I decided to spend my July 4th over at Royal Oak Taco Fest! It was a very last minute decision, but in the end worth it. I’ve been saying that I wanted to challenge myself to go out and do things solo more, so I did just that! I’ve never been to any Taco Fest, so I wasn’t sure what it would be like, but it was well worth the drive and admission fee. Royal oak is about 2 hours to 2.5 hours away from me, so I made it a small foodie adventure. Admission tickets were $12 per person and when I got in, there were tons of food trucks, vendor booths and a huge kids area. There were all sorts of food beside tacos and plenty of drink booths, both non-alcoholic and alcoholic. Now, let’s eat!
It was pretty hot out, so a freshly squeezed lemonade was a must! There was an option to add alcohol to the lemonade, but I decided not too. I was not going to make the mistake of “eating” alcohol like I did with previous festivals that I wanted to blog about. The first food truck was Eight Claw Crab Boil. I will say, I was hoping they had their seafood boil available, but sadly it wasn’t. Instead I ordered the Crab and Lobster Grilled Cheese. I’ve never had a grilled cheese that was this tasty. It was like heaven. I might have to hunt down Eight Claw Crab Boil pretty soon.
Next was Spicy Jerk Chicken and the famous BBQ Mac & Cheese from Chef Collier Willis of House of Barbecue. I was walking around and the smell of the ribs was so amazingly delicious that I stopped and grabbed food. The ribs were a big portion and I wanted to be able to try more foods, so I skipped on it. Don’t worry, I’m coming to find you too! The BBQ Mac & Cheese was nothing special, still good though, but the Spicy Jerk Chicken was SPICY. It had a great kick to it. I usually don’t like chicken that much because it usually is dry, but this was perfect and juicy. You got everything fresh and right off the smoker. House of Barbecue also got voted for ‘best entree’ out of everyone else!
I always try to go on these foodie adventures and get so full after the second food truck or booth. I opted in for some dessert just in case I was going to call it a day. I was so stuffed after eating this delicious strawberry and pineapple milk chocolate skewer topped with sprinkles, marshmellows and peanuts from Lekker Choco Treats. It was just what needed on a hot summers days. They have different fruit skewers to choose from, then you get to choose your chocolate and then your toppings. You can’t go wrong!
Who was I kidding? Who just quits after the third food truck when you go on a foodie adventure? Definitely not this girl. I was at the Taco Fest for hours, just trying to walk off the food I already ate to try more. I walked around for a good hour and even sat at one of the stages trying to stay awake and away from the food coma that was trying to get me LOL. Ya’ll I was struggling trying to not nap. I succeeded and decided to celebrate with some tacos! Finally the item that the festival was named after.
I know, I know. This might knock down my foodie credit with some of my readers, but I like flour tortillas over corn. Don’t hate me, okay!?! Please still support me ♡ I visited Galindo’s Authentic Mexican and ordered their red queso steak taco and just a regular steak taco. No, I didn’t eat them dry. I added both of their spicy roja salsa and verde salsa. They were good tacos, but nothing that made them stand out to be the ultimate best. Galindo’s got voted for most authentic taco at the festival!
Dessert time again! I’ve been really into sweets lately, which is very unlike me, but I’m not going to question it. It is what it is. There were some carnival like food booths and this one had deep fried candy bars. I’ve never heard of such thing or have seen one, so I had to give it a try. I ordered a deep fried snickers. I don’t know what I expected it to look like, but not a corndog like item with powdered sugar on top. Let me tell you though, if you haven’t had a deep fried snickers bar, you are missing out. I was impressed with this chocolate corndog delight. It may not look like it in the video though. I was passed full and starting to sweat being out in that heat.
I could no longer eat anymore, I was about to pop. It was time for me to leave, BUT before leaving I had to get one last drink. I tried the Watermelon Sugar topped with blue punch. It was a mix of the blue punch with raspberry tea and strawberry melon. It was very sweet, maybe a little too sweet for me. I think it would have been better without the added blue punch. It was pretty refreshing though, so I do recommend everyone to visit The Fern when you find yourself in Royal Oak!
