Food Trucks

Starred review from March 21, 2011
In this excellent cookbook on roving foods, Shouse, the food and drink editor for Time Out Chicago, interviews 50 proprietors of various taco carts, ice cream trucks, crepe trailers, and kebob-mobiles across 18 major U.S. cities (cooking in a truck is still illegal in the Windy City). Along the way, she creates a fascinating landscape of cultural diversityâfolks from all walks of life who have dedicated themselves to cranking out quick, cheap, nomadic snacks. In New York, there is the classically trained bassoonist who has become a local hero with his Big Gay Ice Cream Truck. In Seattle, a woman who is part Korean and part Hawaiian teams with a Chinese-Filipino to serve up Spam sliders. And in New Orleans, a Katrina victim who attended culinary schools in London and Sydney makes brisket in a refrigerator that has been turned into a giant smoker. Along the way, Shouse provides recipes for crowd favorites like the buttermilk fried chicken found in Oahu, and a Sloppy Jose in Miami. Some ingredients, it turns out, travel more intriguingly than others. Bacon, for instance, shows up as a mac & cheese garnish in New Hampshire, arrives as a doughnut topping in Austin, Tex., and beds down in an ice cream sandwich in Manhattan.

March 1, 2011

Food trucks may conjure images of big cities, but they're increasingly popping up around the country. Shouse (food & drink editor, Time Out Chicago; Chicago reporter, Food & Wine) crisscrossed the United States and reports back with reviews, a few recipes, and (possibly most important) where to find the food trucks she considers the best. Interviews and profiles interspersed throughout add a fascinating glimpse into the details of why individuals chose to enter the market. Their reasons are as diverse as the food they sell--the compact space seems to encourage a distinctive approach, freeing the proprietors to experiment. The results range from fusion cooking (Korean tacos from Kogi in L.A.) to carefully honed authentic dishes (Lulu B's bahn mi in Austin, TX) to a donut robot at Chef Shack in Minneapolis. VERDICT This fun book will be of primary interest to readers near the areas covered--major cities across the country in addition to Oahu, HI; Durham, NC; Marfa, TX; and Portsmouth, NH--but the owner profiles and recipes expand the book's audience to anyone interested in food trends in the United States. Recommended.--Courtney Greene, Indiana Univ. Libs., Bloomington

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2011
Though food trucks in some parts of the country, most notably Hawaii and New York, boast storied traditions, the idea of cooking and selling food straight from the side of a truck did not hit critical mass until just a few years ago. Shouse, food and drink editor at Time Out Chicago, clearly knows the terrain. Fifty trucks, each selected by Shouse by virtue of quirk or quality, are featured, neatly sorted by American region and further again by city. Readers hip to the scene will notice big names like Skillet in Seattle and Streetza in Milwaukee. But smaller ones, like Fresh Local in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, also command their spots. For each, an anecdote tells a noteworthy bit about the mobile eatery, mostly concerning how the business began. Also included, and in many respects the best element, are the recipes for their trademark dishes that the chefs contributed. With such an eclectic mixture of eateries, from taquerias to Middle Eastern vendors to BBQ trucks, this could easily stand alone as a commendable cookbook, too.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)