Original subtitles

All right, ready?

Feel the rhythm. Feel the ride. Giddy up.

-It's food truck time! -[all cheering]

Ladies and gentlemen, The Great Food Truck Race is back.

You won't get this anywhere else, man. I promise you.

[Tyler] And we are about to embark on the most epic adventure

-that we've been on. -Let's go!

And it's so good to be on the road again.

-Galveston, are you ready? -[contestants] Yeah.

[Tyler] We are hitting the Gulf Coast with nine teams

-of first-time food truckers. -Let's go!

[exclaims] We did it!

We're going to be traveling 1,400 miles from Houston, Texas,

all the way to Miami, Florida, for a chance at

the grand prize of $50,000.

That's what I'm talking about.

But the Games on the Gulf will not be easy.

I'm, like, really upset right now.

-I'm not even playing with you. -You got 30 seconds.

Got him.

[Tyler] Each week, we'll roll into a new town,

where each team will get just enough seed money

to make some amazing food.

[indistinct shouting]

-[Tyler] Reeling the customers... -You get an empanada.

-Come here. -[Tyler] And sell...

Okay, one Crabby Fry.

-[Tyler] ...sell. -I'm going to try some donuts.

-Okay. -[Tyler] Sell.

Look at the snack, baby.

[Tyler] Every week, the team that earns the least

-goes home empty-handed. -Hurry up.

We need to get these orders out.

And after eight grueling cities chock full of challenges.

-Hey, hungry pirates. -Be patient.

I have your food right here.

[Tyler] The last team standing wins 50 grand

and the title of Great Food Truck Race Champion.

[all cheering]

[Tyler] The game's on the go.

Blast off from Houston, Texas, right here, right now.

Let's get rolling.

[opening theme music playing]

[woman] We're finally here at The Great Food Truck Race.

-We're bringing it to Houston. -Woo!

-We bringin' home the win. -And the bacon.

Plates on Deck. Here we go.

Y'all ready?

-Let's go. -Let's go.

I'm very excited to meet Tyler Florence.

-I know. -This is so steady.

We're winning this thing. We're taking it back to Gilbert.

Let's go.

[man] It's a race. We're fast. We're motivated.

-Ain't nobody as fluffy as us. -No way.

-I'm Kevin. -I'm Zach.

I'm Cody.

-And we are... -[all] Bao Bei.

From Washington, D.C. Zach here.

We've been best friends for 20 years

since the third grade, but now we're business partners at Bao Bei.

Cody has been a kitchen friend of mine

for almost a decade now.

We chef it up in the kitchen,

making the best Taiwanese food.

Absolutely.

Our food concept is amazing Taiwanese street food

and our amazing baos.

The Bao Bei bao, slow braised pork belly

inside of a fluffy bun.

That's our specialty. That's what we're known for.

We also have rice bowls, cucumber salad,

swirly buns, everything Taiwanese street food means.

-Let's get you to it. Let's get it. -Let's do it.

Absolutely.

Cheese.

-I know. I'm so excited. -We made it.

Great Food Truck Race. I never thought making waffles would lead me here.

-Unreal. -I'm Joe.

-I'm Maggie. -And I'm Wally.

[all] And we're Wally's Waffles.

Wally's Waffles is a Belgian waffle pop-up

and catering service based out of Chicago, Illinois,

and we specialize in unique waffle creations

that will blow your mind.

We make authentic Belgian liege-style waffles.

It's a dough versus a batter. It's chewy.

It's more pastry-like. So it's not just a waffle.

The waffle's the canvas, and we paint that canvas

by putting unique toppings on there.

So Maggie's my sister.

Obviously, I've known her my whole life.

-We finish each other's... -Sandwiches?

Waffles?

Anyways, Joe is my best friend.

I've known Joe for 25 years.

Wally's the waffle man.

Maggie's the prep person.

And I'm trying to bring the people in.

Let's get waffling!

[upbeat music playing]

Teams, welcome to Houston, Texas!

[all cheering]

Where you're standing right now represents

a giant leap that pushed mankind to its limits.

Welcome to the NASA Johnson Space Center

right here in Houston, Texas.

[all cheering]

Teams, I want you to channel that energy and blast off

into your first challenge right here

on The Great Food Truck Race.

-Are you ready? -[all cheering]

Astronauts up in space experience a diminished sense

of taste and smell.

-Oh. -So they tend to crave food that really packs a punch.

-And you know what? So do I. -Same.

So teams, I want you to make me

an out of this world flavor rocket blast off dish.

Show me who you are as a food truck and blow me away.

I want your full experience. Are you ready to go?

-[all cheering] -Let's go!

So teams, here are the rules.

You're going to have 40 minutes to prep,

cook, and land your blast-off dish.

I'm going to be judging this myself.

We can't wait to show Tyler our food.

This is our first challenge. It's time to make an impact.

The team that impresses me the most is going to win $300

in their till.

So before you even make your first sell,

you will be in first place.

-Oh, yeah. -We need that.

-We need that. -That's a huge advantage.

So, teams, I understand that you're all first-time food truckers.

-Am I right? -Yeah!

Teams, I got nine sweet rides.

-Are you ready to see them? -Yes!

Let's go!

I'm gonna give you five minutes to check out

your truck, and then your blast-off competition starts.

Are you ready to go?

-Yeah! -Let's do it!

What are you waiting for?

-Let's get right in! -[all cheering]

Whoo!

-Yes. -Oh, my gosh!

-Awesome! -Look at that!

-All right, let's go! -Look at this!

Can you see this?

-Oh, my God. -Open it, guys.

-I'm going to go home with this truck. -Wow.

Look at my face.

You shaved.

-We did it. -Let's make some money.

Let's make Tyler some food.

Hey, Cosmo, you ready to do this?

-Go ahead. -All right, teams, you've had five minutes

to inspect your trucks, 40 minutes on the clock.

-Oh, oh, oh. -Your time starts now.

Let's go.

-Let's start mixing everything. -Let's go.

What the hell is with everything?

We are doing the fish last.

We always do the fish last, because it's like, you know,

respect for the fish.

-My name is Keyia. -I'm Uswa.

-I am Ferhat. -And we are...

[all] Fishnet.

On the Fishnet food truck, we're going to serve fish.

I mean, like, fresh, really nice fish.

-Keyia, how are you? -Doing great.

Squeezing the lime for the guacamole.

Keyia and I have been married for 18 years.

[Keyia] And Uswa is my head chef at our restaurant

in Baltimore, Maryland.

[Ferhat] I'm going to make an egg wash fish batter.

I used some Turkish spice.

Ferhat came from Istanbul, and Fishnet is about us

merging east and west and looking for fish

that speaks to everyone.

[Ferhat] Look at this beautiful salmon.

We're making our wild sockeye salmon tacos bundled in corn tortillas

with citrus slaw and a little guacamole on the side.

The belly of the salmon has a little bit more fat.

Fries much better.

We got to win this competition because I hate to lose.

We need the tortillas right now.

I just don't know what to do with myself if I lose.

Press on it so it will char a little better.

The only problem that I can foresee us having

is Ferhat coming out of the kitchen.

Lime juice. We need lime juice.

Because if he comes out the kitchen.

-We're in trouble. -Just chop it up.

Handle it. Handle it. Come on.

We are running out of time. Let's go.

-He's the Turkish tornado. -Out of my way.

[Randy] I love it. We have all of our starter stuff.

-Okay. -Yep, yep.

The wheels are already spinning. This is amazing.

-I'm Serrano. -I'm Randy.

And I'm Barenese.

[all] And we are Sola Po'Boys from Los Angeles, California.

Hey.

I'm head chef of Sola Po' Boys.

This is my beautiful girlfriend, Randy.

I'm the brains behind the business.

And this is my amazingly talented mom, Barenese.

And I taught her everything she knows.

Hmm, true.

[Serrano] When we started dating, I made her my favorite po' boy.

And I think that's the moment where she fell in love with me.

Our po' boys have a little razzle dazzle

you might not get from a traditional New Orleans po' boy.

I think I got something going.

I got a couple things in mind.

-Okay. -A shrimp curry salad, maybe?

-I'm not feeling that. -Seafood salad, but, like, with curry.

Remove the salad idea.

-Like, it's not a salad. -I agree.

You see how they just shot me down?

I mean, I just feel like let's take it to another level.

I would like to take the challenge as an opportunity

-to showcase what else we can do. -Right.

And people need to see that.

Think more.

the spicy shrimp, spicy tuna on a rice cake.

-It is a mix. -I feel the rice cake.

And part of this challenge is to create a dish

that's going to excite the senses.

So that is going to be a Cajun shrimp and crab curry

on top of a crispy coconut rice cake topped with

delicious oysters.

You know what I love about this meal, Mom?

It gives you an opportunity to shine.

[Serrano] That's facts. We didn't bring you for nothing, Mama B.

-That's right. -Stop, guys.

I mean, that's real.

-[Kevin] What are we going to make? -[Zakary] We're Bao Bei.

We got to make a bao.

Are we going to have time for it to rise?

It takes around two hours and 30 minutes

to make a perfect bao. It's a big risk.

We have to represent our brand for the first challenge.

Zach, I think there's only one answer.

At the end of the day, it's my business.

I want to make the call. We're making baos.

Cody, you're on chicken duty.

-Zach, you're on cutting duty, okay? -Okay.

[Kevin] We decided to make a Taiwanese fried chicken bao.

To make the bao buns, I start the yeast

blooming in some water.

Got to put the flour inside, mix it up together,

getting this dough nice and kneaded.

I'm doing a nice little chicken marinade,

oyster sauce, a little bit of white pepper,

and doing some five spice as well.

Nice little dusting.

Kevin, your buns look amazing.

[Kevin] They're looking good. They're looking good. I'm making it work.

-[Zakary] We're doing it, boys. -We're doing it.

-We're doing it. -Let's go.

The easy part is done.

Now it's all about the heat and making sure

the yeast works.

We're going to pray that these buns rise in time.

All right.

All right, teams, 35 minutes on the clock.

-Yeast, milk, flour, vanilla. -Just a smidge.

Eggs.

[Wally] Today we plan on serving the Belgian dream.

The Belgian dream is a Belgian liege waffle

with our house-made vanilla cream,

freshly cut strawberries, bananas,

and a chocolate ganache drizzle on top.

Oh, we got to put in the salt.

We forgot the salt. 79 grams of salt.

I'm used to making large batches.

I'm not used to dialing it down

into a small batch in a small mixer.

79 grams of salt, right on the money.

But thankfully, the dough is a right consistency,

so I'm ready to throw on the iron.

