La Panthère Verte

Wow, so I am posting about one truck, it must be really special. And yes, it is. I tried la Panthère Verte last week and I wanted to write about it right away, but I am a huge procrastinator and I didn't want to post at the same time as First Friday. So I am going to highlight this truck now, because heck, it deserves it.

It's the second year that this food truck appears, and honestly, last year I was not at all interested in it. I can't quite pin down why, but it felt too mainstream, and the fact that they accepted debit made me recoil. Now, that reason is bogus, because many more trucks are accepting debit as well as cash, just because it's more convenient and not everyone always has cash on them. Last year, I had only tried one of their sodas, which look like this : 

Honestly, i'm not that big a fan of sodas, I don't know why, I'm sort of weird. But this one,  is pretty refreshing and bonus points for being organic. 

I don't know why the truck never attracted me until this year. Maybe because I wasn't as open to vegetarian and vegan food, but over the past year, I have become obsessed with vegan stuff, and have several friends who follow that lifestyle. I myself could not become vegan, for personal reasons, but eating vegan or even vegetarian is refreshing and interesting and definitely tasty. 

Since the food truck season began, I have heard many great things about la Panthère Verte's renowned falafels, and that's it I had to try them, one way or another. I was fortunate to fall upon the truck when I did. 

I ordered the falafels and it came in this huge pita bun. Remember the pulled pork from the Monkland Street Fest? This sandwich was the same size, only instead of pulled pork, it was filled with vegetables and falafels. It got me pretty full, but full in a good way. I can't stop thinking about that sandwich and I can't wait to try it again. 

Even before the food truck season will be over, I will be sure to visit one of the restaurant's three different locations :  2153 rue Mackay / 66 rue St-Viateur O. / 145 avenue Mont-Royal E.

For falafels that are out of this world, I urge you all to hunt down this truck and try some. 

ps. Thank you to two of my lovely friends for getting me out of the house and coming with me to try out this truck. 

July's First Friday

I posted last month about going to First Friday and  I went back again tonight, because going to a place where pretty much all the food trucks are gathered in the same place is, for me anyway, absolute heaven.

My experience was definitely better than last month, since they rearranged the space, which means the lines were shorter and it was easier to walk around. We also went a little bit earlier, which I think definitely helped. It also gave me the chance to take some cool sunset pictures.

This is me with two of my favourites in the back, Landry & Filles and ô soeurs volantes : 

It took forever to choose where I wanted to eat. I wanted to go somewhere I haven't been this year yet, but also somewhere where the lines aren't too long. I finally decided on Le Super Truck. I tried it once last year, and had their crispy pork salad, which was delicious. The downside of this truck is that their menu is not very flexible, it's pretty much the same as last year, which I suppose can be good as well, since the grub is pretty yummy. 

We ordered the Super Sandwich and the Cone Salad with Mac and Cheese sticks and some Ice Tea.

 I had the Cone Salad, and it was DELICIOUS. It had duck and apples with almonds, and lots of yummy stuff, it was a party in my mouth. The only downside was there wasn't much actual meat inside. 

The Super Sandwich was chicken with bacon. It was good, but a bit basic. When I'm ordering from a food truck, I always expect something a bit more original and creative, that I wouldn't find in a chain restaurant. 

In Montreal, there is a law that applies to food trucks in which to have one, the owners must also have a restaurant/café/bakery. I discovered that the Super Truck restaurant was called Ariel, on Drummond Street. 

link to the restaurant's page

I definitely would like to visit it in the near future. 

For dessert, I was very excited, because there were FOUR trucks I wanted to try out. There's Lola's Petits Gâteaux, CRémy Mobile, Mr. Crémeux and Fous Truck. I tried out Fous Truck which is a croissant bar. I mean, what can be better than that?! 

I had this really DELICIOUS croissant with Québec Strawberries and cream, called le Fraisier. 

There's something about Québec strawberries that is just so amazing. They aren't in season for very long, but when they are, they are so GREAT and I could rave about them forever. 

As a last minute snack, I had some lime flavoured cotton candy from a CRémy small vendor. It was great and original, but SO sweet. I asked them where the CRémy pastry shop, and it's on Mount Royal, so I am definitely going to check it out, and gorge on doughnuts. 

This is me with my cotton candy (which I pretty much made out with). It's exciting because it's almost as big as my head, and I have a pretty big head. It was cool, because it was one of those real deal cotton candy machines. 

 First Fridays is a very fun experience, and I can't wait for August. In the meantime, I'm excited for all the food truck encounters during the month of July.

Montreal Folk Fest

Today, I spent the whole day at home, doing absolutely nothing. We switched to Bell and got the Movie Network, which fascinates me, so I watched a ton of TV.