I’m very happy that I did the solo trip to Royal Oak Taco Fest. Sometimes you just need to self indulge and take adventures. How would I rate Taco Fest? 8.5/10. It was a family friendly event with tons of craft tents and blowup obstacles for the kids, then tons of food options to choose from, plus multiple of the same food trucks, so lines were short. There were multiple vendors and chances to spin a wheel and win prizes from the merch ones. I will point out that if you are against cannabis, then this might not be the event for you. Most vendor booths were cannabis and THC products, so that’s all that I will point out. I’m not sure if this event is held in multiple cities, but you can always get a good idea of what vendors will be there based off of the sponsors! I’m not sure what the next foodie adventure will be and I won’t promise anymore about certain ones because I might end up “eating” alcohol again.. oopsies. ALWAYS remember though, we live to eat and not eat to live! ♡
Here’s a local Food Alert for my Michigan readers. I was able to attend the last day of the Grand Rapids 55th Festival of the Artsthis past weekend! This one is a special one because for as long as I can remember, my family and I always attended this festival. It was always so fun with all the painting and different crafts that we got to do, then all the food that we would eat and who can forget about handmade lemonade? I remember we use to design our our own t-shirts with paint, get our face painted, make our sculptures with wood and glue, get ballon animals, spiral painting and even just regular painting. Then as I got older, I was able to take some of my nieces with me and watch them do all the same that I use to do as a kid. It’s such a fun family event that happens in Grand Rapids! I haven’t gone in the past 9 years, so when I was able to make it this year I made sure to make the best of it. A lot has changed from the last time I attended and it was a lot smaller with less activities and vendors, but I just know it’ll get there again! Now let’s jump into the food ♡
I went by myself to do a little foodie adventure, which was very hard because I can’t eat a lot. I got full quick. I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat everything and all of it, so I came prepared and brought some to-go containers from home in a bag to store what I couldn’t finish for later. That was actually such a smart thing to do. GO SALLY! First stop was at the Chinese Association of West Michigan booth. One of my favorites, even as a kid, are these chicken skewers! It was a nostalgic way to start off the foodie adventure.
Not even 2 minutes after buying the chicken skewers, I saw the Sanse Filipino food truck and knew my second stop would be there. With the chicken skewers in hand, I ordered their Pork Lumpias. If I had more hands, I would have probably ordered more food like their chicken adobo, but I also needed to not go in so hard right when I got to the festival. You guys should have seen me sitting on the sidewalk taking a bite of the chicken skewer in one hand and then a bite of the pork lumpia in the other. I was in such a happy place!
After the first two foods, I was feeling full already. I know, it’s not even that much, but I really have a small appetite! I walked around and looked at all the merchandise vendors for about 45 mins before grabbing this Tamales Platter from the Tamales Mary food truck. It has been a while since I had tamales, so it was everything! I really like tamales, especially with extra hot sauce. The spicier, the better. I got a red shredded chicken tamal and a green shredded pork tamal. I tried to eat as much of the platter that I could, but look it was perfect for leftovers for later.
I could have taken a little food coma nap at this point if I tried. I had to be a champ and walk around again and explore more of the festival. I sat down at a few stages and watched a few performances. It got blazing hot after a bit and I needed something cold and something sweet, so why not find some some ice cream? There were a few vendors to choose from, but I decided on SemiFreddo, an Italian food truck. The other ice cream trucks were ones where I’ve had them before, so I wanted to try something new. Plus, a sparkling cream float sounded so yummy and perfect! I knew that if I didn’t finish the ice cream part before it started to melt, at least it would still be good as a float! In the sparkling cream float was a scoop of lemon semifredoo, strawberry sauce mixed with sparkling water. I’m not a huge fan of strawberry sauce because it’s usually just artificial syrup, but their strawberry sauce had chunks of fresh strawberries. They won me over. I had a great time eating/drink my float and watching the jazz band, Big Band Nouveau. It was one of those ‘life is good’ moments ♡
With two hours left of the festival and an over stuffed tummy, I needed to choose what would be my last foodie options. I really wanted to try Honeybee’s Kitchen Caribbean & Soulfood food truck or Big Ed’s BBQ food truck, but their lines were super long. I should have because I’ve been thinking about them since! Long lines usually = really good food. I walked past the Holy Trinity Greek tent twice before deciding that I just needed to get a Souvlaki. This was also one of my favorites to eat when we came to Festival of the Arts when I was a kid. It was just as good as I remembered it!
