Yesterday was the last day of the Game of Thrones fantacular food truck extravaganza—and wouldn’t you know it, a very special guest showed up to taste the wares.
(No, not me. Well, yes me. But I’m not special. I mean, I am special in a short-bus kind of … special … way. As you’ll see if you keep reading…)
The menu for this finale was, appropriately enough, Winterfell themed: suckling head cheese with farro and dried fruits; venison, baked apple, barley and cinnamon; and lemony-lemony lemon cakes for dessert!
Wouldn’t you know it (a little bird had whispered the possibility to me, so I wasn’t entirely shocked), A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin showed!
That’s right, GRRM himself, cap’n's cap affixed dutifully to his happy little head, was on hand to hold court and to snarf a few salty but savory pieces of venison and mingle with the goggling gaggle. More than a few cameras were pointed in his direction, but he handles this stuff like a pro, which I clearly do not (again see below). MTV was also there, getting some footage. I may or may not have leeeeaned into some of that.
“It’s the final day,” George confided in the FaBster, “I had to see what this was all about. And I’ve been told I need to try head cheese.”
Well me too! Partly because the never-bashful Brynnalia was on hand (there she is in typical fashion mackin’ on George… who looks nervous, and rightly so) and she refused to try it, and partly because, well, it’s head cheese! It sounds like a dish in which you stuff chunks of curdled milk inside a pig’s ear cavity (which is sort of what I was hoping for), but …
… come to find out it’s actually made up of jellied bits of flesh leftover from a pig’s head after they’ve cooked the rest of it.
Head cheese is not cheese. I was eating face! Awesome.
I got to hang with George, as well as HBO super-woman Mara and her bemused husband, who remarked to me how he thought it would have been cool to do one of these food tie-ins with Tom Hanks’ From The Earth To The Moon series. I agree! A truck filled with freeze-dried ice cream and space rations? I’m there!
ThinkHero.com was also there, and in force; Dennis Tzeng, the sunshiney Jennings Roth Cornet, and of course Kristen Nedopak (an irrepressible force of nature, that one). Think Hero got to conduct an interview with George as well: Here it is!
Remember the part about me riding the short bus? Well Think Hero actually took a moment to interview me (me being a representative of House Gatewatch and also a Y-list celebrity in my own right). And it was going swimmingly until they actually asked me a question—something akin to “So you guys are THE source, what sort of inside scoop can you give us that no one has heard about the series thus far?”
Of course what immediately came to mind was the fact that we recently learned Gemma Jackson was caught scouting locales for season two—an especially suspicious circumstance given that we haven’t heard any official word on a greenlight for season two. So I said this, and gave the locations as “Turkey and uh … uh … buuhhhh …”
I couldn’t freaking remember Croatia. I wanted to say Serbia. I think my “Uhhhh” went on for a good ten minutes of filming (or at least that’s how it felt). And I slowly felt the encroachment of my own doom, not just because I was losing my brain on camera, but because Croatia is the home of a number of House Gatewatch’s more loyal knights, like The Smiling Knight, Andrew Andrija—and especially The Rabbit who is known at times to be a violent, revenge-minded creature.
Suffice to say I may have nimble typing fingers, but stick a camera in my grill and really, all I know how to do is make funny faces. There is a decent chance none of the footage is useable. If this interview never sees the light of day, I will be a happy FaB.
Anyway. Venardhi was there too (sadly he killed the epic ‘stache for spring), and Erik (Blackfyre) from the always-bawdy Brotherhood Without Banners. Jeffrey of the Tight-Tee Harem made an appearance, though by the look of it he had seemingly executed the other harem girls (perhaps they had displeased him) and was down to only Victoria. (Or, she defeated the others in single and lethal combat, winning the right to have Jeffrey on her arm.)
