Welcome To Thornbury- Digging For Fire BBQ Kitchen and Gumbo Kitchen

As the popularity of food trucks grows in Melbourne, there are now permanent food truck parks popping up around town with a rotating group of trucks on any given day. Last month Welcome To Thornbury opened on the site of an old car manufacturing factory on High Street in Northcote. With up to six trucks at any given time, an indoor bar and outside seating, the venue is licensed to hold over 700 people.

Belinda and I went to check it out tonight, and even on a chilly evening the place was packed with people. Another bonus is that each truck gives you a buzzer when you order, so you can go grab drinks and a table while you wait for your food to be prepared.

I decided to try Digging For Fire BBQ Kitchen, which offers a variety of barbecue meats that you can have either on a roll or in a bowl with your choice of salad. I ordered a bowl of the slow cooked lamb shoulder with tahini and lemon dressing, pickles and pomegranate on an Israeli cous cous, sunflower seeds and spinach salad. The lamb was quite tender and tasted good with the other elements of the dish.

Belinda ordered from Gumbo Kitchen and got The Dom, which contains 12 hour braised beef shredded with Cajun gravy, served on fries with Cajun mayo and pickles. The beef was quite tender and for a bit of a decadent dish she thought it was great. We also got the Cheesy Mac Croquettes, which were very yummy. Having previously eaten at Gumbo Kitchen, I can also strongly recommend the mesquite smoked pulled pork po'boy with Louisiana BBQ sauce, Cajun slaw and pickles.

Welcome To Thornbury is a great venue and will be the perfect spot to grab a food truck meal as the weather warms up heading into summer.

Welcome To Thornbury
520 High Street, Northcote
Open Monday - Thursday from 5:00 pm; Friday - Sunday from 12:00 pm

Trailer Park Melbourne- North America

Food trucks are hugely popular in the States, and Melbourne's stable is slowly growing with a range of trucks serving food from all over the world. Trailer Park Melbourne is back with a cuisine of origin battle going on each weekend in August. This week's food was themed around North America, so we had to make the trip down to Village Melbourne to check it out.

Our first food truck was Smokin' Barrys with their slow cooked BBQ. We tried the chili cheese fries, nachos with pulled pork, and pork ribs with coleslaw. Of the three dishes the nachos were our favorite, and while the ribs were good they could have used some more BBQ sauce.

Our next truck was Mr Burger, who serve my favorite burgers in Melbourne. You can't go wrong with the classic Mr Burger cheeseburger and fries. Yummy as usual.

Our favorite dish of the day came from the Toasta food truck. You wouldn't have thought that a grilled sandwich would grab your imagination, but you've never had the Mack, which contains pulled pork, mac and cheese, and BBQ sauce. It was decadent and really delicious.

After a bit of a break we were ready for some dessert, which we got from Jay's Yogurt. The guys in the truck were super friendly, and you get to choose your flavors and they will blend them into the frozen yogurt for you. We tried out two of the specials from their winter menu. The Hot Apple Cup contained hot apple crumble, a frozen yogurt blend with rose water and pistachio, and was topped with Persian fairy floss. It was like a Middle Eastern apple pie. We also had the Coffee & Cookie with frozen yogurt blended with cold brew coffee and Charlies cookies. Both provided a refreshing end to our afternoon at Trailer Park Melbourne.

Trailer Park Melbourne at Village Melbourne
557 St Kilda Road, Melbourne
Open from 12-8 pm each weekend in August