Saturday Night Foodies: Are You Ready for the Long Beach Street Food Fest

In less than two days, there will be 28-gourmet food trucks heading to Rainbow Lagoon for the Long Beach Street Food Fest. This will be the second edition of this event. The first happened back in July and was a huge success with over 3500 people attending. If you missed the photos from the last event click here to check them out.

"Grandma" from Slice Truck

Considering the gourmet food truck trend is still new to many people we wanted to take a little time to share what we have learned over the last several months. Hopefully one of these tips will help you enjoy so much more. We will also share with you our list of trucks we are looking forward to trying for the first time. There are even some that we have to eat from every time we see them!

Sweets from the Sweets Truck

Before we get to the suggestions please make sure you come by the Save the Food Trucks and Food Truck Tweet up booth between 11 and 2pm. (story here) There will be several food truck owners you can meet and speak with. Saturday Night Foodies and a few big time bloggers will be there as well. Come by and see us.

Ice Cream Sandwich from Cool Haus

Lets start off with the tips and tricks. Kim and I along with some others have worked this almost to a science. Here are some helpful tips to make your day more enjoyable.

Be patient, for people that regularly visit food trucks. lines are part of the experience. Seriously, I have met a ton of great people while in line at food trucks. There is nothing better than sharing experiences and what foods each other liked and from where. This is how we figured out where to head first. In this case, lines are a good thing!
Do some research. Figure out what trucks sound interesting to you. With 28 food trucks there is a lot to choose from. Here is the complete list of trucks.
Get there early! This will help you get to some of the more popular trucks before the lines get long. The way someone told this to me was, come for breakfast stay for lunch.
Some like to split up and conquer. I do that to a point. If you attend with friends and/or family send a couple of people in one direction, then you and with another person in the other direction. Meet-up, enjoy, relax then head out again. I use it as a time to just catch-up.
Graze, meaning if you have split up to conquer, pick a couple of things at each stop so everyone can taste. This helps you not eat too much in one sitting so you can sample more. It makes it easier for everyone to experience the variety. If you find a truck you really like dive deeper or find them on the street at another date.
It is a good idea to have cold hard cash. A limited number of trucks will accept credit cards so cash will be king!
Bring your beach chairs or a blanket.
Make sure you stay hydrated.
One of the most important rules of all for a great gourmet food truck experience is to be adventurous and try new things. With 28 trucks there is something for everyone and many more for people that are looking to try new things.
Most important of all, Have Fun!

Special Brat from the Greasy Wiener

Now for the food, Kim and I have had the privilege to try many of the trucks out there. However we always find more and more! Here are two lists that may help you get started. I will tell you right now there are no trucks on this list that we have heard you need to stay away from. This is an awesome gathering of the best trucks in Southern California.

Craving to Try:

Nom Nom Truck (@nomnomtruck)
Manila Machine (@ManilaMachine)
Baby’s Badass Burgers (@BabysBBs)
Fresh Fries (@FreshFriesLA)

Time and time again:

Great Balls on Tires (@GreatballsOT)
Tropical Shave Ice (@TropShaveIce)
Slice Truck (@SliceTruck)
The Greasy Wiener (@TheGreasyWiener)
Sweets Truck (@TheSweetsTruck)
CoolHaus (@Coolhaus)
Crepes Bonaparte (@CrepesBonaparte)

I will stop there. If we add anymore it will be the entire list. I was serious when I said the showing is unreal!

If you see us please make sure you stop and say Hi!

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