One of the things that I like the most about the growth that the city of Querétaro has benefitted from are the new leisure events that are organised, like trampoline parks (Elevat), music festivals, sporting events, and the Food Trucks festival, which was organised last weekend (September 10th). Clearly, however, one of the things that I don't like so much about this growth in Querétaro though is that there is increasingly more traffic when trying to get anywhere in the city.
The entrance to the place. They check your bag so that you cannot enter with food brought in from outside.
On this particular occasion, my boyfriend and I had the opportunity to attend the first 'Food Trucks festival' in Querétaro. Let me tell you that, for it being the first one, it was excellent, and I honestly didn't expect to see so many people there. I found out about this event through advertising posts that the organisers did through Facebook, but I knew for certain that I had to go when I read that it was pet friendly. I have two dogs, a thirteen year old Belgian Shepherd and a St. Bernard that is five years old, both of which I love to death, which has meant that I have found it difficult in the past when I've not been able to bring them to many different events. On this occasion, I thought about bringing Roni (the thirteen year old) and leaving Zoé (the St. Bernard) at home because she doesn't know how to act around other dogs and weighs at least 50 kilograms. I couldn't imagine everything being calm whilst eating a burger, and then suddenly being yanked by her because she wanted to bite another dog.
A kind of improvised ticket office.
Roni making friends at the ticket office.
Is it an event for dogs or for humans?
We arrived at the event with our little pup, which was organised in a place that used to be an old estate. Entry to the festival came at a cost of $25 Mexican pesos, approximately $1. 30, which is an extremely low price. Although, I think that the low entry fee helps because, once inside, everything was incredibly expensive. It was impressive how many dogs were actually there because, despite being a pet friendly event, it wasn't specifically advertised from the "bring your dog" angle.
About the food trucks:
The location for the festival was outdoors and, fortunately, the sky was really blue, so the day was quite nice, given that the good weather was in our favour. In all honesty, I thought that there would have been around 20 different food trucks, but, in the end, there were around nine, which seemed, in my opinion, to be too few given the magnitude of the event. However, I guess you have to bear in mind that this was the inaugural festival and the popularity of the event couldn't have been foreseen.
At that time of day, there was practically no one there.
The event a few hours later... there were loads of people and big queues at practically all of the stalls.
There were food trucks with cakes and toast, as well as Mexican snacks, although they also sold desserts like cheesecake and flan. There was also a truck that served Argentine food, above all choripans, which seems to be the typical food in Argentina. It's like a hot dog, but it is made with a chorizo sausage that is seasoned to perfection and tastes delicious. There were lots of things to choose from on their menu, but the thing I chose was a basic combo of a choripan with chimichurri and a drink (either fizzy pop or water), so I chose a bottle of water because I had forgotten to bring one for my dog and preferred to give it to her as she was thirsty. The basic combo, which was the cheapest meal they sold, cost me $100 Mexican pesos, which would work out at around $5. 18. For what it was, it was definitely overpriced, but I must admit that it was really tasty.
My combination meal: choripan and French fries. It was a very small meal for it being so expensive.
An image is worth a thousand words: although my choripan was expensive, it was delicious.
Another of the food trucks that grabbed my attention was one where they sold pizzas, but we were really hungry and the queue was very long. Another one that was also good (I know this because there were always people at it) was the burger truck; you could climb the stairs to the upper part of it where there were a couple of tables with parasols, so you could enjoy your burger from new heights. If you so wish, you could also enjoy some sushi, or you could visit the few food trucks that are dedicated solely to selling desserts. Sadly, they ran out of desserts before 4pm because they were not anticipating such demand from people, but beforehand, you could have enjoyed some delicious smoothies and sweet cakes.
Dessert stand.
Soft drinks and beers were sold at one single stand, where, for $20 Mexican pesos (approximately $1. 04), you could get a bottle of water or a can of whichever flavour of fizzy pop you fancied. For $40 Mexican pesos (approximately $2. 07), you could get a beer to cool down from the hot weather.
Children are welcome too!
One of the things that I liked seeing was the adults calmly enjoying their food and the music because their children were in the games area, where there were inflatables that had been rented, face painting and colouring stations. And, if that wasn't all, there were also nannies that looked after to make sure that everything ran smoothly and that there were no problems.
It has an excellent atmosphere!
It goes without saying that the place had an incredible atmosphere, as there was a band that occasionally played jazz or soft rock music. We sat on the grass around the band to listen to a bit of their music and chill with our pets. It was amazing to see the sheer number of pets that were enjoying a picnic with their owners.
I don't know which one of the two was happier in this moment.
It was really common to see owners sitting down with their dogs, all of which were extremely calm and weren't looking for a fight...
Every time that the band took a short break, the event organisers took advantage of the opportunity to raffle off some items, like free canine training, kitchen utensils or even money vouchers to use at the food trucks that were offering promotions. Sadly, we didn't win anything, but lots of other people ended up winning prizes.
My dog also ended up winning, as, whilst were were savouring our food, she was enjoying a bone and special dog biscuits that I had bought her; you could tell that she was also having a great time. Before leaving, we took part in an agility competition that several dogs entered to see which was the fastest at jumping over obstacles and going through a tunnel. We finished in last place because we took a long time to complete the course, but we did receive the most applause because my dog was the oldest of all the dogs that entered and went through the tunnel, which was what caused our dog to come in last place, as she couldn't see anything very clearly.
An agility and obstacle competition.
This was a highly enjoyable Saturday experience, which we, without a shadow of a doubt, will be coming back to when the second edition of the Food Truck Fest is held in 2017.
But, of course, we are going to go back another time!
