If you have never been to a food truck festival before, you are doing your taste buds an injustice.

Food trucks have grown in popularity over the years, and with that, so have the options. Food trucks are no longer a last resort when you leave the bar late at night and you are desperate for sustenance. They are now highly sought after, with events popping up specifically catered to these meals on wheels.

Every Friday during the summer, Roger Williams Park in Providence hosts Friday Night Food Trucks, which I regularly attend. Now that Somerset is hosting its first food truck event called FoodChella, thanks to SouthCoast Open Air Market (SOAM), I wanted to give you some dos and don’ts when it comes to attending your first food truck event.

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First thing's first: don’t forget chairs and blankets. I attended Food Truck Friday over the weekend at Roger Williams and I forgot about the value of having somewhere to sit. While I juggled my margarita, cheesy fries, wallet, and keys, I realized I made a rookie mistake and was forced to eat standing up. It looks like FoodChella will be on the Somerset Bluffs by the Taunton River, so don’t forget to BYOS (bring your own seat).

The second most important thing when it comes to food truck events is to divide and conquer. There were over a dozen food trucks in attendance for Food Truck Friday, each with its own line that snaked through the park. My friends and I decided to disperse amongst the lines and reconvene with our meals to enjoy a buffet of goodies from several trucks. SOAM expects to have about 15 trucks on site for FoodChella, so don’t pigeonhole yourself to one choice when you have a dozen.

Lastly, do yourself a favor, and expand your horizons. Michael disagrees with me, saying, “I would find the longest line and go there because that must mean they have good food.”

He’s onto something, but he’s missing the point – and there will be lines at every truck. A food truck festival is your chance to try something that you might not try otherwise. I sought out the shortest line on Friday, which landed me in front of a truck called Twisted T’s. Without my open mindedness, I would have never discovered the bread cone, and I’m so happy I did.

I’m happy to hear that food truck events are making their way to the SouthCoast. Honestly, any event catered around food is my kind of event.

FoodChella by SOAM comes to Somerset on Thursday, July 1.

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