Food Trucks Are Mobile Treasures
By Lynn Blamires feature writer for My Local Utah
Attending an event where food trucks are featured is like finding a mobile food court. The variety of food you will find there is greater and more unique than you will find in any food court found in a mall.
I like to go to events where there will be food trucks. Layton FEST, for example, is an event that features a variety of food truck fare. FEST is an acronym for Farmer, Entertainment, Shopping, Truck, and truck means food. Layton FEST is held every Friday evening from the middle of July until the end of August. Each Friday night features a different array of food trucks.
My introduction to food trucks began with the famous World’s Best Corndogs truck. One dog and I were hooked.
However, wanting to venture out, I tried a meal from the Slop Shop. The name is not what attracted me, but the menu did, this truck deals out breakfast food. Being a big fan, I tried their biscuits and gravy with sausage topped with two eggs. I now have a new favorite food truck.
Food trucks add a variety of cuisine that won’t be found in brick-and-mortar stores. El Nene Sammy’s food truck is touted as Mexican food, but with an Argentine twist. I don’t know what that means, but I plan to find out.
Korean is growing in popularity with the CupBop Truck. There are food trucks specializing in Peruvian, Mongolian, Cuban, Jamaican, Salvadorian, and Navaho cuisines. Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Chilean, Indian, Mediterranean, Belgian, New Zealand, Italian, Puerto Rican, and Mexican are also offered. You can even get A Taste of Bethlehem with the Green Falafel & Kabob truck.
While ethnic food fare makes up a large part of food truck offerings, kinds of food are also themes of food to look for in the world of portable cuisine. Philly cheese steaks are offered by one truck as are bratwurst, coffee, quesadillas, sandwiches, burgers, BBQ, French toast, crepes, cheesecake, grilled cheese, mac ‘n’ cheese, pizza, donuts, and ice cream. The Hawaiian Ice trucks offer a different kind of icy treat.
Once you enter the food truck world, you will find yourself choosing favorites. Then you will be following them on the internet to find out where that truck will be when you are hungry.
It was 3:00 p.m. on a Thursday when I learned that the World’s Best Corndogs truck was within seven miles of my home. I grabbed a foodie friend and we went for a foot long. That is just the way it is.
As I looked into the food truck world, I learned that there is a lot to the art of being successful. The profit margins are narrow and location is everything.
While the pandemic created havoc with restaurants, food trucks had a better chance to survive. Their service is outside where social distancing is easier to accomplish.
Some food trucks rely on third-party services to book county fairs or city events. The Food Truck League is one of these services. They are a network/platform of gourmet food trucks. They bring great food and the community together through recurring Food Truck League event nights, catering, and other special events. While this does create business for the trucks, the Food Truck League does take a cut off the top, which narrows the already thin profit margins.
Their website is a good place to find food trucks and explore the kinds of gourmet food each one serves. The website is TheFoodTruckLeague.com.
Finding your favorite food truck is like finding a treasure like an experience I had with the World’s Best Corn Dog Truck. When you find one you like, you have to strike while the iron is hot, so to speak. They will normally only be in one place for about four hours or longer if they are a part of an event. Each truck will publish its schedule on the internet either on its own site or on one of the social media platforms. Researching these trucks is a little daunting because there is not a common format for information and menus.
Some of the food truck cuisine is easy to discern, while others have to be sampled. Personally, I know I like corn dogs, burgers, Chinese, and Philly cheese steak sandwiches. However, I would have to look at some menus on such trucks as those offering Chilean, Cuban, Salvadorian, or Peruvian before sampling any of those.
After saying that, I admit that the name Slop Shop is not what made me stop and try their fare. It was the pictures on the menu that pushed me over to the window to make my order. It is now on my list of favorites.
I am just getting my feet wet in the food truck world and I am anxious to do more treasure hunting and add to my list of favorites. Good luck in your hunt for treasures in the food truck world. If you have a favorite, I would like to know about it. Send me a text or email and let me know how you discovered it and why you like it.