Food Trucks have gained in popularity in the US over the past couple of years. There are even reality shows based on them. On a busy weekday in the city, they can be found just about everywhere and offer a wide variety of different cuisines to try out, and many come with affordable prices. I happen to love visiting food trucks from time to time when I don't want to bring my lunch to work. What do you think of food trucks, and do you think they are safe to eat at?
I have seen a few really ratty "roach coach's", but I still like to try good looking ones out. They have a Hawaiian food truck outside of one of my favorite bars and I LOVE it. When I lived in Los Angeles there were a few in the downtown area that I still crave. Though they've had a bad wrap, I have been to a few really good ones and I prefer them to fast food any day.
Absolutely. Some of the best food I've eaten lately has come from food trucks. And obviously, you have to kind of use your best judgement on whether the food truck looks safe to eat from or not, but they are held to the same health codes as normal restaurants are. So in the same way you'd probably leave a restaurant if it didn't look clean or good, you can do the same with food trucks. But at our campus, they have "Food truck day" where they have 5 or 6 different food trucks on campus. Needless to say, Tuesdays and Thursdays are two of my favorite days of the week.
I had a bad experience once with a food truck that sold me a meatball sandwich swarming with maggots. But I'm open to trying food trucks again if I see one that looks good. A lot of trendy, hip restaurants are now expanding their businesses to include food trucks.
They're fun from time to time, but not something I would eat from daily since the costs really start to add up. I worked at a large campus where the food trucks would park daily, and kind of went crazy on them for a while until I finally calmed down with them. We had each of their Facebook pages stored so we could see who was going to be out there on a given day, lol. It's really a mixed bag of good and bad. Some carts are clearly more cleaner, and organized and better equipped than others. Some of the carts weren't so clean and they were trying to cook large quantities of food on cheap home kitchen appliances that could not hold up. If you've got a line of 20 people waiting, you can't be cooking fries in a little FryBaby one order at a time, for example. Also the food quality and value varied quite a bit. One of my favorite carts made a fantastic Bahn Mi sandwich that was well worth the $6.50 they charged, while another place was trying to sell small orders of frozen tater tots dressed up with a little dried rosemary for like $4 a piece - no way. One of my all time favorites though, was down in Athens Ohio (not sure if it's still there, it's been 20 years since I went there) called "Burrito Buggy". I used to stop by that quite often. I would be shocked if it's still around.
I think they can be a great idea, but not all of them are as cheap as you think. I've only bought a few times, because I don't like to wait too long and then can never decide what I really want. There are some very popular ones in cities where you have to wait, and they get good reviews especially when they are at markets. I think every now and then is fine, but it could get expensive and is a good back up if you forget your lunch or want something different.
Ah, yes the dreaded roach coach. I was going to say that. I have seen some pretty nasty ones as well as some good ones. I used to work at a place that was in a really bad neighborhood. You didn't dare go out and about, and there weren't many restaurants nearby anyway. We loved it when the food trucks would come by, but then, they were actually good ones. Well, two of them were. They had good, homemade food, the people were nice, and the prices weren't bad. It was nice to get something hot for lunch, and I liked helping support those guys. They were good, friendly, hard-working people.
It's become a really celebrated way to eat in the stats as of late, I agree. I'm not so sure about the cleanliness of a few food trucks I've seen. Soft serve ice cream trucks were fishy enough for me now i have to peak inside the food truck to feel comfortable eating from them.
I have never heard of food trucks before. Here, in Latin America, we have plenty of street vendors in all kinds of vehicles that I wouldn't exactly describe as trucks. Eating at their vehicles and stalls is at your own risk. I've done it many times without any major side effects... at least not so far.
Yes, I was going to say I've never heard of these. I know in England we have burger vans, which are usually stationary. Some sell hod dogs, curry and other types of food. I am a bit wary of buying from them, although the aromas emanating from them are very enticing. I have bought hod dogs from one, and it was alright. just ok, nothing to write home about. Also, it wasn't cheap as such. In Botswana we have street vendors who sell all sorts, very much like the ones described by Dora M. They're very popular, but I'm not a fan. They don't look very hygienic to me; out in the open, with all these people milling around etc I won't ever be buying from those ones!
I've bought from a few food trucks, but in general they are quite hit-and-miss. The bad food trucks give small portions and taste mediocre, but some excellent food trucks always have long queues, great prices and filling portions. It's worthwhile to follow food trucks that you enjoy so you can patronise them when they are near your location, but I would stray away from buying food from some unknown food truck that doesn't seem to have many customers.
