New York Street Food

(Original photo: Martin Cruz. Inset: The Melt)

With food trucks in just about every medium-to-large city, and chains bringing them out too, lots of people think food trucks  have jumped the shark.  We’ve been guilty of saying this too.

In SF, the sharks soon will be able to jump a food truck.

From SFist: “Local chain The Melt will launch their fleet of grilled cheese buses by floating the first one into McCovey Cove to hand out free sandwiches to kayakers.

The Melt plans to roll out nine grilled cheese trucks around the Bay Area by the end of 2012, and 100 around the country in the next five years. The mobile effort is the latest part of the extremely well-funded, five-location chain’s aggressive plan to dominate the dairy-based sandwich market with an eventual 500 locations across the country.”

Thanks to SFist for the scoop.

BTW, we don’t believe food trucks have jumped the shark. Despite the distastefulness of Jack In The Box or Chick-Fil-A food trucks, we firmly believe food trucks are a fundamental change in the way many people now eat. Combine that with the low cost of opening a food truck versus a restaurant, and we know food trucks are here to stay.

(credit: New York Street Food)

Things were pretty busy last week in San Francisco, and I didn’t have a chance to write about everything I ran across in the street food scene.

I was working right by the Bay Bridge and had a really nice view from my office (above), but it was quite a bit of a walk to get to any food trucks or carts for the most part.

(credit: New York Street Food)

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(credit: New York Street Food)

When I asked people for street food suggestions in SF before I left, several people said I had to try the Crème Brûlée Cart.  They have a cart during the day on Market St by Sutter, and a truck at night on Market St by Castro.

I also tried freshly filled cream puffs from Pacific Puffs, who were at Truck Stop SF earlier this week.

(credit: New York Street Food)

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(credit: New York Street Food)

For my last food truck lunch in SF, I went to Hapa SF, whose motto is “sustainable local filipino cuisine”.  The menu was interesting, with their unique takes on spring rolls, tacos, banh mi, and more traditional rice plates.

I decided to get a chicken banh mi burrito, which cost $8, but I made it into a combo for $3 more with a small order of lumpia.

(credit: New York Street Food)

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I ran across Vesta Flatbread at Truck Stop SF, and I’m glad I gave them a try.  If you care about locally sourced, high-quality food, this is the place for you – and they bake their own flatbread right on the truck!  You can see the round oven right inside the truck.

I decided to get the roast pork flatbread sandwich, which cost $9. They also had grilled chicken, carrot pate, and pork ‘n’ egg sandwiches.

This might look like just another large gyro or shawarma sandwich, but it was light years beyond.

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