North Hills Food Truck Roundup 2.0

Today was the second installment of the food truck roundup at Coffee Buddha in the north hills. The sun was out and so were the people. Hundreds of people flocked to the back parking lot of the hipster coffee bar to get food served from the side of trucks. In addition to pack leader PghTacoTruck who calls Coffee Buddha home 4 days a week, they were joined today by Oh My Grill, Franktuary, BRGR Truck, Sweet Treats truck, Dozen Bake Shop, PghPierogi truck and Fukuda.

Tacos from PghTacoTruck — Gourmet street tacos from PghTacoTruck at the North Hills Food Truck Roundup

We arrived right at noon and took advantage of our early bird timing to get pierogis and hot dogs before heading into CB for coffee drinks. The pierogis were only $2.50 for a trio of potato and cheese. Though they fell a little short for TasteBudA on flavor, who typically only eats only his mom’s legendary pierogis, they got us going for the day. The girl working the Franktuary truck was very excited that their 2013 debut was at this event. TasteBudA got sauerkraut on a standard dog, while I opted for the fresh chopped onion. Each dog was only $3 with topping.

Inside Coffee Buddha, the motif took advantage of the name buddha and had many ceramic and artwork to thematically set the mood. I got the signature “Heartmender” which in reality is 2 shots of espresso. TasteBudA got the Peanut Buddha Latte. The latte had a little nut crumble atop the frothy cup. I wasn’t sure if it was supposed to be a peanut butter flavor or a peanut brittle flavor. Regardless, it perked up TasteBudA enough before we got in the longest food truck line at the event – the PghTacoTruck line.

PghTacoTruck Menu offered a little something for every taste

The menu for the PghTacoTruck was perhaps the most extensive of all the trucks in the roundup, offering everything from a standard taco to vegetarian (maybe even vegan) options. WIth such a variety, it was tough to decide. PghTasteBudA got the Korean Steak with truck kimchi for $5. I got the Juicy Pork with sweet thai slaw for $4 (both pictured above). While I’ve had poor success using raw corn tortillas at home, the taco truck knows what he’s doing. The tacos were served on a double tortilla base which was perfect to stand up to the juicy meat fillings. We’d highly recommend the PghTacoTruck to anyone in the north hills throughout the week. They can be found at Coffee Buddha every Wed-Sat from 12pm-8pm. Follow @PghTacoTruck on twitter for special event appearances and variations in schedule.

Liquid lunch on St. Patrick’s Day, Sewickley Soup Crawl

Sewickley Soup Crawl 2012 — Sewickley Soup Crawl on March 17, 2012

Wondering what to do on St. Patrick’s Day? While many partake in the art of all-day green-beer hillarity, our friends up in Sewickley are holding a different type of liquid meal approach.

The Sewickley Soup Crawl is this weekend on St. Patrick’s Day. For just $10 and a small donation to the Sewickley Community Center, you can crawl between cool little shops across the business streets of one Pittsburgh’s northern neighbors and sample soup from local cafes, bakeries and restaurants.

For more information, visit www.exploresewickley.com

Greendance Winery

Yesterday was not just my first ever visit to Greendance Winery, but it was my first ever visit to an actual winery! We took a trip out to Greendance Winery for their 4th Annual Wine Festival.

Greendance Winery is a beautiful winery located in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania off the turnpikes New Stanton exit. It is nestled behind some hills and down an unbeaten path. When pulling into the Winery there is plenty of FREE parking in the grass. You then walk down the hill to first visit the wine shop where you can have a wine tasting of the many year round and in season wines that Greendance has to offer. I got to try many different wines and the staff was highly informative on taste, pairings, and helped us try wines that fit our tastebuds.

After tasting some wine we made our way over to the Greendance store where they sell cookies, fruits, crafts and other goodies. The coolest part was after you came out of the store and make your way back over to the wine shop, they had a stand with hot sausages with all the fixings and another stand selling raspberry quince iced tea, pie, ice cream and other treats to take over to a table where you can sit back, enjoy a bottle of wine, your snack for the afternoon and have live music.

The seating area is full of trees, flowers, tall bushes where you can really enjoy the atmospher of being at a winery. It almost took me back to my trips to Italy and staying in Tuscany, it was truely amazing.

We highly advise taking a trip out to Greendance Winery before the cold, rain and snow come to the area. Do a wine tasting, and bulk up with amazing local wine for the upcoming holidays and winter season.