By STAFF | TheSpicyMeatball.com
There is nothing better than stumbling out of a bar in the wee hours of the night and being hit with the intoxicating smell of street meat. Under normal, sober conditions most people would probably walk by a street vendor and take notice of what he’s cooking but not necessarily stop for lunch. It seems unsanitary and unappetizing, but once you get that first bite…ah, perfection!
Street meat vendors are the original fourth meal inventors. Yes, Taco Bell decided we needed to eat their crappy food around the clock by marketing the “Fourth Meal,” but it’s the street vendors who turned the drunken munchies into gold all while looking homeless and harassing 20-somethings trying to “walk normal” to their ride. There is a place for this kind of food, but it may not exist in its purest form for much longer. Food Truck vendors are rolling in and they want a slice of the pie.
In the last couple of weeks, I have seen a ton of Food Truck vendors (a.k.a. yuppie gourmet chefs on wheels) invade suburban america. In one week, an upscale ice cream truck, a gourmet grilled cheese truck, and a healthy lunch truck showed up at my office peddling all sorts of treats. What was once limited to ball parks, big cities, and bar sidewalks has jumped the shark into mainstream suburbia. Food Trucks are showing up at offices, have their own show on The Food Network, and in my city, have a convention this weekend. What the hell is going on?!
Part of me longs for street meat to stay underground so that it remains novel and exciting. Do I really need a $100 grilled cheese sandwich served with caviar? No! I want sausage and peppers on a hoagie and I want it as greasy as you can get it. If I happen to get salmonella…bonus! I am of course joking about the salmonella, but maybe this whole Food Truck thing will just be a fad?
The concern is that with the explosion of the Food Truck movement, no one will care about drunken late-night hotdogs downtown if they can get a food truck to make an office call. If that happens, then we should all be prepared to say goodbye to our trusty (maybe the wrong word there) street meat vendors.
To be fair, I don’t want to completely hate on the Food Trucks. Part of me loves the idea behind traveling food, especially when it comes to some of the names of these rolling fast-food joints. The name of that healthy lunch truck that came to the office was Munch Box. I mean come on! Hilarious!
http://www.thespicymeatball.com/whod-you-rather-food-truck-or-street-meat/
