Harvard Food Truck Feastival – July 14, 2018

We would like to tell you that this was an amazing event. We love the little town of Harvard, Illinois. It’s where we get the train to Chicago. This was an event we were really looking forward to. Unfortunately, it wasn’t anything like we had hoped.

We arrived hungry. We even left the house earlier than planned because we hadn’t eaten.

When we arrived, we were able to park only a couple of blocks away.

There was a lot of anxiety and confusion about parking beforehand. The police had issued a statement that there were a lot of events in town and in Chicago so parking might be tough. They warned everyone to park in the right places. There was even confusion about whether the parking at the Metra station was free or the $2.00 normal fee. We didn’t care, but wow, that’s a lot of anxiety for a small town.

There was even a question about whether people could park at the school district offices across the street from the event. The event folks answered on Facebook, “That’s up to them.” Shouldn’t you be calling them?

Speaking of police, there were a lot of cops. They were all standing around when we arrived. They were wearing bulletproof vests and all well-armed. Not sure, but if you didn’t know where you were, you’d think you were at a police block party event.

The reason we were able to park easily was that it was raining lightly. That likely kept some people away.

Anyway, we got there and walked up to the gated area. There were volunteers standing around chatting. It took a minute or two for the man to turn around and tell us that they weren’t collecting the $5.00 fee yet. We could go in free.

Here’s the thing about the $5.00 entry fee. We went to Bastille Days in Milwaukee with three or four times the number of vendors and it was free. This little event should be free as well. Let the vendors charge $2.00 for beverages and take a dollar of it to pay costs.

We walked through looking for a specific truck that serves mashed potato egg rolls. Apparently, so said the nice lady at another gate, they backed out on Monday. That should have been noted on the event so people weren’t looking for it.

Next, we went looking for the Korean food truck. They have bibimbap we were excited to try.

It took 20 minutes to get to us. There was a food inspector who decided to inspect the truck right at noon. I’m glad she was there making sure no one would die of food poisoning, but that could have been done before people started ordering food.

We also ordered fried kimchi dumplings.

That’s when it started to go downhill.

A bibimbap is supposed to be rice with vegetables and maybe meat and/or an egg on top. You should be able to stir all together before you eat it. What we got was a bowl with lukewarm rice at the bottom, chopped iceberg lettuce on that, and a bunch of cold vegetables. There were carrots, julienned pickled ginger, sliced tofu and a couple of other things. We ordered an egg on top. All of this cost us $13.00. It was not worth more than $6.00. It was not bibimbap.

Here’s the thing: We’re kind of food snobs. We watch the Food Network and we like to eat great foods. It doesn’t have to be perfect, but make sure it’s at least an approximation of what the food is traditionally.

In the case of the bibimbap, call it a cold bibimbap salad, but not bibimbap.

Bob liked the kimchi dumplings, but again it was weird. It was mostly chili paste inside, not chopped kimchi. They were also made into rings that caused them to have a lot of hard surfaces that were hard to eat. They were very hot temperature-wise and spice wise. They’re okay, but could be better if they were made as potstickers instead of smaller pockets.

 

Next came the chimney cakes.

Let us say that these tasted good. It’s a bready cake that’s cooked in a spiral. They stand it on end. Apparently, traditionally, they’re served empty, but they filled ours with Bavarian cream and whipped cream. Fresh and empty with coffee, we bet this is awesome, but…

There is a problem with this as a festival food. The cake is really more bread than true cake. Because it’s cooked as a spiral and has a heavy crust, it’s really hard to tear off pieces. Since there’s no bottom, you can’t simply pick it up. Our advice: cook it as rings and stack them like onion rings, then fill them. It would make it much easier to eat as a carry-around food.

There was a band there. They actually sounded pretty good, but… “these amps go to eleven”, but should they. Imagine a small town main street where all the buildings are brick. It’s 12:30 in the afternoon and most people are sober. The music was so loud that it consumed the whole street. And to sit and watch the band, you literally had to sit on upside down plastic buckets.

Turn the music down and move the picnic tables down near the stage so people can watch and eat.

If this was their first effort in Harvard, they did okay. Everyone was nice. Nonetheless, this event could have been better if the vendors upped their food from mediocre to great and the organizers changed the layout and policies a bit.

Thanks for having us, Harvard. Maybe we can try again next year.