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How the hell did Americans measure the coolness of their cities before food trucks rolled in? For years now, the number of mobile vendors of pork belly sliders or bacon waffle sandwich cones has been bandied about as a gauge of a city's pop-cultural standing. Shows like Food Network's The Great Food Truck Race and Cooking Channel's Eat Street depict these upscale food trucks as quasi-heroic, the revolutionary delivery systems for an America that never flags in the pursuit of delicious fun, Twitter-tracking the every move of tandoori taco vendors. This new boom in food truck culture is sexy, boundary-slashing, inherently democratic.
And total bullshit, says Gustavo Arellano.
Arellano is managing editor at the OC Weekly in Orange County, California, and author of the syndicated column ¡Ask a Mexican! He thinks the ongoing media coverage of food trucks blatantly ignores the true innovators, owners of the original generation of loncheras, Mexican taco trucks plying the parts of America's towns and cities your average Chipotle fan would fear to tread. Arellano calls the new class of upscale food trucks "luxe loncheras."
"If you only saw these shows like Eat Street or most of the coverage on the Food Network, you'd think this is a brand-new phenomenon that has never existed before in the United States," Arellano says of the upscale trucks, noting that loncheras have been a major part of Southern California's culture for six decades.
Scroll the list of competitors for the next season of The Great Food Truck Race, which begins August 14, and it's clear Arellano's on to something: eight trucks, eight expressions of the upscale food truck trend, from Cleveland's Hodge Podge (truffled mac ’n' cheese) to San Diego's Devilicious (butter-poached lobster grilled cheese).
Arellano thinks America's complicated racial and cultural ambivalence is to blame for the wider diss of the nation's original taqueros, the way early white fans of Elvis's version of "Hound Dog" were expressing a de facto diss of Big Mama Thornton's Delta blues original. And then there's language.
"If a Mexican does it, it doesn't exist for a lot of foodies—not because they're Mexican but because they speak Spanish," Arellano says. "If you don't speak English you don't exist, unless you're on Zimmern or Bourdain, and they're not Food Network hosts, they're on Travel Channel. ... It just shows how simultaneously myopic and onanistic this whole scene really is."
So if you want to acknowledge old-school loncheras, how do you make your voice heard over the frenzy for the noveltier-than-thou trucks? Heather Shouse, author of the recently published Food Trucks: Dispatches and Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels, says she tried to give props to the taco trucks that pioneered the form by listing nearly a dozen in a section of her book called "Taco Truck Starter Guide." She also calls out the fact that the socioeconomic chasm separating customers at traditional loncheras and new-style trucks is "fairly vast," a point University of Texas doctoral student Robert Lemon makes in his short film ¿Tacos or Tacos?, which maps the parallel universes of Austin's food truck cultures.
In Food Trucks, Shouse also presents the flip side of the media frenzy, such as the fact that noted LA Weekly food critic Jonathan Gold is generally more excited by regional Mexican food trucks than purveyors of Kobe sliders—a point Gold made in a panel discussion on street food featuring Arellano and moderated by KCRW's Evan Kleiman: "Some [upscale trucks] are good, some are dreadful. ... Luxe loncheras are catering to people who love the novelty."
About that novelty thing: Shouse's book shows that, try as an author might to give props to the original lonchera culture, it's French toast trucks that sell books. A paradox she finds a little uncomfortable. "I just want to make it really clear: This is no way meant to capitalize on a trend," Shouse says of her book, "but to show people that food trucks are not a new model. Street food in various forms has been around in parts of this country for a long, long time. As good as Kogi is, it did not invent food trucks." Still, Food Trucks will inevitably be seen as further validation of the upscale trend. The first printing of it is already sold out.
Even Gustavo Arellano may find it challenging to give loncheras their due. He's working on a food book of his own, a history called Taco U.S.A.: How Mexican Food Conquered America, due for publication in May 2012. "I'm still debating about whether to cover the lonchera scene," Arellano says. He calls it just one of many trends he'll include in his book. Whether it'll be the history that the pioneers of America's loncheras deserve remains to be seen.
NY is setting down some more city limit regulations. According to news
cateringfoodtruck.com
How sad that some commenters here want to make this an us & them situation. It seems to me to be a case of both vendor communities learning and benefitting from one another, but that "doesn't sell papers" does it?
Mr. Arellano is a typical Mexican-American activist who refuses to hold his own community accountable. Too many immigrants to SoCal (especially running 'brick & mortar' restos) just copy the limited, local Americanized food matrix that has been here for decades.
Catering truck owners also get undeserved harassment from local politicos, mainly due to the above mentioned establishments. Trucks...+READ
Mr. Arellano is a typical Mexican-American activist who refuses to hold his own community accountable. Too many immigrants to SoCal (especially running 'brick & mortar' restos) just copy the limited, local Americanized food matrix that has been here for decades.
