First street food awards a success - WKRN, Nashville News, Nashville Weather and Sports

Armed with meals on wheels, more than 20 food trucks battled it out to win everyone's pallet.

Everything from birthday cake waffles, snow cones and meat pies was served at the Nashville Food Truck Awards Saturday at Centennial Park.

Don't be misled by the kitchen inside the truck. Some of the trucks have artisan chefs preparing the meals inside.

BJ Lofback, president of the Nashville Food Truck Association and chef of Riffs Fine Street Food, is the man behind Saturday's event.

"We really want people to experience food trucks and to see that Nashville has one of the best burgeoning food truck scenes that there is in the country right now," Lofback said. "We are getting big and people know who we are outside of Nashville and that's a pretty cool thing."

Second Harvest Food Banks provided buckets at each truck where foodies could cast their vote for their favorite truck.

However, there was also a panel of judges featuring local food bloggers and Nashville Mayor Karl Dean.

Judges got to rate the categories of best taco, best vegetarian dish and best drink, among others.

Other groups of judges also rated unique categories like best fried and best hot Nashville.

While the first street food awards gave everyone the opportunity to venture into the mobile food world, it gave kids like Cody a recipe to take home to mom.

"I want her to make it at home," he said. "She would probably never find bacon jam, so she probably won't make it as good as these are."

The winners were as follows:

BEST DRINK

1. Hit & Miss – ice cream float
2. Retro Sno – chai ice
3. Delta Bound – basil lemonade

BEST VEGETARIAN

1. Riffs Fine Street Food – vegetarian banh mi
2. Retro Sno – tomato granita
3. Jonbalaya – vegetarian sushi

BEST TACO

1. Riffs Fine Street Food – pork belly taco
2. Delta Bound – fried catfish & corn salsa taco
3. Jonbalaya – seared tuna taco

BEST BBQ

1. Delta Bound – BBQ slider with fried pickles
2. Smoke Et Al – pulled pork sliders with dill & paprika
3. Riffs Fine Street Food – Korean BBQ

BEST HOT NASHVILLE

1. Riffs Fine Street Food - hot chicken sausage & grits
2. Deg Thai – tiger tear salad
3. Kens Hot Spot – hot chicken sandwich

BEST DESSERT

1. Hoss Burgers – dark chocolate mousse with berries
2. Deg Thai – mango sticky rice
3. Just Like Nannie Fixed It – buttery chess square

BEST SANDWICH

1. Deg Thai – Massaman Wrap
2. The Latin Wagon – Cuban sandwich
3. The Grilled Cheeserie – The Frank Stallone

BEST DEEP FRIED

1. Hit & Miss – fried ice cream
2. The Grilled Cheeserie – buffalo chicken melt & tots
3. Delta Bound – empanada

BEST BURGER

1. Hoss Burgers – Hoss Burger
2. Riffs Fine Street Food – Triple Smoke Burger
3. Mere Bulles – Southwest Burger