In the evening, I finally left my house, and went to the Lachine Canal, a really great place where there happened to be a folk fest this weekend. And, where there is food trucks, I can usually be found. A few great trucks were there, which was quite exciting. Here's the poster I snagged from the Internet :

It was really hard deciding what to choose, but I finally settled on Zoe's which makes sandwiches with a Mediterranean flair, which is super yum. I tried the truck last year and had a lamb "sloppy Jane" and it was AMAZING. 

My mum had this really great chicken "Kokoricco" which was this sort of pulled chicken on a Portuguese bun , which was really tasty, a little bit spicy, but well balanced with some coleslaw. And the CHICKEN. It had a great flavour, and some crispy bits that were just to die for. I had some shrimp with herbs on flatbread, and it was also really great, and I loved it. We shared a strawberry lemonade with basil, that was really refreshing. We also ate spanakopita cigars. Spanakopitas are Greek, basically some cheese and spinach, and they were rolled to resemble cigars. 

The venue was also selling beer, and my mum bought a really nifty cup with a squirrel on it. I love squirrels, so I freaked out a bit. I took a picture with my mum's hand in a freakishly strange position. 

On a non-food truck note, we had ice cream from a place right off the Atwater Market called Havre-aux-Glaces. The flavours are so different and it is so delicious. Despite the fact that the day was quite cold, it was really great to eat that delicious ice cream. Hopefully, due to all these summer activities going on around Montreal will give me opportunities to eat and try out new food trucks. :)

First Friday and Monkland Fest

Hi.

So, I've been really busy recently, what with coming back from camp and moving houses, that I didn't have time to post anything.

But, I had a pretty awesome food truck couple of days. On the sixth of June, it was First Friday, which means a bunch of food trucks gather at the Olympic Stadium. The concept is awesome, but at the time that I went, there were so many people that it was hard to even walk around. I spent more than an hour waiting in line for food, but since I am such a hardcore food truck fan, it did not bother me that much. Two of my favourite trucks were there. For supper, I had ôsoeurs volantes for the first time this year and it was GREAT. My family was also quite impressed and loved their food, which is a big win for me, and for the truck I guess. I got a meal that I have been dreaming about for a year, the BBQ meatballs.

What I love about this truck, is that everything is fresh, organic and just tastes so delicious. I also had a raspberry lemonade. It was great food. I ate it a while ago, and I still can't get over it. 

For dessert, I treated myself to a lovely waffle from Gaufrabec. Here is the beautiful truck

As always, the line for that truck was extremely long, and it got dark while I was waiting, so I got to take a pretty pic of the stadium. 

My waffle was soooooo great, did I mention that already? wow, I wish I could eat one right now. 

That particular weekend was also F1 weekend. For those of you who don't know Montréal, it's a really big weekend for us. This really sweet street in Montréal, Monkland, had a festival and several trucks were there. It was very hard to choose from where to eat, but I finally decided to go to the first truck i've ever been to: Pas d'cochon dans mon salon. As my great friend Nikita pointed out, that truck took my food truck virginity, and their pulled pork is so goooooood. I can't get enough of it, wow. 

Since then, I haven't been to other trucks, but I can't wait to eat some food truck grub in the near future, I miss it. 

Das Food Truck + Movie Premiere

A couple weeks ago, I visited a truck I was very excited to try, Das Food Truck. First, because it was a new truck, and second because it served German food, and since I have been studying that language for about two years now, I am pretty interested in everything related to German culture.

I had noticed that there was a contest to win tickets to the movie premiere of Chef, a movie starring Jon Favreau and other big names like Sofia Vergara, Dustin Hoffmann etc. All one had to do was take a picture of the food from the truck and post in on social media. I did this and won movie tickets, which was exciting since I never win stuff like that. The winning photo looked like this:

I had a schnitzel with fries and a cucumber salad and it was all very good and very filling. 

The movie premiere was yesterday and it was great. A great movie, portraying delicious food and great food trucks. It was a great movie and I recommend it to everyone when it comes out in cinemas. 

Uni Life

In the fall, I am going to start a new chapter of my life, university!
I will be attending l'Université de Montréal and will be studying linguistics. I had to wake up super early this morning so that I could attend a sort of orientation, and decided to treat myself to a food truck lunch. When I got to my favourite spot, I became quite excited, because two of my faves were there: Nomade So6 a& Chaud Dogs. Nomade So6 makes phenomenal sausages and have a little shop in the Atwater Market. Chaud Dogs make gourmet hot dogs, and they are both really great trucks with great food for a great price. I decided to try a new item at the sausage truck. A spicy Sriracha sausage and it was amazing, I have no regrets.

It was spicy in a way that made my lips tingle, but full of flavour and really enjoyable to eat. 

To accompany that, I had some fries with a sort of smoked dip and a handcrafted soda. These sodas are pretty awesome, because they are made locally, by an awesome company, and there are many different flavours. Last season, I got to try a grape flavoured one, and the one I had today tasted of pear. They are really great and very refreshing. 

