I am not a glutton

I was browsing through the selection of cards at The Octopus and the Fox today when I came across this one. I felt it was especially fitting for Follow Eric.

Food Trucks in Five Words

Here's a little challenge for you today. It's a game called "Food Trucks in Five Words." The rules are super easy: Describe a favorite food truck of yours in just five words.

Five words. That's not too hard is it? Here, I'll give you some examples...

The Boiler Monkey: crazy bus and crazy crepes

The Supper Truck: Southern with a creative twist

Gedunk: Rarely the same thing twice

Rustic: darn good burgers and fries

The Toasted Bean: warm crepes and hot coffee

Soo Bak: Korean Seoul meets Albuquerque flavor

The Scottish Pie Shop: kilt-raising good food truck

The Melting Truck: melty cheesy ooey gooey goodness

Alright, now it's your turn. Use five words to describe a favorite food truck of yours in the comments...

Nutella jar ice cream bowl - What can I say? I'm kind of a genius

Sometimes genius comes at unexpected moments. Like when you're staring down into the mouth of an empty jar of Nutella, contemplating how much effort it would take to scrape out whatever little bits are left.

And then an idea hits you.

What if instead of discarding the "empty" jar, you instead filled it up with a few scoops of melty ice cream? Then with each creamy spoonful, you could scrape up a little chocolaty goodness.

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Chatting about food trucks with James Cunningham, host of Eat St.

Should I be at all surprised that the first question a Canadian asks about Albuquerque is about Breaking Bad?

Of course not.

"I frickin' love that show."

Besides being a Breaking Bad fan, James Cunningham is also the host of Eat St., a Cooking Channel show dedicated to sharing food trucks from all across North America. I had a chance to chat with him today about food trucks, the Eat St. cookbook, the current season, and about the trucks here in Albuquerque.

The first thing I wanted to confirm, simply for its irony, is that James can't cook.

"I can't cook to save my life and I admit that in the first few paragraphs of the book."

The book he's referring to is Eat St.: Recipes from the Tastiest, Messiest, and Most Irresistible Food Trucks.

James may not be able to replicate the delicious dishes in the book, but he makes up for it in other ways. He's a comedian by nature (I assume it's his Canadian nature) so he brings the element of humor with him to the show. I asked about some of the funnier food truck names he's encountered and he rattled off a plethora of pun-based truck names, including Swede Dish, Grillenium Falcon, Truck Norris, and NaanStop.

As James puts it, "If you have a food truck, you are a master of puns."

With three seasons already under their belt, Eat St. has come out with a companion cookbook, sharing recipes from food trucks all over North America.

They found that viewers were trying to replicate dishes they saw on the show in their own kitchens, but without cooking times, temperatures, or complete ingredient lists, it wasn't working out. So Eat St. put a call out to food truck owners, asking them to send in a recipe or two they'd like to share.

"We were literally inundated with all our trucks sending in three or four recipes," said James. "So we went through them and chose the best ones and put them in the book. We have 125 recipes from some of our top trucks."

James was especially impressed that the owners wanted to give their recipes free of charge, simply because they wanted to "make people happy."

"We find these passionate foodies who just love what they do and the common denominator we hear time and time again is 'I opened the food truck because I want to make people happy.' We hear that over and over again."

It's easy to see that James has become something of an expert on what he calls the "food truck revolution."

Citing the downturn in the economy around 2008, James explains how out-of-work chefs opted to hit the streets with their own mobile food operations.

"The trucks match the personalities of these food truck owners and the way they're marketing themselves is pretty cool. It's all this new stuff that never really existed before."

Currently on their fourth season, James says he encounters owners who didn't even have a truck back when Eat St. first started airing.

"It's funny because the show is really coming full circle now. The show has actually inspired people to open food trucks and now they're on the show. It's really kind of cool that way."

The fourth season of Eat St. is on the air now. It's a double season, covering over one hundred food trucks through 26 episodes. Between those and the previous three seasons, there's a bounty of great finds--but they still haven't been down to Albuquerque!