The last item of the festival foodie adventure was, of course, a Shaker Lemonade from the Big Mike’s Kettle Corn tent. Fresh lemonade is top tier. Usually at this festival it would be a booth by one of the local high schools, but I noticed this year it was more food trucks than associations or organizations like in the past. Not complaining though, all the food trucks were still Michigan local and I was able to have the chance to support them! Also, the streets of downtown Grand Rapids is such a cute place to take photos.
Honorary Merchandise Vendor Mention
You all know how much I LOVE FLOWERS! I was so excited to see a vendor selling flowers and had to get a cute bouquet for myself. Thank you to Leaflet for making this beautiful bouquet and making my whole day. I’m absolutely obsessed with them ♡
I wish I had more space in my tummy to try ALL the other food trucks or tents that I couldn’t get too. If you weren’t able to attend Festival of the Arts, but is now interested, it happens every year in June, downtown Grand Rapids! It is a free event, no admission fee! Just keep your eye out or sign up for emails on their website. You can also follow them on facebook as well! I’m very happy that I had the day off to go. I’m also proud of myself for going on a solo foodie adventure and how much I was able to eat on my own.
This upcoming weekend is the Grand Rapids Asian-Pacific Festival, so if you are in the area you might catch me on another foodie adventure! It’s also held downtown Grand Rapids, this will be my first year being able to attend. It is also a free event with no admission! Another great family friendly event to bring the kids to. Like this one, there will be a Food Alert blog on that coming shortly after! I actually tried to do the same thing with Michigan Asian Fest in Novi, Michigan, two weekends ago, but I ended up only eating beer with a side of papaya salad and kapoon. I had a little too much fun there at Michigan Asian Fest. It was well worth the memories though. See you guys soon! Remember that we live to eat and not eat to live ♡
Here we are with another food alert! It’s another long one for you guys. Destination: Houston, Texas For the location, I chose to visit Houston mainly because I heard about how good the food is and I needed to try it for myself, specifically Vietnamese food. Back in Grand Rapids, we have a few Viet spots that are worth going to, but in Wisconsin there’s even less. Houston definitely did not disappoint me, it actually left me with wanting more. There was no bad dish!
So let’s start off with day one with Shokku Ramen. Besides some airport pizza in the morning, our first meal in Houston was at this cool anime themed ramen restaurant. The restaurant plays different anime series on their televisions, plays anime music the whole time and even serves some of their dishes on cool wooden plates with anime figures on them. Unfortunately, the ramen wasn’t one of those dishes. I ended up choosing “Da Oxtail” Ramen and my boyfriend choose the Surf & Turf Ramen. The entrees were super delicious and thank you to whoever decided to add crispy garlic to the ingredients! Garlic pretty much goes on everything.
“Da Oxtail” Tender, shredded oxtail & steak in a combination of our Tonkotsu and house-made oxtail broths with a hint of miso, served with yellow noodles and topped with 2 shrimp tempura, Hon-shimeji mushrooms, soy-cured egg, bok choy, red ginger, crispy garlic & ginger butter with a hint of Togarashi. Rich and delicious.
