ESPN Match Truck

During the 2010 World Cup, ESPN had a brilliant idea. Since most of the games were during the day, when people were stuck in their offices, why not get a food truck (ah, the good old days before the midtown food truck crackdown), mount a TV on top and serve breakfast and lunch to fans? And it would work on the weekends too -- just head out to popular locations and the crowd will follow!

Vuvuzelas! Sorry for the poor picture quality - camera was broken, was using my blackberry and I hadn't yet realized that the camera on the blackberry needed to be cleaned
One year ago today, I went to the ESPN Match Truck for my first and only visit (more on that later). USA had played earlier in the day and won, and lunchtime coincided with the start of the Germany-Ghana game. I had some time and trekked across town to get to the truck, which was parked all the way on Lex (I work in Midtown West). There was a crowd the entire time, steadily increasing as the game got started.

View while indulging in my World Cup meal
The match truck offered a bunch of different breakfast and lunch items, each representing a country playing in the tournament. I was intrigued by breakfast, for which they offered silver dollar pancakes, tortilla espanola and huevos rancheros, but I was there for lunch.

The lunch options sounded even better. I wanted to try everything! There was a carne asada burrito for Mexico, a lamb gyro for Greece, and yaki mandoo dumplings for Korea. The three that interested me most were the seared rice balls for Italy (which came with vegetables), the bunny chow for South Africa (chicken curry in a hollowed out bun) and the sliders (mini hamburgers with Kogi ketchup). Since the US had won their match, and since I was still trying to eat food in honor of a country playing that day, I went with the sliders.

2 sliders in one order for $6
And a closer look:


These were so good. The sliders were topped not only with Kogi ketchup (which was tasty) but with kimchi and cheese. I immediately wanted more but they weren't cheap and I wasn't really hungry enough for another set. After eating and watching some of the game, I decided that I had to go back to the truck again to try some more.

The weekend after I tried the sliders we went to the NY Food Film Festival where they were having a food truck drive-in. The match truck was listed as a participant and I kept telling A all about how good the sliders were. However, when we got there, they weren't there, and they never showed up. It was like they just bailed on the event and we weren't good enough for them! It was incredibly disappointing as we kept checking on twitter and found that they just went somewhere else instead. We were doubly upset because we had planned to watch the game on their TV and then had to scramble to find another place to watch at the last minute.

Soon, their time on the streets was over and our chance to get the sliders was gone (and A never got to try them). Unfortunately, my memory of the sliders is less positive than it was on the day I tried them after that food festival debacle. Sad, because they really were good.

I wish something like the match truck would happen again, but with the food truck crackdown, it seems unlikely. But mostly, I just miss the World Cup. There's something different about the summers when the world joins together for one sporting event. Something I love. Looking forward to 2014!