to http://www.cbc.ca/albertaatnoon/ and scroll down to April 12, at the 16:30 minute mark). He was in Calgary, filming one of their food trucks there. Though it is a Canadian show, Eat St. does most of its filming States-side, partially due to the fact that there are far more trucks down south where the population is substantially more numerous and the climate allows for trucks to be open for far longer seasons than it does in Canada. However, we Canadians are a resilient bunch, and are coming out to support food tucks, hand over fist! So we have a definite presence on the North American truck scene map.

Wendy & Dean of Bully Food Truck

He made some really interesting points. He stressed that the chefs who rent or own and operate these trucks had to be a bit crazy and super passionate about food to run a food truck, as it is a lot of work. And he likened what is happening now, on the food truck scene, to what he called a Food Truck Revolution. Food trucks are a phenomenon that have absolutely exploded onto the street scene because of two serendipitous things occurring in North America a couple of years ago.

First, there was the down turn in the North American economy. Often, the people behind the gourmet food trucks are 5 star chefs. At this particular time, some were out of work (and, he added almost sheepishly, some were simply office workers who desperately wanted out from behind their desk to do what they love) but they still wanted to be gainfully employed in the culinary arts in which they were trained and were passionate. They were nervous to roll the dice and open up their own restaurant in the height of a recession. So these chefs rented or invested in trucks, hit the pavement and took their inspiration to the street to do what they loved.

There is a flip side to this point as well. With the downturn in the economy, especially in the United States, many people were no longer going to expensive 5 star restaurants. But they still had a passion and a desire to be eating gourmet food.  So these people began turning to more expensive, but gourmet, street food as a replacement for eating out in fine dining restaurants.

The second thing was the social media explosion that has occurred in our society with social media networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest being all the rage. These sites have the possibility to make things popular, to make things go "viral," and to get news out almost instantaneously. Food truck chefs can tweet out their information throughout the day. And their customers can retweet or "like" that info out once again to their friends, who "like" or tweet it to theirs, and so on. When it comes to food trucks, this can include menu items, their location for that day, and what is hot & popular on a given day. As a result, food trucks have their fanatical followers, and lineups at the trucks can be insane. James Cunningham likened it to a gourmet flash mob where there's an energy and an enthusiasm in the line up & the air is a-buzz with excited "What are you getting? What did you get? What's good here?" chatter.

The success and popularity of the food truck phenomenon has made another important thing happen. Cities, like Edmonton and Calgary, are recognizing what a great thing having a vibrant food truck scene is for the atmosphere and profitability of a city, and they are giving parking spots to the food trucks along with their licences in prime, downtown locations. 

The chefs in these trucks are beholden only to themselves and this creates a unique opportunity to blend influences from their upbringing and fuse them with their own unique style in preparing comfort foods. The gourmet result is a surprisingly delicious and inspiring fusion cuisine. A carte blanche, if you will, to do what they want & to bring their inspiration to the street.

Edmonton's food truck scene has taken off this year with some new trucks hitting the pavement and setting up on our streets. Our market will feature a few one of these newbies. 

Sailin' On started up with a few test runs prior to its grand opening this month (April, 2013) and has already developed a rabid, ravenous following.... just check out their twitter feed and scan through the comments (@sailinon780). People are raving about scrumptious offerings like their Vegan Reuben sandwich. Everything that Garrett and Mike make is vegan fare. Think Burritos with Green Hecka' Hot Chile Sauce, Seitan Reuban Sandwich, and Curry Chips. Mmmmm!

Mike and Garrett started off in the food truck direction years ago, with an annual event on the front stoop of their home in Garneau, where they made vegan corndogs for their friends and passers by. This event became quite popular, and so, after much preparation & research, they have taken the leap from making their immensely popular vegan corn dogs to expanding their menu and jumping into the Edmonton food truck scene this year, "bringing vegan street food to the masses."

On their website, they proclaim, "Gripping hard to their punk rock roots and DIY work ethic, they built a truck, tested and re-tested their menu through pop-up and special events, learned to look good in hairnets and rocked plenty of tight jams along the way." Check out their particular flavour, style and the creative take that they bring both to the food that they prepare and to the atmosphere of our market. You're sure to be surprised, delighted and satisfied...  