I'm doing a couple tests, waffle hearers.

It'll be a moment of truth right here

to see if they come out the right way.

We don't have enough time to make another batch,

so it has to be perfect.

See how it tastes.

Yeah, we over salted it.

I take one bite, it is way too salty.

Yeah, it's over salted.

This waffle is bad.

This is really bad.

[Wally] We really have to impress Tyler.

We can't give him this.

Unreal. Unbelievable.

We really have to impress Tyler. We can't give him this.

It has three times the amount of salt that there should be.

You know what? All right, here's what we'll do.

Here's what we'll do.

We're going to balance it out.

We're going to put a little bit of extra chocolate ganache

on top and a little bit of extra whipped cream.

So that way, it's going to balance

the extra saltiness in the waffle.

[Maggie] You want it to look good.

You want it to look like a Belgian dream.

-Remember that. -30 minutes left, guys.

30 minutes on the clock.

So Bessie will start working on the aromatics

to make onions and garlic.

I'm Bessie.

-I'm Barry. -And I'm Rob.

[all] And we are Team Kalye from New York City.

Team Kalye is a group of friends.

Bessie here is a fashion designer.

I designed our uniform, and I hope this is going

to make us win, you know, so that people,

we will attract people.

It's like making tempura. It's gonna be crispy.

Barry here, I met in one of the street fairs in New York City,

both of us having a pop-up.

[Barry] I'm gonna start cutting the sirloin.

The garlic would be minced.

The Kalye food truck would be serving

authentic Filipino flavors.

And the main ingredients on our food is love.

So I'm gonna start using the mallet to tenderize the meat.

[Rob] For this challenge, we're making tangy

and flavorful sinigang fried rice with beef tapa,

which is sliced beef sirloin,

and sunny egg with vegetable tempura.

This pan hasn't been used before,

so I'm going to season it.

It is important to have a well-seasoned pan.

-Barry, how are you doing? -Yes.

[Barry] Doing fine. I'm going to make the marination now.

Add some banana ketchup.

Banana ketchup was made during hard times in the Philippines

during the war,

turning bananas into a ketchup.

I'm actually gonna add a little bit more.

Okay, I think I just burned it.

Oh, my God.

I wasn't paying attention, and this is what happened.

It burned already?

Oh, my God. [laughs]

I just ruined it.

I'm on national TV, and it looks like I don't know

how to season a pan.

I was burning it. That was embarrassing.

Do we have to pay for this?

So right now, I am mincing garlic.

I am also cutting peppers and onions.

All of these go inside of our gumbo,

and they bring out the flavor.

[Andrew] I'll be starting on the shrimp burger.

First thing I'm going to have to do is start

breaking down our shrimp.

We're also going to be using the tail for a stock.

-I'm Chef Andrew. -I'm Chef Jasmine.

-And I'm Chef Terry. -And we are...

[all] Cooks With Passion.

From Atlanta, Georgia.

Cooks with Passion

is the Caribbean New South cuisine,

and we're really excited to be able to show people

a different take on Southern fusion.

We showcase a Caribbean side

and a New South side in flavors

that they may not have seen before.

We know they never seen it before, 'cause they never met us.

-True. -Yeah, facts.

We chose the shrimp burger because it signifies what we do.

Shrimp and grits is one of Tyler's favorite food,

so we decided to go with the shrimp and grits sandwich.

that comes with two grit cakes on top of a shrimp burger

with a gumbo dipping sauce.

I got the grits going over here,

added some milk to it, salt, pepper,

a little garlic powder.

We met working in restaurants, and we decided to join forces

to bring Cooks for Passion to life.

We've been doing pop-ups in Atlanta for the past year.

Even though we're rookies to the food truck,

we're not scared of it.

Do y'all think we're going to make it?

Just got to make sure that these grits get cooled down enough

-before we can fry them, guys. -Heard.

If these grits don't cool down, we can't fry them.

We can't serve the shrimp and grit sandwich

-without the grits. -I'm going to try to freeze it.

Get those things in, man.

[Carolina] Have you ever cooked at somebody else's kitchen,

-and then you come there to find anything? -[Chad] Oh, my God. I know.

This will be a little learning curve.

I am Carolina.

-I'm Paola. -And I'm Chad.

-And we are... -[all] Argentina's Empanadas.

...out of Wichita, Kansas.

[Carolina] We are all from Wichita, Kansas.

But actually, Paola and I are from Argentina.

I moved here six years ago because I married

this handsome man.

Chad and I have been together for six years.

And we're the owners of Argentina's Empanadas.

I don't think there's ever been an Argentinian

-on the show. -[Carolina] No.

I think it's going to be awesome.

Nobody ever did this before.

For this challenge, we have decided to make

matambre a la pizza with a side of potatoes

topped with chimichurri sauce.

Matambre a la pizza is flank steak turned into a pizza.

-Do we have enough for chimichurri? -Yes.

First thing we're going to do is make our chimichurri.

And we blend parsley, cilantro, olive oil,

and onion, and then put it on the burner to simmer.

-Oh, be careful. -Woo!

-Look at these golden beauty. -[Chad] We're grilling a steak.

We will take NASA's rockets to the moon, I promise.

Let's go, DTG! [whoops]

I'm Karina.

This is my brother, Oz.

This is my beautiful daughter, Kiana.

[all] And we are Down To Get Tacos!

From Gilbert, Arizona.

We have everything in here. Pots, pans.

Seeing our food truck for the first time is amazing.

It's a dream come true.

What would mom and dad think?

DTG Tacos is a family-based business.

-We started with nothing. -From a little tent. And now we're here.

We did it, mom. We did it.

[Karina] We're down to get tacos.

But we don't just serve tacos.

We serve quesadillas, quesaritos, nachos.

And we are known for our signature barbacoa.

What are you guys thinking that we should do?

Something that's just going to blow

his mind with that first bite.

Blast off, right?

We're going to do tacos, but I think we need to surprise him.

I think the quesarito would be perfect.

[Oz] The quesarito.

The burrito meets a quesadilla

with a cheese crisp on the outside.

In the quesarito is the al pastor,

which that represents my dad.

The spiciness of it represents my mom.

-[Oz] Okay, okay, now we're cooking. [whoops] -[laughs]

[Ziomara] I'm topping up the peppers.

I'm going to go ahead and mix up my spices.

You know, we got to have that eclectic soul seasoning.

Tyler got any sinus issues or inflammation,

this spice blend is going to help clear that right up.

-I'm Ken. -I'm Ziomara.

I'm Sam.

-And we're... -[all] Plates on Deck.

We're going to do two spice blends today, guys.

I'm going to rock out.

I'm head chef and CEO.

This is my wonderful fiancee right here, Ziomara,

my cousin Sam.

Gotta have a nice little herbaceousness,

get that flavor going.

We run a catering and private chef business

in Lakeland, Florida, serving up

our eclectic soul food, which to me is a celebration

of global comfort food.

We're gonna need that signature seafood seasoning.

We do a seafood boil as well as a honey bourbon salmon,

-a five cheese mac attack. -[Ziomara] Yeah.

One of our biggest sellers, our honey vanilla cornbread.

Check the water real quick to see if it's boiled,

ready for the pasta.

I'm about to devein the shrimp,

get it ready for the egg rolls and for the pasta pasta.

For our challenge dish, we're making the

passa passa pasta and a jerk shrimp egg roll.

You're going to give them the award-winning dish?

The award-winning dish.

Right off the top, I'm busting them over the head.

This spice, this jerk, this flavor, that passa passa

is meant to be a dancing vibe.

Passa passa is actually a Caribbean dance party,

and I use that as the name for

our award-winning dish, because when

you take that first bite, you're gonna wanna dance.

-Yeah! -And then look, when it get right, you gotta do the twist.

[all laughing]

You gotta do the twist.

-We about to get that 300 in the till. -[indistinct chatter]

I'm tossing the shrimp in my signature spice blends.

Add a little bit of a smoky flavor.

Flipping the shrimp.

Got a nice, beautiful sear on it.

We've got a nice cream-based pasta sauce going.

Now we're going to add a little bit

of our Caribbean blend mix.

It's the perfect combination of the Italian

and Caribbean flavors.

And then we do a little roll and a nice little tuck.

Ooh, that's a good roll right there.

There we go, dropping our jerk shrimp egg roll.

It's going down. Let's get it.

All right, teams, 10 minutes.

10 minutes, 10 minutes.

I just heard them, 10 minutes.

-Oh, my God. -Come on.

10 more minutes, 10 minutes. Let's go, let's go.

-[sighs] The stress, the stress. -Don't be stressing me out.

Let's go, let's go.

-So get the chocolate, the strawberries ready. -All right.

-All right. -Make sure we have the whipped cream.

Make sure we have the scoop for the whipped cream.

Only thing we pushing on is our grits.

[Terry] I don't know if this coolant is going to be enough.

-All right, we're going to see. -[Terry] I opened the fridge.

I checked the grits. It's still hot.

[Andrew] We are running out of time.

What are we going to do about these grits?

If these grits don't cool down, we can't fry them.

They're going to fall apart in the fryer,

and it's going to be a waste of time.

[Keyia] Let's take a temperature of the oil.

Sour cream is done.

[Keyia] What's the temperature?

That [bleep] is not hot enough.

It's not hot enough.

-It's 190. -This is my first time using this fryer.

I don't know what happened.

I don't know why it's not heating up.

-What happened over there? -Oh, it's just not going up.

It's [bleep]. What are we going to do?

[Keyia] What temperature is it?

-It's at 190. -190?

We're going to reach the 300 at least.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

I believe in the steamer.

I believe in the steamer, too. I'm hoping for the best.

Buns usually take 40 minutes to an hour or three to rise.

If the buns don't have the time to rise,

they're going to look sad.

They're going to look floppy.

I don't want to show that to Tyler.

[Cody] Moment of truth, boys.

Get in.

-Somebody count me down. -[all] Three, two, one.

[all] Oh, no.

-[sighs] -Oh, my God.

The buns have not risen at all.

Not only will I not have something to plate to Tyler,

he knows we're a bao truck. We're screwed.

[all] Oh, no.

[Kevin] I've never seen a more sad,

disgusting-looking bao in my life.

I cannot believe that was made with my own hands.

-Garbage. -[Cody] Garbage.

This is not a Bao Bei bao.

I told you, guys.

We have to pivot now.

I say we drop them in the deep fryer.

So we've completely abandoned the steamed buns

in this challenge. Let's just focus on the Taiwanese flavors

and still show him that we have the flavor down.

