Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival Fall 2014

We were pretty excited to hear that the Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival was happening again. 

We went for the very first time in April 2014 - see HERE for our write up about that visit. 

Sue and I cleared our schedule and rounded up a group of volunteers to come with us to help sample all the delicious food. Needless to say we had no trouble finding volunteers.

Sue's hubby, Rob, joined us again and then our nephew, Nick, friend, Steph, and other sister, Orra, hopped in the van and headed to the Chilliwack Heritage Park to check things out. 

We were the first ones in line, first ones through the gates, and first ones to get to the deliciousness. 

Wasn't hard to tell we were a little excited. 

Can you blame us though? In the spring there was 14 trucks in the line up.... this time there was 21 that we counted. Some of our favorites from last time that we visited again and some new and exciting trucks that definitely will have us coming back.

This was the first round of our sampling.

Yeah.... we tried a lot of food.

I think we managed to try 13 of the trucks there this time. Unfortunately a couple of the trucks we wanted to sample from weren't ready until we were leaving. Hopefully next time we will be able to try The Reef Runner and Garbanzo's. 

Let's get to the trucks we tried this time!!

The Bannock Wagon

We had the cinnamon sugar bannock. They had several savory versions to try as well such as salmon or cheese.

The taste was really good but we found the bannock to be a little tough. This may be because we were raised in Lillooet and have a lot of First Nations friends that make super-amazing bannock. 

Hot Grandma's Kitchen

We visited this truck last year and tried their Bavarian Hot Dog and Deep Fried Corn Dogs. 

This year we tried the Deep Fried Ravioli. 

Holy heck. So good. We got a mix of spinach and cheese and chicken and mushroom ravioli fried to crispy perfection. Definitely would get those again. 

Poomba's Smokehouse

We missed Poomba's in the spring so knew we had to give it a go this trip.

We tried the Mini Pulled Pork Sliders with a side of potato chips and the Pulled Pork with Coleslaw.

The sliders were very tasty and were pretty cute to boot. The pulled pork was okay but not our favorite. I think we are a little biased when eating pulled pork because Sue makes an amazing slow cooker pulled pork that we tend to measure everything against. 

Overall, we enjoyed it but just felt like it was missing a little something.

Big Red's Poutine

In the spring we tried Big Red's Bacon Poutine. This time we tried the sausage poutine.

It was tasty. We preferred the bacon poutine from last visit because, as you can probably tell from Sue's shirt, we love our bacon.

Verdict: delicious but we still like bacon better.

Super Thai Foods

I think the Super Thai Foods truck was our nephew, Nick's, favorite.

He got the Pad Thai. We all sampled it and thought it was tasty (Sue didn't like the texture of the noodles) but it was very spicy. Nick loves the heat from jalapenos but I'm a bit of a wimp so a couple of bites were all I could handle!

Varinicey Pakoras

One of the highlights of our visit this year!

The Pakoras were AMAZING. We had to get 2 orders to share as we didn't want to stop eating them!

If you see Varinicey's Pakoras out and about - definitely check them out.

Soooooo worth it!

Old Country Pierogi

Pierogies are one of my all time favorite foods. 

In the spring we sampled the Holy Perogy Stompin' Tom Pierogies and just about died from the deliciousness. This visit Old Country Pierogies was there. Their pierogies were also tasty (I thought just as tasty as Holy Perogy but Sue thought they weren't quite as good)

You can see in the photo we experienced our first (and only) casualty of the day. That poor little pierogy slipped off my fork and fell into the gravel. *Sigh* 

That made me sad. 

Uncle Kebab

When we first saw the Uncle Kebab's truck we thought it must be kebabs.

Turns out no. It's not kebabs. It's Lebanese cuisine.

Tasty, tasty, tasty Lebanese cuisine. We tried the mixed box of Taouk and Keefta (chicken and beef) on rice with a salad and hummus. We all gave this 2 thumbs up. It was very mild but had a unique flavor that was nice for something different.

Wild Cat Express

The Wild Cat Express was another of our favorites from our visit in the spring.

This time we went with the Deep Fried Mac & Cheese. 

Yeah. It's as delicious as it sounds. 

You gotta try it!

The Place Next Door Canteen

Rob decided to get the Chicken Caesar Salad from The Place Next Door Canteen. 

I think next time I would try their Montreal Smoked Meat, it sounded really interesting.

The Chicken Caesar was really good but we were a little disappointed they didn't make their own salad dressing - it was Kraft packages. 

Slavic Rolls

The Slavic Rolls were probably my favorite from our first visit to the Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival. Of course we had to pay them a visit this time too!

We tried the Strawberry and Bavarian Cream and an Apple and Bavarian Cream. 

Would it be wrong to have one of these trucks park all year round in my backyard?

Hottie's Mobile Pasta bar

We took a vote and Hottie's was the number one highlight of our Food Truck Festival experience this time.

Rob got the ravioli topped with whipped ricotta cheese and a side of garlic bread. Holy heck - melted in your mouth!

And, can we just take a second to admire how beautiful the Pan-crepes are... 

I'm going to request these be served at every family gathering for the next century.

A cross between a pancake and a crepe they are ridiculously amazing. Ours was filled with cheesecake but you could also choose Nutella or fruit to fill them.

Be sure to visit Hottie's if you are lucky enough to see them.

And... lastly....

Lemonade

This wasn't really a food truck but rather a little stand.

Freshly squeezed lemonade that was sooooo addicting. We must have sent Nicholas back to this stand about a million times for refills. 

I'm still craving it....

Oh, yeah, I just wanted to share a cool treat we found on the car ride down to Chilliwack...

Spicy masala masti corn chips.

Did you know that was a thing? I wish I had known it was a thing.

They are sooooo good. If I am able to find them again I am going to stock up!

Like I said, we were the first ones through the gate. This is what it looks like before the crowds arrive.

Speaking of crowds - this time the Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival was over 2 days instead of 1 and I think that helped with the crowds. The lines for the trucks started building as we were leaving but didn't seem as bad as last year. 

The live music was fun and lively and had us dancing - much to Nicholas' embarrassment - several times. We didn't visit the beer gardens as we were there pretty early but I think if you planned to go for dinner then it would be a fun way to spend the evening.

We had to drive 3 hours from Lillooet to get to the Chilliwack Heritage Park for the festival and it is totally worth the drive. 

A very fun and tasty way to spend a Saturday (or Sunday) afternoon with family and friends.