There aren't many opportunities in Edmonton to see multiple food trucks gathered together in one place. It is a really cool "must-try" experience. Our market, with its opening day Truck Rally, is one of those. Come out and see what all the fuss is about. And if those trucks are well supported and do well on that day, they will be back each week, making sumptuous food for us! Make Wednesday night Dinner-At-The-Market night for your family and friends. See you there!



Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee

Food Trucks At Our Market: Market Update

One of the best ways to experience a culture is through its food. That’s one of the main reasons why our family avoids chain restaurants, both at home and when travelling abroad. Food is like a window into a culture and every culture has its specialties that are just waiting to tempt and entice you, waiting to delight and surprise you, waiting to be discovered and explored, waiting to be sampled and treasured….

There are often line-ups for food
truck fare, but the wait is worth it!

One of the best ways to discover the specialties of a region, a foreign country or a different culture is to ask around. If you are wandering the streets and see a lineup of local people at a restaurant or a market stall or at a food truck, ask a few people in the lineup what’s being served. Ask them what their favourite item is. And ask them where else they like to eat. This advice can be as good as or better than any published review, up to date guide book tip, recommendation from a concierge or taxi driver (who may get a kick backs for referrals), or online reviews.

And one of the best ways to find great food for a decent price, both at home and abroad, is at a local market. Chances are that the food that’s being prepared is made from fresh, in-season ingredients… and often those ingredients are sourced locally. So you are supporting the local economy, tasting great food and getting tremendous insight into a culture.

The Southwest Edmonton Farmers’ Market is very proud to be offering up tremendous local fare this year. Part of our vision of the market is that it be more than simply a way for people in our community to connect with local food producers and buy fresh produce and handicrafts. Rather, we would like it to be a destination of sorts. A place where community bonds are strengthened. Where the local economy thrives. And where the community spirit comes alive. Food Trucks are an essential part of our community-minded vision. There's nothing like bringing friends, family and neighbours together over a casual meal in a vibrant, fun setting where there is a lot going on.

Food trucks are rather new to the dining scene in North America. Like mobile kitchens on wheels, they serve up great, often gourmet food, quickly and from their roadside, mobile location. And Edmonton's food truck scene is heating up! Though we are still in the recruiting stages, I wanted to give you a sneak peak at what food truck fare you can expect to sample at our market.

Starting May 15th, make Wednesday evenings a dinner out for your family. Come out and enjoy food from...

Try some great gourmet comfort food at the bright orange Bully Truck

Bully Food Truck: Wendy & Dean proudly proclaim that they're heightening awareness around the issue of bullying… and going along with that theme, they offer to take your lunch money and turn it into good quality gourmet comfort foods! Think sumptuous food offerings like Mac & Cheese, Poutine with Sausage Gravy, Turkey Burgers, Fresh Vegetable Salad topped with Smoked Meat and Black Garlic Aeoli, Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese Sandwich... all featuring food providers at our market! Check them out online at Bully Food Truck Inc. or on their Bully Truck Facebook Page. (We're quite excited that they plan to include food from growers and producers at our market in their menu! That will add so much to the sense of community at our market, and help to establish it as a unique destination for our market shoppers.)

Little Village Food Truck: Theo will be serving up delicious Greek food. Check out his website for photos... Little Village Food Truck website

Fat Franks: Long before food trucks were an item on the trendy food scene, there were vendors like Darren at Fat Franks offering up a favourite North American staple: the infamous grilled hot dog! Top your dog with some of the 60 condiments he'll have on hand... items like onions, olives, sauerkraut, 12 different mustards, numerous hot sauces from mild to wild, corn relish, pickles, jalepenos, hot peppers... and try a customer favourite: the Avenue Dog, topped with Canadian cheddar and bacon.

The Pink Kernel: Shirley & Anthony will be offering great items to round out your meal like mini donuts, Hawaiian Ice, freshly squeezed lemonade, novelty ice cream and bottled beverages.

The food truck trend is sweeping across North America and bringing wonderfully fresh and inventive foods to its streets and city markets. These mobile kitchens offer up really creative, extremely delicious, often very gourmet foods, and are an exciting new “must try” experience on the culinary landscape. Come to our market to experience it for yourself… your tastebuds will thank you! Bring your families down on Wednesdays, starting May 15th and (even better perhaps!!) you won’t have to cook that mid-week meal! Stay tuned for more updates as our 2013 market slowly, but surely, comes together...


Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca