I think I am bad at picking food trucks. When confronted with an array of trucks, I will take my time and weigh the options. I will widdle down my options to just a few and go back and forth in my head until I think I have made my decision. Then, almost invariably, I see another truck and suddenly decide that is the one I am going to choose. That one almost always ends up being completely generic and boring. I am not sure what it is that makes me this way, but it happens pretty much every time.
Today, my wife and I made our way to the West Bottoms in Kansas City for “First Friday” weekend. The West Bottoms is an area of Kansas City known for its vintage and antique shops. Every first weekend of the month they do a big flea market where you can find sellers on the street and all the shops are open for your perusal. My wife has been really into finding pieces of furniture that need a little care, fixing them up, and selling them for a small profit, so this was something she had been looking forward to. I was looking forward to the food trucks and trying out a coffee shop or two. I will get to that in a moment, though.
Let’s start with the experience of just being in the West Bottoms. It is a fantastic place to walk around. The buildings are all old, four or five story brick buildings, with creaky wooden fixtures. It feels like stepping back in time a little, which really matches the antique nature of many of its shops. They are basically selling antique furniture out of antique buildings and I love it. Some of the buildings look like they have not been used for decades, but then you see a sign hanging over an opening and realize someone has set up shop in each of them.
Then, there are the smells. I have never experienced so many different wonderful smells in one place. When moving from shop to shop, I noticed that each shop seemed to have their own signature smell. Some smelled as you would expect; old wood and paint, some had strong potpourri and candle smells. One shop had a little Italian cafe on its second floor (somewhere I wish I had had lunch at), and so that added another layer of bliss to the nasal experience. Outside, between each shop, the smell of various food trucks and restaurants wafted in the air, including the smell of smoked meat coming from a BBQ joint (another place I wish I had had lunch at).
The experience of just walking around the bottoms was so pleasurable; searching through the stores, just looking at all the stuff. One of the shops was actually called Stuffology: a perfect name for a shop in this district. It is when it came time to find a bite to eat that things took a turn. I always like the idea of a spot where many food trucks congregate. I think to myself, with all these options, how can I go wrong. Dang it, though, if I don’t go wrong just about every time. You probably noticed that I have already mentioned two places I wished I had eaten at. I was dead set on a food truck, though, so I never even considered stopping at either of those. As I always do, I had narrowed my choices down to just a few trucks: Jerusalem Cafe and American Fusion. I have eaten at Jerusalem Cafe’s dine in restaurant before and know it is great food and American Fusion sounded interesting enough. However, my wife wanted to check out a few more just down the street. So, we went down there and though I was still flip flopping in my mind between the other two, for some reason, I decided at that moment that one of the barbeque food trucks sounded like a good alternative. What I ended up with was a bowl of pretty middling loaded steak fries.
Supposedly, they were made with brisket, but I’m fairly certain the meat was just Steak Em’s. I would also not consider the fries “steak fries” as they were crinkle cut. To me, steak fries are wedges. The cheese was cheese wiz, which always goes nicely with fries, but does not pair well with BBQ sauce. This all came together for a decent hold over snack, but not a good meal. Nothing about the fries were terrible. There was just no heart to it; no spice or flair. I am certain that I would have had a much better eating experience at either Jerusalem Cafe or American Fusion.
Why do I always do this? It is like a collection of food trucks is my culinary kryptonite. I am usually quite good at picking great new spots to eat at. I feel like I have developed a pretty good nose for it. When I am faced with a half dozen trucks, though, it’s like my nose dies and I just pick the most generic in the bunch. This particular point of weakness can be headed off if all available options are good ones. I remember going to The Roasterie one weekend when they had three trucks on stand by. In that instance, all three were great, including Taste of Brazil, and I smartly tried a little of each. That was just three, though. When you get up over six trucks, one of them is bound to be nothing more than average and for some reason I am destined to choose that one every time. Maybe, I am just not cut out for the food truck game.
Eatin' to Know You, KC 