New Mexico Food Truck Festival Recap
I love food trucks and craft beer and I was so excited to attend the 3rd Annual Great New Mexico Food Truck & Craft Beer Festival, hosted by Food Truck Festivals of America. It happened last Saturday and went from Noon to 6pm. We had VIP tickets so we got there early to check it out.
The Balloon Fiesta Park is a great place to host this event because there is so much space. The only thing it lacks is shade and I should have brought a hat! The sun was determined to give me a sunburn and it succeeded. But, it was worth it.
I received free product as compensation for this review. All opinions are my own. My love of food trucks and craft beer is real.
We arrived at 11:00 a.m. to take advantage of our VIP passes, which came with early entry, unlimited free bottled water (we drank 4!), and a free dessert. General admission was $5 in advance or $10 at the festival. That is so reasonable! I would pay that every day! Children under 12 were free, which was great for families and I saw a lot of kids at the festival.
Here is the list of all the food trucks that were at the festival:
To be honest, I’m not even sure I saw them all! There was so much to take in and so many amazing smells going on, I didn’t know which way to turn. Luckily, my food-loving boyfriend turned me in the right direction.
I mean, you can’t really ignore a giant sign that says “Doughnut Burgers” on it. I was skeptical. I’ve seen these before but never dared try them. My boyfriend was not scared and dove right in.
The burger patty itself was underwhelming, it was just a frozen patty. The real stars here are the green chile and the glazed doughnut. My boyfriend loved it and made me try it. He’s never wrong about food, so I trust him. WOW. The combination of really really spicy and really really sweet was unlike anything I have ever tried. Forget the beef, just give me green chile on a doughnut. It was incredible! It was not what I was expecting at all and it really blew my mind. But, we were just getting started.
Next, we stopped at Street Food Boulevard and tried the Tempura Fried Avocado Taco. Of course, the boy had eaten here many times before and knew what to expect. Again, WOW! These little tacos don’t look like much but they are packed with flavor. Delicious! Had I not wanted to try many other trucks, I probably would have bought everything on the menu.
At this point, we are getting full. Oh yeah, it’s only been 20 minutes. Ok, time to check out the beer vendors!
Here is the list of brewers that were at the festival:
Dogfish head
Avery brewing
Santa fe brewing
Sierra Blanca brewing
Great divide brewing
Lagunitas brewing
Ska brewing
Abbey brewing
Santan brewing
Breckenridge brewing
Sandia cidery
Nuevo brewing
Sierra Nevada
Green flash
Rio bravo
Utah
Pecan brewing
upslope
guns and oil
Ballast point
So many awesome brewers! It’s so hard to pick just one to start, and we looked at every single beer before choosing. Chris went with the Nitro Vanilla Porter from Breckenridge Brewery. The vendor also had some of the cans cut open to demonstrate how the nitrogen works. Very interesting!
After relaxing at a picnic table and drinking our cold brews while we listened to the live music, we continued on with the epic food journey. Next I tried the Pork Belly Banh Mi from Street Food Institute. I was taking a gamble because I had never had a good experience with pork belly. It is always cubed and very fatty/squishy/gross. Well, my risk paid off, because this sandwich was AMAZING!!! The pork belly was in strips and lightly charred. Perfection!
I am happy that a lot of the food was smaller in portions, as it allowed us to try more foods. We skipped all the fancy ice cream trucks and went to this cute little coffee truck to get our free cookies.
I can’t wait to come back next year! Check out the rest of my pictures:
truck parts
Monday 21st of May 2018
That seems like a fun event. I always like trying out the foods offered by food trucks. I'm planning to venture into that kind of business but I still have to study the market and know the cost of the truck parts and equipment needed.