Great Food Truck Race - Labor Day Edition

For Labor Day weekend, we present...food trucks!  Today Santa Fe gets to be a destination in more than Ticket to Ride.

Let's see if the Waffle Boys can do better in a taste challenge than they have in the truck stop challenges.  Uh oh, the theme is peppers, which favors everyone BUT the Waffle Boys.  They do at least have a corn waffle they do, which would work better with a savory presentation, but I worry about how they could keep it from seeming forced.  They are making a chile relleno into a waffle???  It looks like someone made an omelet into a waffle.  The teams only have 30 minutes to cook, which makes me worry about the soul food truck's ability to develop flavor profiles in their soup.  The Spice Girls have a chile relleno that does not appear fried, and the Burger Boys are told their meat needs more seasoning.  The Waffle Boys are told their waffle relleno is "innovative."  The soul food truck does indeed get the flavor into their soup.  This challenge is right up the alley of the Apple Dumpling Gang, and they do shine, but the soul food truck comes out the winners of $1000 for their final till.  I thought they were going to get dinged for using bell peppers in their soup instead of something with more spice.  The Spice Girls are unimpressed, with one of them calling soup and cornbread what she makes to mail it in when she doesn't want to cook.  Bring on the trash talk!

The Waffle Boys appear to have chosen poorly on their spot, as people are driving by without stopping.  We'll see if it helps them more by the end of the day, but it doesn't look good right now.  The Apple Dumpling Gang is running smooth as pie, which is a nice change for them.

Speed bump time: Only one hour to shop for the rest of the weekend, no more restocking allowed.  Interesting balance, because you don't want to run out of food early and lose customers, but at the same time any extra food costs could have been money in the final till instead.  Someone is sure to run out, but who's it gonna be?  The Spice Girls are wondering about their price point since they are having people walk away after asking the price.  Fifteen bucks is a lot for a bowl of chili no matter where you are.  Some of the trucks are closing up a bit early because they don't have the customers and they want to save their food for the next day.  Tyler gives the soul food truck a bit of friendly advice...wonder if he's doing that for the others off camera as well.

So, on to the next day and another speed bump: everyone gets to park in the same place.  The farmers' market seems like a great spot, but again we have to wonder who will run out of food?  The soul food truck adds a breakfast wrap because they're parked right next to the Waffle Boys.  The Spice Girls are having trouble explaining their food to dumb people with no taste, but their whining about it is getting annoying.  They do finally consider lowering the price, but one of them is griping about it and saying they don't think it was necessary.  Honey, when people are walking away when they hear your prices, that's an issue!  The Burger Boys are already worrying about whether they will have enough food.

The farmers' market closes, and everyone has to search for a spot again.  The soul food truck is thinking their parking spot will be big enough.  Nope, they hit someone's bumper.

As a side note among the commercials, we see the promo for Eddie Football's new show, BBQ Blitz!  We also see that Worst Cooks in America has now jumped the shark with a celebrity showing.  Sorry, folks, but that marks the end of my interest in the show for watching it or blogging it!  Now taking nominations for someone else to join the SnarkFood team and blog it...

We come back to the soul food truck and their bumper crop.  The dad is saying it's a minor graze.  Uh oh.  That just sounds like it's going to lead to going somewhere else and leaving no note.  Dude, YOU'RE ON CAMERA!!!  It's not even Candid Camera, you know it's there!!!  Say goodbye to that extra thou in your till, or at least a few hundred of it!  Sadly, I'm right.  At least a couple seasons ago the guy was honest about it!  It's sad when your kid can figure out that your money just disappeared and you can't!

In better news, the Waffle Boys came up with the idea of a grilled cheese waffle.  That had better stay on your menu, you need to have a savory option to keep up with the others!!  The Spice Girls apparently didn't need to drop their prices, because they ran out first, with FOUR HOURS left to sell.  The Apple Dumpling Gang is dropping their prices by half with 45 minutes left, and people are turning around when they hear 50% off.  The Waffle Boys did overbuy by a whole batch, which runs them $150.  They're saying, "we can't go home this weekend."  Hate to say it, boys, but you can go home any weekend.

Judgment time, and Tyler asks the teams to recap the weekend.  This sounds like the leadup to pounding on the soul food truck.  He goes to the Spice Girls first and tells them they need a better elevator pitch.  Looks like the Burger Boys also had a bunch of food left over.  The soul food truck loses $250 as a deductible AND another $250 for not stopping and doing the right thing.  Did you really make that much in sales in the time it would have taken you to leave a note???  Next stop is Amarillo, but who will make the trip?  Despite the extra batch of dough not getting sold, the Waffle Boys run away with the victory, selling over $5000 in product.  The soul food truck is in second, but if they hadn't hit that car they would have been at the top.  Spice Girls and Burger Boys are at the bottom, separated by 80 bucks.  Selling out too early and dropping their price hurt the Spice Girls too much, and they go home.

Keri from Spice Girls is tearful again talking about being away from her kids.  You know, we see that on this show and Food Network Star both, as well as to a lesser extent on Hell's Kitchen.  First of all, you know what you're signing up for and you know it's not going to be easy.  No, I've never tried to be away from my son for that kind of time, but on camera isn't the place to show the emotions about it either.  Second, it's only the moms they show on camera saying this.  When they have dads on these shows, they talk about doing all this for their kids, but it's not the emotional scene that it is for the moms.  Thanks, editors, for furthering the stereotype that moms don't get to become top chefs and stars, and that you can only be a mom food star if you became a food star before having your kids.  At least we have Melissa d'Arabian to show us otherwise!  Ok, stepping off my soapbox for this week.