Surf & Turf Soft-shell crab tempura & tender NY strip steak in a combination of our house-made Tori and Tonkotsu broths served with yellow noodles, tempura scallion, soy-cured egg, crispy garlic, red ginger, fried onion & ginger butter
Next we went over to Houston’s Asian Town over on Bellaire Blvd. I will say that it is the biggest Asian town that I have ever seen or been too, but I’m only from Michigan and Wisconsin. We don’t have too much there. You have your Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian, etc. stores, markets and restaurants all along the street. Everything looked so good and I’m coming back to Houston over and over to try them all! We came across Viet Street Drinks & Snacks where we got the Tropical Green Tea drink. The Tropical Green Tea drink is a fresh fruit tea and had fruit pieces of strawberries, mangoes, pineapples, lychee, peaches, passion fruit, and jackfruit. The freshness of the fruit and drink was much needed after traveling all day and stuffing ourselves with ramen! They also sell Viet street foods there, but the kitchen was closed when we got there. I’ll definitely want to head back to try those. There were snacks that I have never heard of!
I was so in awe of the wall murals at Ninja Matcha that I forgot to take a picture of our ice cream. Ninja Matcha is also located in Houston’s Asian Town by a whole bunch of other food places and markets. There we shared one of their house made Green Matcha Ice Cream cone (with 38% matcha powder). If you have ever had matcha, you know that it can taste pretty bitter. I would say I would not go more than 38%, that was a little more than enough for me, but it was still very enjoyable to eat! They had cool matcha sundaes that were huge and filled with different toppings. If we weren’t so full already, I would have dug into one of those bad boys. If you like matcha, this is the place for you!
Yes, we stuffed ourselves as much as we could on the first day because we ended our night with some tacos from a food truck by our Airbnb called Taco Arcelia. We tried their carnes and pollo tacos. I’ve had my fair share of tacos, but I would have to say that Taco Arcelia has THE BEST tacos ever. They didn’t add any fancy unique toppings, it had the usual toppings like the protein, onions, cilantro with squeezed lime and your choice of salsa, but maaaaaaaan. It was incredible. There’s actually a lot of different taco food trucks that are all around Houston and they are AUTHENTIC not American catered. Most of these taco trucks are open all day and late at night, honestly what gets better than that?
DAY TWO IN HOUSTON When it comes to me, there’s no such things as breakfast foods, anything can be eaten for breakfast. I will eat a steak or pizza for breakfast, it doesn’t matter as long as I feel full after!
With that being said, we started our day off at Lúa Viet Kitchen. I’m a *little* bias, but Vietnamese food for the win always. I originally wanted to visit Houston for their Vietnamese food because I heard it was really good and Lúa Viet Kitchen proved that. We ordered the Gỏi Cuốn also known as Summer Spring Rolls with the lemongrass pork, Bò Lúc Lắc also known as Shaking Beef, and Phở Bò or their Lúa Beef Soup. I am guilty of always ordering Phở at Vietnamese restaurants, so I got Bò Lúc Lắc instead. I’m not bashing the dish in any way, but the Phở Bò was the best dish. Honestly, #2 best pho that I’ve ever had in my life. (Sorry, but nothing beats my mom’s homemade pho)
Gỏi Cuốn (Summer Spring Rolls) Tofu or tiger shrimp or Compart Duroc lemongrass grilled pork, sunbutter hoisin dipping sauce
We drove around the area and found a street with tons of other food places and some cool stores and stumbled upon another taco food truck called Tacos Mi Pueblito. The temptation was real and hello steak tacos! These tacos weren’t as flavorful as Taco Arcelia, but they still hit the spot.
Right down the street was this outrageous looking place called Present Company. From street view all you could see was this two story building that was purple and other colors with a huge disco ball shining, when you go inside, they have neon signs everywhere, some awesome halloween decor and very vibrant wallpaper. Even though we just ate and snacked, we had to try to it out! You do have to be 21+ to enter and you can sit outdoors on both floors or indoors.
