Thousands tuck into truck fare

Levin has jumped into the food truck scene with both feet as roughly 2000 people rolled up for the town’s first food truck festival.

The Thursday Night Street Feast showcased 10 food trucks from a growing fleet of vendors from throughout Wellington and the Manawatu-whanganui regions.

Street Feast co-founder Simon Bowen said it was the first time he had ever spent much time in Levin, and he’d enjoyed mingling with the crowd.

‘‘They’re a lively bunch. It shows that when you bring people quality they really respond.’’

From now on the street feast will be held on the second-to-last Thursday night of each month, from 5pm to 9pm in the carpark in front of Te Takere in Levin.

Bowen said a key reason for bringing the street feast to Horowhenua was the council’s commitment to developing local pride and vibrancy.

He said the event always drew crowds, with more than 6000 people attending its inaugural Palmerston North event last month and about 5000 people regularly attending in Lower Hutt, where the street feast was founded.

There were a couple of ‘‘new kids on the block’’, including Meatballers and Indonesian noodle truck Garuda, for the Levin Feast, Bowen said.

‘‘Whenever we go to a site there’s a lot of pieces to the puzzle. We do a lot of research, look at the socio-economic situation and the culture, and we line up the trucks to match.’’

Levin couple Jo and Greg Manson and their children, 10-year-old Logan and 5-year-old Bella, were showing their friends Caroline Lord, 5-year-old Travis Lord and 11-year-old Keisha Taiaroa around.

The Lords had come up from Wellington for a visit and were chomping at the bit to tuck into the mobile feast.

‘‘I was planning to come anyway, so the food tucks were an added bonus. I’m going to try for one of everything.’’

Keisha said she was having a hard time choosing. ‘‘I may not be able to choose most of the things, but I’d like to eat all of it. It does all look good,’’ Logan added sagely.

Trish Kaye was lining up at Meatballers after sampling some crispy noodle salad and summer rolls from Saigon Corner with her husband. ‘‘Some of the sauces were quite hot, so we’re lining up for some strawberry and thyme or mint and mango lemonade.’’

Well Kaye awaited drinks, her husband had jumped in another line for some goat curry, she said. ‘‘They’re not things I’d normally do at home, that’s the idea. [I don’t mind the lines], you don’t come to be rushed, you come to enjoy.’’