[Terry] I need to set these grits out. I opened the fridge.

I checked the grits. It's still hot.

I need to put these grits outside or they're not going to cool down.

It's colder outside than inside this refrigerator,

so I'm going to put them outside.

The time is ticking.

All right, teams, five minutes left.

Five minutes.

[Karina] Tortilla coming in.

One, two, three, quesarito.

[Kiana] This is the cheese crust that we want.

[Karina] To make the quesarito, we add the filling,

which is the al pastor meat, the rice, the beans.

We're going to garnish it with a little bit of

our spicy salsa, avocado crema.

Are you going to wrap, or do you want me to?

-I can wrap for you. -Okay.

All right, let me get that whipped cream.

[Wally] The first waffle that came out is way too salty.

We need to adjust the sweetness levels,

so we're going to increase the amount of vanilla cream, strawberry,

banana, and dress it up with that chocolate ganache

and dial down the saltiness from the waffle.

I just increased it to 400.

-Let's see what happens, all right? -400?

But we're running short on time there.

We're going to reach to 300 at least.

This is a disaster.

I'm about to drop the fish in the oil,

and the oil is not hot enough.

I'mma check these grits out, y'all.

-[Andrew] Okay. -[Jasmine] Okay.

Hey, drop that in the fryer. Hopefully it's cool enough.

If you break up, it's over with.

See, I ain't looking.

[Terry] Give me 10 seconds, and I'll tell you.

[Jasmine] We are running out of time.

Lord, please let these grits come out right.

Oh, yeah.

-Yeah. -[Andrew] We're good to go?

[Terry] Let's do it.

[Ferhat] I'm looking at the oil.

I was waiting for the right second.

I'm putting the fish in the oil.

-And it starts bubbling. -[Keyia] Woo!

All right, teams, two minutes left.

If you're not plating, you better get started.

[dramatic music playing]

Beautiful. So we got to pull it together.

Oh, my goodness, that chimichurri.

-That's good. -Okay.

Guys, I'm going to start plating.

-These grits come out on point. -I think egg on top.

That looks good, Rob.

Let's see the bao real quick. It's got the craters.

It looks like the moon wearing NASA.

Can you put some of the green onion on top?

Just a little razzle dazzle. Okay.

[Tyler] Guys, here we go.

-T minus 10. -[counting down]

Teams, time's up. That's it.

Let's go.

[Jasmine] Let's go!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

He ain't never seen nothing like this.

You ain't never seen a shrimp and grits sandwich.

I think it's gorgeous.

Yes, let's do it.

We have too many blunders today.

-It's the first day. The pressure's on. -All right.

But we got to do better.

Teams, I have challenged you to prepare a blast off dish

that would tantalize even an astronaut's taste buds.

And then also tell me a little bit about

who you are as a food truck team.

And I gotta tell you, I am blown away.

So we're gonna start off with Plates on Deck. Tell us what we got.

We are Plates on Deck, home of Eclectic Soul Food.

We have a passa passa pasta, which is a jerk Alfredo

with a jerk shrimp on top with some micro greens

and Parmesan and a jerk shrimp egg roll.

You're not jerking me around on this, are you?

[all laughing]

-No, sir. -OMG.

Wow. The spice on the pasta is fantastic.

-Thank you. -I love this flavor profile.

The dish is beautiful.

Way to go, Plates on Deck.

-I think this is the winner. -Thank you, thank you.

-Nice job. -Really, really good.

Delicious. All right, Bao Bei, tell us what we got.

We got Bao Bei fried chicken on a bed of

our favorite sour mustard.

The sauce is made with cilantro,

some garlic, a little bit of basil.

Top it off with a little bit of chili oil,

just a little bit of spice.

Of course, you can add more if you want to.

[Tyler] Yep.

Wow, guys. Delicious.

-I love this flavor profile. -Thank you, chef.

I think it's a very innovative dish.

I like the sourness of the cabbage on the bottom.

I love the bright notes of all the fresh flavors

on top of that.

-Thank you, chef. -[Tyler] I like it a lot.

-Nice job. Way to go. -Thank you.

Round of applause, everybody. Thank you.

The number one thing I wanted to do

was share my bao with Tyler.

We failed in the first challenge,

but I'm feeling a little bit better now.

[Tyler] Argentina's empanadas.

So there's lots of empanadas in Wichita, Kansas?

-You're the only one. -[Tyler] You're the only one?

Shocker. All right, tell us what we have here.

[Carolina] Today we made an Argentinian Matambre a la Pizza

with potato wedges with chimichurri on top.

-So chef, is there steak underneath here? -[Chad] Yes.

It's flank steak with mozzarella and marinara sauce.

[Tyler] Nice little mash up of a lot of different flavors.

Delicious. Thank you very much.

-Appreciate it. -Thank you.

-[all clapping] -All right, Cooks with Passion.

I'm not sure what this is, but I know I want it.

We have our shrimp and grits burger

with a gumbo dipping sauce.

This is a shrimp and grit burger.

We took our shrimp and grinded it into a shrimp burger.

So we turned our grit cakes into buns,

and the gumbo dipping sauce is going to finish it off.

-Don't get a dip. -No, don't dip.

-You got to dip. -You got it.

-You got to dip? -Yeah, you got to dip.

Come on, now, dip, baby.

-Yeah. Yeah. -Ooh.

-There you go. -Yeah.

Yeah.

Chef, that is delicious as I thought it would taste.

I appreciate this.

-I can taste your passion. -Way to go, Chef.

Nice job. I love Southern food.

I think it's very, very interesting

and innovative all at the same time.

-Got to know your audience and who you're cooking for. -[Andrew] There you go.

I'm known for my shrimp and grits,

-and that's pretty nice. I got to tell you. -Heard, chef.

Kalye, amazing Filipino chefs from New York City.

Tell us what we got on the plate here.

So what we have for you today is sinigang fried rice

with beef tapa and with a side of sunny egg.

-Tell us about this beef. -[Rob] The beef is marinated

in soy sauce, garlic, and banana ketchup.

It can't be a Filipino dish without banana ketchup.

-Oh, definitely. -It just can't be.

[all chuckling]

This is so vibrant, so delicious, so beautiful.

Looks amazing, tastes great. Nice job, guys.

-Way to go. Happy to have you. -Thank you so much.

-Welcome. -[all clapping]

All right, so Fishnet from Baltimore, Maryland.

-Hey, Tyler. -What's happening?

-Tell us what you got here. -[Keyia] We have a crispy wild

sockeye salmon taco with a homemade garlic slaw

and a lime vinaigrette and a garlic sour cream on top.

This was the dish that my husband and I made,

looked at each other and said, "Hey, we should open a restaurant."

We haven't made this dish in a decade.

It's not currently on our restaurant menu,

-so it was a little risky, but it's a special dish to us. -Oh, my God.

I think you've got to put it back in rotation right away.

-[all laughing] -I think it's really good.

It's really, really nice.

It eats really well.

Nice flavor profile, nice and clean.

I love it. Nice job.

-Thank you so much. -Way to go.

All right, Wally's Waffles from Chicago.

-How you doing? -Awesome.

-Awesome. -Excited.

If you're a fan of The Great Food Truck Race,

you might have heard of a little truck called Waffle Love.

-Yep. -Came in second place in their season.

They came in third place in the All-Star season.

And their waffles were delicious.

So I've got high expectations. Tell us what we got here.

So that is the Belgian Dream Waffle.

It's basically Wally's Waffles on a plate.

It's our classic waffle with freshly cut banana,

strawberry, a house-made vanilla cream,

and a Belgian chocolate ganache to top it off.

[dramatic music playing]

Jeff, I like the salt in the waffle.

I think it's really kind of nice.

If you want to season sugar, you add a little bit of salt

to something.

It's a nice little combination.

-I think it's delicious. Way to go. -Thank you.

-Thank you. -Wally's Waffles.

Nice job.

I can't believe we came back from a salty waffle.

Yes.

Talk about a confidence boost.

All right, Down To Get Tacos. Who's not down to get tacos?

-Who's not down? -I'm down.

Are you guys down to get tacos?

Yeah.

-I make Americans down to get tacos. -[Karina] That's right.

That's really how it came up. We're always down.

But you made me a quesarito.

-Yes. -I was down to get tacos.

So the reason why we made the quesarito is

we're a family affair, and literally every ingredient

that's in there represents someone in our family.

-So that's why we chose the quesarito. -Fantastic.

So we have a al pastor quesarito

with a side of rajas con crema.

We incorporated chile de arbol salsa,

and it's topped off with avocado crema, sour cream.

Chef, that's outstanding.

Yes.

It's a really, really beautiful presentation.

-It's delicious. -Thank you.

-He's down. He's down. -He's down.

I'm down to get this. I'm down to get that.

I think this will be a lot of fun.

Very popular chef.

Way to go. Nice job.

Sola Po' Boys from Los Angeles, California.

How you doing?

-Good. -[Tyler] L.A. in the house.

So I'm very excited about this dish.

It looks absolutely beautiful. It doesn't look like a Po' Boy,

but I want to hear about it. Tell us what we got.

We decided to go for a little something different.

So what you have on your plate is Cajun shrimp and crab curry

on top of crispy coconut rice cake,

topped with fried oysters.

-Yeah. -It's delicious.

-Thank you. -And I think it's very, very interesting.

I think L.A.'s here to play.

-Yeah. -I think it's nice.

-Way to go. -Nice job, everybody.

Teams, wow, look at us.

Now, for first place, what did I say I was going to get?

How much was I going to give?

-$300. -$300, right.

Now, what I didn't tell you is that we're going

to be calling this season of the Great Food Truck Race

-the Games on the Gulf. -Okay.

All right.

And I am going to award three different medals,

a bronze, a silver, and a gold with cash prizes

for each one.

That's great. Let's go.

[Ken] We need to get one of those prizes

and jumpstart our day one

-selling with extra profit in the tip. -Yeah.

So teams, for the Blast Off Challenge,

with a $100 reward, the bronze medal goes to...

-Down to Get Tacos. Way to go. -[all cheering]

The quesarito was absolutely delicious.

[Karina] Thank you so much.

-Nice. -Congratulations.

-Nice job. -Thank you.

[all] We got bronze!

It might not be the $300, but it's $100,

and we'll take what we can get.

And the silver medal with a $200 reward

goes to...

Plates on Deck. Nice job.

-Okay. -Way to go.

Way to go. Congratulations, my friend.

-Congratulations. -Nice job.

-Way to go. -Let's go.

And finally, how much is gold worth?

[all] $300.

There's a lot of good dishes here.

