Rolling toward a food revolution

February 27, 2012
Stephanie Wood
Sydney Morning Herald

It’s tough being in the food business. Yes, the hours are punishing, the margins slim and the customers ungrateful. But what about the ideas? For restaurateurs, coming up with something new can be tougher than finding good staff. Hasn’t everything been done to death? We’ve had fusion and comfort food and chemistry-labs-on-our-plates. We’ve had small plates and share plates and grazing, nose-to-tail, paddock-to-plate, dude food, foraging and wild food. We’ve had local food and pop-up food, seasonal food, organic food and wood-fired food.

And so people in the business just keep on scratching about for something new. How could they not, with headlines like these: “Is 2012 the year of the potato?” “Cupcakes are dead. Long live the pie.” “Could kimbap be the next sushi?” “What’s the next big thing?” Australian food watchers have known the answer for a while: food trucks are stopping in a street near you.

And it’s not the jingle-jangle of Mr Whippy. In Melbourne, the Taco Truck, Beat Box Kitchen and Le Sausage roam the streets looking for parking spots, receiving chillier welcomes from some councils than others. Followers of the custom-fitted vans check their Twitter feeds to see where they’ll be parked next.

Meanwhile, the blokes behind the Grub Food Van took a slightly different approach. They found a 1965 Airstream caravan on eBay — parked in Iowa — and had it shipped to Moor Street, Fitzroy, where it’s permanently parked and serves good breads, deli stuff, cocktails and wine.

In Adelaide, Burger Theory keeps on rolling, with a roster of locations, from North Terrace in front of Adelaide University on Tuesdays, to Friday dinners at the corner of Ebenezer Place and Union Street. In Brisbane, the Bun Mobile will pull out into the traffic in March.

Sydney too, is joining the traffic jam: 10 food trucks will start appearing over the next few months, including former Tetsuya’s chef Stuart McGill’s Eat Art Truck.

But while I’ve been waiting for a food truck to appear in my neighbourhood, I’ve been taking a look at what food trucks, vans, whatever you want to call them, get up to in the States, where, in some parts, they’re taken seriously as gourmet destinations — even if they’re frequently on the run from the police. (They’re taken so seriously that Elle Decor offers a slideshow of fashionable food trailers around the country.)

Here are a few of the curiosities I found:

Vegan beer-battered avocado tacos (from the Seabirds Truck, Orange County, California)

“Salty Pimp” soft serve ice creams (including dulce de leche, chocolate and sea salt, from the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, Union Square, New York)

Spam kimchi sliders (from the Hawaiian Korean taco truck Marination Mobile in Seattle)

Mango lassi popsicles (from Fojol Bros. food truck, Merlindia Washington, D.C.)

Ginger-spiked mahimahi ceviche in a corn-tortilla cone (from Border Grill food truck, Los Angeles)

Freshly shucked oysters with Mama T’s Special Cocktail Sauce (from the Shuck Truck, South Bristol, Maine)

Grilled cheese sandwiches (from Gorilla Cheese, New York City)

Have you had a great food truck experience? I’m a food truck virgin, so I’d love to hear your thoughts about them.
Follow Stephanie Wood on Twitter: @StephanieAWood1 or email stephanie.wood@fairfaxmedia.com.au