Travels: My food and music-filled short trip to Nashville

Drew and I have gone to CMA fest twice before, and had planned to attend again this year as soon as we were driving home from it last year. We had an apartment booked for four nights (Thurs-Mon) on Airbnb, which we booked nine months ago. Everyone was off work. A house/ dog sitter was booked. We were pumped.
But things quickly turned south and we ended up only getting to stay one night. Here is the timeline of events, as well as posts about all of the food, of course.

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We arrived in Nashville around noon. It took about an hour to find a parking spot ($30 btw) and to walk the half mile to get to the Park stage, where the first act we wanted to see, Clare Dunn, was performing.
We first got to see Tucker Beathard, who sings “Rock On”. He was a good filler before Clare.

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Tucker Beathard, CMA Fest 2016

Clare was phenomenal. She sounded great and danced with high energy the whole concert. We even got to meet her the next morning at Fan Fair X.
*Spoiler alert: This was the only fun we had at CMA fest this year.

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After watching Clare, we had planned to go to the bigger free stage to see Maren Morris, Scotty McCreery, and then Terri Clark. However, the stage area was already completely full. There was no standing room anywhere, and they were locking it down due to too many people. So…snack time!

Blog post about Merchants, where I tried duck fat tater tots!
http://twogirlsonedish.com/?p=330

After we ate, we headed back to the Park stage.
We saw Native Run here, who I have never heard of before. However, they were pretty good. I really liked their song “2 for 1”. Funny side note: I told Drew that their guitar player looked like the guy from Eden’s Edge. Drew argued I was being silly. I looked it up. Boom. That was him, Dean Berner. Also saw he is engaged to the lead singer of Native Run. I found this odd since I assumed she was married to her co-lead singer, as they almost kissed while holding each others’ faces during a couple songs. So weird.

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Native Run- CMA Fest 2016

After this, we headed to the apartment we rented in East Nashville. We then walked to Mas Tacos to try this place. Everything online raved about it, and it did NOT disappoint.

Blog post for Mas Tacos, Por Favor.
http://twogirlsonedish.com/?p=320

With not too much else to do in the neighborhood, we headed in to Kroger to get some breakfast food items and snacks, in case we would need anything for the next four days. We headed back to the apartment afterwards. We were pretty tired, so we went to bed early.

At about 10:30 p.m., we were already asleep, and got a phone call that let us know our house sitter wasn’t going to be able to stay. So, we got our bffs…I think you know them by now. Cristianna and Lindsay? (who let the dogs out earlier that day) to take care of them the next morning. We planned to head back home Friday after we shortly hit up Fan Fair X. We had bought four day tickets to it, and I was at least going to see what it was all about before heading home.

So, the next day, we packed up the car, headed straight to Fan Fair X at CMA fest. We didn’t have time for a sit down breakfast, but ended up having the best breakfast at a food truck.
Blog post on Banh Mi and Roll Factory Food Truck: http://twogirlsonedish.com/?p=318

Then, at Fan Fair X, we met Clare Dunn, Ashton Shepherd, got to peek at a few other singers like Jamie Lynn Spears and RaeLynn (didn’t care to stand in line to meet them. No offense, ladies, your lines were long).

We also got to hear Chip Easton (Deacon from Nashville) announce officially that Nashville had been picked up for another season by CMT and Hulu. This was awesome, I was so upset when ABC cancelled it last month. So, me and a million other people got very excited. Can you see Chip way up there? He’s on stage, I promise.

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The last person I wanted to see before heading home was Lila McCann. She was one of the first cds I ever bought and I grew up loving her first cd. However, before she took the stage, the Bellamy Brothers performed. They were pretty great as they sang “Redneck Girl”, “Let Your Love Flow”, and many others.

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Bellamy Brothers: CMA Fest 2016

Finally, we got to see Lila. We only stuck around to hear the two songs I was looking for to: “Down Came a Blackbird” and “I Wanna Fall in Love”. She was good, but a little underwhelming. Oh well.

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On the way home, we HAD to stop for lunch at Loveless Cafe, of course.
Blog post about Loveless Cafe:
http://twogirlsonedish.com/?p=260

Overall, this trip sucked. It was shortened, the airbnb apartment was pretty gross, and the crowds at CMA Fest made getting close to certain stages impossible. I don’t know if I will want to try going to this again next year, depends on who the line up is, I guess.

I do know I want to go back to Nashville, though, to experience the city and finish eating all of the foods on my list.

Food Review: Nashville’s Banh Mi and Roll Factory Food Truck= Best. Sandwich. EVER.

This past weekend, I ate the best sandwich I have ever had. Not just the best banh mi. But imho, those go hand in hand.

Back story: I wanted to go try Biscuit Love Brunch for breakfast before CMA fest got started Friday. We didn’t get there soon enough and the line was already too long. And I had to get in line to meet my favorite singers at Fan Fair X, of course. So…Drew and I decided to “just” eat at one of dozen food trucks sitting outside of the festival. #bestdecisionever

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I LOVE a great banh mi sandwich. My favorite had always been the banh mi from The Root Cafe, but on the brat bun instead of the regular baguette. Anyway, back on track…so seeing a food truck dedicated to banh mi sandwiches got me excited and made the decision for breakfast an easy one. Though, picking which banh mi to choose was puzzling.

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While this menu is hard to read, in sum, you can choose from a vietnamese pulled pork and hollandaise banh mi, a five-spice pulled chicken and sriracha mayo banh mi, a soy sauce-braised tofu and mayo banh mi, or a pork liver pate banh mi.
All banh mi sandwiches come on a toasted vietnamese baguette, with cucumber, jalapeno, cilantro, red onion, and vietnamese pickled daikon and carrot.  And all cost $8, except the pate, which is $10.
We decided on the vietnemese pulled pork because it sounded more traditional…and I love hollandaise! We only got one to start, you know, in case it is gross.  I assume you already figured out, it was anything but gross.

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Vietnamese pulled pork and hollandaise bahn mi

The sandwich, as you can see, was stuffed with meat and veggies. There was about an equal ratio between the sweet, extremely juicy and flavorful pulled pork and the many fresh and pickled veggies. I had never tried daikon before, and this pickled version of it was very crisp and refreshing, with a sweet, yet vinegar-y flavor. The onions were few, which I prefer. The cilantro was fresh. The jalapeno was slight, but prominent enough that you did not forget it was there. The cucumber gave the perfect refreshing crunch that I love about cucumber.  The bread was so soft on the inside, allowing all of the juices to get soaked into it. Yet, the outside held its crunchy form, so the sandwich did not even consider falling apart.
All of these aspects together made the perfect sandwich. Drew agrees full-heartedly. As we sat on the street, devouring our sandwich, pork juices dripping all over our clothes, and me repeating “oh my gah, this is SO good” after every bite, we realized this moment might be our favorite of all of CMA fest.

We quickly ordered the exact thing again, and split that one as well. I wanted to try a new one, but couldn’t imagine it living up to the pork version’s perfection…so why fix it if it ain’t broke?

Nashville- if you have not tried this food truck yet, please do. Let me know what you think.

Banh Mi and Roll Rood Truck- if you’re ever in AR, let me know. I’ll buy you out. Missing you already. Love, Amy.