But there was one that really warmed my heart.

And the gold goes to...

So teams, there's a lot of good dishes here.

Lots of very, very inspiring flavors.

But for the Blast Off Challenge,

the gold and $300 goes to...

[dramatic music playing]

-Cooks with Passion. -[all cheering]

I got to tell you, quick way to my heart,

-shrimp and grits all day long. -Yes, sir.

Nice job. I appreciate you. Way to go. Nice job.

Nice job. Nice job.

-It's a very, very good dish. Genius territory. -Appreciate you.

That's gotta go on the menu right away.

-Thank you, thank you. -Absolutely, for sure.

We're walking into the first sales day already winning.

300 in the till is gonna be major for us.

All right, team, did you guys have a good time?

[all] Yes.

So, teams, I have set up a piece of spectacular

real estate in downtown Houston

where all of you are going to be selling right next to each other.

I want you to set up your regular menu.

I want you to size up your competition.

Knowledge is power. Know that.

All right, teams, ready to do this?

[all] Yeah!

Let the Games on the Gulf begin.

Let's get in our trucks and let's get rolling!

-Let's go! -[indistinct chatter]

[Maggie] There's definitely a big difference between

a food truck and being in a pop-up tent.

Oh, no. Yeah.

It's nothing like being back home.

-I would have never expected. -Here's another bump.

-[thuds] -Oh!

Clinkity clankity.

[car honks]

So we're talking strategy, T. We're going to do our best

to divvy up the prep, and everybody can just do

their part, and we can get it done on time.

Wait, where is he at?

I got off at 130.

130?

I don't know where y'all at. I'm lost.

I pulled up to what I thought was the location.

I don't see no other food trucks.

I'm like, "We're going to win."

But I'm in the wrong spot.

-Terry, where you at? -Man, I don't know, man.

Lord, fix it, Jesus.

[Jasmine] I'm freaking out. We can't find T.

[grunts]

Lord have mercy.

How we go from winning the challenge today

to we can't find T?

[Karina] All right, the moment has come.

Showtime.

-I park right here? -Yeah.

Yeah.

Yippee!

There's our truck.

We made it. All right.

All right, I think we are here.

-Oh, we found T. -We going around in a circle.

We're really happy to see our food truck.

-Now we got to go find the other one. -Yeah.

Start working on condiments, vegetables, chopped vegetables.

-Thank you. -It's 11:30.

Lunchtime rush is, I'm hoping, to be like 12:00.

The advantage of selling as a group is that

you'll be able to see what the other trucks

are actually doing.

But there's also another disadvantage,

which is you're selling basically to the same crowd.

I'm going to start working on the smash burger

and the donuts.

On our menu today, we have smash pita burger.

The sauce is ready.

And we're also making fries, beef overload.

We make the fries first, and then we top it

with banana ketchup aioli, chopped lettuce and tomatoes.

And as our dessert, the ube cake donut.

All right, I'm gonna start working on the donut.

All-purpose flour, the butter, salt.

We know that donuts would be an easy sell.

So I'm gonna put a lot of my focus in getting it done

and getting it done right.

I'm almost done with my donuts.

We're literally the only truck that's selling ube-glazed donuts,

-which is always a bestseller. -Okay.

We're gonna be opening in like 10 minutes,

-so if you wanna come back, you know, we can try our food. -Okay.

-Okay, great. -All right, thank you so much.

Hope to see you later.

[Kevin] Let's just prep as quick as possible without losing

any quality of the food and get to it.

So, Kevin, people see Bao Bei on the side of the truck.

Should we try to just go for the prep time

and go for baos today?

The first challenge really shook me up.

I'm definitely doubting myself.

We don't really have that much time.

I don't want to make baos under these conditions.

The rule of this week is to not get eliminated for us.

And I think even though we don't have baos,

we try to encapsulate what Taiwanese night markets do.

And I still think we can do that without baos.

-Absolutely. -Yep, I'm with it.

This is Taiwanese food, guys. I knew you were hungry.

Working up an appetite?

To try to get sales, I'm dancing around,

flipping a sign, doing whatever I can,

just trying to get anybody I can to look at me.

Because once they see this pig hat,

they're going to come check out what all the hype's about.

I'm not going to lie, guys. It's a little dead out here.

Hopefully it's this slow for everybody and not just us.

Here you go. Here's your bottle of water.

We got customers outside already waiting.

-Already. -We have to hurry up.

We're so behind.

What's on the menu today is going to be our jerk shrimp,

jerk chicken, and vegetarian passa passa.

We're going to do it with a side of curry cabbage.

-And it's a winner for sure. -That's definitely a winner.

Okay.

We'll have a fast ticket time because the sauce will be ready.

Whoo!

I wish you could smell what I'm smelling.

We'll toss the pasta.

The chicken will be par cooked,

so we'll finish on the flat top and cook the shrimp to order.

All right, we got this jerk chicken on the flat top.

We're talking three minutes or less on Ticket Times.

Okay.

I think we're going to try the pasta shrimp.

We got one shrimp pasta coming up right now.

-[Ken] One shrimp? Yeah! -[Ziomara] Yeah.

Mm, excellent.

I've never had anything quite like this. It's really good.

-It's a different spin on Alfredo. -That's insane.

Customers are reacting wonderful.

-Tell me what you're thinking. -20 out of 10.

20 out of 10 on the first bite.

-I like that. -I'm feeling great about sales right now.

[Ken] Order up for Jordan.

[Paola] Empanadas!

Empanadas from Argentina!

Two samplers? Okay.

We've got a line, we've got empanadas

out the door, and things are moving in the right direction.

We're about ready on this first one.

Yeah. Oh, look at that, everybody.

Look at that. Woo-hoo!

Enjoy. They are super, super hot.

[Terry] Yeah, baby, we here.

-I see the other truck. -Come on, let's go.

-We running behind, man. -We're late.

-Some of these trucks are already selling. -Ooh.

[Andrew] We're really in trouble.

We haven't even started prepping.

Jazz, I want you to go ahead and get started on

your Biscoff Cheesecake.

T, I want you to go ahead and start working the Shrimp and Grit Burger

so that we'll just meet in the middle on

the Curry Chicken Sandwich.

On the menu today, we got our Caribbean Island

Smash Burger, the Curry Chicken Sandwich.

[Terry] We also have our gold medal winning

Shrimp and Grit Sandwich.

[Jasmine] Also on the menu today is my brown butter cheesecake.

First I put whipped cream,

powdered sugar, cinnamon, and cream cheese in a bowl,

and I whip it until it gets to medium heat.

[Jasmine] So I'm making a cheesecake.

Give it about 15 minutes.

I see other people selling, so we definitely behind on time.

I'm worried because it's lunch rush,

and we're still prepping.

We haven't even put our menu out yet,

and the rest of the trucks are selling.

Hopefully we can get that thing going.

I know we will.

I think I'll do the fried beef overload.

Barry and Rob, we got our first order for today.

We got the fries beef overload.

Yes, another customer.

-Go, Bessie. -It's working.

People are coming.

Fries overload.

We ordered the loaded fries.

I like it.

I'm a meat lover, so. I wanted to buy the ube donut.

I'm going to loop around so I can buy it

'cause they said that it's going to be done in like 15 minutes.

Rob, just checking the ube donut before

I commit to my client.

-How many minutes for the ube donut? -Not yet.

-Okay. -I'm testing the recipe.

It's not where it should be yet.

Texture-wise, they're not very good.

All right, right now, I can't figure out

what I'm doing wrong.

Donuts, I have to redo the recipe, sorry.

I don't know, actually, it wouldn't rise.

I have been making donuts all my life.

How come I can't get it right today?

[exclaims]

The caster sugar experiment is not working.

I'm gonna see you, like, 3:00 p.m.

with the donut, right?

So I keep on telling people to loop back to us.

And that's a little bit challenging because they want the thing now.

The donuts, I have to redo the recipe, sorry.

The pressure on Rob's face is getting more intense.

If I cannot get this right, I'm going to lose it.

Ah!

[Keyia] In Maryland, we're known for our crabs.

We got them right out the back door, honey.

The Crabby Fries are going to completely do it for you.

-How do we get the Crabby Fries? -Crabby Fries.

One Crabby Fry.

-You're getting it. You're getting it. -One Crabby Fries.

Today on the menu, we have our Crabby Fries.

We have our Mediterranean salad.

One fish tacos.

[Ferhat] One fish taco.

[Keyia] We're also serving blackened catfish tacos.

We have one taco.

-One more taco. -One crab fries.

I had three crab fries all day.

Two orders of catfish tacos.

[Ferhat] Just whatever you do, get started on the fish soup.

Don't want to leave these people waiting.

We're already getting a lunch rush.

We got out there fast, and it's paying off.

-Love it. -Two tacos.

We need one taco and one crab.

Crab on the side, okay?

[bleep]

You deal with that.

-I'll keep buying the food. -What's that?

-What happened? -It turned off.

Generator, generator.

Uh-oh.

We are excited. We are doing everything great.

All of a sudden, the power goes out.

Bam.

-That don't sound good. -Eric.

[generator starting]

I need a sec. [bleep]

[generator whirring]

I started.

Go back in the kitchen.

Yes. Can I get a taco?

Yeah.

[bleep]

This is nerve-wracking.

Oh, God.

No, no, no, no.

-[generator stops] -Damn!

[Ferhat] Okay, one taco coming up.

Here you go, one taco, one taco.

We are in the middle of the lunch rush.

All of a sudden, the power goes out.

I check the propane.

The fryer is still on, thanks God.

Griddle is still on, thanks God.

We're gonna cook in the dark.

It's okay, we can still cook right now.

-Let's go. -Yeah, I got it.

After about 15 minutes into cooking in the dark,

-[bleep] -I go out back to

the generator just to try it again.

[generator starts]

And it works this time, thanks God.

No, no, no, no, no.

Finally, it's stabilized, and we are in the game zone, baby.

-Let's go! -Whoo!

We are getting it! We are getting it!

[Rob] I'm just testing it, but I think I got it.

On the ube dough, third time is a charm.

It has to be right.

Barry, I got it.

Yeah, it's working. I thought I'm not gonna get it.

-[Barry] That looks much better. -Whoo!

Rob's ube cake doughnut is perfection.

Ube donuts!

I want the donut! I want the donut!

It's a specialty donut.

-Look at this. -Real good.

Delicious.

-We're going to get an ube donut. -Okay.

One ube donut, Rob.

-Well, yeah, I'm going to try some donuts. -Okay, all right.

-Yeah. -So that's the glaze on the top?

That is the glaze, the ube.

