Halloween at the StrEat Food Park (2012)

Tea Time likes to eat before the crowd arrives, so we beat it down to the SoMa StrEat Food Park "Truck or Treat" Party before the sun set. A little early for the dance party, but the perfect time to grab a table and nosh down some eats. We made a pit stop at the beverage cart first thing to test out the "pumpkin sangria". It was right next to the beer table which was doing a brisk business. Most people were getting their first "free" beer. (You could snatch a second free beer if you hit up the Lyft staff and got a token.) The sangria was tasty, but didn't have any real pumpkin flavor. There was only citrus fruit in the cup. Angela, however, is inspired by their idea and will attempt to create a true Pumpkin Sangria using homemade pumpkin syrup, and tossing cubes of cooked pumpkin in with some apples and pomegranate seeds. Seasonal deliciousness.

Beverages truck.

$4 "Pumpkin" Sangria.

Drive for Lyft and get mustache $$$.

That's right! There was FREE BEER! 

Picnic your hearts out Halloween freaks!

The weather was a bit drizzly, but there was a nice section of picnic tables covered by a roof. On the sides were smaller areas totally protected from the elements. A+ The music was cranked up for the dance party, but it seemed a bit premature since most people there wanted to talk and eat. As we were leaving it was starting to fill up, so talking would no longer be necessary. Just shake that booty as sign language.

We wandered around, sipping our sangria, looking at what trucks were on the menu. Most of these trucks were new to us at Tea Time, which is pretty impressive considering the amount of OTG eating that we have done since Food Trucks started to really blitz this city. When we got to this truck and perused the picture menu we were stopped in our tracks. The KRAKEN? Sounds so delightfully Johnny Depp! Fried soft shell crab, crisp crunchy seaweed with bacon, And we added an egg? Holy cow, this drippy umami sandwich is worthy of National Sandwich Day for sure! Heck we think it should even make the Thrillist Top 10! (but we think they've already decided) This sandwich is a bit pricey, but it has quite a lot of ingredients. It was worth a try for sure. Next time this truck is around we want to get the loaded waffle fries.

The KRAKEN! You need a fork for the detritus at the end.

The Kraken came from here! Adam's Grub Truck.

While the Kraken was excellent we needed more to make up a dinner. So Angela went to grab these Garlicky Scallion Homefries while JK held down our half of the picnic table. The taste of garlic was strong, we didn't have to worry about Vampires, that's for sure! Our only request would be for more uniformly sized fries. Some were about half a potato while other slices were only 1/3 as big and it was a little awkward to eat the large ones. Fries should not need a knife in our nit-picky plastic fork world.

Garlicky scallion home style fries.

Let's Eat Grill Stop Truck. 

Of course you know Tea Time needs to get some salad! There weren't many on offer at the SOMA StrEat Food Park Halloween night, but this one sounded promising. A Caramelized Fennel and Arugula Salad. Angela is not big on licorice flavors, but caramelized fennel seemed like a tasty idea. This salad had a Lot of Arugula in addition to bits of fresh Valencia orange, and a  sherry vinaigrette dressing. There was not much fennel in our salad. Perhaps expectations were high after the Kraken and Homefries. We think they also serve this salad with quinoa, and that might make all the difference with contrasting flavors and textures.

Arugula, Arugula, well, Arugula.

Fuki served us a very green salad.

Most of these treats came from Let's Eat Grill Stop who were very generous and handed out goodie bags. The other trucks treated us to one piece each (or none).

Trucker Treat!

Most generous candy giver!!

This event was fun. Tea Time could see it was just revving up as the night got deeper and darker, but we had to run to our next event (full social calendar people! We don't share Everything with you). We couldn't stay to dance the night away, but with skee ball, beer, food and space to dance it sounds like Johnny Funcheap should be proud. We hope you do it again next year!

Costume WINNER in our book!

Lots of costumes! A roof out of the rain. All good things.

The party organizer was Mr. Funcheap. Was he the robot?

A note to Johnny Funcheap--Thanks for keeping the event cost free! You only paid money if you wanted to eat, drink or skeeball (which was $1) so if you came full and, well, happy, you could enjoy a great Halloween spectacle without paying a penny. Cool.