I told him all about the awesome trucks we have and asked what it would take to get Eat St. to come down here. He suggested sending in feedback to Cooking Channel, telling them about the trucks in Albuquerque and asking that the show be renewed for a fifth season.

I took the liberty of finding the contact page on their website for you: http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/site/contact-us.html

Send in your feedback so James and the Eat St. crew can keep on exploring the best food trucks in North America and hopefully the ones here in Albuquerque, too!

Follow @EatStTweet

Follow @jamestellsjokes

One Year of Blogging in Albuquerque

It's always a good thing to take a minute to reflect on things. Or in this case, three and a half minutes to reflect on the last year of blogging in Albuquerque. For those of you who are new or those who don't know the story behind the blog, this is a great place to start.

Special thanks to Nick Delgado for putting this video together.



It's been one year since I moved back home to Albuquerque.

Before that, I spent three years living in a small northwestern Oklahoma town called Enid.

And it's been six years since I first started blogging.

Six years. That's a long time, at least in blog years. Over that time I've made a lot of changes to the blog and to its focus. But ultimately it's still just a personal blog where I share whatever is on my mind.

But I did make a change back in 2008 when I decided to buy a custom domain name. I looked around and all my top choices were taken but eventually I found one that I really liked. I bought followeric.com for just ten bucks a year. Little did I know just how much that small change would really affect the blog and ultimately even impact my own life.

Enid, Oklahoma has a population of roughly 50,000 people. We're talking less than a tenth the size of Albuquerque's population.

Everyone warned me about the culture shock I could expect when moving from a big city to a small town. They'd say the same kinds of things over and over.

"There's nothing to do here in Enid."

"Nothing happens here."

"It's so boring."

Instead of taking that as a warning, I decided to take that as a challenge.

In a town that has just one of everything--one Walmart, one Starbucks, one mostly vacant mall--I chose to seek out and find the local places and community events around town.

I found that local businesses had the friendliest owners and local restaurants served the best food and the servers always remembered my name. I made friends with musicians and photographers, poets and other artists at coffee shops and events around town. I hung out downtown for First Fridays and played my guitar at local coffee shops and theaters and art galleries--even once inside the mostly vacant mall. I came in third place in a hot dog eating contest and started writing for some local magazines.

I once led a small group of friends on a 24-hour adventure around town in what would be the first in a series of Follow Eric Blogathons. I spent an entire day--from before the sun came up until nearly midnight--on a road trip to Oklahoma City with some friends, stopping at local landmarks, cafes, and restaurants along the way. I spent three days in Tulsa exploring all of the local ins and out in town, running around and literally running in the St. Patrick's Day 5K.

So when it came town to move back home, I made sure to bring that love of all things local with me back to Albuquerque. Because I found the same things they were saying in Enid, they were saying here.

"There's nothing to do in Albuquerque."

"Nothing happens here."

"It's so boring."

And I discovered that the same small-town mentality can be found even in the bigger cities. And I learned that the best way to combat that is to get out and explore what's happening at the local level.

In the last year I've really taken to heart the mantra of "exploring the local, sharing the personal." It's the tag line I use on Follow Eric. And it's been a guiding factor in rediscovering the city where I grew up.

Over the past year, I've been part of cash mobs, Free Art Friday, poetry nights. I've had coffee from every local cafe I could find. I've made friends with a whole fleet of food truck owners and was even fortunate to be voted among the top five best bloggers in Albuquerque the Magazine's Best of the City awards.

Sometimes it can be a little hard to sum things up when people ask me what my blog is all about so I'm hoping that this helps give you a better understanding. And more than anything, I hope that it helps to challenge you and inspires to go out and explore what's happening at the local level. Go out and find a local eatery over a chain or get to know your local business owners. Go to a restaurant where you know the chef's name and they know yours.

That's really what it's about when I say "exploring the local and sharing the personal." And I just want to say, thanks for reading the blog.