The ube donut's doing really well.

I think we just put ube on everything.

We can even make ube aioli next time.

[woman] Oh!

[Wally] I'm going to really concentrate because I want

to get the portions right.

And when I get to the salt, everybody just needs

to be quiet.

[Wally] After the fiasco during the challenge,

we decided to make a different style waffle.

It's going to be a batter base instead of a dough base.

It's going to be super crispy on the outside

and nice and fluffy, buttery, and sweet on the inside.

So it's going to be almost like a hybrid.

Plus, these new style waffles will be faster to make

than the liege waffles.

Right now, I need two Belgians.

On our menu today, we're going to have

our Belgian dream waffle and chocolate bliss waffles

with hazelnut spread, house-made vanilla cream,

freshly cut bananas, drizzled with

a chocolate ganache.

-Belgian dream. -Thank you.

-Look at that, man. -Appreciate it.

[man] I'm a huge Nutella fan. Waffle's crisp, delicious.

Goes perfect together.

All right, here's your card back.

We're making sales. Things are moving quick.

I'm just cranking them out of that iron.

And I'm thinking, "This might work."

-[Wally] One of each? -[Maggie] One of each?

-[man] Yes. One of each. -Yes!

Yay!

[upbeat music playing]

On our menu today, we're offering

our Fried Pork Bowl.

It's seasoned with some of those amazing Taiwanese flavors.

The five spice.

Cucumber salad right in the corner,

sriracha mayo, some scallions and sesame seeds.

The Fried Chicken Bowl.

Amazing little bits of Taiwanese popcorn chicken.

We decided on bao.

-Let's go! -Bao-chicka-bao-bao.

They're excited about bao's and I have to tell them,

"Hey, we don't have bao's today."

I'm going to bao place that doesn't sell bao's.

Is this a truck that turns into a plane also or?

-The best non-selling bao place. -Yeah.

-All right. -Thank you very much, my friend.

All right. Thank you for my not bao.

-[Kevin] Of course. Enjoy. -Thank you, all right.

I did like their pink outfits and the cute pink hats.

Little did I know that they're bao-less.

I like it. It's not a bao, but it's a good fried chicken bowl.

It's our Biscoff Cheesecake.

[woman speaking]

It's a good thing we won that first challenge

'cause we've been open for a while

and we still haven't had any customers.

I got some free samples.

-They wanna buy one. They wanna buy one. -[Jasmine] Thank you.

Jas, don't give away the cheesecake.

That lady wanted to buy one, man.

-[Jasmine] Yeah, you're right. -We're trying to make that sale.

We're trying to keep them folks come in.

We just lost $5.

Just lost $5.

We gotta step it up. We gotta move.

It's okay. We're gonna get it back.

-[cheering] Jasmine! Jasmine! -[Jasmine laughs]

Can I take a plate of the tacos?

-Yeah. -[Kiana] Yes!

Our strategy is condense the portion size,

price it a little bit lower,

so that we can sell a lot more a lot quicker.

Nachos.

Here you go.

Quesadilla de pollo.

-Quesadilla de pollo! -[speaking Spanish]

Tacos and three waters, please.

-[Karina] Got it. -[Kiana] Okay.

-Boom! -I love it here.

-Yeah! -Here you go.

Whew! Awesome.

Last pasta!

Man, I must say thank you. Enjoy.

-Sold out! -[laughing]

We are 100% sold out of everything.

We appreciate y'all.

Guys, can you believe we sold out? Ooh-ooh!

We've got a few shrimps left over

-Mmm. -and I know what we're gonna do.

-Ooh. -What are we gonna do?

Cooks with Passion! My guys!

How we doing?

Just wanted to give y'all our last plate 'cause we are sold out.

-Ah! -Enjoy fellas, you heard?

-Okay, okay. -You got the gold and I'm coming for it,

with all due respect.

We got the gold and we're gonna keep getting the gold.

-Good luck with the rest of the day. -Hey, oh, by the way.

-Yeah. -True that.

[Ziomara] He's gonna regret that.

[Ken] I think he instantly regretted it

'cause that was the last time they had food come off their truck.

-Oh! -Oh!

They really think I was gonna eat that?

[bleep]

The I'm already irritated from not having any sales,

so that made me even more furious.

Order up.

Curry chicken sandwich.

Yes.

[cell phone dings]

Barry, Rob. Tyler texted.

[Rob] Uh, okay.

So, he said...

"Teams, your first day of the race is done."

[Wally] "Finish outstanding orders and close up shop and get some rest."

[Paola] "I really hope you had amazing sales."

"If you didn't, tomorrow is gonna be a bruiser."

Bruiser.

-A bruiser. Okay. -All right, all right.

Ooh! What's that mean?

[Keyia] This is everyone's first day at The Great Food Truck Race

so I'm hoping that we did well enough

and that we can just edge out the competition.

[dramatic music playing]

-We're getting ready for sell day number two. -Whoo!

Let's make sure that we are way more organized than yesterday.

Even though we had that $300 reward from the challenge yesterday,

it might have rattled us a little bit,

but it's not gonna change our game.

We're gonna go ahead and go right back to the top. We're not gonna slow down.

Go! Let's go, baby! Let's go!

Let's go, baby! [laughs]

We're selling next to each other,

but one of these trucks is going home.

And it's not gonna be us.

It ain't gonna be us, boo.

Ha. Not today.

We did so great yesterday that today's gonna be double that.

I wanna build on that momentum from yesterday and kill it today.

Everything went so smoothly yesterday,

-we should just stick to the same exact game plan. -[Maggie] I agree.

Teams, good morning. How we doing today?

[all cheering]

-[man] So great. -Get it.

Well, teams, I have a very, very special guest today.

You may recognize her as the team leader of the Tasty Balls food truck.

[together] Tasty Balls!

[Tyler] And the winner of our Alaska season.

You have won The Great Food Truck Race.

[all screaming]

Please say hello to Misti Buard.

[all cheering]

If you guys are cold, she doesn't want to hear about it for a second.

[all laughing]

Misti is here to help me out with a very, very difficult challenge today.

As it turns out, your entire first day was a trial.

We're going to have an elimination right now.

-[gasps] -For real?

We were not expecting anybody to be eliminated after one day of sales.

This has never happened on The Great Food Truck Race.

-Whoa! -Whoa!

People don't even know how to work their trucks and they're about to go home.

Houston, we have a problem.

In my hand is my ledger.

Who made the most? Who made the least?

-And unfortunately, -What? [laughing]

who will be the first team to leave

The Great Food Truck Race: The Games on the Gulf.

-[sighs wearily] -Oh, wow.

[dramatic music playing]

In my hand is my ledger.

Who made the most? Who made the least?

And unfortunately, who will be the first team to leave

The Great Food Truck Race: The Games on the Gulf.

Now, I'm not gonna do this how we normally do it.

I'm only gonna read off the bottom two names.

The bottom two teams after only one day of selling are...

[suspenseful music playing]

Bao Bei and Kalye.

[exhales]

This is not how I'm expecting things.

[Kevin] This is a nightmare.

Our sales weren't great. We expected that.

We expected to have the second day of sales

to make up for all of our blunders yesterday.

This is bad.

Teams, one of you is about to go home.

It's gonna be determined by what you do in the next challenge

that's happening right now.

I want you to create a Hail Mary dish.

You'll have one last final chance to prove

that you deserve to be in the race.

But you won't be proving it to me.

You'll be proving it to Misti.

Teams, you'll have 30 minutes to cook and put out your dish.

Best of luck. Your time starts now. Let's go.

[Rob] All right. Let's go.

[crowd cheering and clapping]

[Rob] Let's do it. Whoo!

[Kevin] If we don't win this, we're going home

and my dream of expanding Bao Bei

is going to be completely crushed.

Everything is on the line.

Our fried pork cutlet, it's looking good.

-That's something that Tyler did not try yesterday. -Okay.

Let's do some rice on top. Let's do, maybe some fried tofu.

We're fighting for our lives right now.

All right. Gotta get the rice going. Here we go.

[Kevin] Using some of our cucumber salad.

Do a little twist on it, make it into a relish.

Mix some maybe cilantro and some peppers into it

just to add a little bit more flavor.

We decided to make a Night Market Bowl.

Rice, pork, fried tofu, a fried egg on top, cucumber salad relish.

The Night Market Bowl is a little taste of everything you can find

in a Taiwanese night market.

We've got a nice little pork cutlet breading station going over here.

Coating it in some crispy panko.

Frying it up into a golden delicious crust.

[Kevin] Kalye, they make some good food as well and I also like them.

But it is what it is.

But right now, there's no friendship.

We gotta make a dish that's ten times better than theirs.

-[Bessie] Don't forget to breathe. -[Barry] Oh, it's okay.

Right now, working on the batter for the Ube Crepe.

For this cook-off, we're making savory Ube Crepe

with beef torta and drizzled with manong sauce.

I'm gonna start the sauce right now.

In New York City, Barry is famous for the manong sauce.

I've been making this for years.

Soy sauce, vinegar, garlic, onions, salt and pepper and just water.

Mix that with the cornstarch.

I'm adding the sugar right now.

It's actually on the sweet side,

but at the same time, there's a little spice.

[Rob] The filling, that'll be ground beef torta.

Beef torta is something that I grew up eating in the Philippines.

So what I'm making is something that my mom would make

when we have nothing else to eat at home.

She loves to cook leftovers and so this is what it is.

Teams, five minutes left.

And what we need next?

Is it just waiting on the protein and then plating?

[Rob] Bessie, how are we doing?

I'm making multiple choices.

I'm done with the torta beef

-and it's ready to go in there. -[Bessie] All right.

Two minutes left, two minutes.

So, who's gonna toss the rice?

[Kevin] Okay, fluff it up. Careful. Careful.

You don't wanna smoosh the rice.

Guys, I'm almost done with the sauce.

-[Kevin] Sauce tasting. -Oh, that's good.

-It's really good. -[Kevin] It better.

Or else we're going home.

One minute. You better be plating up.

[Kevin] There you go. Sauce it up, baby.

[Rob] This is a strong sauce.

I don't want it to be too overwhelming.

-How's the egg? How's the egg? -[Cody] We're ready.

-Bring on the bacon. [laughs] -You hear that?

-Five, four, three, two, one. -Whoo!

-[sighs in relief] -Yeah.

Teams, that's it. Time's up.

-Come one, come one. -All right, let's do it.

All right, Misti. This is a very, very tough challenge.

It's a blind tasting.

You have no idea what dish came off of what truck.

-I do not. I have no idea. -Okay, great.

