The Great Food Truck Race took an evil turn this week as team rolled into Manhattan … Kansas, a college town of about 52,000 people who are mostly blue collar workers and college students. Teams knew right from the start — well, most of the teams — that a simplified menu and lower price points were going to be key on this leg. But the Lime Truck guys felt that an $11.00 burger was going to put them at the front of the pack even if they did feel they’d have to “dumb down” the menu (words that would come back to haunt them).
The first cooking challenge was tough because the teams had a $5.00 debit card to buy food and 30-minutes to prepare something tasty for a snooty food critic who seemed to have higher than reasonable expectations for what $5.00 and 30-minutes would produce. After being reminded of their “dumb it down” gaffe, the critic declared Lime Truck’s pancake concoction pasty. The others fared only slightly better but, for the first time, Seabirds pulled out a win and got a major advantage — they would be the only truck to park near the campus of Kansas State University in Aggieville. The others could park anywhere else outside of that six block radius. Teams were also given a whopping $400.00 in seed money.
Teams have found their groove now when coming into a new town by calling ahead for food or finding just the right contacts. Korilla managed to find a Korean grocery store, and Seabirds found a co-op market with local, natural foods. Unfortunately, Seabirds still have terrible time management skills. I mean, how difficult can it be to prepare mostly raw food?!? This week they did fry up something that was supposed to resemble pulled pork, but they really do very little cooking. How long can it take to make cole slaw?
Teams have also gotten accustomed to Tyler Florence calling them on Sunday with a Speed Bump, but he threw a real wrench into their works by calling them on Saturday just as they were getting into the selling fo their food and told them that for the rest of the weekend, everything on their menu had be priced at under $1.00. Of course, everyone bought high-quality food with their $400.00 and now they had to sell it at a loss.
Most of the teams adapted well with Roxy figuring out that by quartering their grilled cheese sandwiches, they could sell each piece for 99-cents and call it a slider. Most everyone else reduced the portion sizes, but Lime had such grand ideas that they had to shut down midway through the first day, buy more food (and stuff that was not quite up to their standards, like canned pie filling), and really “dumb down” their menu. By day two, Seabirds finally realized that they are just too slow, so they offered two menu items, Silver Dollar pancakes for breakfast and taquitos and slaw for lunch, to get them through the rest of the day. Some people went to other trucks when they leaned those were their only choices.
Things got a little heated when Hodge Podge saw the Korilla line and started poaching their customers, but in the end it didn’t matter because Korilla finished in first with an amazing $5245.00 off of 99-cent menu items! Roxy came in second with $5132.00 and Hodge Podge was a distant third with $2880.00. Unfortunately, the snail’s pace of Seabirds — which has plagued them throughout the competition — sent them packing even with the best location in town. The irony in this week’s outcome is that the next stop is Memphis, and the Speed Bump will require all of the trucks to go vegetarian. DOH!
Clacked by Chuck Duncan 
on Sep 05, 2011 @ 02:37 EST5EDT
