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| - For me the 2013 Las Vegas Foodie Fest was a mixed bag. The food was novel and delicious when you could secure it. But a whole host of obstacles had to be overcome first, and a wallet largely emptied before one's stomach could be fully satisfied. The ordeal began with parking: either find a lucky open spot on The Silverton's vast paved lot or wind up in the rut-filled dirt moonscape across the street. Next was gaining admittance to the festival grounds: either inch your way through an hour-long line across from the dirt lot on the south side or walk on in within 5 minutes on the south side near The Silverton's parking garage entrance if you were savvy enough to buy your tickets onlne in advance and knew of this rather poorly publicized entrance. Enduring hour-long food lines was next. And, finally, an open seat or two had to be found in competition with hundreds of other hungry though thankfully fairly amiable and courteous attendees.
Food outages did not help to make these series of trials any easier. "CLOSED" signs were everywhere on darkened trucks as early as 8:30 p.m. on Saturday night. The Maine Lobster Lady ran out of Blueberry Lemonade too early for me to try any on Saturday, and Lobster Rolls were all gone not long afterward, although I was one of the last lucky festival goers to score one. And, it was quite tasty, filled as it was with cold chunks of lemon-kissed Lobster mixed with lemony mayonnaise, on a soft but small and slender bun. At $18 a crack, it had better be good!
And, thank goodness for Yelp's Lounge on the festival grounds. Here I was at least able to secure a seat at a table to enjoy my Lobster Roll in relative comfort.
But one fancy sandwich is hardly worth the $8.50 admittance charge plus $18 outlay for the food, even though the Lobster Roll came with a pickle spear, small bag of Lay's Classic Potato Chips, and a lemon wedge. So I got up and plodded along through congested festival grounds to obtain some more food, weaving in and out of hour-long ordering lines. Eventually I settled on the Tornado Potato truck, where, about 45 minutes after joining the snaking ordering line, besides being at last able to quench my thirst with a homemade Lemonade, I savored a Sausage Tornado, and by doing so was able to combine a filling circular staircase of oily fried potato with a sweet and savory Hawaiian Portuguese Sausage on a stick. Alternately dipping the deep-fried potato in tomato ketchup and the sausage in yellow mustard, and then remaining ever conscious of the stick in the middle so as to preserve my front teeth for future dining adventures, I very much enjoyed this inventive concoction. And, the two bites I sampled of Diane's Tornado Potato dipped in cinnamon and sugar were sweet and tasty too, once we at last found two vacant seats under a well-lit dining tent. Meanwhile, she supplemented her potato twister with a Butter Poached Lobster Grilled Cheese Sandwich and Parmesan Truffle Fries from Devilicious, bringing the night's total expenditure to over $70 for two.
I would have gladly spent more to score some ice cream from Fat Daddy's, but, sadly, this food truck that I was first to review on Yelp almost exactly 1 year ago, this time flatly let me down. Out of product apparently long before I got there, I found the vehicle all closed up and dark inside. I could have eventually obtained a snow cone from Oso Ono Shave Ice or Tropical Shave Ice, but at this late hour, next heading for Southern California, I craved ice cream--not an ice cream headache. Alas, ending this exploration into exotic food with a cool dairy treat was just not meant to be.
On our way out we passed by the three-hour line of persons playing musical chairs as they approached the holy grail of White Castle. With ease I walked on by. For, I had eaten White Castle burgers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin several decades ago. They were just known as tiny and rather simple burgers then--not sliders--and seemed hardly worth standing or sitting in a lengthy line for.
So, will I return for future Foodie Fests? Maybe, and maybe not. But if I do, I will research in advance the menus of each attending food truck, come earlier in the day, and as soon as I gain entrance make a beeline for the pre-selected trucks of my choice. The four stars are for the food--not the overall arduous experience.
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