I was sad that we came across Present Company because they had some really good looking alcoholic drinks, but cause of medical reasons I couldn’t have any the whole trip, so I had to order a mocktail of their Stranger Danger drink. It was still good, but it definitely would have been better with some vodka. My boyfriend ordered a Blackberry Mimosa and a Breakfast Brisket Taco. I didn’t sample his food because I was still full from the first two places, but he really enjoyed the Breakfast Brisket Taco. I would love to come back to see how it is at night. They already had a live dj in the morning, so I’m sure they get pretty popular during bar hours.
Stranger Danger (with alcohol) watermelon vodka, lime juice, honeysuckle liqueur, watermelon-kiwi la croix, topped with bubbles
Breakfast Brisket Taco scrambled eggs, slow cooked brisket, onions, cilantro, monterey jack cheese served in a flour tortilla
I’m sure everyone has heard of Voodoo Doughnuts already, so I won’t go into too much details, but they are a must have! We had some when we visited Orlando, Florida and had to get more doughy goodness in Houston. For those who don’t know Voodoo Doughnuts, they are known for their crazy, but creative doughnut creations and their pink boxes! We just got one doughnut to share and to stuff ourselves more with. It was the Viscous Hibiscus which is a raised ring doughnut with hibiscus frosting and black sprinkles. Personally it was a little too sweet for me, but still good. It was a one bite to a whole gulp of milk ratio.
After our day of exploring and eating, we came across Two Hands Corn Dogs, a place that sells Korean corndogs. They taste as good as they look and you can customize if you want cheese, hot or original sausage or both. From left to right it’s the Spicy Dog, Potato Dog, Two Hand Dog, and the Crispy Rice Dog. I don’t remember what ones had what fillings, but their spicy sausage is good and pretty spicy and the sausage cheese combo was the best. If only they mixed the cheese and spicy sausage together for the ultimate combo. I’ve been seeing Korean corndogs a lot more on social media and it makes me happy that foods from different countries are gaining popularity in the US! Just please don’t gentrify the dishes.
DAY THREE IN HOUSTON With how much we ate the last two days, we still found ourselves eating good. I mean if you’re in Houston, you have to take advantage of all the food places that they have! Day three was no different.
Yes, we did get actual breakfast foods. I was still so full from the day before so I ordered the typical breakfast entree. We started the morning at Revival Market. My Revival Breakfast didn’t taste typical though. The sausage was packed with rich flavor. Revival Market makes their own sausages and you can tell they spent the time to perfect their recipe. Super fresh tasting too. The boyfriend ordered the Butcher’s Brunch Burger and he killed his food while I struggled to finish mine. I got into the fall spirit when I saw the Hot Caramel Apple Cider. The drink was super delicious and perfect for the chilly morning!
Revival Breakfast 2 yard eggs your way, bacon OR house-made sausage, breakfast potatoes OR fresh fruit
Butcher’s Brunch Burger 44 Farms beef, house blend & grind, cheddar, Revival bacon, Yonderway egg, LTOP, toasted bun with crispy potatoes
We couldn’t miss the opportunity of visiting The Rusty Crab by Kefi HTX. It’s a Spongebob Squarepants/Bikini Bottom themed pop up. (It ended on 10/31, but will be an anime pop up next) This pop up was pretty fun and they had cool props everywhere. Since we ate right before, we just grabbed some drinks to sip on while we enjoyed our time there! Both my boyfriend and I actually won first and second place with the painting competition haha. I got their non-alcoholic lemonade called The Invisible Boat Mobile (right) and my boyfriend got Pineapple Under the Sea. Should I make another post of our time there?
BAO on BAO on BAO! I’ve never seen so many bao or dumpling places in a city before, so we had to stop by one. Thankfully there was one right by the Color Factory while we were waiting for our reservation time. Fat Bao has many, many different options to choose from and they all sounded so good. We ended up getting five different ones, the Spicy Thai, Bulgogi, Pork Belly, Katsu Pork, and Duck. I will have to vote that the Spicy ThaiBao was the best one, then it’s the Bulgogi Bao. The Bulgogi Bao definitely could have used some more kimchi on it though! Fat Bao also serves other foods like salads, tacos and plenty of appetizers!
