Parked up for a big food festival
A small village of caravans, tents, and trucks have popped up and parked up in New Plymouth to sell all types of cuisine at the city’s first Food Truck Festival.
Organiser Brent Taylor, who is also behind the New Zealand Tattoo and Arts Festival, said they had ‘‘almost everything’’ covered in terms of food.
Types of cuisine at the festival include: Malaysian, Vietnamese, Japanese, South American, crepes, and Ha¯ ngi.
The event opened last night in the mild sunshine, and continues today and tomorrow between 12pm and 9pm at the East End Reserve.
‘‘It’s something I’ve had in mind for a little while,’’ Taylor said.
The festival is something he’d seen in America and wanted to bring to New Plymouth.
‘‘We’re a little bit behind overseas but in America they’ve had food trucks for ages,’’ he said.
‘‘The likes of Womad and the tattoo festival events have 10-15 food trucks now. It’s fed off that.’’
Taylor hopes to bring the Food Truck Festival back every year, depending on the turn-out.
He thinks having free entry will be a real a selling point.
Among the businesses taking part is the 41 Reka Kai Kart, which will be dishing out authentic Ma¯ ori food.
‘‘We do hᾱngi, boil up, fried bread, but we also do burgers, wraps, milkshakes,’’ Denham Matenga, owner of 41 Reka Kai Kart, said.
Matenga and his wife Rachel Williams were excited to bring their Kai Kart from their home in West Auckland down to New Plymouth, despite a bumpy ride over Mt Messenger.
‘‘Different location, new challenge, new people, and a good chance to see what’s happening in New Plymouth,’’ Matenga said.
For Toni Bollard, from Firebird International Street Eats, being in the truck is new territory.
‘‘I’d been doing this little food business for a year with a tent and my brother said to me, ‘God, Toni, you can’t work like that, you have to have a caravan’.
‘‘And I said ‘I can’t afford a caravan.’’
But her brother and his wife were generous enough to build her a caravan and Bollard hasn’t looked back.
‘‘It’s so amazing. I used to have bread blowing off the grill and all my utensils were gone and now it’s all in one place.’’
Bollard makes her own chorizo, falafel burgers, and spicy black beans.
The Food Truck Festival is only her third outing in the caravan.
‘‘It’s quite a trek up here but it’s so beautiful.’’
She urged people to make the effort and attend the event.