Great Food Truck Race - Episode Two - less reality and less interest

The second episode of the Great Food Truck Race aired this evening (in Canada at least) and, unfortunately, it was somewhat disappointing.  There were less street food business realities and a lot more reality TV.  Add to that how uncomfortable Tyler Florence looks when he has been told to get the teams excited and it was difficult to watch at times.

 

The trucks were in Flagstaff, Arizona this week and there were two inserted challenges - one called a Truck Stop and the other a Speed Bump – that, while fairly artificial, did induce some creative cookery.  Near the beginning of the episode, each team was instructed to change one of their offerings and incorporate nopales or prickly pear cactus.  In the opinion of Arizona chef, and regular user of the ingredient, Beau MacMillan, the men of Pop-A-Waffle made the best dish with it.  On their savoury cornmeal waffle, they served marinated chicken and a salsa that highlighted the cactus, while looking curiously interesting.  This gave the excitable trio immunity in good reality show tradition. 

 

The Speed Bump, which was the essence of the realism in the last episode when it made the contestants buy food-safe equipment, was, this time, sort of practical but mostly a made-for-television moment.  The mobile cooks were told that they could only cook vegan for their last day in Arizona.  Many a professional chef is increasingly faced with the last-minute challenge of a guest with such dietary restrictions and that’s where this exercise was sort of practical.  However, food trucks are not restaurants and if they were to do something vegan, it would be planned well in advance.  Nothing that was vegan-ized sounded or looked that interesting and I had one big concern:  a couple of the trucks that normally did burgers presented vegan versions but seemed to use the same big fluffy, high-gluten-looking buns.  If anyone can show me a recipe for that type of bun that has neither milk nor butter in it, I am honestly very interested.   

Finally, my search goes on for a favourite team.  Seoul Sausage look like the ones to beat right now but that’s not the same thing.  I was starting to warm to Momma’s Grizzly Grub’s seemingly downhome demeanour but both their food and their conduct (if the reality show editing can be trusted) was uninspiring.  Their dish for the cactus challenge, a pasta with some sort of tzatziki sauce looked very unappetizing, though Beau MacMillian said he liked it.  And apparently they stole a parking spot from Nonna’s Jersey girls (prompting a violence-promising rant from East Coast team that was not in any way stereotypical) and packed it in early on the last day without feeling bad about it.  Maybe I don’t have a favourite but I am certainly okay with who was eliminated this week.