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If your appetite is so large you need a truckful of fodder before you’re satisfied, or even if you just need a nibble, there’s a food festival you might want to sink your teeth into this weekend. The inaugural ABQ Food Truck Fest hits ABQ Food Park (6901 San Antonio Dr. NE) in the Northeast Heights March 1 and 2 and it starts at 11 a.m. each day. More than 30 vendors are serving up everything from classic fair foods to authentic dishes from as far away as Ethiopia. Don’t worry, you can still score tacos. If the food truck ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Many vendors will be dishing out creative concoctions that are a bit different from what you’d usually find from a food truck. Takoroto is serving ribeye tacos with a free Dragonball Z toy on the side, for example. Some of the other “outside the box” grub vendors include Home Girl’s Hibachi, Pokoloco Pineapple desserts and Clay Pot Ethiopian Cuisine just to name a few.
Seble Yemenu is the owner and chef at Clay Pot Ethiopian Cuisine, a mobile food joint and catering business that cruises throughout Albuquerque. She moved to the city from Ethiopia in 2018 and just opened her food truck in January — which she actually converted from a tractor-trailer. Clay Pot will be serving up a vegan platter with a variety of different vegetables as well as beef and chicken stew this weekend. Yemenu says it took three years of hard work to get the truck up and running, but it’s worth it to share some recipes she brought from her home country with hungry folks in the Duke City.
“Try different flavor, try a different taste, and know another cuisine that you’ve never had,” Yemenu says. “It’s worth it to try it.”
This weekend’s gathering of gargantuan food proportions also has truckless vendors such as Madonna’s Muffins, Moody Things Crochet and JC Jerky, plus cool entertainment for attendees of any age. There’s a beer garden for the adults, a bouncy house for the kiddos and free s’mores for everyone. The event will have live jams from The Sellout Surf Club, DJ Wae Fonkey and others.
If you can’t make it to the Food Truck Fest, Yemenu and Clay Pot will cater any type of special event and do pop-up dinners. Contact them at 505-485-9540, email them at claypot@gmail.com or visit Clay Pot Ethiopian Cuisine on Instagram.
For event info and a bigger list of vendors check out ABQ Food Park on Facebook.
For tickets to this weekend’s event click here or buy them at the door. Kids get in free!
ABQ Food Truck Fest
March 1 and 2, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.
ABQ Food Park
6901-B San Antonio Dr. NE
$10