Food Truck's Episode Three - reality in Texas

This will be a short entry running through the episode of The Great Food Truck Race that aired tonight on Food Network Canada and a teaser for my first food review here on the blog (appropriately for a local food truck,) which will appear tomorrow.

Tonight’s installment of the GFTR was more enjoyable than last week’s and continued to demonstrate the apparent dominance of the truck they call Seoul Sausage (who have yet to make a sausage.)  The location for the weekend’s selling was Amarillo, Texas and the trucks began at a baseball game.  The Truck Stop, like the Speed Bump that followed later in the episode, seemed less artificial than last week’s and tested a relevant skill.  An experienced sports concessionaire judged each team on a “ball park special.”  His criteria was whether people at a sporting event would eat it and whether it was something different than what already was being sold at stadiums.  Seoul Sausage’s Korean Burger edged out Coast of Atlanta’s Hot Dog with Peach Relish to gain 500 more dollars in seed money and a key.

The key ended up being for an immobilizing boot, one of which was put on every truck the next day.  This was the Speed Bump and was interesting in that it reflects a set of circumstances that could legitimately affect food truck operators.  They might have mechanical problems and in a busy city there just might not be another place to park.  The guys of Seoul Sausage, with their key, were able to go back to the ball park the next night while the others weren’t.  Immobility was a crucial detriment to the team that ended up being eliminated but they had already shot themselves in the foot the first night in Texas.

Overall, this episode was closer to the realism that I enjoyed in the premiere.  Though the game had a significant effect on who was sent packing, the luck involved was a fair reflection of everyday business pitfalls, in my humble and totally uninformed opinion.

Tomorrow, I write about my visit to Drift Mobile Eatery, a food truck operating in downtown Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.