Del Mar Food Truck Festival

Over the weekend, I made the drive to Del Mar Racetrack to check out the Food Truck Festival featuring about 45 food trucks from OC and San Diego. Running simultaneously was the Craft Beer Festival, where I had read Ballist Point and Stone were going to be.

We arrived very soon after the festival opened at noon. There were already a lot of people there, but the parking lot was only about a third full. A shuttle transported people from the parking lot to the location for those who didn’t want to walk.

I’d never been to the racetrack before and was quite impressed by the architecture.

We started off with an OC installation — Dos Chinos — with two of my favorites: Bolsa Pork Belly with the crispy pork and a tomatillo sauce.

Oahu Shrimp is another delicious taco I get all the time off this truck! The shrimp has a great snap and the flavors just pop in your mouth. SO GOOD!

Since I don’t get the chance to try many San Diego trucks, we decided to take this opportunity to do so starting with a Cuban truck called K’Paza. Since we didn’t want to fill up, we decided on ONE item from this truck and ended up with a chicken empanada. It was delicious! The chimichurri sauce is also perfectly executed! Simply fantastic.

Next came Epic Eatz, another San Diego truck. Kalua Pig Taco was our choice but sadly, it didn’t hit the spot. The pork had a strange smokiness to it, not the kind you find in kalua pork — and I *know* kalua pork. It was bland and flat in taste and when my friend, who never wastes food, told me “I’m going to have to toss this”, I had all the confirmation I needed. Sorry, but it was no epic eats that’s for sure based on that one taco.

We took a break after this to drink some craft beers, but I couldn’t find Ballist Point anywhere. No Stone either. We ended up getting some Pyramid Apricot Ale which was quite light and refreshing in the heat. We got some sausages to pair with the beers.

Underdogs Gastro Truck had an array to choose from and since we were already kind of full, we opted for the no bun option. We ordered a beer brat which was really tasty with a nice texture. They had a few kinds of mustards so we chose their house-made one.

The guy also suggested the lamb sausage which is served over a Greek-style salad of romaine lettuce, feta cheese topped with a cinnamon slaw. The lamb sausage was great, but I didn’t care much for the slaw.

At some point, we moved up to the stands to watch the races. Luckily we didn’t bet any money because every horse we picked didn’t win.

After three races, we proceeded back down to finish our day with some dessert. We chose another San Diego truck, the Sweet Treats truck. We decided on an ice cream sandwich where there is an array of cookies and ice cream flavors to choose from to make your own combination. I chose the peanut butter cookies with the Kona coffee ice cream. They were good, but not fantastic. I like Chunk N Chip a lot better.