Captrust, a financial advising firm, is hosting a food truck rodeo at North Hills mall from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 6.

Ten percent of all sales will be donated to the Payton Wright Foundation, which raises money for pediatric brain cancer research and to support families dealing with this diagnosis.

The event will happen in the parking lot behind Bruegger's. The trucks include Klausie's Pizza, Chirba Chirba Dumpling, Captain Ponchos Taco Truck, Gussy's Greek Street Food, Olde North State BBQ, Big City Sandwiches, Big John's Hot & Spicy (although their Facebook page says they are off the road), Kona Ice and Lumpy's Ice Cream.

For more information about the event, go to the Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/OkqV1J.

For more information about the foundation, go to paytonwright.org.

And to see a complete list of the Triangle's food trucks, go HERE.
 

Lovers of North Carolina craft beer should head to downtown Raleigh from 3-9 p.m. Saturday for Brewgaloo, a craft beer event with live music and food trucks.

Fifteen breweries from Roth Brewing Co. to Big Boss Brewing, Sub Rosa to Fortnight (the latter two haven't even opened yet) will be pouring beer in City Plaza, or the 400 block of Fayetteville St. There is no cover charge. You must buy brew bucks to purchase beer: $1 buys one brew buck, 5 brew bucks gets you a pint of beer, or 1 brew buck gets you a 3-ounce tasting. If you buy brew bucks online before the event, you can get 25 brew bucks for $20. On Saturday, it's full price. Go HERE to buy brew bucks.

The event is open to the public. You can come to the event and then go have dinner and go back to taste more beer. The event will happen rain or shine.

There will be four bands (The Small Ponds, Hank Sinatra, Mel Melton & the Wicked Mojos and I was Totally Destroying It) and five food trucks (Klausie's Pizza, Cafe Prost, Big Al's BBQ, Chirba Chirba Dumpling and Baguettaboutit.)

The event is sponsored by Shop Local Raleigh, which is funded by the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association. About Brewgaloo, organizer Jennifer Martin says, "We just want to get consumers focused on shopping local, eating local and drinking local."

So many things to do this weekend beyond the 24-hour celebration of the new N.C.  Museum of Natural Sciences. If the weather cooperates, here are a few ideas:

• This Saturday is the annual Cuegrass festival outside The Pit restaurant in downtown Raleigh. It's from noon-6 p.m. It costs $5. For details, go to http://cuegrass.com
• Chatham County's Briar Chapel is hosting an Earth Day celebration from 3-5 p.m. Sunday with children's activities and a food truck rodeo. The food trucks will include Chirba Chirba Dumpling, Baguettaboutit, Will & Pop's and The Parlour. (There's also a 5K in the morning if you feel so inclined. It benefits the Abundance Foundation. For more information, go HERE.)
• SEEDS' annual pie social and skills share auction also is Sunday afternoon. Read my earlier post HERE.
• The next Triangle Foodie Tweetup is April 25 at Fearrington Village. The cost is $5 for Chef Colin Bedford's take on hot dogs, sliders and more. (They do seem to outdo themselves every time they host these events.) It's cash bar. Tickets are available HERE.

And I also wanted to mention these special dinners at Triangle restaurants:

Beasley's Chicken + Honey is doing soft shell crab dinners on Monday: You get  soft shell crabs, family-style sides and three glasses of spring wine for $35. They are doing seatings at 6 and 8 p.m. To make a reservation, call (919) 322-0127.

Chapel Hill's Jujube restaurant has two wine dinners:

• 7 p.m. April 26, a five-course dinner featuring Argentine wines costs $45 per person.
• 7 p.m. May 8, a five-course dinner with Austrian wine pairings costs $50 per person.

To see the full menus, go HERE. To make a reservation, call (919) 960-0555.
 

Two Durham-based food trucks, Chirba Chirba Dumpling and Pie Pushers, are teaming up with Coon Rock Farm to serve up lunch this weekend in Durham and Carrboro.

On Saturday, the trucks will be outside Motorco Music Hall in Durham from 12:30-4 p.m. Then on Sunday, the trucks will be parked outside Cliff's Meat Market in Carrboro from 12:30-4 p.m..

The trucks will be serving their pizza and dumplings using meat, vegetable and eggs from the Hillsborough farm.

The sixth annual Empty Bowls fundraiser will be serving up bowls of soup to benefit Urban Ministries of Durham as usual. But this year, organizers have added an after party at Fullsteam Brewery  and Motorco Music Hall with a food truck roundup.

So now you have two opportunities to help the Urban Ministries of Durham's Community Cafe, which serves nearly 220,000 meals annually to those in need.