This is dish number one.

Feels like a crepe with some fresh tomato and onion lettuce garnish

and looks like a little crispy bacon.

All righty, let's jump.

[Tyler] Okay, there's something on the inside. I can see that, right.

-[Misti] Some type of ground meat. Let's see. -[Tyler] Okay.

Mmm!

I love the flavor profile.

It's a good combination. They marry each other.

It's missing just one note.

Just missing a little complexity for me.

All right, dish two.

All righty, dish two.

Okay, I gotta tell you, looking at this dish, I see some skill.

It's interesting. I love eggs.

So to see the crisp around the egg, that's interesting.

Let's dig in here.

-[Tyler] Oh, look at that yolk. -[Misti] Yes.

[Tyler] What's underneath the egg you think?

Let's see. We'll something crispy. Let's see.

Some rice.

[Misti] Mmm. Very good.

-Definitely enjoy the cilantro. -[Tyler] Yup.

[Misti] The cucumber relish.

Really good flavor. The fried egg, the crisp.

Kinda has a lot going on though.

-Okay. -A little too much, maybe.

It's all going to boil down to one plate of food.

-And here we are. -Here we are.

[Kevin] We definitely deserve to stay here.

We are not ready to go home.

I know that at some point, people will go home.

I just hope that it wouldn't be us.

Do we have a winner?

We have a winner.

[Tyler] This breaks my heart, teams.

It's always hard to see the first team leave.

But pushing forward out of the great city of Houston,

we gotta thin the herd.

[dramatic music playing]

All right, Misti. Between dish one and dish two,

what's your favorite?

I'm gonna have to go with dish two.

[Tyler] Bao Bei, congratulations, you stay in the race.

-[laughing] -[cheering]

[Zakary] Let's go!

-[Barry sighs] -Come on.

This can't be happening right now, guys.

Kalye, I hate to do this. I'm gonna need your keys.

-[Rob] Here they are. -Best of luck, chef. Thank you very much.

-Appreciate it. -Thank you so much for the opportunity.

-Kalye, everybody, from New York City. -Thank you so much.

[crowd cheering]

[Rob] Thank you, guys.

I love my team. [laughs]

I'm really sad that we have to go first,

but we know that the people eating our food at the restaurants

love our food and our warm hospitality.

[Barry] We made the whole country proud, not just Kalye itself.

The whole Philippines.

I know they're happy for us, actually, just to be on this competition.

[Rob] We're not going home with regrets, guys.

We're going home with experience

and we'll learn a lot from this.

But what I really valued most in this experience is that I got to learn.

Yes.

-[Bessie] We became closer, huh? [laughs] -[Rob] I know.

-[Tyler] Teams, that was brutal. -[Terry] Mmm.

Will you please give Misti a round of applause?

-[all applauding] -[cheering]

[Tyler] Champion of our Alaska season.

Thank you for joining us, all right. Thank you.

All right. So teams, let's take a little cue from Team USA Gymnastics

that train and travel as a squad but compete on their own.

I'm gonna let you guys squad up as of right now.

-[crown groans] -Oh, my God.

I want you to rely on your squad

to pick up where you think you may have a weakness.

All right, so teams, the top two sellers from yesterday were,

-Wally's Waffles in first place. -[Wally] God.

-Oh, my God. -[crowd clapping]

Oh, my God!

And Plates on Deck in second.

-Ay! -Whoo!

All right, so teams first and second place,

you have earned the right to be squad captains.

And you're gonna select your crew.

So Wally's Waffles, you came in first place.

Who's the first team in your squad?

[Wally] We have to be very strategic

on making sure that we pick teams that have skills

and that would complement what we're doing.

-[Tyler] All right, teams, you got an answer? -We do.

The Cooks with Passion.

Plates on Deck. Who's your pick?

I think we're gonna go with Sola.

[Tyler] Sola, nice job. Okay.

Back to you, Wally's Waffles. Who's your second team?

Argentina's Empanadas.

All right. Plates on Deck. Who's your second pick.

We're gonna rock with Bao Bei.

Wally's Waffles, who's your third and final pick?

Third pick will be Fishnet.

-[Tyler] Fishnet. Okay, great. All right. -Mmm-mmm.

And that means by default,

Down to Get Tacos, you're gonna be rocking with Plates on Deck.

That's who I was going for anyway.

-There you go. -[Tyler] Nice job.

How did Bao Bei get picked before us?

They were just in an elimination.

How is this happening?

All right, teams. So I want you to rearrange yourselves real quick

and get together with your squad captains.

[indistinct conversation]

[man] Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir.

We're gonna have automatic alliances.

This is gonna be so exciting.

Fishnet knows how to work as a team.

We are, like, built on that.

And I don't know that I want to be dependent on anyone.

-Or have to pick anybody up -That's a fact.

-Mmm-hmm. -in a sales manner.

- [Barenese] Mmm-hmm. - [Randy] At the end of the day,

I'm pretty sure no matter what

one person wins.

-Right? -Yeah.

All right, teams. We got one more thing to do here.

Since, uh, Wally's Waffles, I let you go first,

uh, Plates on Deck, I'm gonna let you choose your name.

Are you stars or stripes?

Stars always.

-[Tyler] Stars, okay. -We shine bright, baby.

[Tyler] So, Wally's Waffles, you are the Stripes Squad.

And Plates on Deck, you are the Stars Squad.

And just to make this a little more interesting,

the first squad that sells five plates of food off of each truck,

will get an additional $100 per truck.

-Are you ready to go? -[all cheering]

We need that.

So this could potentially put your entire squad

on top for this leg of the race.

Got it.

[Kevin] This is an amazing squad.

We have Plates on Deck, Sola Po'Boys, Down to Get Tacos and Bao Bei.

And we definitely all have something different to offer.

We're gonna shine bright like stars.

[twinkling sound]

[Wally] Cooks with Passion, Fishnet and Argentina Empanadas,

I feel really good about the squad.

[laughs]

All right, teams, this is your new squad.

This is your new food truck family.

Rock your regular menus until I tell you it's quitting time.

-Let's get in our trucks and let's get rolling! -[all cheering]

Come on!

All right, guys. So look, everyone was picked for a reason.

We got a dynamic group. We gotta make it happen.

As squad captain, I take it very seriously.

Five dishes.

Five to eight dollars, I would say is the sweet spot,

-Mmm. -so we can get 'em off quick.

This is the winning team.

Strategy is get something on the menu that you know you can get out quick.

-Yeah. -Sell that while you're still prepping.

We're working together,

as much as we're working for ourselves, all right.

Somebody get, uh, done early, we can spread out.

I mean, I don't care what truck it is...

-Yeah, we need to help each other. -Gotta get your sales.

And that $100, we need that.

That's our bounce back money right there.

Stripes for life, guys.

[all exclaiming]

Let's get it. Yeah!

[all cheering]

Let's go!

-Cone on, son. -Let's go, let's go.

Come on, guys.

[Kevin] Every team on the squad has to sell the five plates.

So we just have to make sure we're helping the other teams

sell it as quick as possible as well as us.

Let's offer a couple of items. Fried tofu is one

-for vegetarians or people who want it. -[Cody] Nice and quick.

I'm thinking just popcorn chicken.

We decided to go with popcorn chicken and fried tofu.

It's fast to make, we can make it cheap

and just get orders out as quick as possible.

Five dollars, best value of the day.

All right.

[Carolina] For this challenge, we decided to have just

one empanada for $5.

It's gonna help us to sell those five items really, really fast.

[speaking Spanish]

[Paola in English] So, that'll be $20, please.

Four empanadas!

-Four empanadas? -On the flame.

These orders don't count until the customer pays and the food is in their hand.

We've gotta hurry up and get these orders out fast.

-Hi, there. -Hi.

[Ziomara] What are we gonna do, chef?

-I need a bowl for shrimp. -Okay.

I need you to chop cilantro, please.

We're making a shrimp grilled cheese

-[Ziomara and Sam] Ooh! -and we'll sell it for $5.

I'm not gonna lie, I really need a real knife.

-[Ken] Where's my white one? The big white one. -[Ziomara] I don't know.

It should be over there.

How do you now have one?

Where are my spatulas?

There's equipment missing off the truck.

Where's my big pot?

[Sam] The big round pot should be put away somewhere.

[Ken] Somehow...

[chuckles softly]

they got left behind.

-Really, we're wasting time looking for this knife. -[Sam] Yeah.

[Ken] Let's get a knife.

We have to be better.

[Ziomara] I think.

[Wally] So, iron's 20 minutes to heat up.

So, we do got a great deal on waffles, 6$.

You really can't beat that price.

Waffle? Yes.

Okay, guys. I'm really motivated to win this challenge.

Let me take you guys on order, okay?

We just opened and I already have three sales.

The Classic right now and two Belgian Dreams, okay?

-[Wally] Yup. -We got more orders behind me too.

I'll let you know as they come in.

[Wally] It's gonna be about 15 minutes.

Let's go, baby.

If we all in our Stripes Squad work as a team,

focus on getting ourselves and help the other trucks,

then we're gonna win this easily.

[Wally] We started cooking right away.

We are gonna be fast and efficient.

Can I get you some fish tacos? They are $6 each.

The crabby fries. Okay. I got one crabby fry.

-One crabby fry. -One crabby fry, coming up.

-[Keyia] All right, guys. Two tacos. [laughs] -[Ferhat] Two tacos?

-[Uswa] Two tacos. -[Keyia] Now it's up to Ferhat

and Uswa to get these orders out the window.

Let's go, let's go, let's go.

Do you want a taco? Do you want a $5 taco?

[Kiana] Our team's strategy

is for them to get in the truck

and start prepping the taco dorados because I can sell them fast.

Let me get this ticket in.

I sell my first taco in less than a minute.

Game on. We're gonna win this.

There you go. Thank you so much.

[Oz] The rule is once they're in their hand,

that counts as one.

-You enjoy, okay. -Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm gonna get you a napkin.

-[Keyia] One crab fry. -[Ferhat] One order out.

[Uswa] One order out.

Two tacos.

Here you go.

-[Ferhat] Okay, one for you. -Thank you so much.

Here you go. And you have two, right? Awesome.

-Thank you so much. -Thank you so much. Enjoy. Have a good day.

That's it. One more corn.

Okay, I have it. I have it, I have it.

Finally, we have five orders of empanadas.

Now, we need to get this in the customer's hands.

-[Paola] These are two corns, okay? -Okay, okay.

[Paola] All right. The other ones are coming.

Who's Jessica?

[Chad] Jessica gets three of 'em.

Jessica gets three?