Food Truck Friday

Fridays are already a typically good day to catch some food trucks out and around Albuquerque and it's only getting better.

Today a new pod of trucks set up at Talin Market for lunch. Wednesdays are the typical day for food trucks at Talin but they're going to give Fridays a try as well. I stopped by today to check them out and was pleased with the result.

Today's lineup included...

The Lunch Box

This was my first time ever seeing The Lunch Box in action and even though they typically serve up a selection of subs, I was not one bit disappointed with their offerings today. I opted for some lasagna and received a slab of cheesy goodness and some crusty crispy garlic bread. It was just the perfect portion. And by perfect portion I mean it allowed me to still try the other trucks after I finished.

Doggerz

I'm really glad I was one of the early customers because Doggerz sold out of their Sloppy Pulled Pork sandwiches before I had even moved on to dessert. Slow cooked for 11 hours and served up soaked in its own delicious juices, the sandwich was super satisfying.

Gedunk

Whether he has his cart or his truck with him and whether he's serving up savory sandwiches or sweet treats, Pat from Gedunk is always a welcome sight at Talin Market. Feeling the effects of having filled up on lasagna and pulled pork, I took my raspberry vanilla trifle to go.

The Toasted Bean

Even if I can't fit another serving of food in my voluminous belly, I can always sip on something cold. So I ordered a vanilla iced coffee from The Toasted Bean to help wash everything down, quench my thirst, and give me a little midday boost from the caffeine.

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Now if you'll excuse me, I have some calories to burn off before I pay a visit to the food trucks parked outside of Tractor Brewery tonight...

Around ABQ - Junkado Parade

So the other day I was standing in line to order some dinner from The Supper Truck when a random person approaches me and hands me a flyer.

That person turned out to be Aryon Hopkins and the flyer was for Junkado.

Unless you're already in the know, you're probably thinking the same thing I did: What in the world is Junkado?

I wish I could easily sum it up but I think you'll be best served by checking out the website at junkado.org.

Intrigued by the idea of a "people powered parade with a prize," I ventured down to Nob Hill this past Sunday to see what it was all about.

Here are just a few of the pictures I took.

(Find more pics on the Follow Eric Facebook page)

Again, if you want to learn more about Junkado and how awesome it is, check out their website or connect with them on Facebook.

junkado.org

My Thoughts on the Boston Marathon Tragedy

I thought I would share some thoughts on the tragedy at the Boston Marathon. Not because I have anything different to say or that more needs to be said, but only because I want to share my own personal story and reaction.

I was on Twitter when it happened.

In past tragedies, you typically have a vivid memory of where you were and what you were doing upon hearing the news. I was sitting at the computer, getting ready to work on an article I'm writing, when I saw the tweets and retweets start to trickle in. I jumped over to a room with a TV to see what was going on. Of course, Twitter is always a step ahead of network and even cable news so it took a few minutes before the anchor cut her interview with a guest short to bring in the breaking news.

The initial reports were terribly uninformative and left me without a clear understanding of what had occurred. It wasn't until network news broke in with their coverage that a clearer picture began to form.

And then the video started coming in.

In an event that's already swamped with cameras and with the addition of onlookers equipped with smartphones, it's no small wonder when vivid video and pictures from all angles start coming in to give you a fuller perspective of the events.

But with that fuller perspective comes a more keen awareness of the terror.

For me, I was left with two prevailing feelings: sadness and concern. They came in alternating waves. Sadness over the tragedy and concern over the emerging details.

But it never gave way to fear.

As terrifying and tragic as the events at the Boston Marathon were, I won't allow fear to be my guiding factor. I won't allow it to deter me from still getting out and enjoying our local gatherings and community events. I won't stay home out of fear of the unknown. I won't.

Though at times you may feel fearful, do not allow that to be the guide for your decisions.

I will still cling to my mantra of exploring the local and sharing the personal. I'll be out and about at the big events and community gatherings and I'll take the time to share what I find with you.

Crossing the finish line at the 2012 St. Patrick's Day Run in Tulsa, OK