In this informal, conversational video, Tod Maffin and his brother Darryl introduce the upcoming Nanaimo Infusion event (April 25‑27) and focus on the food‑truck lineup. They repeat a set of five recurring reminders: wear a red lanyard or Canadian flag for easy identification, use the hashtag #NanaimoInfusion, join the event Discord (especially the Adopt an American channel), attend the Saturday 10 AM family photo, and be aware of dog‑leash rules in Maffeo Sutton Park. The hosts list the food trucks scheduled for each day, highlighting favorites such as Vancouver Isle Poutine‑ery, Trio’s Extreme Mac and Cheese, Tacomania, The Bannock Room, Brazilian Delicacies, Donair NUTZ, Spud Barn, Sweet & Dandy Cotton Candy, Slip ’n Sliders, Curry Leaves, Hojo’s Eats, Canada Crepe or More, and Mizu Real Fruit Ice Cream. They emphasize supporting these small businesses, note that the lineup is tentative, and mention that a Jamaican truck is not confirmed this year. The video also previews the rest of the 15‑day series, covering transportation, accessibility, payment methods, local shops, hiking, biking, weather, and pet information. The tone is casual, enthusiastic, and community‑oriented, with occasional jokes and light‑hearted banter.
Chapters
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OK. Hello, and welcome to the first night of 15 videos, and then we are going to see you here in Nanaimo. I'm Tod. This is my other brother Darryl. That's an old person joke. Never mind. OK, so 5 things before we get started. Today's episode is food trucks. I have a list of all the food trucks coming. I knew you would be excited for that. She doesn't know the topics ahead of time. I'm going to say the same 5 things in every video. First, get your red lanyards. That's how we are going to identify ourselves.
Except me, because nobody got me a red lanyard.
It's true. I did forget. I feel bad about that.
I'm not invited.
Red or Canada flag. You don't have to put anything on the bottom of it. It's just a way to identify ourselves. Once you start planning, use the hashtag #NanaimoInfusion wherever you're talking about it. Yes, locals and mainlanders are more than welcome. Come on over April 25th to April 27th. Locals, please join the Discord and the Adopt an American. There's lots of Americans waiting for you to adopt. You know, as in like take them, pick them up at the ferry and take them out for lunch or anything. You don't have to pay. And then please come Saturday at 10 AM for the family photo. Okay. Food trucks. Do you have a favorite food truck before we get started? I have the list of them. What is it?
Anything with a taco.
Okay.
That's true. Taco Revolution, I think, is one of my favorites. There's another one. I don't remember the name of it, but it is a taco truck and it is a big black van and I don't remember the the name of it, but they serve tacos.
Tacomania?
Could be.
All right, here's a list. So the food trucks in Nanaimo are like world-renowned, like you are gonna love them. And they are going to be at Maffeo Sutton Park, which is the downtown park, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. And they're gonna be different every day, so you have to go back to the park to try them all. Okay, you ready? You don't— you haven't heard this list yet.
Okay, I haven't.
Okay, so first of all, Vancouver Isle Poutine-ery. It is a food truck for poutine, and it's so good.
Exciting.
We've, we've had that before. It's so good. And actually, that person, do support them because they were the one that organized, uh, the whole—
can I also say, I— we both understand that the food trucks are small businesses, that they make money off the sweat of their brow, and they slave in their trucks, um, to bring us yummy food outdoors. And for them to be there 3 days in a row, is it?
Yeah.
Is such a huge gamble. So I hope that you all buy food from them. I know I thank them. We thank them. Like, what a cool thing to do for the community. So locals, come out and enjoy the food. Visitors, I, um, get on in line.
We have more to do. Um, all right, Trio's Extreme Mac and Cheese.
Oh, I think I've seen that one.
This is a mac and cheese food truck. Yeah, exactly.
Oh, is the grilled cheese one coming?
Uh, we'll get—
I think there's a grilled cheese one. I want to try that.
So, Tacomania. Tacomania, also a good food truck. The Bannock Room.
Oh, I haven't heard of that one. I've— we've had a bannock taco.
Yeah. So bannock, if you're not familiar, I think it was actually originally Scottish, but it is known to be sort of more, uh, indigenous Canadian. Um, different, different First Nations have a different way of doing it, but bannock is, um, it's fry bread. It's fried bread. It's fried bread, but it's so good. And you can have it either, either savory. Uh, yeah, we've had like salmon tacos with—
made out of salmon bannock is a thing, like a, a more fusion kind of food that's pretty popular in the food truck crowd. And we've had them and highly recommend. It's good.
There is Brazilian Delicacies.
Oh, I have eaten from that one. It's, it's really good.
One Cool Cookies. I don't think I know that one.
Okay, One Cool Cookies. Does that mean that it's an ice cream? I don't know.
I literally have no idea.
Great idea.
And then there's Donair Nuts. N-U-T-Z. That's N-U-T-Z for Americans. Yeah, I think it's like Dee's Nuts. I think it's like Donaire Nuts.
They triggered a yawn.
