A Taste of Westeros: Game of Thrones Food Truck

As you may have heard us mention on the podcast, or read on the blog, or seen on a poster or otherwise heard through the proverbial grapevine, HBO will be airing a new series based on the book A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin starting on April 17. They have tried out several new viral marketing tactics to promote the series, the latest of which involved commissioning renowned chef Tom Colicchio (of Bravo TV's Top Chef fame) to create dishes inspired by the cities of Westeros and serve them from a food truck to 300 hungry fans/Twitter followers. Yesterday, I was one of them.



I ventured out to Union Square, the afore-tweeted location, around 5:45pm. As soon as I exited the subway, my phone rang. It was Tripp, reporting the exact location of the truck, and it wasn't far. I walked briskly across the park and eyed it on the corner of 15th and Union Square West, in all its glory. There were already about 100 people there when I arrived, so I took my spot in line and waited patiently.



A nice HBO staffer handed me a shiny menu. Crispy trout with almond butter citrus mostarda, roasted rabbit, honey preserved lemon and stewed pistachio, and of course, lemon cakes. They didn't start service until about 6:30 and the line moved pretty slowly, but I think it was worth the wait. I met some hardcore AGoT geeks in line behind me and answered the question "what are you guys waiting for?" more times than I cared to count.



I rounded the corner about 7:00 and could finally see what I was in for. About 15 minutes later, I had my trout and lemon cake, complete with a little napkin with a direwolf on it and the words "you win or you die". The food was very good but (understandably) very small portions. The trout was cooked perfectly (skin-on, of course) and well-seasoned, and the citrus on top really balanced the almond butter on the bottom. The lemon cake tasted about like a key-lime pie, but with lemon instead.



All in all, it was a fun experience. It's wonderful to live in a city where stuff like this actually happens and I can go be a part of it. Tripp and I are very excited about the upcoming series and think you should be too!