We All Love Food Trucks

Seriously, what is better than the late-night taco truck or the mobile halal vendor when you’re stumbling home at 3 a.m. after a night out? After a few beers, the shredded chicken torta with queso blanco is oh-so-delicious.

Well, my love affair with the mobile foodistas has grown exponentially since we’ve moved out to Seattle. In the eight months we’ve lived here, there have been several addition to the fleet of food trucks, each seemingly outdoing each other in terms of quality and flavor.

Not just content with gyros and tacos, we’ve seen a sea change in mobile food competition. The entrepreneurs are innovative and creative.

I thought about this today as I pulled up to Beacon Hill with Lisa and we stood in line at Marination Mobile, a Korean-style taco truck that offers such delicacies as Aloha Sliders and Kimchi Quesadillas. The veggies in Seattle have tofu options as well. For around $7 a person, the quality of the food was well above what’s out there in terms of fast food (outside of In-And-Out Burger, but that’s for another post).

Serving up some fabulous Korean tacos in Seattle

The trend in Seattle began with Skillet, which began slinging gourmet truck food a few years ago out of an old silver Airstream. Skillet upped the ante, offering burgers with local, farm-raised beef, bacon jam, arugula on gourmet bread. Poutine (the Quebecois treat of fries topped with piping-hot gravy and cheese curds) was another option. Lines started queueing up and business boomed. Aside from a few health code violations, Skillet has been a success in Seattle.

Competitors sprouted up not soon after. We’ve enjoyed veggie BBQ (yes, really), from the Maximus/Minimus truck, a which happens to be shaped like a pig. If you want an octopus taco, get thee to Eastlake and visit the Tako Truk late nights on the weekends. Added bonus: you can follow them on Twitter (like you can most of the food trucks) to stay in the know about locations and 86s.

The Piggy Truck

And as much as Seattle has advanced in terms of street food, Portland has us whipped, unfortunately. A lot has to do with regulations that Seattle has now finally laxed on, but a recent trip to Portland presented us with enough evidence (over 400 or so vendors!) to come to that conclusion. Such options ranged from a vendor specializing in nothing but grilled cheese, one of my favorite comfort foods. One section of PDX had a confluence of trucks all happily competing with one another. This site keeps readers up to date on the food cart news in Portland.

Back in Seattle, I’m just glad to see our city has jumped on the street food bandwagon. This was cemented when I bit into an incredibly flavorful slider of shredded pork and Korean slaw. And as much as Seattle has grown in this regard, there are still some great old-school options. During the blizzard this past winter, Lisa and I trudged our way from Mt. Baker to Rainier Valley to the taco bus. Another fantastic option is Rancho Bravo in Wallingford. These are my rebuttals to those who believe Chipotle is an acceptable lunch option.