NWI Indoor Food Truck Festival – 2018

NWI Food Truck Festival

Can I just share with you how much I love NWI food truck festival food? When I found out that Northwest Indiana was having an Indoor Food Truck fest I couldn’t be happier. I know that there was a pretty big festival held in June and I was not able to make that event, but I was happy that there was another festival AND that is was held during the winter giving me something to do. I personally have been waiting for a food truck culture to emerge in “The Region”. This festival showed that there was a hunger for this style of street food and there are many great trucks looking to fill the need.

Now I know, there was some controversy at the event due to long lines and a possible food shortage BUT, at the end of the day what matters for me is how good was the food that I was able to try. I have to say it was AMAZING! There should be long lines, that’s how you know the food is good. If you’ve ever been to a food truck area around lunch time in a bigger city, people will wait for hours for their favorite food truck. I feel that this is a testament to how great the food is. With that being said, I am so excited that our food truck culture is growing and believe that it will only get better. This is something that is fairly new for the food truck owners as well as its customers in this area.

I was surprised with VIP tickets for the event by my husband, and we really enjoyed ourselves. We were able to get to the event early and check out what it was all about. Immediately, while waiting in line we were approached by the organizer. She was handing out some free beer tastings, yum yum!

My husband’s favorite beer of the night was from Wild Rose Brewing called Mad Cow. Which is a milk stout beer with a hint of coconut….it was delicious!! I favored the beer by Off Square Brewing called Cherry Springer which was a light and delicious IPA, with hints of cherry and vanilla.

The first food truck we went to (SizzleBox) offered a cheeseburger egg roll and Korean ribeye sandwich. We ordered both!

The egg roll was delicious and soft on the inside, it was a little on the sweet side for me but dipped in the aioli sauce was amazing. The Parmesan fries were cooked to perfection as well.

You guys, this sandwich…

Shown above is the Korean ribeye sandwich (drooling). This sandwich was my favorite out of all the food that I was able to try at the fest. Tender delicious beef with a special sauce and the grilled bun added the perfect amount of crunch to every bite. Just gorgeous. Now I wanted to try something sweet and I had remembered seeing a sign…..

Yes! From Mother Wilma’s!!Must get!!!

Oh boy, Bourbon flavored marshmallow with chocolate ganache and candied bacon.

I wish you were all there with me. It was as good as it looks. Gooey, warm and the bacon added a hint of salt to make the flavors stand out, so good!!

Unfortunately, my husband and I were a little full so we decided to take a drinking break.  We had our first drink out of the Stella Chalices that we were given for being VIP’s and then switched over to our plastic glasses. While walking around we noticed…

Yep! A mechanical bull, whaaa?! My husband may or may not have gone on it (Check my Instagram highlights under NWI food truck fest, shhh). There was also a DJ and Live music which both were awesome!

(Live Music Provided by Jason and Scott)

While we were walking around we saw a woman pass us with a half of pineapple filled with bbq meats!!! We must investigate… After asking around we found out that the beautiful plate of food came from Bills Grill Mobile BBQ.

It was great. It has ribs, shredded pork (not 100% sure) and chicken wings, with a side of mac and cheese….amazing!!! My only regret is not getting the spicy BBQ sauce, I played it safe and went with the mild. The sweetness of the pineapple at the bottom was delicious with the BBQ’d meats and the mac and cheese, if you can manage to get it into one bite (which of course I did).

After we ate the meat stuffed pineapple,LOL. We met a lovely couple from Crete, IL and joined them in listening to the music for most of the rest of the night. We attempted to get food from the other places but by then some of the trucks had shut down. Some of the trucks were able to work with us and give us what they did have, for what leftover tickets we still had.

Carnivale gave us cotton candy to go.

This was gone before we got home.

I’ Scream and Cookies sent us home with four of their delicious cookies.

(I Scream and Cookies)

They were huge! I believe chocolate chip and oatmeal raisin.

(Cute as a Cupcake)

(Chunky’s taco truck)

(Dogs n Hogs)

I cannot wait for next year, I will be hitting these last trucks up first, if I don’t catch them around the area. Everyone worked extremely hard and I personally had a great experience.

At the beginning of this post, I mentioned how excited I was that there was finally a food truck culture in Northwest Indiana and that isn’t all. There are great things happening all over the area. A perfect example of that is Julia Huisman, Editor-in-chief of Here Magazine, an amazing woman who through her magazine is celebrating creative people and vibrant places making Northwest Indiana unique. If you get a chance, check out the magazine, it is beautiful and really highlights people and places from the area. I have the pleasure of knowing Julia and she is as cool and interesting as her magazine. If you can’t get to her magazine, check out her website at www.readheremag.com.

Another person I had the pleasure of running into at the fest was Alan Myszkowski. Alan and his team run Local219 where they do podcasts and Webisodes about events and goings on in the area (and much much more). Catch them on Instagram or Facebook @local219 .

Finally, I have to give a shout out to Keelan Wendorf for entertaining me with his magic skills at the end of the night. Catch a quick video of his energy on my Instagram Highlights under NWI Food Truck Fest and follow Keelan on Instagram @magicofkeelan.

Want to read other local food events? Click here!