[Paola] And where's the one corn?

-[Chad] You took it! -No, it was two corn and three beef!

[Chad] Then, take that from her. That's not...

-That's one corn. -[Carolina] That's one corn.

I'm so confused.

I gave the wrong empanada to the customer.

-[Chad] I gave you two corns! -[Carolina] You gave me two corns!

Go get it out of her hand!

-[Carolina] They're already eating it. -No, they're eating it.

Okay, give it the other...

-Is this corn? -No, all of that is beef!

Okay.

That sale doesn't count. We've gotta get one more empanada fast.

Simple!

So, let's push our curry fried chicken sandwich

and let's push our smash burger as well.

I'm gonna take over the truck.

I'm gonna let T get out on the streets.

How y'all doing?

Anybody's hungry?

[Andrew] I'm gonna let Jas run the window.

I'll take in all the orders, cooking as fast as I can.

I got the shrimp and grits working.

We have our shrimp money balls. It's an order of three for five bucks.

We're getting the fryers on.

Come on, bro.

Two money balls.

The difficult part of the challenge

is not about getting the sales in,

it's about getting that food out.

Three money balls!

-[Kiana] I need another taco. Hurry, hurry, hurry! -[Oz] There you go.

-Veronica. We got all five. -[team cheering]

We were the first team to sell all five items.

The default pick is now number one.

-Do you think we need to go market for the other teams? -[Kiana] Yeah.

It's not just us that wins. We all have to win together.

Guys, we got shrimp grilled cheese over here!

[Zakary] Popcorn chicken is ready!

-[Cody] That's a two? -[Kevin] That's a two.

All right, we got the two coming up. Last one!

-[Cody] Last one! -Let's go!

[Kevin] We finished our part of the challenge.

We had the time now to go help out our teammates.

Shrimp grilled cheese! Come on!

[Ziomara] All right, we got five tickets, but we have to hand them the dishes!

[Ken] Man, I wish I had a spatula.

Hard to make grilled cheese without spatulas.

-It is. -Mmm-hmm.

-[Kevin] All right, what do you guys need? -[Ken] Spatula!

Spatula. I think we left it in the commissary.

-You need a spatula? Cody, spatula! -I got you!

-Slotted or straight? -Get 'em all, get 'em all!

-And all of a sudden, Bao Bae is on the job... -[Ziomara] Mmm.

-Stars Squad, we need-- -[Cody] Spatulas!

[Ken] Heard. Thank you!

-...with a spatula. -[chuckling]

Slice 'em! Appreciate you, chef.

[Ziomara] There we go. Thank you, Candy. First dish.

Thank you, guys. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Ken] I got one regular.

-That's y'all right there. -Thank you, thank you, thank you!

[Ziomara] Fourth ticket!

-Them. -[Kiana] There you go. Thank you, guys.

[Ken] All shrimp. I got one regular coming up.

[Ziomara] This is the fourth ticket.

You guys can do it! You guys can do it! Come on!

-I knew I picked the best team. -There you go.

-Best squad. -[Ziomara] Mmm.

[Randy] We have three orders of money balls.

-We need two more orders-- -[Serrano] Yeah, my fryer went out.

-So just chill. Yeah. -[Randy] Oh, the fryer went...

[both] Oh, my God!

The fryer isn't working.

I'm seeing the other teams down the side get their five orders in.

The other trucks are almost done, babe.

We're gonna lose this challenge.

Everyone is waiting for us.

Babe, what's happening?

It's not staying lit.

[Randy] We've got po' boys, but we just need a few minutes.

More than a few minutes.

-I don't know what to do to be helpful right now. -Don't be so hasty. Just...

We got it. It's okay.

This is a speed challenge, and I'm gonna be real,

I'm a little concerned that, when we have these type of challenges,

what are you gonna do?

-Seriously. -I'mma get food out.

And what are you gonna do?

Come on the truck yelling, Stay your [bleep] outside.

[dramatic instrumental music]

-[Randy] Hurry up! -[Serrano] What is happening?

[Randy] Oh, my gosh. Fryer went out.

Fryer went out!

Other teams are making their five orders.

We don't have time for this. What are you gonna do?

Let me go outside and check it,

-and then I'll come back in, I'll try it again. -Okay. Okay.

-All right. -[Serrano] I've checked the propane tanks.

I've checked the gas lines to make sure we were getting propane to the fryers.

Come back on the truck...

All right, I think I got it.

...and then, finally, it lights.

-[Barenese] Perfect! Yes! -We're in business.

-[Barenese] Yes! -Let's move.

[Barenese] Let's go.

Empanada number out the door!

-We got five! -[Paola] That's it! We're done!

[Chad] We get it in the customer's hands,

and we got the five out the door.

-[whoops] -Vamos!

Hey, Stars, we already got five!

[Paola] Okay, I'm gonna go help other teams.

Now that we're done, we have to go help the rest of our squad finish.

We're a team, so we got Fishnet.

We're selling empanadas. We got Cooks With Passion. Oh, and waffles!

-The other guys, though, they got all the same stuff. -Okay.

[Keyia] Fishnet, we got three tacos.

Coming, 30 seconds!

-[Keyia] Okay, 30 seconds. -30 seconds...

[Keyia] Team Fishnet, let's go!

That's five, that's five, that's five!

That's five! Let's go! Five, five, five!

There you go. [cheers]

We sold all five of our dishes,

so it's time to send the Turkish Tornado down the line.

[Ferhat] All right, let's go! What are you waiting for today? Nobody ordered waffles!

This is a team challenge.

I don't wanna lose.

What are you waiting for?

Let's go!

Do you need anything? Do you need help?

-No, uh... -[Maggie] No, we're good.

-[Wally] No, we're good. You guys good? -We're good.

[Ferhat] Hey, you don't need any help, right?

-No, we're good. Thank you so much. -We're good.

-Thank you so much. -All right, great.

Wally is a great guy.

However, I do not believe that he has all the tools to lead this squad.

Hey, you guys need help?

-No, we're done. We're done. -[Ferhat] You are? Awesome.

We finished, right?

Right now, once we get this sale out.

Hey, how many do you need?

-Four. -[Ferhat] Four more.

Let's go! Let's go, guys!

Fishnet came over to our truck

so we try to get those five items out as quickly as possible.

A lot of our menu items are complex, and they take time to cook.

Curry chicken sandwich.

-Thank you. Good luck. -[Terry] No problem.

I'm trying to get these orders out as quickly as possible,

but at the same token, my decision to be the only one cooking on the truck

may have bit me in the long run.

Dad, do you know where those deli cups, the small side cups are?

That sandwich... Go ahead and grab that sandwich.

Where y'all put those side cups at?

[Sam] Last ticket!

That's five! That's five! That's five!

-Chicken right there. -Oh, thank you!

-[Sam] There you go! -Thank you!

[all cheering]

[Ziomara] We finally got all our dishes out.

I hopped off the truck, and I realized we're not the last one.

Sola still hasn't gotten all their orders out.

[Randy] No, we made our five.

We just have to... We have to get the food out.

Get 'em out. Do you need any help?

Our fryer stopped.

-Once the oil's going... -Can you come cook in our oil?

-Babe! -Yeah, love?

[Randy] It's a slippery slope. Can we come cook in someone else's oil?

-Where's the oil at? -No, the fryers on. I'm about to check the temp right now.

'Cause they're... The other trucks are almost done, babe.

We're gonna lose this challenge.

The fryer is like a gentle caress.

You have to gently push it, release.

But she doesn't understand that.

[Randy] Hurry up! We need to get these orders out.

I don't have time for this today, nor tomorrow, or the next.

I think we should just fry it by someone else.

Why are we waiting on our own oil?

-[Serrano] Here. Take it. Take it. -[Randy] Is your oil ready?

Take it. If they got oil ready, take it.

Who has the hot oil?

[Oz] We have it at DTG.

-Hey. -Bao Bei, do you have hot oil or no?

-[Zakary] Yes. -Fryer oil?

-[Randy] Hot? -[Oz] Go.

[Randy] Just put 'em in.

I throw them in the fryer, and they're up and going. Thank God!

All I know are these money balls

and whatever else is going to bao truck,

and I'm getting this challenge won.

Po' boy! Chicken po' boy!

Just give me this whole thing!

[Oz] Go, go, go, go, go!

[Randy] Excuse me! Excuse me! Excuse me!

[Ferhat] Jasmine is next.

Do you guys need any hand in the kitchen?

Yes, please, can you go help them over there?

-All right. -[Ferhat] What do you need?

So...

-right now-- -[Ferhat] How are you doing your fries?

-[Andrew] Oh, right here. -[Ferhat] Okay. Right here? Where are they?

I go, I jump on the truck, and it's a nightmare.

Man, you don't have enough oil here. What are you doing?

Come on. Is this the source for the shrimp?

Where are your cups? Where are your cups?

[Andrew] That's what we're trying to find right now. Damn!

[Ferhat] Come on, get organized.

[Jasmine] Ferhat came on the truck.

We have no idea where nothing is.

Everybody's bumping into each other.

You're yelling, you're screaming.

The whole energy and the whole vibe was off.

-Yeah, there you go. Okay. -Thank you.

No problem. Enjoy. Thank you!

[Ferhat] These fries are taking forever.

The fryer oil temperature is so low.

The thing is, like, taking 15 minutes to cook.

-I'm gonna bring fries from my own truck. -Move, move, move!

Move!

-These are half cooked. -All right.

Now I gotta make herb fries.

Which herb do you use?

Chief, you know where the herbs is?

[Terry] It should be over here.

[Ferhat] Where is the herb for these fries?

Nobody knows.

[Andrew] Looking for the herb, oh, lord!

Instead of wasting more time,

I just grab my knife out and start chopping some fresh ones.

Bring it! Four.

And I got the fifth shrimp and grit to fill.

Oh, [bleep]

Almost there, baby! We're almost there!

[Zakary] Are we allowed to use this for a po' boy?

-[Kevin] It's fried chicken. -[Zakary] Fried chicken.

[Kevin] Your partner asked if you want to make a po' boy

with this type of fried chicken,

'cause we're waiting on the other one.

-I mean... -That's a fried chicken that we made.

-Okay, we can. -[Barenese] Yeah, yeah, yeah!

Almost there. Almost there. What we got?

We have the sauce ready.

-Put it right there. -All right.

Give me the sauce! Give me the sauce!

[Serrano] Come on, baby. Let him know it's the fifth order.

-Take that! Take that! -Order number five!

Order number five!

-Shrimp and grits, my friend. -Thank you so much.

