Free the Trucks
The masses have spoken—let the food truck revolution begin!
By: Bill Gerdes
From the Shrimp Pimp to Bacon Mania to Border Grill, the food truck phenomenon is the culinary zeitgeist of the moment. Contestants on Top Chef have competed in food trucks, there’s the Great Food Truck Race on the Food Network and Food Truck Revolution on the Cooking Channel.
Mobile cooking is the new molecular gastronomy with chefs scurrying to throw away their beakers and fire up the trailer in their backyard. In Southern California we’re lucky to live in the Mecca of mobile cooking and one can find a solitary food truck or a whole slew of them at various locales, with many trucks operating seven days a week. Chef Roy Choi’s Kogi trucks are the breakout stars of the movement, often drawing lines of up to an hour for the fusion-filled Korean-Mexican tacos. Choi’s success has helped spearhead a culinary movement that has redefined how we enjoy food in the area—unless one lives in the IE.
“A Nation Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand”
That’s due to the fact that Riverside and San Bernardino counties are the only two in the state with a ban on most food trucks. We’re the only citizens in the state unable to enjoy trucks with such names as Fishlips Sushi, the Buttermilk Truck and Chomp Chomp Nation. We’re the only people deprived of Dogzilla Hot Dogs and the Flying Pig truck. Lincoln famously said that a nation divided against itself cannot stand. Is it fair that most of the state gets to enjoy some of the most creative cooking going today while those of us in the Inland Empire content ourselves with the occasional food truck festival, currently the only way most of us in the area get to sample what the rest of SoCal takes for granted
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