Then there's the spud barn, which I think is french fries. I'm just gonna take— I don't know for sure.
They gotta have mashed potatoes in there. You can't have spud barn without mashed potatoes.
Can you imagine? Oh my god, mashed potatoes is like my love language. Yeah, can you imagine? Just like, just— and all they would— all it would be would be just like They would just have a big vat of mashed potatoes and you just— and then the whole— all of it would be in the toppings.
I feel like this is becoming a little NSFW.
There's a— you guys, stop!
Ah! The kids— the pets are attacking each other.
There's like that food truck where you bring them a bag of chips. You bring them like a bag of potato chips and then they open it up and they pour sauce on it. Um, okay, Sweet and Sand— Sweet and Dandy Cotton Candy is also on Friday.
Oh, what a cool— we're gonna have to go every day.
We've had that, we had that, we had that at the, at the last year.
Oh, okay.
Fair? Not the fair, what's it called? The agricultural thing.
The farmer's market?
No, they're like the thing.
Oh yeah, yeah. Oh, oh, I forgot about that. That was great.
And then this one I've never heard of, so I don't know whether it's new or whether we're not observant. The Polar Peddler. What is that? Hold the mic, I'm gonna Google it.
Okay, what is Polar Peddler? I'm holding this wrong. Todd's gonna criticize me. My mic holding.
But I used to say when I was at CBC to freelancers, I would say, put the mouth— put, put the mic close to your mouth hole. Polar Peddler.
Even a lavalier mic?
Well, no, we didn't use lavalier mics. Well, radio did, or TV did. I didn't. Okay, I still— I can't find it. I can't, not even— so I don't know what it is. I can't even find it on Google. Okay, anyway, that was Friday, and now Saturday, again, same location, Slip 'n Sliders, uh, Slip 'n Sliders food truck.
What a great— the name, it's all in a good name.
Uh, Brazilian Delicacies will be back. Donair Nuts will be back. I'm just going for the name for that one. Curry Leaves.
Curry Leaves, okay.
Which I have not seen.
I like curry in pretty much any form, so I'll take it or leave it. Oh, oh, I made that up! I love it.
Hojo's Eats.
Hojo's Eats.
Hojo's Eats. I don't think I've seen them before. And Canada Crepe or More. So crepes. Obviously, which is great. OK. That's Saturday.
Crepe or more, not and more?
Correct. And then on Sunday there are, mostly repeating, there is Brazilian Delicacies, Taco Mania, Canada Crepe and More, One Cool Cookie, Spud Barn, and then the new one which will be there on Sunday is Mizu Real Fruit Ice Cream.
Ooh. Ooh, that sounds good.
Yeah. So those are the food trucks that will be here.
So there's no Jamaican one this year?
Brazilian, but no Jamaican.
Okay, there is a kind of an infamous— or not, sorry, not infamous, famous Jamaican food truck in Nanaimo. It's really good.
Well, we are, and we're 2 weeks away still, so I mean, this, this is a tentative, like, these are the ones that have confirmed, and there may be more that, that show up.
So I'm so excited. We are lucky we have the Thursday Market in the summer in Nanaimo, and there's often food trucks there, and Man, we have had some good dinners. And in the, like, Diana Krall Plaza in front of the food trucks. It's great.
So here are the videos that will be coming your way. Again, we're doing one video a night, hopefully, until this thing— Tomorrow we're going to be talking about transportation here. Saturday, accessibility. So, like, disabled parking and so forth. Sunday we're talking about money, credit cards. Does Venmo exist in Canada? No, it doesn't. Then we're also going to be talking yarn and craft stores.
I have so much to say. Uh, and art. No, it's just, it's—
we're going to talk about local businesses, malls, hiking, biking, parking, the market, weather, what to dress for the Saturday morning, and so on. So we have a lot of videos coming your way. Make sure you are subscribed to my YouTube channel so that you can follow it. And again, the reminder is get your red lanyards so that we can identify each other. You don't need an ID tag or anything, red or Canadian flag. Use Nanaimo Infusion hashtag whenever you're planning or talking about it. Locals and mainlanders welcome. Locals, please get in the Discord into the Adopt an American channel and make sure that you have booked some time Saturday morning at 10 to come for the big family photo. Anything else you want to say?
Uh, no, come on down. It's super fun. We're basically like low-key taking over downtown.
So we are—
you should be there.
All right, uh, we'll see you tomorrow when we talk about How to get here, transportation, driving up, the ferries. I didn't talk about the Victoria ferries, uh, like the Seattle ones, so we'll talk about that. Um, Hullo has a discount. All of that is in tomorrow's video.
Are we going to talk about dogs? We should probably talk about dogs at some point.
What about dogs?
I could just say it now. Um, dogs are not allowed in places with food in, in Canada generally. Um, there are dog parks, there's great dog parks in the city, and it's pretty easy to find that info. But, um, join the Discord and we will tell you all about it.
Um, there's a channel in there already called Pet Lovers.
Oh, perfect. And, um, and Maffeo Sutton Park is a human and dog park, so that means all dogs must be on leashes.
