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Food Trucks and Farmer’s Markets

Today was a fabulous day at the Pepper Place market. Not only did they have every possible square inch of real estate covered with a stall, they also had two of my favorite things: cookbooks and food trucks.

I had a preview of the Cookbook feature through the Pepper Place facebook page. I was prepared to meet John T. Edge, author of Food Truck Cookbook and a Mississippi author. That right there caught my attention. I did a little back ground checking on Mr. Edge and found that he runs the Southern Foodways Alliance, which has quite a national following.  The SFA is my kind of place. Check out this part of their “mission/values” page.

We are offbeat.

– We don’t follow the status quo

Who cares how the other non-profits in the food world do it? We plow our own row.

-We are serious about our work, but not too serious about ourselves.

After all, we’re citizens of the Banana Pudding Republic!

-We’re irreverent

We once constructed a bacon tree, draped with slices of cured pork belly.

– We value funk

Against the good advice of a number of folks we staged a Field Trip dinner in a haunted jailhouse.

– We celebrate the South, but we do so thoughtfully and oftentimes critically

The South has a complicated and peculiar history. We acknowledge that. And we leverage that past for our future.

It was great to hear John T. Edge discuss the back story of how the Food Truck Cookbook came into existence. I walked away with a signed copy of the book! I also have a vested interest in the Southern Foodways Alliance. As a Mississippi born girl, I feel it is my duty to get involved in such an upstanding organization 🙂

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And the second part of this story is where I walked to after getting my copy and handshake.

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I absolutely love food trucks. I don’t have a big history of them since the only food truck around when I was little was an ice cream truck driven by a clown so that freaked me out. Fast forward a few years to when we were in Destin last year. We found several food trucks of all kinds. Some were selling ice cream/gelato, some were fast food burger types, and some were for the health nuts. I loved all of them. I made it my mission to visit as many food trucks as I can find before I’m too old and my future dentures can’t chew. I am partial to the healthy food. Heavy fried food has it place, but I have to be in the mood for the heaviness.

I had heard the rave reviews of Shindigs, so I knew I wanted to try something. I wasn’t interested in the “fast food” burger or dogs, although I heard great accolades of how wonderful they were. I wanted something out of the box from is normally offered in small Southern towns.  I got the Salmon on farro salad. I had never tried farro, so this was a good time to try it.

And I made an awesome choice. This was OUTSTANDING. The farro salad was fruity with black and blue berries. I loved the chewy texture, almost like a fat rice. Almonds, goat cheese, arugula (not endive as the board states), and the spicy peppery sauce were a great balance to the sweet in the farro. I got a lot in my bowl for $8.50. It was hearty and delicious. I really hope they come back to the market and I will line up for more.

shindigs