Serving Up For Lunch

“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk."
-- Thomas Edison, American inventor

Years ago in NYC, when you wanted to grab a quick bite off the street, your choices were pretty much limited to a handful of food truck selections: hotdogs (called “dirty water dogs”) or Italian sausages; Greek gyros and falafels; egg and cheese sandwiches or bagels with a schmear from the breakfast trucks; ice cream in the summers and, of course, roasted chestnuts at Christmas time.

Then, as the years went by and the street food trend started catching on, the food truck concept expanded. Suddenly along Sixth Avenue we had soup trucks (the most famous being the “Soup Nazi” thanks to Jerry Seinfeld and his NYC-based sitcom); salad trucks for the health conscious; Chinese food trucks serving fried rice and egg rolls; and BBQ and grill trucks pumping out pulled pork sandwiches and chargrilled burgers.

It wasn’t long before the craze caught on like wildfire and we had trucks serving everything from organic and vegetarian food to Thai, Vietnamese and Laotian fare. There were Caribbean trucks selling oxtail soup and curried goat, Latin bistro trucks dishing up tacos, pupusas and huaraches, French trucks selling Crepes Suzette and steak frites. Then the pizza trucks started rolling up dishing out slices and calzones, followed by trucks selling things like “American Kobe” burgers and Philly’s best cheesesteaks. For dessert we had cookie trucks, cupcake trucks, funnel cake and waffle trucks, not to mention a truck selling just whoopee pies! Now I hear there’s a truck cooking up something called “dinges,” a delectable Belgium waffle treat smothered with any number of decadent toppings!

Although I do miss the convoys of NYC food trucks rolling into midtown at lunchtime, drawing out hundreds of hungry office workers to stand in cues sometime stretching half a city block, we’ve made another “street food” discovery here in Taichung this week! There’s apparently an entire “street cuisine" culture in Taiwan that’s famous throughout Asia, and tonight we stumbled right into one of the “mobile markets” located right near our hotel!

According to our friend Shaq, a native of Malaysia who’s here with us in Taichung this week, people from all over Asia come to sample the street cuisine in Taiwan - it’s Tokyo and Hong Kong for shopping; Thailand and Malaysia for beaches; Korea for sight-seeing; and Taiwan for the street food! Apparently, it’s a craze that’s long been appreciated by locals and now has caught on with Taiwan’s foreign residents and expats as well – these stands on the corner of a busy boulevard here in Little Europe cater to palates of every variety: Students, young professionals, families, foreigners and tourists alike flock here in the evenings to enjoy a sampling of Taiwanese BBQ that’s prepared to order and served up hot!

Instead of driving trucks, these “mobile chefs” tow their open-air carts into designated locations, put up the sides, turn on the lights and fire up the grills. Unlike similar carts we’ve found in China, these food vendors are required to obtain licenses and meet up to national health standards before they can open for business on the street. Seeing the volume of business being done at these “movable bistros,” it’s easy to assume the quality of the food must be consistently high, too!

Scattered among the scooters and parked cars are tiny folding tables set up for patrons, and some carts have rickety metal countertops to prop your plastic dish, but most diners take their meal to go or eat standing around chatting with friends in line. There’s no doubt this little Taiwanese “food court” not only serves up great “fast food,” but is also a place to wrap up a long day and socialize with friends!

I admit, the aromas wafting from the BBQ Bar were calling to me, but my feet kept moving and my camera kept clicking. There’s a large, well-known “night market” that’s famous here in Taichung, so I’ll save my appetite for that trip and look forward to sampling some of Taiwan’s best street fare then. I’m sure on that night, as I stand in line waiting my turn at the food trucks in Taichung, I’ll find myself thinking about their long distance cousins back home along Sixth Avenue and wonder what the Taiwanese trucks in New York are serving up for lunch today!