For the last couple of years especially this past year, there has been a whole influx of food trucks. I am not talking about just the taco truck which has been around for a while but these new fancy food trucks that sell gourmet food. Usually these food trucks can be found in different places every day and the best way to keep track of their locations is through twitter. Having grown up with street food, I love all these food trucks and I am on a mission to try out all of them and what better way to do that than at a Mobile Chowdown.
Mobile Chowdown is a gathering of all the food trucks in one place on one special day. The first one was held last October with less than 10 food trucks. It was so popular that the organizers started to organize one every couple of months and each time the number of food trucks increases. This time, there were almost 20 food trucks including some that drove all the way from Portland. We missed the first three but decided to finally check out the Mobile Chowdown No. 4. From word of mouth, we knew that there were going to long lines and lots of people, we went there just when it opened.
We found one of our favorite food truck, the pig – Maximus Minimus!!! Check out the cool shades on the pig! 
The fancy background is the Experience Music Project Building.
Side view of the pig
Guess what the pig sells? Pulled pork sandwiches, of course! There are 2 versions of the pulled pork sandwich. One is .hot and spicy while the other sandwich is sweet and tangy. You can also add a side of coleslaw or chips or cheese
The pig is usually parked at 2nd and Pike St but sometimes the pig wanders around town. We first found him at a park last year. So check out their twitter or website for their current location.
Will continue with another food truck next.
I didn’t even realize it till today that this blog just turned 4!!! Happy Birthday, my dear blog! It has been 4 fun years. However lately I seem to be running out of steam. Could it be a blog burnout? Or maybe I am just running out of stuff to post. I will probably be slow in posting for the next 2 months while I take a little break from blogging. Hopefully I will be back with gusto in the fall when Lil’ C goes back to school. : )
Three weeks since the summer holidays began and we’ve already been on our second camping trip. I wished that the weather was a little warmer during those camping trips but alas, it has been a cold and wet summer so far. This week is supposed to be warming up, so hopefully we’ll be getting the real summer weather soon.
Anyway, back to camping. For us, camping is all about enjoying the nature and of course, food! We’re always on a lookout for more interesting camping food besides canned food. This previous camping trip, we discovered popcorn! We’ve done lots of microwave popcorn but campfire popcorn? it’s a first for us.
We brought along the Jiffy Pop Stovetop Popcorn and popped it over the campfire. Wished the handle was a little longer because it got quite hot holding it!
As it got heated up, it got bigger . . . . . . . .
and bigger . . . . . . . Looks kinda like an alien!! 
Then let it cool a little before opening up the package. Yummy buttery delicious popcorn! The kiddos loved it. I think it will be a staple on our camping shopping list.
Dumpling festival was 2 weeks ago and I am finally posting my photos. sigh….when will I ever get back on track. Oh well, I guess I will accept the fact that as much as I like blogging, it will always take a backseat after the family. What about you? How do you balance family and blogging?
Anyway, back to my rice dumpling. This year I got together with a few friends to make them. Thanks S for opening up your house yet again and doing all the prep work. That makes it so much easier since making the rice dumpling is pretty tedious.
There are several ways to wrap a dumpling. Some wrap it the “pillow-style”, some make it really big like a log which apparently according to my friend, they wrap it really big so that the family can share one huge one together. For me, I like mine in a small triangular shape like this one.
I like wrap mine in a bunch of 5 – 10 rice dumplings like this and tied together so that it is easier to keep to manage.
Whatever way the rice dumpling is wrapped, it is not important because the most important thing is what’s inside. Here’s our meat version.
It’s filled with braised pork belly, chinese sausage, mushroom, chestnut and dried shrimp. I am missing the salted egg yolk because I forgot to make them this year. The ones sold at the stores here are usually the cooked ones and I am not a big fan of them. So I try to make them myself but this year I forgot, hence the omission.
Here’s another version: the spicy dried shrimp (hae bee hiam) version. It’s filled with my homemade spicy dried shrimp.
Lots of filling! This is actually my first time making this version. It was the DH’s request because he used to eat it at home. He was pretty happy with the final result.
Since both of the above are savory, I decided to make a sweet version. I filled it with red bean paste and it was really good. Unfortunately was eaten before I took a photo of it. Maybe I will make more soon.
