Food Trucks or A Roach Coach Filled with Hipsters is still a Roach Coach

In the long ago, there were no food trucks. There were Roach Coaches. Generic lunch trucks that roamed light industrial parks and the financial districts of the United States offering a blah menu of pre-prepared sandwiches and sodas. They were the outcasts of the food world. The last resort of workers too busy to make the five block journey to a real restaurant. Out of this primordial food ooze arose the Taco Truck-an ideal marriage of the Roach Coach and the traditional but not USDA approved Mexican street cart . These trucks provided awesome tacos filled with a variety of meats for about half the cost of a traditional brick and mortar taqueria and with the advent of the internet quickly developed a foodie following.

Meanwhile a in cold and rainy place filled with well educated but impoverished hipsters called Portland, Oregon another movement was taking place. There locavores were establishing food carts throughout the city and specializing in a variety of different delights. The logos were hip and food was varied(and sometimes excellent) and soon the crowds showed up. These carts began to congregate together and formed pods (see my first post for more info!). Recognizing an opportunity but realizing that his own city was going to be less supportive than Portland to a semi-permanent food cart, some twenty something pseudo-entrepreneur decided to open the first hipster roach coach...I mean food truck.*

These trucks are decorated with cool characters (pandas, little monsters, giant metal pigs) and staffed with a solid line up of hipster order takers and "cooks". However, the one things these trucks have forgotten is value. For their too cool for school menus, these trucks turn out mediocre eats for surprisingly high prices. Having eaten at about two dozen of these trucks in both Seattle and San Francisco, I can say only two or three have delivered something worthwhile. Which is a shame because the concept of the food truck is really cool. You want that giant metal pig truck to deliver excellent eats but unfortunately it rarely does.

Looking at the lemmings standing in line for mediocre Vietnamese Food 

For a case study, I am going to compare celebrity food truck Nom Nom (the SF version) and the decidedly unglamorous Tu Tai III in the "transitional" Dimond neighborhood in Oakland. Both are Vietnamese focused with menus primarily devoted to dishes like Bahn Mi' and bun but that is where the similarities end. Nom Nom was founded by two hot panethnic twenty-something ladies in LA and featured on the Great Food Truck Race. They charge $6.95 for a Banh Mi, and $8.95 for a lemon grass pork bun(vermicelli noodle salad). To prove their hipster credentials they have Vietnamese taco on the menu. Their SF truck frequents the financial district and often has a long line. Their slogan is " Bringing Bahn Mi to the masses". Which makes no sense because the two markets that they operate in-SF and LA-have thousands of Bahn Mi options and in the case of the SF financial district a dozen or so within easy walking distance....but I digress...

Tu Tai III on the other hand is in storefront next to Cybelle's pizza that has housed several Chinese restaurants before becoming a part of the Tu Tai empire...(Tu Tai II is in Alameda and Tu Tai is in San Leandro). It is not a particularly noteworthy Vietnamese restaurant(only a few Yelp reviews) and is usually empty. Their menu is significantly longer than Nom Nom and features the standard Vietnamese options. The grilled pork Bahn Mi is $3.75 and their combination bun with grilled pork and an imperial roll is $7.95. I do not believe that Tu Tai III has a slogan but I could be mistaken.

Considering I have not had a Bahn Mi at either establishment I am going to focus on a comparison of their buns. Nom Nom produces a smallish bun with some minced pork combined with noodle salad. It looked like one of those prepared versions that you see at a Lee's Sandwich store for about $4 dollars. Considering the price tag, I thought it would more resemble one of the bun that you might find at Out the Door in the Ferry Building but no such luck. The bun itself was very run the mill and the meat was nothing special(FYI...there was no indication that the pork came from a humane/local/non-gestation create source). It could have been easily served at a generic Vietnamese sandwich shop.  You can make your own judgement based on the picture below(which looks nothing like the picture on their website):

Sad looking Lemongrass Pork Bun from Nom Nom sitting lonely on my desk at work

     At Tu Tai III, the combination Bun was different beast indeed. Here the bun was a towering bowl filled with vermicelli and veggies. The pork was in whole pieces and not minced. The bowl came with an imperial roll which in this case was a fried pork egg roll essentially. Overall the bun was good but nothing spectacular compared to dearly departed Tu Lan, Cordon Bleu, or the fancy versions at Slanted Door. However it did represent a considerable step up in flavor and value from the Nom Nom truck version shown above.

Grilled Pork Bun with Imperial Roll at Tu TaiIII

Now I don't want you thinking that I hate the whole mobile food movement. I have had excellent dishes from carts usually at events like Eat Real Oakland. But it looks like that the branded trucks favor flash over quality. The best trucks that I have eaten at focus more on doing a couple of dishes right in nondescript vehicles versus something that sports flashy graphics, cute cartoon characters and fancy taco's. Maybe once the whole hipster element moves on and the TV shows fade away we can have a truly mobile food culture here in the Bay Area that places substance above style.

FYI: There are a couple of food trucks that are actually worth a visit:

The Chairman-an extremely trendy truck but their specialty baked buns have a nice combination of flavors-especially the Coca Cola braised pork.

Skillet- the original Seattle truck has a fantastic Poutine

The Architect's Kitchen-fried chicken in the Financial District that is decent. They sell a massive Chicken Sandwich that is worth checking out.

That is about it. Let me know if there is a great food truck out there I am missing out on. I would love to put out another post out there rebuking this one.

* There is some debate who opened the first hipster food truck. Mission Street Food by Anthony Mynt which lasted four weeks  is considered to be the forerunner in Northern California. But Skillet in Seattle and Kobi in LA have also been around for a little while now.