Friday, August 10, 2012

We need a food truck verb and collective noun

I started the weekend with a birthday party! It was a year ago that the food trucks got started in Calgary, and about 20 of them got together to celebrate in the East Village. People have really taken to them, and the food I've had from them has been really good.

But what I want to know, is when the trucks gather in a group, what's the collective noun? If it's a pack of wolves, then it's a (what) of food trucks? And what's the verb for going to eat or eating at one of the food trucks? It was surely happening today. There was a happy buzz around the trucks. Long lines of happy people. Strangers talking to one another. Small groups of people planning their strategy for getting the various foods and meeting back to eat it. People wandering around what to eat. The smells were amazing. There was a great live 3 piece band going hard at it. I think they are called Double Fuzz.

Linda and Sophia got there at 11, and the line ups were starting. There were lots of line ups at 2 when I got there, and still lined up when we left. Sophia and Kris got there at 5, to, you guessed, line ups. This is what popularity looks like. For us, there was just the right amount of people there, enough for buzz, and to get an idea of what was popular, but there was still lots of places to sit.

The other thing thats interesting is the East Village part of it. This is a small area of Calgary just east of the downtown core. For most of the time I've lived here it's ranged from run down (at best) and a hazard to the average passerby. I know lots of people that wouldn't go on the bike path between Centre Street and Fort Calgary unless they were in a big group. When I rode my bike through there I mentally battened down the hatches. I've seen drug deals happening, and once a blow job under a bridge.

Now it's all different. The area, finally, is being redeveloped. It's going to go from a population of geezers and homeless in about equal proportion, to more than 10,000 well off urban professionals. Who knows, it might happen.

So without further ado, here's the food trucks! Happy Birthday! This is the block before the gathering. Normally this is empty except for construction workers.








This is part of an open plaza beside the bike path. The Bow river can be seen just past the people.








I wanted to try the Naaco truck but it looked like they were temporarily out of food. It had been really busy for 3 hours by the time I got there.







This is a model of what they hope the east village will look like in 15 years. The white buildings on the left are there now. The one that looks like a set of steps is City Hall. When they built it they didn't think about the East Village at all, so it's like the building turns it's back on it. Not the mayor of the day though, he's slip out the back door and hoist a few drinks at the St. Louis, a semi-disreputable bar in the block behind city hall. Long since shut down, as have all the bars in that area. There are still people that mourn the closing of the King Eddy, home of the Blues in Calgary.

One of the fancy installations that they hope will keep the homeless from using the river or streets as a bathroom.

 Can't imagine why I took a picture of this guy. This is a little patio off the bike path. You can see some pedestrian bridge construction in the background.


This is really quite close to downtown, only a few minutes walk away. Right where I'm standing, and the area in the photo was terra incognito for the regular downtown crowd.

I tried running after I'd been home a while, but it hadn't been long enough. My tummy was still feeling full. The food is really good, and the portions are huge. I'll stretch a bit more and try again in an hour. Or two. If I don't have that glass of wine that is calling me.

5 comments:

  1. Let me tell you Keith...we waited for those very bathrooms and a homeless couple came out, looking like they just had a bath or something. It was still disgustingly dirty - so bad, we left and used the portapotties. I think it was a fail, which is too bad.

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  2. Even though, in a theoretical way, I'd like to check them out, I think I'm gonna pass.

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  3. Looks to me like Canadians at food trucks weigh half as much as your neighbors to your south. "Circle of chuckwagons" sounds correct, though a "wallow" or a "trend" would work nicely. Verb: "autograze?"

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  4. Hmmm, a wallow of wallow trucks. Autograze is clever. I'll have to roll these around in my mind for a while. See what other people say. Thanks for the suggestions!

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  5. The other thing thats interesting is the East Village part of it. Food Truck Catering

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