Food trucks

How did the Food Truck movement start?

According to Jonas M Luster, the first ever contraption of a Food Truck was started by Charles (“Wagon Chuck”) Goodknight. Of course, then those things were called ‘Chuckwagons’ and all the rage with cattle drivers. Chuckwagoneers would soon become more than just feeders of cowboys.

Only a few years later, and this is where the Food Truck comes in, New York City saw a surge of so-called “Owls”, food wagons that sold hot dishes to workers after the restaurants closed. That was 1890. By 1930, these wagons had almost completely been displaced by motorized versions, Chicago, and New York were the front-runners here. With the 1950s came the flood of resold Army food trucks which had been used in Theater Europe and Asia and become useless after the war. One of the first to operate such a thing was Giovani Ducci in New York who purchased it from the Army for $300 and began selling pasta and sandwiches to union labourers at the Port Authority in New York City.

Taco Trucks became popular in the 1970s in most cities. Unions in New York and Chicago started their own food businesses to feed labour (often under not-so-savoury circumstances), and the first application for a mobile food business in LA came in 1973.

The first motorized food business was run by Hank Spittle in San Antonio, Texas, in 1912. He re-purposed 1911, Garford Truck which had been briefly used as a hearse by a local undertaker but abandoned due to its noise and propensity to break down on the way to the cemetery. In early 1913, the truck burned down and Spittle went back to selling sandwiches from the back of his old horse-drawn wagon.

What food trucks offer is street food, something cheap and delicious. In the US, the food truck culture is very popular where individuals are selling original recipes or regional cuisines. The trend is catching on as Indians get rich and have more disposable income, the concept of street food is changing.

Food trucks are definitely surfing hype, I am not sure they are a hype in and by itself. The hype that these mobile food service operations are attached to is bigger: ‘the New American Quest For Food’.

Foodtrucks in Bangalore

Fast food, mean prices, Bangalore or Bengaluru is lapping up food on the go, leaving flashy trucks fitted with extravagant kitchens. Urban communities like New York and Chicago have a lively food truck culture and Bengaluru is truly catching up on this trend, as night-time sees these mean machines open up with smoke and sizzle. Whether it’s a meal break from office, or getting a nibble after school, or in transit over from work, these glossy steel kitchens dish out cool – street food, fast food high on fat and sauces. Burgers, hotdogs, and sandwiches make up the menu of speedy simple nibbles. They move to different areas regularly, have dedicated followers, and use Facebook to stay in contact with their clients. Here’s a glimpse of three of the most well-known ones in the city.

Gypsy flavours

Gypsy Kitchen happened to Shakti Subbarao when he got fed up of his corporate life. He needed to begin an eatery, however things happened otherwise, and he was directed to a complete food truck with an implicit kitchen, on the web, and propelled in June this year. He was inspired by the ‘Eat Street’ episodes on TV.

“I wanted to bring ‘the dude food’ scene to Bangalore. It’s about great food, large portion sizes, and eating without a care about those around while you have sauce all over your face,” says 23-year-old Siddhanth Sawkar, who began The Spitfire BBQ Truck as a stop-gap arrangement plan till his eatery took off. Siddhanth says all the nourishment on his truck comes fresh — “We prepare our bread each morning, veggies roll in from my uncle’s farm, and the meat comes in crisp by evening to be marinated. By 5 we are out of the house, and me and my cook on the truck. The pricing is low, in light of the fact that we are still street food. The menu changes like clockwork. We do burgers, sausage, and at times pork-ribs,” he includes. He’s been grilling with his parents each Sunday since his youth and represents considerable authority in southern Italian cuisine; he used to run a catering unit. “It’s no sin to get sauce on your chin” is one of the most loved draws on his FB page. Kammanahalli and Koramangala are his most loved spots. Every week he moves to a different location.

Check out this Facebook link www.facebook.com/thespitfirebbqtruck

Great Indian Bhukkad, Bengaluru  – You can check out this link for further details and location  https://www.facebook.com/thegreatindianbhukkad

So, if you are hungry and in Bengaluru, then grab a bite at one of these food trucks on the go.

*/PS: To be continued……. more about food trucks in my next post- food trucks-2/*