You don’t need to make a reservation at a sit-down restaurant to get great food in Syracuse — to get a taste of everything from Puerto Rican cuisine to avant-garde wood-fired pizzas, look no further than Syracuse’s weekly Food Truck Rodeo.

I arrived at the empty parking lot next to the Cosmopolitan Building, located on West Fayette Street, at 2 p.m. The Rodeo, organized by the recently formed Syracuse Food Truck Association, is held every Wednesday. The event officially started at 11 a.m. and was supposed to go until 6 p.m. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of thinking that 2 p.m. would be considered arriving early.

Six food trucks and a table stand were set up in a circle toward the end of the lot when I arrived. Several customers strolled briskly between them and then quickly retreated to the interior of their warm cars to devour their food out of the wind.

This year, Syracuse gained four new food trucks: Mami’s Kitchen selling Puerto Rican-style cuisine, Toss ‘n’ Fire which makes wood-fired pizzas to-order, Tortilla Jacks, which sells California/Baja Mexico-style tacos and Heid’s Mobile Food Trailer, a mobile version of the Heid’s Diner in Liverpool that’s famous for its hotdogs.

As soon as I found out about these new trucks, I followed them on Facebook. According to Tortilla Jacks’ Facebook page, they wouldn’t be ready for the Rodeo because their health department and fire inspection weren’t until later that week. Heid’s Mobile Food Trailer said it would be attending the Rodeo, but when we got there it was nowhere to be seen.

Toss ‘n’ Fire’s truck was literally on fire for their first-time appearance at the Rodeo. They had a green tent set up next to an orange trailer with a brick pizza oven dome placed in the center where an open fire oven was blazing.

Owner Nick Sanford said the day’s turnout was much busier than he had expected. He estimated he had made at least 80 pizzas, and said they had to modify some of the pizzas because they ran out of ingredients.

I ordered the ‘Cuse Salt Potato pizza and the Cheeky Monkey pizza — both $10 and modified due to the availability of ingredients. Salt potatoes are a regional dish dating back to the early European immigrants in this area. The 10-inch pizza was thin and the base was soft and chewy with a smoky taste from the wood fire. The toppings were thick and gooey in the center but left the edges exposed, so you could enjoy the taste of the pizza base.

The ‘Cuse Salt Potato pizza was dolloped in fluffy, creamy mashed potatoes and covered in shredded cheddar and mozzarella cheese with crispy bacon crumbled on top. This was my favorite purchase of the day.

The Cheeky Monkey pizza was coated in a layer of the local company’s spicy hot tomato oil, shredded mozzarella and homemade meatballs. It was a mouthful of chewy, slightly greasy meatballs, stringy cheese and the perfect little kick from the tomato oil. Both pizzas were so good that I went back to get the Tomato Pie pizza with white sauce.

This was a more simple pizza, which allowed me to really appreciate the pizza dough flavor and texture. I found the sweetness of the tomato an odd pairing with the creamy white sauce and salty cheese, but it was still good.

Next, we visited Mami’s Kitchen. A quick look at its whiteboard menu told us that they, too, had underestimated how busy the day was going to be. Two sisters run this truck and they thought about 200 people had visited the Rodeo. They had completely sold out of their specialty pernil, or roast pork, so all their sandwiches — their specialty items — were off the menu.

They still had beef and cheese empanadas and tostones, or fried plantains, and chicken tenders and fries. The tostones were pretty dry and tasteless, but the empanadas were another story entirely. Thick and greasy ground beef and a gooey white cheese was hand wrapped inside crispy, bright orange dough. The edges were tightly sealed and the filling oozed out deliciously. It’s definitely a guilty pleasure food, undoubtedly terrible for you, but so, so good.

I’m really excited to go to the Rodeo in the warmer weeks to come. It’s a cheap and fun way to try an assortment of new tastes and flavors while supporting the local food community.

Published on April 26, 2015 at 7:59 pm