Foodies rejoice! Food truck fever is finally sweeping across India

By Munawwar Ahmed

In America, when the average Joe steps out for lunch, he doesn’t have the liberty to tuck into TGI Friday’s lunch special like most days or sit down in the middle of Times Square and soak in the warm Manhattan sunshine.

On the clock, lunch is going to have to be a quick run to the roadside curb while browsing his smartphone for coordinates. Soon enough, he finds a Kwik Meal Cart, parked at Fifth Avenue and Rockefeller Centre where he places an order for the chefs special; the $6 chicken over rice meal.

A staple for hundreds of New Yorkers who have dined and relished at the various ‘mobile’ restaurants across the city, food trucks have become a wildly popular food trend in recent years, serving up some of the most sumptuous cuisines from around the world to locals and tourists across the U.S.

Today, even average Joe’s Indian counterpart employed somewhere in Bengaluru can have lunch from the food truck parked on the curbside, 7,000 miles from Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue.

Young entrepreneurs across Indian metropolitan cities have grabbed on to the new foodie phenomenon to create their own versions of the restaurants on wheels that are taking the nation by storm.

Today, the food truck scene in India is exploding with many national and international cuisines coming out of flashy trucks with kitted kitchens and innovative youngsters driving, managing or even cooking within the ‘mobile’ restaurants. Starting off with just one truck in 2013, there are now more than 7 innovative food trucks serving people in Bengaluru alone. What initially started out as a pop-up venture to serve up hip gourmet eats targeting youngsters has grown into eatery joints with followings of families and people of all ages joining the queue every evening.

For decades now, street food, which has been famous for its dirt-cheap, yet diverse and delicious chow has not exactly been known for its hygiene all these years. Contrary to the regular thelas that have been appetizing the Delhi belly, the sizeable investment, constant maintenance and educated operators in the food truck industry have reflected positively on hygienic standards.

Offering a wide variety of cuisines including Mexican tortillas, burritos, Belgian breakfast spreads and the famed mac and cheeseburger to the local market, these kitchens on wheels offer economically priced menus and hygienic, delicious treats cooked in plain sight of customers. A purposeful venture, the food truck scene could also potentially change the perspective of clients when it comes to street food which has often been associated as junk.

Even with the right food, fire, drivers’ and selling permits, these food trucks do run into trouble from time to time, but only because there are no clear-cut laws to segregate them from traditional restaurants.

However, with the launch of the Lalit Food Truck Company, a venture by the five-star Lalit hospitality group, things are bound to change. Pairing the positive new venture with the pressure to cater to the growing demand across city zones, food trucks aren’t going away anytime soon.

Never in the same spot for too long, these food trucks move around and park in different prime locations across the city. Traceable through Twitter feeds and Facebook updates (and an app soon, according to Vikrant Misra, owner of Eggjacktly), customers can easily locate the vendors before quickly heading over to tuck into quick, easily, delicious plates of food.

Either solo enthusiasts with a couple of chefs on hire, or friends-turned-business-partners, food trucks have popped up across major cities with Hyderabad catching on to the trend. Here are a couple of popular favorites to watch out for next time you’re walking along the curbsides of India:

1. Ya Habibi: Abdul Qadir’s Ya Habibi serves everything from spicy steak pizzas to shish tawooq (traditional Middle Eastern chicken kebabs) with the help of his two apprentices, and his locations on Clarke Road and Richard’s Park top his sales figures at 60 customers a day.

2. Super Suckers: Delhi’s first food truck, the Super Suckers specialize in keema and kulcha delicacies and is a favorite at events and functions. Owner Karan Malik and his Super Sucker were last spotted appetizing locals in the DLF Phase 5 sector of Gurgaon.

3. The Spitfire BBQ Truck: What initially started out as a stopgap arrangement until his restaurant business took off, the Spitfire BBQ Truck’s proprietor Siddhanth specializes in south Italian cuisines, but dishes out barbequed steaks and hotdogs much to the locals delight, at his favorite hangouts in Koramangala and Kammanahalli.

4. The Sweetish House Mafia: The young proprietress behind this Mumbai-based food truck (who prefers to stay anonymous) believes “there isn’t only the experience of eating the goodies but hunting for them as well.” Sure enough, her bag of goodies includes Nutella Sea Salties, Red Velvet Sandwiches and the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sandwiches and can be found in prime locations such as Andheri, Juhu, Bandra and Chembur.

5. Dosa Place: Hyderabad-based Dosa Place can boast of perhaps the largest menu in terms of number of items. With 111 delicious varieties of dosas available and idlies soon joining the menu, the food truck is the first of its kind in the Madhapur district.

6. Chill Grill: Pioneered by engineering students Salman and Rahul, this food truck provides a more economical and healthier alternative to burgers and pizzas; shawarmas and falafels. Operating in the city of Pune, the duo plan to target IT campuses and expand, not just metaphorically, but literally onto a double decker bus.

Food truck owners are convinced the trend is here to stay especially since “customers can see what is being cooked; it’s convenient, fresh and hygienic.” So head over to the curbside for an evening snack, but don’t forget to check the coordinates first.