Philly's Food Truck Scene

 Gone are the days of a questionable hot dog from a questionable cart.  These days, food trucks offer serious, high quality fare crafted by legitimate chefs.  They are peppering neighborhoods all around town.   Put simply, I'm hooked.

With the Vendy Awards coming up Saturday, July 28, we thought we'd highlight some of our favorite food trucks.  The Vendy Awards honor the thriving food truck scene in town, and recognize the talented sidewalk chefs that are creating this exciting culinary trend. 

Spot Gourmet Burgers, Steaks and Pork can usually be found at 33rd and Arch, on Drexel's campus.  The burgers are made from top quality sirloin that the owners grind daily.  They have a great assortment of interesting sauces and combos, and their simple approach to fresh, straightforward food totally works.

Buttercream Philly is a cupcake lover's heaven.  Owner Kate Carrera punted lawyering for baking in 2009 and she never looked back.  I'm delighted with her career change.  I sampled a lovely sextet of her creations; one was better than the next:  vanilla/vanilla; vanilla/ganache; vanilla/nutella; cookies and cream; chocolate/ganache; lemon/strawberry.  Good thing I only bought six.

SugarPhilly also aims squarely at the sweet tooth.  Their theory is that people want high quality, sophisticated, elegant desserts without the three-course commitment or cost of a full restaurant meal.  And they deliver.  Their macarons, which come in a variety of flavors, are transformational.  Their creme brulee is fantastic--if you have a hankering arrive early, the creme brulee can sell out.

Where do we go next?

Cupcakes in Philly, an Embarrassment of Riches

Cupcakes are everywhere. And we've rarely met a treat we didn't like, especially a pretty, nicely-portioned, eat-with-your-hands-but-not-like-a-barbarian-cake. Good thing Philly is well stocked with cupcake providers.....

We enjoyed this sixpack from Buttercream Philly Cupcake Truck. 
And were thrilled to learn that they will be opening an actual shop in August.  Stay tuned for details; we heard the location is Pennsport.

Buttercream Cupcake Truck's Selection

We had a lovely encounter with one half of the Cupcake Wonderland Team at South Street's New Market.    We sidled up after dinner, around 9pm just as the Market was closing down.  We chatted briefly with Nima, who was utterly charming, and even as the lights were shut off, he stayed to make sure we got the cupcakes we wanted.  He was terribly apologetic that he wasn't able to decorate the cupcakes properly--what with it being pitch dark by then, but he did scatter a few Spiderman oatmeal cookies on the cakes for some additional pizzazz.

A Cupcake Wonderland Cupcakes--Cupcake War Champions!

We're huge fans of Cookie Confidential--their push pops are a perfect pick me up.  The novelty packaging is great, and the small size of the cupcakes makes them ideal for, well, everything.

You can never go wrong with treats from Brown Betty.  With locations in Northern Liberties, and Liberty Place and a wide assortment of amusingly named cakes ("Company's Comin'" is a personal fave) these are always a hit.  They are generously portioned, so I'm a fan of cutting them in half.

Brown Betty Cupcakes

And no cupcake post would be complete without mentioning Flying Monkey.  Their lemon-filled cupcake puts me in a swoon.  Pistachio, too.

Flying Monkey's Bouquet (photographed by Albert Yee)

Which is YOUR favorite?