Manayunk’s first StrEAT Food Festival serves up fall treats and kicks off neighborhood’s restaurant week

Hundreds of local food enthusiasts enjoyed gourmet dishes and desserts from food trucks parked along Main Street in Manayunk this Saturday.

The more than 20 food trucks were key to Manayunk’s inaugural StrEAT Food Festival, a warm-up event to Manayunk Restaurant Week, which began yesterday and runs through Friday, Oct. 5. The festival included apple-themed dishes and drinks from the area’s restaurants and bars, local crafters and music.

 

“I like food trucks,” said Nicole Aizaga of Fishtown, who recommended the cheese fries from the Joe Spuds Burgers and Fries food truck. “I’ve always been into food and this is a great opportunity to try some new and different foods.”

Aizaga was joined by friend Matt Delmonico of Manayunk, who says he was excited to try some new dishes.

“There’s always something going on here on Main Street,” said Delmonico, “I definitely wanted to come check this one out.”

The lines were long at many of the food trucks, especially at Say Cheese Philadelphia, a family-run food truck that serves gourmet sandwiches. There were many requests for their spiced-apple grilled cheese sandwich, served with imported Dutch Havarti. 

“We use different cheeses in our food, so the name ‘Say Cheese’ seemed like a natural fit for us,” said Alan Krawitz, part owner of Say Cheese Philadelphia, which is usually parked on Temple University’s campus. He says he hopes to one day open up a restaurant version of the business.

Michael Sultan and Carolyn Nguyen, co-owners of Street Food Philly, which serves locally-sourced genres of foods, say they enjoy cooking their dishes from the ground-up, complete with local and fresh ingredients.”We make everything, from our ketchup to our pickles, from scratch,” said Sultan.

Their festival menu featured apple-roasted pork shoulder tacos and fried chicken and biscuits. 

Many dessert lovers flocked to vendors such as Little Baby’s Ice Cream, an East Kensington group that hand-makes Philadelphia-style frozen desserts, including non-dairy and vegan options. Jeffrey Ziga, part owner of Little Baby’s, was at the event with one of the groups customized tricycles, complete with a freezer cart.

“Ice cream is a feeling, it’s not just a food,” said Ziga, who says one of his favorite flavors to serve is coffee-toffee ice cream.

Ziga added that the group came up with the name ‘Little Baby’s’ because eating ice cream “gets you to a baby-like state.”

Attendee Hope Hale of Narbeth recommended bringing a friend and sharing food, as she split a chicken cheese-steak with a friend.

“That way, you can try a lot of the great food here,” said Hale. “Overall, I thought it was an interesting event. It was great to experience all these different foods in one place.”

For more information on the 2012 Manayunk Restaurant week, click here.