Fun Foodie Shares: Food Truck Festival and Savorfull Goodies

Sitting around, listening to the wind howl and watching the wet leaves fall, waiting for the worst of Sandy to roll in. I probably *could* get to the gym and back before it gets here, but my darling husband is in full on protective father mode and doesn’t want his pregnant wife to leave the house (nevermind the fact that he’s at work and *I* am dreading *his* ride home later.)

While we still have power, better catch up on some blogging, right?

Earlier this year I stopped by the Worcester Food Truck Festival, put on by the traveling Food Truck Festivals of New England. Despite living in a city where small local businesses are encouraged and thrive, we have a total of ZERO food trucks. Needless to say, I am mesmerized by this concept that you can easily get anything from a loaded hot dog to a gourmet duck confit grilled cheese from a food truck in other parts o’the world, so I think it’s pretty cool that the Boston-area trucks make a few trips over the summer to visit us “country” folk in the ‘burbs.

When the Newport, RI festival rolled around, Ben and I grabbed my parents and decided to make a fun fall day trip out of it.

As you can see from the first set of pictures, this festival was full of choices, from baked goods to rustic, organic cuisine and classic New England clam chowder and lobster roll. We started with a Shrimp Bahn Mi and an “India Goes to Vermont” – an Indian-spiced grilled chicken sandwich with colorful veggies on naan bread. Gone are the days of greasy, slapped-together food truck fare. Food trucks like Acacia may require a little bit of a wait, but offer freshly-prepared entrees made of locally-sourced, organic ingredients.

We couldn’t pass up the Away Cafe, with it’s slogan, “Not just pad thai, more than hot dogs.” Can’t decide between a sausage grinder or Asian spring rolls? You can get them both here. We dug into the chicken pad thai – always a favorite in my family!

There was lots ‘o stuff that apparently made it to our bellies before getting caught on camera: lobster sliders, fresh sea scallop rolls, clam chowder, fried green tomatoes, red velvet and pumpkin whoopie pies…. my only regret is not making it to the Compliments food truck before they ran out of their Grilled Goat Cheese sandwich with Apples and Honey. Bummer!

And just for fun, a rare, recent good pic of the two of us. See how happy we are? If you didn’t get a chance to make it to one of the New England food truck festivals this year, be sure to check them out next summer and fall!

Disclosure: After I blogged about the Worcester Food Truck Festival, Food Truck Festivals of New England contacted me and offered me some free food tickets at the Newport event. All opinions and photos are my own.

And in other news, a new Savorfull box arrived! Savorfull provides monthly deliveries of allergen-free* snacks and ingredients for a bargain at $15/month. I don’t know about you, but I still get giddy over packages, so this is a fun way to discover new-to-me items on the market. And while I don’t have specific food allergies, I do enjoy sharing these finds with those who do and I appreciate the fact that Savorfull also emphasizes natural, simple, clean ingredients in the products they ship out.

*All Savorfull items are free of gluten, dairy and nuts. Some items may be free of other allergens as well.

This month’s healthy treats included…

• Pretzels and Double Chocolate Cookies from Mary’s Gone Crackers (tip: pretzels can be used as to make gluten-free stuffing for Thanksgiving!)
• Mrs. Glee’s Gluten-Free Elbow Pasta. What makes these different from other gluten-free pastas? Navy bean flour! Can’t wait to mix these up with my favorite non-dairy cheese for some high-protein, healthy comfort food.
• Enjoy Life Choco Boom Bar, a dark chocolate delight perfect for snacking – or melt it down or chop it up for use in your favorite dairy-free sweets.
• VitaPerk makes your morning cup o’Joe even more of a necessity by infusing natural flavors and essential vitamins and minerals.

Thank you Savorfull for this month’s goodies! Trying to come up with the perfect gift for your favorite foodie with food allergies? A Savorfull subscription would be right up their alley 🙂