I've mentioned many times how great of a food scene there is in Pittsburgh right now. You have restaurants that match up against restaurants in any of the food meccas in the United States. But what has been severely lacking has been the mobile food truck.
The majority of the problem are the legal and outdated roadblocks that currently exist in Allegheny County. This article from the Post-Gazette explains the issues well, especially the "can't stay parked more than 30 minutes" part.
However, there may be a fissure forming in the dam holding back food trucks. In August, the Pittsburgh Taco Truck (not the most imaginative name) will be rolling around the city and the surrounding environs selling a wide variety of tacos, including vegetarian options, and an interesting grilled cheese type of item called a planchado.
On their website, the Taco Truck folks mention some of the other food trucks in the City and highlight 5, including 3 of them that don't move anywhere. That's not a true food truck; that's a restaurant that has the ability to move in an emergency. Portland has 5 food trucks on one block (if not more), probably.
Regardless, it is great to see a mobile food truck on the scene. Selling tacos is probably one of the easier, less labor-intensive ones to start with and tacos have mass appeal. I know I will be following their progress and picking something up as soon as they come on the scene.
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Glad to see someone is at least trying back there.
ReplyDeleteThought you'd appreicate this: My bride and I went to a food truck bizarre today here in town, complete with judging/contests/etc., featuring 40 different entries. Rained like a b@#%@#h for about an hour, but we were able to elbow into 3 or 4 of the places anyway. Synopsis: Lamb burger- very good. "Ukelele" sammich- pretty good. Marinated pork taco- meh. Cuban mahi and rice- meh. German chocolate milkshake- gooood.
Wanted to try a chili/cheese/frito dog from a truck called "My Mad Scientist", but I figured that would be a bad, bad idea later this evening. Same with the "Columbian dog" at another hot dog truck.
Didn't get many good photos unfortunately, I'm afraid. My camera sucks and so did the lighting.
When you said Colombian dog, I immediately saw "Colombian necktie" and that's not a good image to think about while eating.
ReplyDeleteHow did they "meh" a marinated pork taco? That's a crime in some states.
Ukelele sandwich -- 'splain.
They 'meh'd it because whatever it was marinated in was flavorless. It was like eating air, but in a soft taco shell.
ReplyDeleteUkelele sammich: Chicken, ham, carmelized pineapple, onion sticks(like the stuff for green been caserole), a little bit of seasoned cabbage and then a teriyaki-based drizzle over it all. The generic "Wonderbread" bun sucked, but the interior stuff was pretty good.