A fairly new culture for Mumbai, food trucks are the city’s answer to healthy eating on the go, as we find out at High Street Phoenix
The first memory of a food truck for me is from the movie The Chef where the ‘hero’ doles out amazing food while on the go, and the best food memory that I have associated with it is the Cuban sandwich. The next time I heard of the food truck was when I went to the Food Truck Festival, or better known as the Food Truck Square, last week at High Street Phoenix, Lower Parel.
A new culinary culture
I went there with a couple of friends at around 7 p.m. and the place was buzzing with activity. The Square was a Food Trucker’s Paradise—with 10 food trucks hogging the limelight—offering food, right from American gourmet sandwiches to Lebanese delica-cies, Mexican quick eats to mouthwatering desserts.
“We need to give Mumbai’s Food Truck Culture the impetus it deserves. Food Tourism is touted to be the next big league for India and is rapidly ascending as the newest, most promising value proposition for the hospitality industry country wide. This festival was conceptualised to serve as our mouthpiece to pledge to Mumbai’s law bodies that food trucks are safe, valu-able and here to stay” says Shubham Chaudhuri, President, The Food Truck Association (TFTA).
A joint initiative by TFTA, co-curated by Mumbai Foodie and OPA hospitality, which owns Mumbai’s first Street Gourmet Bombay Food Truck, and hosted by High Street Phoenix, this high-energy, food-crazy event showcased the best of Mumbai’s food truck cul-ture, which I think is rather recent. Mumbai was known for the thelawala and not the food truck before this American culture drove by. A food truck, unlike a roadside seller, offers healthy meals which are freshly cooked in conditions that are far more hy-gienic. It’s only a matter of time before the entire city of Mumbai is overtaken by food trucks.
The crowd favourites
I went up to the Lalit Food Truck at the event, which seemed to be the most well-served food truck—at least it was systematic. I ate the chicken and cheese bur-rito, which was fresh, healthy and light. The other food truck that seemed tempting was the Bombay Food Truck, which served fusion food with a ‘Bom-bay’ twist. It was lovely to meet a food truck from my own neighbourhood, Borivali. The FoGo (food on the go) truck serves lip-smacking kheema pay and salami pay, which are a must-try. However, I couldn’t eat from there since the crowd management around the truck wasn’t great.
Sameer Kanse, who visited the Food Truck Square found the concept novel. “I just wish it was well man-aged and there were no long queues, especially in this weather; this isn’t quite appetising.” All in all, it was a novel event to go to, take in the sights and smells of the Food Truck Square. It might have helped if it wasn’t so hot!