The famous Lee’s Sandwiches. I only heard about the California locations, so when we saw the big building, you know what we did. I didn’t expect it to be so huge, they had a little market inside the building. The moment we got out of the car I felt like I was home. There were some of the adults outside smoking cigarettes and drinking Viet coffee while playing card games and the rest inside taking care of everything else. Vietnamese music playing and the voice calling out the order numbers was in Vietnamese too. Just relived my childhood all over again, it felt very comforting. I see why people love Lee’s Sandwiches. Their Bánh Mì‘s are so good and the portion size was perfect. You always have to try the house combo, so that’s what we got the #1 Lee’s Combination. I wrote a post before on different Bánh Mì places (click to read -> Food Alert: 3 States, 3 Bánh Mì.) Well now I can add Lee’s Sandwiches and put them at #1.
We tried to walk around the area after Lee’s to walk some food off for dinner, but we remembered there was a Harry Potter pop up cafe in the same area and went there. I know we’re fatties hahah. My friend Nia actually recommended this place because before the theme was Sailor Moon, but we missed the date for that. Popfancy Dessert Bar Fan Cafe is throwing The Broom Closet right now. We came a little late, so they ran out of their potion bottle glasses, but we were still able to get the Babbling Bevy Potion. The potion that causes and consist of uncontrollable speaking of nonsense, Butterfly Blossom Tonic Lemonade and Crystal Boba.
How did we do it? I honestly don’t know, but we went to Crawfish Cafe for dinner. My stomach will make room for seafood boil anytime of day. Crawfish Cafe was a recommendation from my friend Nou. Seafood boil was a must try for our trip. Seafood boils from the southern half of the US is 1000% better and tastier than the midwest. Plus you get your money’s worth because the seafood size is bigger. We ordered 2 lb head on shrimp, 1/2 lb crawfish, 1 lobster tail, 1 lb black mussel and 1 snow crab leg all in the signature sauce in medium spice. As you can see we got plenty of food for two people and yes we had some leftovers, but we actually ate most of it. It was good, but King Cajun Crawfish in Orlando, Florida still has my heart.
DAY FOUR IN HOUSTON The last day of our trip and I’m still sad that we had to leave. So many good places that we ate at and so many more places we still have to go too! I made a list of places and we only went to 2 of them on the list, all the other places we found by just driving around.
Shabu Zone was our last meal in Houston, an all you can eat hotpot buffet. I’ve only seen others go to one, but I got to finally experience for myself. What did I think about it? Well why don’t these exists anywhere close to me?!?!? You order what broth and meats that you would like, the the noodles, veggies, seafood and sauces are all buffet style. Adults each get their own little personal bowl/hotpot on the table and you just go from there and cook everything! I love the huge selection of everything, so you can really make a different bowl every time. I was doing the happy food dance the whole time and jamming out to the music they played. I didn’t want to leave.
My Hotpot Creation Broth: Tonkotsu soup (pork bone), Akaushi Wagyu Prime Chuck Eye, Akaushi Waygu Beef Belly, Lamb Leg, Shabu Zone Special Prime Rib, Shrimp, asian meatballs, enoki mushrooms, bokchoy, mussels, seafood meatballs, fish balls, green onions, mushrooms, squid, scallop, pork dumplings, and udon noodles with sweet garlic sauce, lemon, Sriracha and chili flakes.
There’s no way that we didn’t gain 100 pounds from our foodcation. Thankfully it was hot outside and the activities that we did in between eating consisted of a lot of walking. We had the chance to burn some calories off. I think my favorite vacations are foodcations, you get to spend time with those around you with a bonus of great tasting food. Eating itself is an experience. Now that we’re back in Wisconsin, I’ve been trying to eat as good and it’s not the same. I’m thinking of writing another blog of places we visited (non food related) soon, so watch for that coming in the next few blog posts. So where should I go next? What foods are waiting to get eaten next? Keep eating everyone!
SALLY♡THINGS 