-I have to give you a hug. -[Terry] I really appreciate you.

We're done! Five and out!

[all cheering]

Let's go!

[Keyia] Okay, come on, get back on the truck!

We gotta go back to Fishnet!

-[cell phone dings] -Oh, we just got a text from Tyler.

[exclaiming]

-What does it say? What does it say? -All right, it says...

-"Congrats to the Stars." -[cheering]

-That is frickin' amazing! -That's what we need!

"You've just earned $100 for every team in your squad.

-Yes! -Let's go!

-We're Stripes Squad. -The Stars? Yeah.

-We're Stripes. Stripes. -We're Stripes.

-I thought we won. -I thought we won, too.

Oh, listen to them cheer.

[Chad] Unbelievable. I don't know, man.

I don't even wanna look that way.

I was really excited to be part of the Stripes Squad.

Now, I'm starting to doubt whether this is gonna be good for us.

We finished first in here.

-Okay, but... -We finished in less time.

-[Keyia] ...it's about a team. -[groaning]

-[Uswa] It's all right. -It's okay.

I'm helping the other guy.

-I'm helping-- -Look, I need you to calm down.

-[Uswa] It's all good. -I need you to calm down. Listen.

-Sheesh! -[bleep]

-Damn! -[Andrew] Damn, bro!

We lost to Plates On Deck again.

Ain't no way, bro.

We've already took a bad day the first day.

Now, we're going into the second day without that challenge win,

that is gonna hurt us.

Okay, let's get back on the truck and keep selling. Let's go.

[Ziomara] Ready to sell! Come on, guys! [clapping]

[Ken] Shrimp grilled cheese? Okay, come real quick.

[Kevin] The crowd is not looking that big,

but I see a group of girls coming.

You guys wanna try some Taiwanese street food?

Taiwanese popcorn chicken? We came all the way from DC. We're here for one day.

The girls come to the truck, they look at Kevin...

[all laughing]

-They don't look at the menu. They keep looking at Kevin. -[laughing] Yeah.

[laughing] Hi, can I get food?

And, then, they decide to buy whatever he's selling.

Is this an actual restaurant?

-Yeah, over in DC. -Oh, wow.

Yeah.

-[girl] So, your real food is bao? -Our real food is bao, yeah.

Our real food is bao.

Asked him all sorts of questions.

Do I like K-pop?

Whatever works to get customers to our truck.

-First one. Here you go. -Thank you.

[Zakary] He's putting it on, making sure each and every one of them

buy all of our food, and it's working.

Like, with this truck, the guy was, like, really nice.

[girl] Their service really stood out to me.

And, so, I really wanted to try it out and support them.

Is this Bao Bei or is this a boy band?

-[overlapping chatter] -Thanks. Thank you.

-Chicago! Come to Chicago! -[laughing]

-[Oz] Tacos, ladies! -[Kiana] Tacos!

-[Oz] Nachos! -[Kiana] Nachos!

Tacos and the dance! Tacos and the dance!

We have tacos here.

Quesarito and al pastor,

both sauces on the side, please.

Burrito, it's got a cheese crust on the outside.

-[cell phone dings] -[Jasmine] We got a text from Tyler.

-[Andrew] What's it say? -[Terry grunts]

"The first leg of the race is over."

-"Close your trucks and meet me for elimination." -[gasps]

Another one today?

-Oh, my God. -Two in the same day?

-Again? -Again?

[Terry] We got outstanding orders right now.

-Two in one day? -Let's do it.

-[exhales sharply] -Boy, crazy!

I can't take this.

Damn, I'd hate to see one of the Stripes go.

-[Sam laughing] Yeah. -Not really.

How do you think we did?

It's gonna be interesting, I'll tell you that.

Closed for business.

[Keyia sighs]

[dramatic instrumental music]

All right! All right!

[tense instrumental music]

So, we're showing up to an elimination, and I'm shaking in my boots.

Day one, it was horrible. Day two was way better.

But I don't know if it's enough.

Stars and Stripes, how are we doing?

[all cheering]

How'd it go, Star Squad? Tell me about your day.

We won the challenge. I don't know how the sales went,

but we got a great team, great energy.

We helped each other out when necessary.

Bao Bei, you lent a hand to some of your fellow squad members.

We got our five sales done quickly.

We did a quick check with the other teams.

Some of them were in a little bit of trouble,

so we offered some help on their truck.

And then, they came to our truck to use some of our things.

Sola, how do you feel?

-I mean, we feel great, you know? -[sighs]

Randy, what happened?

He couldn't see what was happening on the outside of the truck.

The Stripes Squad had their plates,

and he was trying to commit to our fryer and get this grease.

And I was just like, "Enough with the grease!

We need to deal with what we've got." And Bao Bei offered a solution.

-So, I took the reins. And I love you, but... -[Tyler] Right.

...I need a little credit for the moment.

[all cheering]

Thank you, Randy.

Stripes Squad, how we doing?

-[all cheering] -[Tyler] You guys did great.

All right, so, Fishnet, what was it like being on Cooks With Passion's truck?

Uh...

Please don't take it personally, with all due respect,

it was a [bleep] disaster there.

[chortling]

-Wow. -[Ferhat] The kitchen needs to be organized.

Don't know where their food, produce, herbs, spices.

That's a disaster.

Don't ever disrespect Cooks With Passion

because you don't cook with passion!

It was just a little miscommunication when we started out.

Our equipment wasn't ready to go.

It was a mess. And, please, don't take it personally. I was there to help.

I'm not taking it personal. I'm just saying, like, it's not what it seems.

But he did help, and I do appreciate him for that.

Cooks With Passion won the gold medal and the taste challenge.

Like, your food is legit.

-That's a fact. -That wasn't no mistake either.

So, now, your organizational abilities need to match that.

[Andrew] I know we're down right now, but we're definitely not out.

We can do better and come back from this.

[Tyler] All right, guys, let's get down to business.

Teams, in my ledger are the numbers.

Who made the most, who made the least and, unfortunately,

who will be leaving The Great Food Truck Race right here and right now.

So, for the first time in The Great Food Truck Race,

our medals are gonna come with rewards,

and those rewards are going to get applied

-to the very next city. -Whoa!

-So, you already have a head start. -[all cheering]

It's the first time Tyler is allowing you to take money

into the next city.

We needed that.

That's vital to our success.

On the podium,

for the bronze medal in third place,

with $1,503...

[dramatic instrumental music]

-Fishnet. -[whoops]

[all cheering]

Oh, yeah, baby.

Here we go.

-Fantastic. Congratulations. Congratulations. -[all applauding]

-[Ferhat] Yeah! -[Tyler] Third place.

And in second place, for the silver medal...

[dramatic instrumental music]

-Plates On Deck. Nice job. -[cheering]

There we go. There we go.

-With a grand total of $1,633. -Thank you.

I wanna hit the podium each and every time.

-I hear that. -Every time.

-Bring it in, baby. Bring it in. Bring it in. -[Ken] Let's go!

So, now, we're up to first place.

First team that has a mark on their back. This is a big deal.

-For the gold medal... -[dramatic instrumental music]

...and the winner of Houston...

-Wally's Waffles. -[cheering]

-[all applauding] -Oh, my God!

With a grand total of $1,784, my friend.

We lost all challenges, and we came in first place two days in a row.

[all applauding]

All right, my three podium teams,

you wanna know what you're carrying to the next city?

[all] Yes!

Fishnet, with our bronze medal, you're carrying $100

-to the next city. Nice job. -[cheering]

Plates On Deck, for silver, you get 200 bucks.

-Nice job. Right? -[cheering]

And Wally's Waffles, for gold, you're getting $300.

-Whoa! -[Tyler] Congratulations.

-[all applauding] -Good. Good.

So, teams, keep that in mind.

First place is not just first place.

It's gonna be cash moving forward to the next town.

That is a huge advantage moving on.

I want that for us.

[Tyler] Now let's talk about everybody else.

In fourth place,

who's down to get tacos?

[all cheering]

-Congratulations. $1,492. Nice job. -[cheering]

[Tyler] And in fifth place,

-Argentina's Empanadas. Nice job. -[all cheering]

$1,435.

And in sixth place,

$1,433,

$2 less than fifth place.

-Sola Po'Boys -[all cheering]

You guys wanna give each other a hug right now or what?

[laughter]

So, now, we're down to our bottom two,

Bao Bei and Cooks With Passion.

We got one team off the Stars Squad

and one team off the Stripes Squad.

We did not come all the way here just to be in the bottom two.

Bao Bei, I gotta tell you, this is breaking my heart

because you've already fought once to just stay in the race

and, now, you're on the verge of elimination.

If we're not able to stay in this competition,

all of our bao dreams will be completely crushed

and, then, nobody's gonna be able to see

that we're capable of making the world's best baos.

In seventh place...

[dramatic instrumental music]

Cooks With Passion.

-[all applauding] -What?

I knew it.

Yeah, it is what it is.

Mistakes were made. It's completely our fault anyways.

Bao Bei, you know what happens now, right?

Yes, sir. You take my keys and we go back home.

That would be true...

if I actually had the heart to eliminate two teams

-in the same leg of the race. -[Kevin exclaims]

-[upbeat instrumental music] -[all cheering]

Bao Bei, you're here, for now.

I wanna see some bao buns next time you guys crank it up.

-Figure it out. -I will.

Thank you. Do you guys wanna know where we're going next?

[all agreeing]

Just 65 miles southeast of us is an island

with a rich history of firsts

and a bright future for teams to sell well.

We're going to Galveston, Texas.

[all cheering]

All right, teams, see you down the road.

-Let's get our trucks and let's get rolling! -[all cheering]

[horns honking]

We're heading to Galveston. We're gonna make baos.

-We can't hold anything back. -You're going down, waffle boy!

[Joe] I'm confident heading into Galveston.

Not only do we have an additional $300 in our till,

but we've been to Galveston before, so we already know the layout.

[Andrew] The comeback story is the best story,

and we're definitely gonna show our worth.

Even though we didn't win Houston, I know we're gonna get back to number one.

[Tyler] Next time on The Great Food Truck Race...

Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for All-Star

-Justin Turner. -[all cheering]

Look at that beard!

[Wally] He takes his finger and sticks it

into the chocolate hazelnut spread.

I... I don't trust these people.

As you're asking me to do this, do that,

-it's stressful and it doesn't need to be. -Okay, stop!

Stop.

[Carolina] Oh, man. Give me another dough!

I don't know if I have time to make dough.

[Carolina] I don't know what to do. [crying]

We lost the challenge because of them.

[exclaiming]

Damn, bro!