Food on the GO! - Good For Spooning

Now I know there have been TONS of articles about food trucks and the new “pop up” culture they are creating, but I have a personal link to food trucks that few of you know about.

Food trucks have forever been a mainstay of NYC (think pretzels, “dirty water” hot dogs, felafel, coffee, etc.) and construction sites. Most workers who don’t bring their own lunch have a short time span in which to eat and need it fast and dirty, so to speak. And in the construction business they are frequently either too filthy to eat IN anywhere or there is nothing nearby. But did you know in 1992 that I worked on a “lunch truck” aka “roach coach”?

Years ago, before Jack was born, from 1986 – 1992 to be exact (yes, the dark ages before the internet and the blogosphere), I waited tables. I was a very good waitress. I was so good that I was able to pay for my wedding in CASH – nothing was financed. My very last waitressing job was in northern Maine at a place which shall remain nameless. While the Chef was a very talented Johnson & Wales graduate, he also had an ego the size of Canada and an attitude as mean as a pit viper. It was one of the WORST places I ever worked, mainly because the Chef had NO accountability because his parents owned the restaurant. Get the picture? It was so bad that it soured me forever on walking in those shoes ever again.

There was a lot of construction going on in the area and Chef D decided that going out to the remote construction sites was a great idea for business. They already owned a “roach coach” so it was just a matter of making that HUGE construction site one of the stops. He quickly learned that he couldn’t do it alone, so he asked me to ride along. Once on site it became abundantly clear WHY he wanted me there. And it wasn’t for my math skills, selling skills or sparkling personality. I was thin and curvy, I wore tight pants and I was pretty easy on the eyes for a bunch of guys at a construction site. I was MOBBED the minute I stepped out of the truck. Luckily for me I could add up their orders in my head and being a born salesperson, smiled at each “diner” like they were the biggest sale of the day. I was there because if they had to wait in line, they might as well wait in line for chick to take care of them. And I will admit that having 100 guys fawning over you is a big ego booster (Moment of Truth – I knew it wasn’t me, it was all Chef D’s food).

The interesting thing is that Chef D brought GREAT food to these guys. All prepared and ready to grab and go. Of course there were the expected items – soda, chips, sandwiches, baked goods, etc., but there was also Chicken Parmigiana with pasta, Seafood Newburg, Pot Roast and mashed potatoes, Chef Salads, Enchiladas, and a dozen other main dishes packed into round foil containers with see thru plastic lids. This was SO FAR from anything I had ever seen on a lunch truck ANYWHERE. We sold out every day.

Flash forward to 2012 – twenty years changes a lot of things. The Food Truck culture has expanded to so much more than hot dogs in NYC and sandwiches on construction sites. I doubt Chef D even saw this coming (hell, even the Food Network jumped on the bandwagon). I am quite sure he didn’t know he was on the cutting edge of something spectacular. I know it wouldn’t have changed his approach on how to do it. He felt that people wanted to “grab and go”, so everything arrived on site ready to be eaten; there was nothing cooked to order on his truck. He may have evolved to incorporate that aspect had the restaurant and the business survived. I never thought I would see people LINED UP and waiting for food from a truck like I did on that construction site in 1992, yet here it is again. This new breed of diner is waiting for the orders to be made FRESH and they are happy to do it. And BTW – it’s FUN! You get to meet and interact with people from all walks of life and basically just chill out!

This past weekend I FINALLY made it to the Saturday Night Truckstop at Tommy Rocker’s here in Vegas. FYI ya’ll, it’s in the middle of the night. I decided to go because it was a fundraiser for the Silverado High School Culinary TEAM. They want to travel to a competition in Baltimore and this was a fun way to raise cash. The best part was that there was a competition between 2 well known “Strip” Chefs and if you ate both dishes you got a vote. I was chowing down on first rate food at 1 a.m. from a lunch truck! Sadly, the Chef with the best dish IMHO didn’t win, but I was lucky to get to eat BOTH and have a great time. A quick salute to friend Al Mancini for being one of the celebrity judges (who came to a draw BTW – so the crowd votes were the ones that counted) and for donating 60% of the sales of his collaboration book “Eating Las Vegas” to the cause.

My Food Memories this week are botching a batch of gnocchi for the first time EVER, planting my garden (San Marzano tomatoes here I come), watching my oyster mushrooms grow in my kitchen, dining out after the first ever Las Vegas Cash Mob, and eating first rate food in the middle of the night in a parking lot of a bar!

The ridiculously delish offering from Chef Brian Howard (Comme Ca) – curried macarons with foie gras mousse and a PORK-tacular sandwich! This should have won! Photo courtesy of my friend, The Vegas Foodie. Thanks a MILLION!