Trucking
delicious
By
Jon
Fosman
The
biggest
shift
in
America's
culinary
landscape
in
2011
will
result
from
novel
cooking
techniques
nor
the
discovery
of
a
new
species
.
There
will
be
no
cloudberry
gel
or
hedgehog
foam
.
,
thanks
to
Twitter
and
the
tough
economy
,
some
of
the
best
food
Americans
eat
may
come
from
a
food
truck
.
These
mobile
kitchens
out
partly
for
their
size
.
Yumbii
,
a
food
truck
in
Atlanta
,
has
refrigerators
,
four
sinks
,
a
cold
station
,
a
grill
and
a
deep
,
as
well
as
ample
space
for
four
employees
.
Traditional
urban
food
carts
,
by
contrast
,
have
to
be
single
-
operator
devices
to
selling
simple
items
:
bagels
,
hot
dogs
,
pretzels
.
With
the
larger
space
and
more
elaborate
equipment
,
chefs
can
cook
better
food
.
Some
cities
,
notably
New
York
,
have
long
had
more
ambitious
vendors
?
egg
cakes
in
Chinatown
,
arepas
in
Queens
-
but
these
are
not
mobile
kitchens
so
much
transportable
ones
:
they
set
up
on
a
street
corner
and
stay
.
One
advantage
of
trucks
is
that
chefs
can
go
to
where
the
diners
are
.
But
chasing
some
customers
missing
others
.
In
2008
Roy
Choi
,
who
sold
$2
Korean
tacos
late
at
night
to
club
goers
on
Sunset
Boulevard
in
Los
Angeles
,
used
Twitter
to
announce
he
planned
to
take
his
truck
.
Instead
Mr
Choi
going
to
the
customers
,
they
came
to
him
.
Today
Mr
Choi
has
four
trucks
,
a
restaurant
and
than
70
,
000
Twitter
followers
.
Portland
,
Austin
,
San
Francisco
and
New
York
have
thriving
,
Twitter
-
driven
food
-
truck
.
In
Los
Angeles
,
RoadStoves
,
a
company
that
leases
trucks
and
handles
logistics
,
leaves
chefs
with
start
-
up
costs
as
low
as
$15
,
000
.
For
diners
,
trucks
offer
cheap
,
often
innovative
dining
.
They
also
permit
a
degree
of
whimsy
that
may
out
of
place
in
a
restaurant
.
Yumbii
is
painted
orange
and
ultramarine
,
with
octopus
tentacles
dangling
the
service
window
;
there
is
a
seafood
truck
called
Shrimp
Pimp
.
In
some
cities
,
such
as
Los
Angeles
,
regulations
on
food
trucks
are
tightened
.
But
elsewhere
in
2011
there
will
be
pressure
to
the
rules
.
The
mayor
of
Atlanta
and
the
city
-
council
president
of
Boston
have
voiced
support
trucks
.
Trucks
will
never
supplant
restaurants
.
But
so
long
as
money
remains
tight
,
they
will
provide
a
welcome
and
increasingly
prevalent
.
©
The
Economis
t
Crear