Great Food Truck Race is back!

Last night we were (among other clothed activities that still kept us up past 3 AM) watching the season finale of last summer's Great Food Truck Race as Middle Feast took the win.  Now it's finally time for a new season, this year with a Route 66 theme.  Start your engines, ladies and gentlemen, it's gonna be a wild ride!

Well, we're not starting out in Radiator Springs.  Instead we start and end with water, going from Santa Monica to Chicago.  Before we even get introduced to the teams we learn their first task, selling $200 worth of their signature dish at the Santa Monica Pier to be allowed to go to the Route 66 kiosk and get a map to their next destination.  I do kinda miss watching their faces as they see their truck for the first time.

We have a father-daughter team making Central American soul food that so far looks like regular soul food.  We have a waffle empire, since waffles seem to be the new bacon these days.  We'll see what Mike thinks of the New Yorkers making Italian food and if he likes them more than he liked Dom.  We have a husband, wife, and daughter making Cuban food...yum!  Too bad they can't remember to turn on the rice cooker.  There's an Asian truck and a spice-based truck that so far is making Indian food but may still reach into other types of spice.  Globally Delicious burgers?  We'll see how they end up.  The Spice Girls are looking to live for themselves and get validation to show their kids later.  That doesn't usually seem like a winning strategy, but we'll see.  The waffle guys are asking people if they've heard of their truck, which doesn't seem useful two states away from home.

The Spice Girls reach their goal first, and Tyler tells the rest to stop.  I'm wondering if the others have only what they told so far as their first seed money, especially since Tyler just gave the Spice Girls an extra $100 for their seed money.  Yep, that's the deal, and you can sail away from Cuba right now since the family only sold $20 worth.  Whew, they all just got $66 more in their tills, because Food Network loves a theme.  That still leaves the Cuban family sitting on a third the seed money of anyone else.

The glimpse going into commercial shows one of the trucks with smoke coming out of it on the side of the road.  Um, guys, you're supposed to park and THEN cook!!!  Here's an interesting twist...the Asian dumpling team is talking about how they've always called their truck Diva because she's temperamental.  Did Food Network decide to cut costs this time by only using teams that already owned their own food trucks?  Part of what I liked about the past seasons was teams getting their shiny new trucks, especially since learning from a food truck owner here that most food trucks are a good 20 years old when a business gets ahold of them.  The waffle truck team is 3 brothers from Provo.  I guess we can see what they've done now that their missions are over.  Fourteen kids in the family, and one of them is having trouble naming all of his siblings in the right order!

Arriving in Arizona.  The Spice Girls are branching out to another country and hoping to beat the heat by taking their signature curry dish off the menu and replacing it with a jerk chicken lettuce wrap.  The Cuban family is at least allowed to mitigate their disaster by using their leftovers from Santa Monica as they start cooking.  As long as it's not Soylent Green.  It sounds like the Asian team is doing a corn dog banh mi.  I wonder if that would be a Gene Weingarten Google-nope.  Looks like it is!  I can see that as an answer to a challenge, but doing it on purpose is just weird.

Time to find a parking spot.  The soul food family finds a bass fishing competition...good spot to sell to country boys.  Burger boys are in the same spot, and we find out that they met because they were both in love with the same girl.  Instead of fighting over her, they formed a bromance over food.  The waffle truck, the Spice Girls, and the Cuban family found the only landmark in town to sell at.  The Apple Dumpling Gang starts to see smoke...apparently Diva wants to be taken out to dinner herself before she puts out again.  They have no money to pay the tow truck, so they have to convince a tow truck operator to leave the tow truck hooked up to the food truck as collateral that they will actually pay up once they've sold some food.  I *really* don't like this.  The New Yorkers are at a skate park.

The Spice Girls have people waiting in line for over an hour and add their tikka masala back into their menu because it's fast to serve.  The soul food truck finds the bass competition isn't biting and decide to move.  The Apple Dumpling Gang decides the same despite it costing them $100 for a tow each time they move.  The Waffle Boys like working with their siblings...good thing the truck only fits 3 of them, since they can't remember all of their siblings' names.  The Apple Dumpling Gang is pulling their hair out.  I hope they at least made enough to pay the tow truck driver!  If they get eliminated, are they going to just have to stay in Arizona until they make enough to get the truck repaired?

Cooking challenge time: fish and chips.  Which makes no sense without the explanation that the bridge in town is actually a reassembly of the real London Bridge.  Winner gets $500 and could be the only chance the Apple Dumpling Gang has.  The Waffle Boys are stopping to go to church before they make their food.  I hope for their sake that they're not staying for priesthood after the Sacrament meeting!  At least they'll play on Sunday, unlike the BYU basketball team.  It could work out really well for them if they shop and prep while everyone else is in priesthood/relief society/Sunday school and leave the truck at church to sell as everyone leaves.  They do not go that route, however.  The Spice Girls' fish is taking too long to cook, which could make up for the Waffle Boys going to church.  Nope, the Spice Girls join the Apple Dumpling Gang, the New Yorkers, and the Guava Tree to finish first.  The New Yorkers were the first team, which seals the deal for the Apple Dumpling Gang.  I don't think the Waffle Boys starting late will make up for three tows.  The Cuban trick is having mechanical issues as well, but the dad is able to fix it.  Dad Points for the win!

Tyler comments that it's been a while since everyone on the show already had their own food trucks.  I didn't see the first few seasons of this to have known that.  Wow, the Waffle Boys didn't just stay alive, they won!!  They had half again what the next team did!  Guess they did have plenty of time to go to church!  There's a good example that when you give to God, he takes care of you.  Guava Tree and the Apple Dumpling Gang are at the bottom, but the Apple Dumpling Gang is somehow safe.  In a beautiful display of sportsmanship, first the Apple Dumpling Gang and then the other teams run over to hug the Guava Tree family.  Tyler says that Food Network will get Diva to the next destination, Flagstaff, but then it will be up to them to get it fixed or keep it moving some other way.  Just as long as the Apple Dumpling Gang doesn't try to pull off a madcap caper that's fun for the whole family to fix it!  Tune in next week to find out.