Cité du Multimédia

Yesterday, my brother and I were taking a stroll through the Old Port, which is a lovely place and I need to go more often. We were looking for a particular food truck spot called Cité du Multimédia, which I only knew was next to the Lachine Canal in the Old Port. It took some digging, since we don't really know the area very well, which is dumb, since we've lived here our whole lives. When we did find it, I had to tap my forehead, since we've passed that are so many times by car, just never walked by it before. It's a cute place with benches, great for a food truck lunch.

It was well into the afternoon when we found the spot, so instead of having a full lunch, I simply had a gazpacho from the food truck, Gourmand Vagabond. It's a pretty truck, that serves sandwiches. I've never had the chance to try out the truck before.

The gazpacho was great, a nice little snack that was refreshing on a nice day.

I'm really glad I found the Cité du Multimédia spot and I will definitely check it out more this summer. 

May 9- May 14

Of course, since I am absolutely obsessed with food trucks, I try to go as much as possible. Having said that, since I do not actually live on the island of Montreal, making it more complex to go visit food trucks very often. Also, the season started during finals, making me quite busy and it was difficult to go as much as I wanted. 

My first truck this year was Landry & Filles, a really great food truck serving up comfort food. Their logo is also really cool, and the aesthetics of the truck are awesome. 

I remember that day as if it were yesterday. It was drizzly and gray, but I couldn't wait to try out a sidewalk delicacy. I chose the meatloaf sandwich (which is to die for) and it was amazing. I can't wait until I can try it again. 

A few days later, one of my favourites was parked in front of my school. A very convenient spot if I may say so myself. Gaufrabec to the rescue! Last year I have had my fair share of these delicious Belgian waffles, and I told absolutely everyone I knew about their arrival. I was so delighted to sink my teeth into a really great waffle, decadently sweet, which also has the great feature of chocolate inside the actual waffle. Amazing. Despite the chocolate waffle being my favourite, I also bought one with raspberries, also quite great. These waffles are quite sweet, definitely for anyone with a sweet tooth, but the truck also offers savoury flavours as well. 

The next day, it was my last exam at school, and to treat myself, I visited the truck of the day outside for a really comforting hot chocolate. I was from the cute little truck called Café Larue & Fils, a truck very different from the other trucks around. This hot chocolate had a hint of orange to it and was really worth the purchase. My friends bought some coffees and muffins, and you can tell straight away that they are all made with love. 

For lunch, I decided to visit a few food trucks in my favourite spot, and tried something new from a truck I haven't tried in the past, Les Brigands. I've always been very attracted to this truck, since their logo is of a raccoon, an animal I secretly love, and their specialty is pie, one of my favourite food groups. I tried one of their concoctions, which was aptly named a "Pop-Tart". It was basically some pastry with caramelized onions and tomatoes with some cheese, but since I have an aversion to cheese, as a vampire has to garlic, they very kindly made a custom one for me. I also enjoyed some pita chips with a delicious eggplant dip. The prices there were really quite reasonable, and I cannot wait to try something new from that truck very soon. 

The next day, my mum and I went to a soccer game, and I convinced her that a food truck would be a good idea for supper. The one we encountered was Lucille's, who have a really great restaurant on Monkland. Their specialty is oysters, but this food truck served other types of seafood. I enjoyed a really great lobster roll; my hotdog bun being buttered just right. My mum had a crispy fish taco, which was also really delicious, but quite spicy. We were also graciously offered some free chips, which is what I call a win-win situation. 

This so far has been my food truck experience, and as soon as the weather clears up a little bit, I am going to experience many more. I am also quite excited for the many festivals coming our way, since many food trucks tend to be around the same area. In short, this summer will be great ! 

First post (!!)

So, I am in no way talented in terms of writing or aesthetics when it comes to a blog, but I have decided to create a blog, mostly for my personal pleasure, to record my experience eating from Food Trucks in Montreal.

If I may, here is a little bit of context. I had a pretty rough summer last year, and one of my sole highlights from that time was this new phenomenon of Food Trucks in the city. They were banned from Quebec for a very long time, but a new project was put into place to reintroduce them. These sort of trucks have been very popular in the United States and in other parts of Canada (proof the TV program Eat St. on The Food Network) and so it is a great privilege that there are some scattered around this city.

I have become absolutely obsessed with these, and was ecstatic when they were reintroduced this year. I visited quite a lot last year, like amazing Belgian waffles at Gaufrabec. My favourite one however, was ôsoeursvolantes, a slightly lesser known truck that serves AMAZING comfort food. There are 40 trucks rolling around this season, and I cannot wait to try them all.

   The BEST meatballs I had all season
 from ôsoeursvolantes 

      Belgian waffles from Gaufrabec, they are

          the best, I swear 

       Really great fish and chips from Le Quai Roulant 

The 2014 project started on May 1st and I have had the opportunity to visit a few already and I have had amazing experiences.

I am hoping that this blog will be a good recording of my food truck adventures during this 2014 season, and encourage them for many more years to come.