Social Media Week Food Truck Challenge! (AKA Win Something)

The Social Media Week Cross-City Food Truck Challenge is this week. Do you know where your food truck is?

It’s hard to find a cluster of people standing beside a food truck in Los Angeles, who are NOT on their phones. They are tweeting their experience by the minute, instagramming their orders, and if they’re like me, blogging on the go.

 

 

The Social Media Week Cross-City Challenge, is a rad way to take advantage of the Great Relationship. And win something along the way.

Street Food + Social Media = True Love Forever.

The contest includes four major international cities: London, Vancouver, Chicago, and Los Angeles. To participate, eaters and vendors must share their food truck experiences with the world via Twitter.

My predictions…?

Watch for The Grilled Cheese Truck to be a early front-runner. Known for their long lines, and inventive comfort foods such as the Short-rib Mac and Cheese Grilled Cheese, and tomato soup shots, this truck has enjoyed plenty of Food Network coverage, and has gotten much national attention. Also, they are very reliable when tweeting their location and their followers tend to be fervent Tweeters. As Roy Choi focuses on his brick-and-mortar efforts, The GCT is the informal heir to the Kogi social media crown. But it has been unbearably hot in L.A., not exactly mac-and-cheese, tomato soup weather. Will this hurt them?

A personal favorite of mine, The Eggslut Truck, serves a lean mean pancake taco, along with clever iterations of eggy breakfast inspired goodness. The concept is original, the food is reliably delicious, and they may benefit from their smart standing engagements outside of popular coffee spots in the city. Coffee and a pancake taco? It’s a no-brainer. But to win, they will have to mobilize their every morning regulars to document their brunch munching on a daily basis.

The No. 1 Currywurst Truck is a relative new-comer to the scene, but it did not appear quietly. Chris, the proprietor is a magnetic and enthusiastic German social media and sausage enthusiast. His shocking red truck is impossible to ignore, but he backs that up with delicious dishes that demonstrate his passion tastily. Currywurst has been an extremely popular street food in Germany for a while, but fills an unseen niche in L.A.

A variety of sausages, a curry laced sauce, formidable crusty roll for dipping, and an apple strudel chaser make this truck a winner. The large amount of services per week, as well as the truck’s constant presence on both Twitter and Facebook (including hilarious videos narrated by Chris himself) should work to his advantage.

Text tweets get 10 points, and photo tweets (Twitpic, Instagram, Lockerz) get 20 extra points.

But since you’re probably more than a little competitive, (know the best ramen in the Valley, favorite bartender knows your favorite cocktail?) here’s how to rack up the most points, and really make every bite count:

Get the Eat St. App, and tweet your pics and comments from there. 25 additional points. Eat and Tweet smarter. The winner is he/she who has tweeted the most street food tweets for their city. Be that person. Be that winner. Share your tweet to @eatsttweet so it can be counted, and include you’re your city’s hashtag so they know where you hang your fork. Los Angeles is #eatSMWLA.

Make sure you include the truck’s name, and prizes include Eat St. Prize Packs, and Whole Foods Gift Certificates!

Eat it and Tweet it, start planning your week now!

http://socialmediaweek.org/losangeles/2012/09/10/food-truck-challenge/

 

Pancake Taco Genius Grant.

As a kid, I once walked into a room where my dad was using a soup can to hammer a nail into a wall so that he could hang a picture. When I foolishly asked him why, he said “You know Francie, some people in life ask why. But I prefer to say ‘why not.’”

I knew that he had not set out to make the hanging of this picture a pivotal character-building moment in my life. He just couldn’t find the hammer.

Nonetheless, it is a philosophy I have tried to incorporate into my daily life as much as possible since that day.

Make an entire loaf of Wonder Bread into cinnamon toast one piece at a time?

And then eat it.

Why not?!

(It was the late 90’s, everyone was doing it. Plus, it was during a Weekend at Bernie’s slash Overboard marathon with my sister. He without sin may cast the first stone…)

Make a pie crust even though you have nothing to put inside of it, and then eat aforementioned empty pie crust because my sweet tooth is THAT bad?

Why not?!

The crust is always the best part anyway. Three cheers for having only the best part of anything, ever! I'm all over that.

Wear the crazy swingy gaucho pants that swept the nation like baby fish mouth that one summer, even though they were clearly designed only for all-legs model types, and actual real-life gauchos?

Why not?!

I can’t lie, there’s actually a lot of why nots for this one. But, hey! At least we all looked weird together.

When my dad came for a visit recently, he had a few things on his “To Do” list. Catalina Island. Solvang. The Biltmore Hotel where he worked when he lived in Los Angles 35 years ago.

And to hit a food truck.