From 5:30-8 p.m. March 8, eleven restaurants will be competing for the title of "Best Soup" at The Durham Armory. You can pay $15 to enjoy some soup or $30 for soup and a handcrafted bowl made by local artisans to take home. Children age 6 and under eat for free. To buy tickets, go to  www.umdurham.org.

The participating restaurants include Guglhupf, Revolution, L'Uva, Papa Mojo's Roadhouse, Thrills from the Grill, Watts Grocery, Blu Seafood and Bar, Whole Foods, Toast, Saladelia Cafe and Mad Hatter Bakeshop and Cafe.

If you can't make the earlier event, head over to Fullsteam Brewery and Motorco Music Hall starting at 8 p.m. for the after party. Seven food trucks will be debuting a new dish and donating a percentage of their sales to Urban Ministries of Durham. The food trucks include Pie Pushers, Will & Pops, The Parlour, Chirba Chirba Dumpling, Klausie's Pizza, Only Burger and Farmhand Foods Sausage Wagon. 

A handful of food trucks will gather for the Valentine's Day Food Rodeo and Fundraiser from 5:30-9:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 14 at the Carrboro Farmers' Market.

The beneficiaries are two local nonprofits: Table, an Orange County nonprofit that targets hunger relief, and the Inter-Faith Council for Social Service, a homeless outreach organization that offers beds, meals, medical care and other services.

The trucks that will be serving food include:

• Baguettaboutit: Baguette sandwiches featuring local sausages and specialty sauces. @baguettaboutit
• Cocoa Cinnamon: Select coffee, teas, spices and handmade chocolates. @cocoacinnamon
• Chirba Chirba:  Asian street fare truck specializing in Chinese dumplings. @ChirbaChirba
• Parlez-Vous Crepe: Made-to-order sweet and savory crepes. @parlezvouscrepe
• Monuts Donuts: A mix of classic and modern donut flavors. @monutsdonuts
• Triangle Raw Foodists will be there from 7-9:30 p.m. @TrnglRwFoodists

All trucks will donate a portion of their proceeds to the charities as well as collect nonperishable food items and donations.

Four local food trucks are joining forces for Durham's first "Food Truck Mash-Up," at 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 21 at Motorco.

The trucks include Chirba Chirba Dumpling, Pie Pushers, Farmhand Foods and KoKyu BBQ trucks. The "mash-up" angle means each truck will make dishes using ingredients from the other trucks. That may mean pizza-inspired dumplings and Asian-inspired tacos. You'll have to be there to find out.

Tickets cost $25 in advance or $30 at the door. (Get your tickets sooner rather than later because they will go fast.) To buy tickets, go to http://motr.co/ftmu

Follow the discussion on Twitter: #FTMU

Durham's Chirba Chirba Dumpling food truck is being featured in Saturday's season premiere of "My Family Recipe Rocks," a new show on ABC's Live Well Network hosted by Joey Fatone, the former 'N Sync band member.

Chela Tu, one of the truck's founders, says their dumpling recipe was inspired by the father of one of her business partners. Co-owner Yin Song's father, Michael, is a chef who shared his dumpling techniques with the foursome who developed their own recipe.

Tu says they had a lot of fun with Fatone who worked on the truck with them during a lunch hour stop at Channel Advisor in Morrisville.

"It was fun to be on camera and have a goofball who is just as funny as us," she says.

To see the show, tune into channel 1112 at 8 p.m. Saturday.

If you would like to check out the truck, it will be parked from 11:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Durham's Golden Belt at 807 E. Main St.

Raleigh's Big Boss Brewery is hosting a food truck event starting at 5-10 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13. (It's their second annual Big Food Truck Harvest and it will benefit UNC's Lineberger Cancer Center.)

The following food trucks plan to be in attendance: Only Burger, Valentino's, Chirba Chirba Dumpling, Slippin' Sliders and Olde North State BBQ.

The brewery will be serving their pumpkin beer and The Cupcake Brewery will be serving up pumpkin ale-infused cupcakes. Plus, there will be a carved pumpkin contest.

Go HERE to read more about the event and the pumpkin-carving contest.

If you can't make this event, there are two more upcoming food truck gatherings, one in Raleigh and the other in Durham. Go HERE to read about those events.

If  you are looking for something to do Saturday, there will be a food truck round-up starting at noon outside The Casbah on West Main Street in Durham as part of Bull City Rumble.

The Durham Cookery has rounded up several of its food truck clients for the event: Chirba Chirba Dumplings, Deez Hot Diggity Dogs, Farmhand Foods, Grilled Cheese Bus, and Pie Pushers. Plus Only Burger and Ice Queen, an ice cream food truck from Greensboro, also will be there. Go HERE to see more details about the trucks.

Have fun! If you head to a round-up, remember the lines will be long and you might want to bring a lawn chair.