Food Truck Friday STL

Yesterday Justin and I headed up to our first Food Truck Friday in Tower Grove Park. Food trucks are kind of new in this neck of the woods, at least for this couple. But now that we've found them — and there are a good number in the city now — we will never ever let go.

Along with live music, there was Y98 there for coverage.

Holy. Moly.

These trucks are good at what they do. We ate at three of them: Chop Shop STL, Go Gyro Go, and Hot Aztec, and we scored 3 for 3 in the delicious department.

Kind of hard to see with the trees, but the place was packed, the streets lined with trucks.

For me, the winner was Chop Shop. I'm a sushi fiend and the spicy tuna roll we got was enormous and tasty. Instead of cutting up 8 pieces for you to nibble, they leave the roll mostly in tact, only cutting it in half. It's like a sushi log, so full of fresh fish and rice it practically bursts out the nori.

Sit on that one for a minute.

We devoured the roll so fast I forgot to take a picture. Here's a visual from Feast Magazine:

Photograph by Laura Ann Miller

For Justin, the winner was Feed Me Bahn Mi's meatball bahn mi. We didn't even eat there last night, but we've had the bahn mi before and yes, it is that wonderful. The traditional bahn mi is a little sweet and has traditional Vietnamese flavors, which you may or may not be familiar with (think cinnamon, clove, spice...). The meatball has a flavor profile that we've a bit more used to, and it's juicy, complex, spicy, crunchy with the pickled vegetables, and the local-made bread from Fazio's is dynamite.

Go Gyro Go is obviously a gyro truck. We got the traditional lamb and beef gyro. The meat was incredibly tender, and the tzatziki sauce was honestly the best I've ever had.

Look at the line!

There may have been a touch too much sauce, but the upside is that it's not too pungent — in fact, it's mild enough that it didn't interfere with the flavor of the meat at all. We squeezed a bit out of the pita bread (which was soft, fresh, and warm) and used it as a dip for the homemade chips that come with the gyro. Heaven.

Hot Aztec is gourmet Mexican, and has some really interesting things on its menu. We were really excited to try the mole chicken taco and the cochinita pibil, a succulent pork shoulder roasted in banana leaves and also wrapped in two fresh corn tortillas. Both big winners in our book.

The chicken was my favorite. I'd never tried mole {say: mole-ay} before, and now I can say I'm a fan. Justin's favorite was the pork, so we conveniently did not have to fight over a last bite.

All I wish is that we could've eaten at more trucks. There were some really good-looking ones, but by the time we'd demolished three courses, we were kind of full — not to mention the lines started getting pretty long. Some other ones we wanted to try were

Falafelwich Wagon
2 Girls 4 Wheels
Holy Crepe
Shell's Coastal Cuisine
The Sweet Devine
Sarah's Cake Stop
Papa Tom's Fancy Franks
Cha Cha Chow
The Sausage Syndicate
LuLu's Local Eatery
Guerilla Street Food
Zia's
Seoul Taco (which I've actually had before…a MUST try!)
{Yes, that is all of them}

Also, there's a new food truck in town … Steamroller STL is a bagel & deli truck that I'm wanting to try. And Sarah's Meltdown grilled cheese.

This is making me hungry.

All these guys are on Twitter — go follow them now so you can share in the feast.

Food Truck Fridays are the 2nd Friday of every month from 5-8pm at the Southwest side of Tower Grove Park.

-Katie