Catering truck owners also get undeserved harassment from local politicos, mainly due to the above mentioned establishments. Trucks usually serve areas with few restos that aren't open long hours. They must meet county and state health regs. This non-Mexican will always seek out a lonchera truck for its more traditional and DIFFERENT food options. BTW any successful one will have English speakers in order to sell monster burritos to 20-somethings.-COLLAPSE
Gotta agree with Gastronomaly on this. What he said.
Your old school mexican taco trucks were ignored because they did not try to attract non-latinos. They catered to their own, as they still do today. Just as the little mom and pop shop carnicerias do today. They choose to live and serve in their own homogenous communities serving their own. They choose not to speak english and not to print in english. Talk about myopic. They get what they ask...+READ
Your old school mexican taco trucks were ignored because they did not try to attract non-latinos. They catered to their own, as they still do today. Just as the little mom and pop shop carnicerias do today. They choose to live and serve in their own homogenous communities serving their own. They choose not to speak english and not to print in english. Talk about myopic. They get what they ask for.-COLLAPSE
Well I am from the East Coast of the united States of America and I can remember 30 years ago too. When my old friend Bob had a hot dog truck on route 68 in central Connecticut and he made a boat load of cash because people bought from him because he was a character. It was always entertaining and you never knew who be standing in line next to you.
One clarification: I'm definitely doing the history of loncheras, but debating how much to cover luxe loncheras. The former isn't a trend; the latter is.
I think that Arellano has a valid, if not skewed, point. While I DO think that the current crop of food trucks are very exciting and gives consumers a chance to try food that is out of their confort zone, usually at very good prices, I can't help but watch shows like The Great Food Truck Race and say "Really? Not ONE SINGLE MEXICAN?????"
We really DID invent this culture!
More snotty food crap. Plus, some of the usual racist crap around it. Transit Food is the prehistory of mankind, then it was the tribe that moved as well as the food, now it is the taco truck that moves with the people. Whether it was the NYC hotdog stand in 1868, (or now), the tailgate or the empty lot bbq, Transit Food always succeeds because no one pays rent, most taxes, cash is liquid, and...+READ
More snotty food crap. Plus, some of the usual racist crap around it. Transit Food is the prehistory of mankind, then it was the tribe that moved as well as the food, now it is the taco truck that moves with the people. Whether it was the NYC hotdog stand in 1868, (or now), the tailgate or the empty lot bbq, Transit Food always succeeds because no one pays rent, most taxes, cash is liquid, and you (and cash) can disappear anytime. The same was true when they fed the workers building the Pyramids, or today building dams in China, or train lunches for sale as you board in Finland France or Tokyo. As always, and PHD's in Egypt today prove it when the only job they can get (yeah, even in Berkeley), is street vending. The question is NOT your language or truck color (race as well, you trendy idiots), it is the quality/price of the food, DUH.-COLLAPSE
And I remember when we use to call them( Roach Coaches ) Not to long ago. They have come a long way!
Wow, what an obnoxious, racist, ignorant, insulting, sweeping comment for Arellano to have made: "If a Mexican does it, it doesn't exist for a lot of foodies—not because they're Mexican but because they speak Spanish," Arellano says. "If you don't speak English you don't exist, unless you're on Zimmern or Bourdain".
Can't wait until the food truck craze is over! At this point isn't it passe and lacking in culinary creativity?
Question: where do the food truck people take a piss and wash up?
Answer: in a paper coffee cup and they don't.
In case anyone is wondering where to find the lovely Tacos Colima #1 truck, it feeds the workers of Salinas, CA by night. The truck has moved from the spot next to Quality Market shown in the photo and is now around the corner parked in front of Alco at 249 Williams Rd. Order the beef birria tacos and help yourself to free nopales and cucumbers from the condiment bar.
...+READ
In case anyone is wondering where to find the lovely Tacos Colima #1 truck, it feeds the workers of Salinas, CA by night. The truck has moved from the spot next to Quality Market shown in the photo and is now around the corner parked in front of Alco at 249 Williams Rd. Order the beef birria tacos and help yourself to free nopales and cucumbers from the condiment bar.
http://www.chow.com/restaurants/924097/tacos-colima-1
Though business is down for loncheras and fayucas in the Salinas area, they continue to be assets to the community providing healthy and nutritious food, working toward greener practices, and partnering with small local farms. They're not looking for buzz, just doing the right thing for their communities.
http://t.co/IBoeA7W-COLLAPSE
Really interesting quote: "Arellano thinks ...the wider diss of the nation's original taqueros, the way early white fans of Elvis's version of 'Hound Dog' were expressing a de facto diss of Big Mama Thornton's Delta blues original." It's been said Elvis sanitized black music for a white audience. Now the French toast truck sanitizes "roach coaches" for the Saveur set.
I knew it! Growing up in Florida, I had always seen the Mofongo or Taco trucks around. When the food truck crave hit, I wondered why I never saw them mentioned.