We get a first-hand experience of the foodie phenomenon of the moment in Toronto?s multicultural environs
If you haven?t eaten off a food truck yet (and we don?t mean the Chinese van in the neighbourhood), you haven?t delved into the defining food trend of the moment. Food trucks or mobile gourmet restaurants have been taking over the food capitals of the world since the last two to three years. They serve astonishingly high-quality fare at affordable prices, have millions of followers on the social media, and seem to be revolutionising dining out in most multicultural cities in a way fancy chefs and restaurants have not done for a long time now.
It?s a whole new culture coming up in our midst? leading to questions in the global press and blogs as to whether trucks are replacing restaurants. That may not be so?as yet. But even well-established arbitrators of success are sitting up to recognize this pop phenomenon: The Zagat guide, for instance, added a section on best food trucks, to its editions last year.
I got my chance to not just eat off these trucks but examine the phenomenon at close quarters in Toronto last month, where the popularity of these trendy mobile restaurants has been increasing over the last few months.
Caplansky?s is now an icon, serving deli food in the downtown area. There are thousands of followers on Twitter following its movements every hour, waiting to know where exactly the truck is rolling next. On days it does not turn up in its regular Front and Bay haunt during lunch hours, there?s sore disappointment. But that does not mean that the reception for the other ?trucking stars? is any less enthusiastic.
On a Monday afternoon, when I find myself at the designated spot?wedged between a pavement and a row of offices and hotels?I find Hogtownsmoke and Buster Seacove doing brisk business. There are no fancy serviettes or cutlery, you pay between $5-10 per dish usually in cash (though some take credit cards too), and there are long queues of potential lunch-munchers waiting, watching TV on a large screen attached to one of the vans and listening to music.
The food is serious though: Buttered lobsters and crab rolls, buckets of fresh seafood, hand pulled pork, poutine (Canada?s national dish that you must not come away without sampling?French fries topped with brown gravy to which fresh cheese and sometimes additional ingredients have been added), Patron chicken (spiked with Patron tequila and lemon juice) and so on. It is unbelievable that you can eat all or any of this for lunch, off a van, without falling ill. But that?s the secret to the food trucks? success: Restaurant quality food at prices that are attractive to the masses, particularly at a time when people in the West have been cutting down on restaurateuring spending, post-recession.
Others serve a different melange. There?s Blue Donkey Streatery with Greek souvlaki, calamari and gyros. There?s a separate van for cupcakes, another devoted to gourmet tacos and everything from pork belly to nouvelle tempura, and one that promises to host you a private picnic if you press the ?Like? button on its Facebook page. The social media has been crucial to the rise of this phenomenon. And chefs and food truck entrepreneurs are using it not just to woo even more diners to their fold without the aid of (expensive) traditional media, but are responsible for popularising an entirely new food culture, where words such as grits (cheese bits) or peppadew (pickled pepper) have become part of the foodie parlance.
These inventive trucks are really the product of their cosmopolitan cities. It is not for nothing that we can trace the beginning of the phenomenon to 2008 to the American metros with their mixed-up populace and familiarity with diverse flavours. Toronto, which is one of the most multicultural cities in the world?so much so that it is hard to identify any specific, traditional ?Canadian? dish?is a natural home to the phenomenon, whose basis is a subculture with different ethnic groups exposed to eating each other?s foods and game for trying out diverse flavours. It?s only in a city like this that food trucks serving a mix of Mexican, Greek, South Asian, Chinese, Korean, Middle-Eastern and so on flavours can survive and succeed.
Will we see the phenomenon in India soon? With our vibrant street food culture, we have a tradition of hot, cheap, often inventive food selling in all our cities. Whether this takes on a more gourmet, cross-cultural form is yet to be seen.
The writer is a food critic