I met the dude who plays @Mormonts_Raven on Twitter (I won’t blow his cover, but he’s extremely cool). And I met the spectacular Steve Coulson, the guy who runs Campfire and created all those freaking cool Game of Thrones promotional tie-ins. Cheerful, intelligent man, accompanied by the stalwart Ryan. Also on site was Zoe Taylor, from the HBO marketing team.
Of course this was really about the fans. It being a Friday, not as many people ended up coming today as other days, but it was a steady trickle. And what they lacked in sheer numbers in they made up for in pure enthusiasm. 
And hey, it was a sunny (if slightly chilly) April day—a Friday in the City of Angels. Game of Thrones would be here in only a little over a week; George was happy, the fans were happy, even Venardhi was happy.
And I mentioned the food was free, right? The time had come for FaB to finally sample the fare!
Once the head cheese was snarfed up (not bad; a little fatty for my taste, but the farro was delicious), it was time, at long last, for lemon cake! I am Team Sansa: I need me some lemon cake! I shifted the paper dish from hand to the other, but my plastic fork started to slip, so I made a grab for it. Something else slipped out of my hand—
Sonofa—
(Very nearly perfect shot, isn’t it? It’s amazing how well I can hit a target I’m not even aiming at.)
Me: “Does … anybody have a napkin? One that they don’t mind me using, I mean. One they’re not collecting. One maybe without a Game of Thrones logo affixed to it…”
…
Sigh.
(I was perfectly willing to remove my shoe and use that as a plate, until Blackfyre succinctly pointed out there were people already in line for seconds. So I snuck back in and got a second lemon cake. That one, I assure you, was delicious. Worth the wait—and the mess!)
Always Support the Bottom!
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39 Comments
Thank god for this article. I have become more addicted than ever to refreshing WiC ever few minutes, looking for more GoT-related news. What’s happening to me?!? :)
Nice pics! Can’t wait to have the lemon cakes at my own premiere party next weekend.
LexQuote Reply
Doh!
I’m grateful now for the slower days. During weekdays the latest weeks I’ve come home and spent ~5 hours catching up on comments here, twitter, reviews, videos, westeros, imdb and what-not.
Johan SporreQuote Reply
Okay, fine. LA wins on one count.
But just one.
InkasrainQuote Reply
Johan Sporre,
I’ve had a lot of time off, the last couple weeks, which was good… because I was usually spending 2-3 hours each morning catching up!
LexQuote Reply
Always entertaining FaB!
We’re going to have to start some sort of wic.net detox.
My roommate laughed at me when I said I wanted to make lemon cakes.
Note: I haven’t made anything in the kitchen more complicated than pasta in probably six months
Phoenix_TornQuote Reply
OT:
Isn’t this a new trailer?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8T84d-lRNLs
I haven’t seen this mentioned yet. It has tons of little glimpes of new scenes (pivotal scenes, I might add)
RistoQuote Reply
Hello! Not to digress, but an awesome new Game Of Thrones trailer came on right before the airing of Jonah Hex on HBO. When will it show up online? Anyone?
edit…there it is. Thanks, Risto!
some random northmanQuote Reply
Risto,
New to me. A Daenerys bloody from some horsehearteating, and the first bit of dialogue from Renly.
sjweningsQuote Reply
THAT, WAS, AWESOME!!! Loved seeing Theon raise his bow, and just everything, I cant get enough!
John EngedalQuote Reply
Entertaining and witty as usual oh chucker of axes…
BlackfyreQuote Reply
Awesome. I wish I was there! I made the lemon cakes from the recipe posted last month. It took some fiddling and experimenting because my oven isn’t what I would call high grade but when I finally got them to work they were fantastic. I’ll be serving them at my premier party!
wingQuote Reply
Holy crap! BEST TRAILER YET!
Didn’t want to watch, but couldn’t resist. Pycelle and Varys were soo good! And Lysa! Oh, and Cersei!
Oh, also best music by far!
