Editor’s Note: In the past month, we’ve been brainstorming ways to spread the love of street food beyond video and make the VendrTV experience even more interactive and…awesome (may I say awesome?). So we created the $10 A Day Challenge in which we ask friends, fellow bloggers, and YOU to show us where you’d eat the street on just $10 a day. I’m thrilled to introduce this new series with Jess, the Burger Baroness of Philadelphia, leading the way! Think you can eat the street for $10? Email me at amy@vendr.tv. Thanks for joining us as our blog relaunches and shoots for the sky! Without further ado…

I was challenged by the folks at VendrTV to spend a day eating from food trucks with only $10 in my pocket. This is a situation I actually spend lots of time thinking about because I often worry that my life will take some crazy turn and I will end up living on the streets…

But enough about what keeps me up at night. This is about sustaining myself with tasty, cheap food from trucks in Philadelphia.

I started the day at Mikey D’s, my go-to food truck, located outside my workplace on Drexel University campus. Their breakfast sandwiches are huge (see picture above) and a great deal for $3. Because it’s a Philly classic, I went for the pork roll, egg, and cheese. Before I moved to the city, I was unfamiliar with pork rolls, but now I’m a close, personal friend to this salty pork product. I especially love it fried on the griddle.

Since I ate breakfast a little late (and, like I said, the sandwich is huge), when it was lunchtime I wasn’t hungry. But since it was one of the most beautiful days Philly’s had in a while, I went out for a treat. I headed to the University of Pennsylvania where they have some great food trucks, including HubBub, a coffee truck that opened last year.

I came for the iced coffee, but when I noticed their “Fifty/Fifty” I knew I had to have it. “Fifty/Fifty” is HubBub’s version of Arnold Palmer, my favorite warm weather drink. While the $3 price tag for a 16 oz beverage might not seem like a deal, I must insist it was one of the best Arnold Palmers I’ve had in the city. It wasn’t too sweet and had just the right balance of lemonade and tea.

By the end of the workday, I was ravenous. With $4 left for dinner, what’s a girl to do? One word: TACOS. I knew just the truck – Taco Loco – which serves some of the best carnitas tacos in the city. As I mentioned earlier, the weather was incredible so I walked three miles to Taco Loco, which is more like a taco camper than a truck, in South Philly. They serve these carnitas tacos packed with the most flavorful, juicy pork I’ve had the pleasure of eating. They top it with cilantro, onions, and leave a couple of lime wedges for you. On top of that, they include mild green salsa and a spicy red salsa. TWO SALSAS! The carnitas tacos are $2 each, so I got two.

For $10, I ate well in Philly: One enormous pork sandwich, a perfect Arnold Palmer, and two totally stuffed tacos. Thanks VendrTV for inviting me to take part in such a fun challenge!

• Honest Tom’s Tacos (Philadelphia, PA)
• La Boîte Cafe (Austin, TX)
• Café Velo: A Coffee Bar by Bike Cements Roots