I know you are all looking at the list of yummy and unique food trucks and thinking, “Wow Laura is so lucky to live in a city where there are cool food trucks to try!” I agree with you. Just one problem. These food trucks are targeted to the office lunch crowd. This makes them hard for me to come by considering (1) I don’t actually work IN DC…but just outside DC in Maryland and (2) the trucks pretty much only work midafternoon during the work week.
I hate the days when I see on the trackers or on twitter that one of these trucks is in my neighborhood while I’m away at work!
But there is a glimmer of hope for me! I work an alternative work schedule (AWS) which means that I work an extra hour each day and get a day off every 2 weeks. For the past few weeks I’ve been using my AWS days for weekend travel home. But I told myself that the next time I was in town for an AWS day…I would find and try one of these darn food trucks!
This Friday…was the day! I was determined to find myself a food truck. To be honest, I sort of had one truck in particular that I really wanted to try…CapMac. They serve twists on mac n’ cheese…the most basic of which is topped with crushed Cheese-its. On Friday however, I saw (via their twitter) that they were going to be across town at Farragut Square. Bummer right?
I considered taking the metro over there…but then I wondered…how far of a walk IS Farragut Square anyway? Using Runkeeper's “route” feature, I found out that it was only a 3.5 mile walk from my apartment. I’ve easily walked more than 4 miles recently (which I wouldn’t have realized had I not been keeping track on Runkeeper). I had also survived a 6 mile walk all over town last week. (Have I mentioned I love Runkeeper? Oh yea…I did!) I decided to get the dog out of the apartment…pre-burn the calories…and walk for some lunch!
When I got to Farragut Square…I realized what CapMac meant in their tweet by “Farragut Friday.” There were 10 food trucks all around the square competing to serve the lunch crowd. CapMac had one of the longer lines…but I had mac n’ cheese on the brain…and I got in line. I ordered their classic CapMac n’ Cheese - “Balls Out” (meaning they added chicken meatballs).
This mac n’ cheese was sharp, cheddery…and seriously yummy! I know in the picture you can't even see the noodles...I promise it looks like more shredded cheese than there was...well there was a good amount but it really was only the topping haha. While the meatballs were good, I think next time I would get it without them…because it was REALLY filling. I was so glad I had walked that way to try it…especially since walking back would burn off even MORE of the calories haha.
On the way back, Milo and I walked by the White House…and as we were about to pass the Department of Commerce…we were stopped for the motorcade! (Umm so the video below uploaded pretty badly to the blog :-/ I will try to update with a better version soon....and it takes until about 1:19 for anything exciting to pass...The President was in the second limo)
I decided I’m going to jump on this opportunity and try more food trucks! I saw Curbside Cupcakes and Tasty Kabob and they BOTH looked intriguing. I got myself a lamb gyro from Tasty Kabob and two cupcakes (one for now, one for later) from Curbside Cupcakes.
The cupcake I had at lunch was Oatmeal Raisin. It had a cinnamon cream cheese icing on top. The cupcake was really good. I loved the icing and the cake…I picked out the raisins…but I’m glad there weren’t tons! Much later I ate the Red Velvet cupcake I also purchased…it was even better! So moist! I loved it! But I’m not sure it beats my absolute favorite cupcake place in the city…Red Velvet in Chinatown.
When Milo and I returned later that night for the fireworks, I hadn’t eaten dinner yet…and lucky for me…there was one more food truck still there and open…Eat Wonky! I decided to try their signature Wonky Fries… which are french fries topped with gravy and squeeky cheese. I had no idea what squeeky cheese was until I had heard of this food truck. Apparently they are cheese curds that sort of “squeek” when you eat them.
I couldn’t take a picture of the fries because it was dark…but they were pretty good. The cheese did in fact make light “squeeks” when you chewed it. Unfortunately though I’m not sure this was my favorite cheese…a bit too salty for me. I also like more of a melty cheese over fries. The gravy and the fries were great. The squeeky cheese makes it unique…but I could have done without it.
Today Milo and I walked around the Tidal Basin to check out the Cherry Blossoms. Early in our walk we passed the Austin Grill truck! I was really tempted to try their food…but unfortunately I had just eaten at home and wasn't very hungry (I was NOT expecting to see a food truck out on Sunday!). I’m happy to find out this truck goes out on the weekends! I have more of a chance to track them down!
On our long walk we did get to see some pretty blossoms around the basin…
Oh and very tall President Lincoln on his way to the Lincoln Memorial…
I’d also love to have some motivation to walk more of the city with Milo in the summer…this three day weekend we managed to rack up 21.6 miles!!! I may have eaten a lot of food truck food…but I’m pretty sure I burned a lot of it off too! (At least I hope!)
Tried any good food trucks lately? Hear about any good ones? Let me know in the comments!
Boy I enjoyed my virtual walk with you and Milo, but I am not to sure about the SQUEEKY CHEESE! Sounds weird. Hope to hear about some metro-bike-share adventures too!
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