LexQuote Reply
AXECHUCKER! It was kick ass meeting you… in person… finally! Great article! As always, you humorous SOB. ;-) Let’s hang soon!
~ Nedopak
the “irrepressible force of nature”
Kristen NedopakQuote Reply
Just stumbled upon this myself. Good stuff! Pretty different tone than the other trailers, focusing more one the backstabbing political nature of the story. A ton of new stuff in there, too. Good to hear Renly and Lysa talk.
koinosukeQuote Reply
Wait a minute Fabihoff or Fabiho or whatever your name is. How did we not run into each other? I was there messing up another meeting with George and savoring some face meat.
I would have brought sword and hammer and we could have really begun the battle of House Gatewatch vs. House Blackwoody.
Kyle from APOIAFQuote Reply
Kyle from APOIAF,
I watched you from afar, my sweet summer child.
Watching, waiting…
Assessing…
Imagining the feel of your supple Blackwoody throat beneath my fierce fingers.
The time to strike presented itself…
And then I was distracted by lemon cakes. Next time! ^_^
Fire And BloodQuote Reply
LOL!
LexQuote Reply
Fire And Blood,
Haha!
Ok. Just as long as you weren’t planning to take me in the rear.
Kyle from APOIAFQuote Reply
How fun! I’m glad/jealous you got to meet him!
Bwah! :)
ZackQuote Reply
HAHA
But I’m sure he would Support Your Bottom
Phoenix_TornQuote Reply
You nearly said .. What?
:sharpens sword:
:D
Ah well, at least you made up for it by finding a proper map with borders all as they should be, unlike the usual “accidental” slip of some remnant of territorial pretensions.
Ive always said that, if you look at my country properly – it looks like a Dragon.
Fancy the coincidence eh?
The Smiling KnightQuote Reply
I checked Steve Coulson’s Twitter and the Campfire flickr stream earlier today and saw the pictures of George! AWESOME! I thought we had it good in NY, and that we were special for being first, and I generally have a Northeastern superiority complex with regards to everything, but this took me down several pegs. YOU GUYS HAD GRRM!
The Campfire pictures made it look like he was just chillin’, going down the line, chatting with people, signing things, taking pictures. And he just seems so nonchalant even when he has that MTV boom mic thing stuck up in his face. Oh GRRM, why can’t you come revisit your roots in NJ and do events in Manhattan and provide us Easterners with the same pleasure that you gifted to these Angelenos? :(
Also, I got really nervous when I got to the part in the post about FaBio dropping his lemoncake…so glad you were able to get a second one. It just wouldn’t have been right if you had missed out on that little bit of heaven. :(
LinaQuote Reply
I had to make a tough choice and choose whether to miss work or go Monday and tuesday to see the truck…all the way from Colorado. Damn! Damndamndamn!
But I already a fabulous dinner with Mr. Martin a few years ago here in Denver, so I guess its alright. *sigh*
Very cool, anyways! That was a fabulous promotion and a wonderful Nerdventure!
Does this link work? I don’t even know. But I had a great time. I am counting don the days like everyone else.
http://photos-h.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/207274_10150510888460207_528745206_17601220_5298032_n.jpg
dobesolQuote Reply
You almost confused Croatia with SERBIA? That’ll get you killed around these parts, d00d.
ElaineQuote Reply
LOL
That is why he said that. That s normal for him, he likes to put his life in danger.
on topic: I think I would never eat head cheese.
The RabbitQuote Reply
I was planning to go to Venice on Friday after work to taste the Winterfel fare. Too bad my co-worker got sick and I had to stay at work to take care of things :-(
Lemon cake was really good and blackened seafood was wonderful when I went to Melrose on Wednesday for the Wall menu. The truck was half a block away from Fairfax High School but there was hardly a line there around 6pm. I guess LA is too spread out and car-cultured to have a great response for a food truck promotion. No wonder they started in Downtown LA next day around lunchtime to try to increase the response.
