Houston Weekend on Wheels

The skies were gray and the drizzles recurring today at the Haute Wheels Houston Food Truck Festival. Yet neither of those things could prevent a Bastille-style storming of the 35 or so participants and their oh-so-edible wares. Based on the line to buy tickets, the line to trade online paperwork for tickets, the line to get into the gates and the line outside most of the trucks, Haute Wheels is clearly a big success. As far as I’m concerned, the best newcomer this year is Big Daddy Z’s, which served this Jamaican-flavored jerk pork sandwich with fried jalapeno and onion strings. And you get lei-ed while you’re at it!

Haute Wheels, which picks up again tomorrow at the HCC campus on the 610 Loop, is also a lot of people’s introductuion to the new ConeyCruiser, a creation of James Coney Island that’s described as the largest food truck in Texas. According to JCI president Darrin Straughan, on hand for the festival, the Coney is no effort to mimic the chef-driven trucks so popular these days but to deliver the branded coney dogs to diners in less familiar settings.

“Our truck,” says Straughan, ”is very popular as a ‘shabby chic venue’ for private parties and company events, and its kitchen is equipped to produce all types of menu items.” For Haute Wheels, James Coney opted out of venturing too far from the tried-and-true, showcasing not only the original coney with chili, cheese and onion but its variation on traditional Texas Frito pie. This is a brand-new truck, you might say, with 90 years of experience.

As in years past, part of the challenge of putting on a food truck festival is getting the trucks themselves to deliver what the customers demand. After all, as a customer, once you’ve bought a ticket and made your way inside, your business is with the individual trucks, some of whom accept credit cards and some of whom demand cash. More tellingly, some have worked through menu issues to the point they can cook and serve quickly, and others have not. Finally, some trucks simply have a bigger following than others.

So… when is SPAM more like sushi? Answer: when it comes from the Vietnamese fusion food truck MiSuBi. In this particular sandwich, accompanied by Asian-tasting elbow macaroni coated with sesame seeds, the all-American meat product is rolled up in seaweed with plenty of crunchy vegetables. Bold Asian flavors also play a big role at Coreanos (Mexican with Korean) and a handful of other festival participants.

Though it’s not always obvious, one of the more interesting aspects of the food truck movement is the varying degrees of professionalism behind the food. Some successful trucks are just people who always wanted to do something like this, maybe even parttime. Others, like Fraiche, are the work of professionals. These pulled pork sliders, for instance, are the creation of a trained chef and a trained pastry chef.

Dessert seemed a happy choice at Haute Wheels today: first, because it was easy to get sweet at the festival when the rest of the multitudes were gorging on savory. And second, because desserts have to be made in advance. Who, after all, wants a Bananas Foster truck, if each order has to be flambeed before your eyes? Above we have a light and wonderful strawberry pie from Porch Swing Desserts, below a box of Belgian-inspired confections of dried fruit and chocolate from Chocolat d’Arte.