My bf and I arrived in Amsterdam on June 1st and were lucky enough to catch the last day of the…read moreRollende Keukens 2014 food truck festival at the Westerpark!
It was an easy bus ride from Amsterdam Centraal, and we weren't exactly sure where to go after getting off the bus, but then we just followed to crowd to... the most amazing food truck festival ever!! Well, I've never actually been to one, but this one was pretty good for my first experience. And I'm so glad we caught the last day of it, as it only happens in Amsterdam once a year.
There were lots of people, ample sunshine, bands playing live music, and of course, plenty of trucks serving all kinds of food. We were almost paralyzed in awe with all the food selections and couldn't decide which stands to hit up first--everything looked so amazing!
What struck me the most was that a lot of the food trucks appeared to be quite gourmet and were not just your average hot dog and burger stand. The food trucks (AKA "rolling kitchens") were also quite fancy and quirky. One of them looked like a giant pot! Completely different from food trucks you see on the streets of Los Angeles, where it's more function and food over creativity and presentation.
At first, I was thinking we should try to go for Dutch food, as we were tourists in Amsterdam, but finally the foodies in us overruled, and we just went for what looked GOOD.
We first hit up De Appelchiller for some fresh lemonade that came out of a garden hose. Their truck was cutely decorated in a country cottage theme, and they even had a carousel next to it for the kiddies to ride. They had an old-fashioned apple corer for the kids to peel their own apples by hand cranking, too.
The Jamaican food looked delicious, but the line was way too long, and we didn't want to wait, so we didn't get any.
But we did have:
- Yummy BBQ spare ribs from Smokey Goodness.
- The BEST burger we've ever tasted in our lives from The Beef Chief (the Classic Cheese beef burger on a lovely toasted brioche bun).
- Some strange sausage and egg things on round toast from the French cuisine truck. Had no clue what they were called, so we just pointed to them on the counter to order. They were pretty tasty.
- A pinkish Dutch rhurbarb spirit that was sweet and tasty.
- A mediocre gigantic freshly made stroop waffel. This was the last thing we stood in line for, and I was so excited, because I LOVE stroop waffels... but this thing was a bit soft and mushy and not as chewy as I would have liked. Perhaps because it needed to set up a bit for the caramel to cool down? Dunno. I was a bit too impatient and chowed it down while it was still warm.
And of course, we drank beer! Unfortunately, since we don't know Dutch, we didn't realize that there was a deposit per cup, and we left our first cups sitting on a table at the Smokey Goodness truck and then had to pay extra for fresh glasses when getting rhubarb spirits.
I guess the rules and regulations were clearly written out on giant signs above each bar, but we didn't know what they said because there was nothing written in English. So hold onto your cups, folks!
All-in-all, this was an amazing event with some awesome food. Highly recommended if you are a foodie and can catch this event in Amsterdam next year!