The lady from Craft (they handle the food truck in LA) gave me their business card. Will definitely go there in July to celebrate the publication of “A Dance with Dragons” :-)
SugarVampireQuote Reply
This was a great marketing campaign. Very fitting and original. (Sadly I’m in Europe…)
And an entertaining write-up, as always.
So, Fire And Blood, I hope this video gets released, you do want to advancing from Y-list celebrity to X-list celebrity, don’t you? (…perhaps I should say W-list, thinking about it…)
SchlafmohnQuote Reply
Anyone know anything about what this bit of promotion GRRM mentioned is?
http://www.hitfix.com/blogs/the-fien-print/posts/hitfix-interview-a-few-minutes-with-george-r-r-martin-at-the-game-of-thrones-food-truck
MormegilQuote Reply
This!
InkasrainQuote Reply
How the days have quickly gone by.. It seems like just yesterday that I was in my cottage house in January freezing my ass off, suffering post-Christmas-full-house depression and trying to load this page and seeing the counter with that sloooooooooooooow 50 kb/s connection there. And how many things have happened since then.. Anyways thank you WiC for mentioning us hyped-up Croatians in your post and I am glad that you didn’t say anything ever so foolish during your interview :D They ways of the First Men are still strong here, and their blood is running thick in our families :)
Andrija Andrew PQuote Reply
Andrija Andrew P,
Any chance of seeing you CRO guys on SferaKON this year?
Or is one of you from the South? Because if anything, I think Gemma was checking out Dubrovnik and in a case of a positive decision we would definitely need coverage.
ZedQuote Reply
Zed,
Yep I am coming, probably on Wednesday if my exam is not scheduled too late and if my boss is in a good mood. This will be my second year.. I am still kinda hoping that Martin will be coming to Eurocon in Zagreb next year although his PR person told me his schedule is erratic..
Andrija Andrew PQuote Reply
Andrija Andrew P,
We’ll need to organize some WiC get together then. There is talk among the organizers about some screening, but it’s all still too vague.
So exited about all the billboards around town. This is the first time that we are at sync with all the hype raging around the globe.
ZedQuote Reply
Zed,
Well sure I am all for it. Maybe we could ask WiC if he would be willing to write a small reminder about Sferakon here and point out that this could be a nice chance for ppl to get together?? I have a few friends who are casual readers and will most likely be watching GoT but I would like to be able to discuss the series and books with those that are real fans. In Croatian :)
And yeah it is nice to see those bilboards around the city, I first noticed the one near Glavni kolodvor :)
Andrija Andrew PQuote Reply
Andrija Andrew P,
Well I’m sold if there will be others there!
Maester IvoQuote Reply
Mormegil,
Hey Mormegil and anyone else who is interested. I actually was at Hollywood & Highland the night before George was at the food truck to check out some rumors I had heard about something happening. This is the promo he mentions.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avPjxGBBt84
Kyle from APOIAFQuote Reply
Kyle from APOIAF,
Cheers, looks great.
Is that the theme tune playing at the end?
MormegilQuote Reply
If I was in charge of advertising I would pay a few talk show hosts to sit on the Iron Throne. (Oprah) Then with the premiere have HBO be free for the weekend. The majority of people are going to be hooked after the first episode and subscribe.
I’m waiting HBO, hire me.
Kevin W.Quote Reply
Well, did it. Not only did I attend all five days of the truck of foods, I managed to meet GRRM and get my face on Winter-is-Coming.net. I’m one of the “enthusiastic fans” in the 6th picture down. It was really great to get out and meet some other fans. The turnout may not have been huge on any given day but the people who were thee were mostly dedicated SoIaF enthusiasts. And the food! My god but the food was good. I’m proud to say got t least a taste of everything they served. Best was either the squab or the fish stew, in my humble opinion. Weirdest was the pickled eggs, though my friends would probably vote for the headcheese. i thought it was delicious!
Nick GilmanQuote Reply