Bob Block, Giana Wilkinson, Kelly Zoet, and Leslie Venetz buy lunch at the Brand BBQ Market truck in Chicago. (Anthony Souffle/Chicago Tribune / April 12, 2013)

Sixteen food trucks submitted applications to be part of this year’s Taste of Chicago, city officials said Thursday.

This year’s food festival, scheduled for July 10-14 in Grant Park, will include licensed food trucks for the first time. The trucks will be parked at Butler Field next to the lawn seating for the Petrillo Music Shell. They will be able to set up two hours before each night’s concert and operate for the duration of the program.

Applications to sell food at the Taste were due Wednesday.

Of the 16 that applied, how many will make the cut?

“At this point, until we have reviewed the applications, we cannot determine how many will be at the event. Once we have reviewed and coordinated the available space, we will release that information,” Cindy Gatziolis, spokeswoman for the city’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, said in an email.

Those picked will accept the Taste food and beverage tickets to sell goodies. They will be able to offer up to four menu items plus two smaller sample-size portions.

Food truck operators will have access to a hand sink, tent and refrigerated storage truck where they can keep food cold until they need to restock their trucks, according to the city’s website. In addition, they will have space to prepare and cook food outside of the truck if operators have the required summer sanitation certificate.

The trucks will be charged a 25 percent commission on gross profits after paying a 10.5 percent sales tax, the application said. They will also pay $125 for a temporary food vendor license. But there was no application fee that other vendors pay to be part of the Taste.

The inclusion of food trucks at the Taste is one of the latest developments in the industry in Chicago. Last summer, the City Council passed an ordinance allowing them to cook onboard.

The city last week proposed adding nine more designated food truck stands, for a total of 30, where trucks are allowed to park for free up to two hours. They also can park at metered parking spots 200 feet away from a restaurant.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-taste-food-trucks-0517-20130517,0,5929192.story

Meaty Balls Mobile [Brandon Harris]

When you’re on your lunch hour, you don’t have endless time to wander around in search of a food truck. A new app, TruckSpotting, will do the dirty work for you by tracking the locations of more than two dozen food trucks.

The app, which originally launched in Atlanta, is available in eight cities. TruckSpotting gives out GPS units to truck owners and the truck’s location shows up on the website and the iPhone and Android apps. You’ll see the truck’s real time location, plus their schedule and menu. You can also rate trucks and save your favorites.

Chicago trucks already signed up include 5411 Empanadas, The Fat Shallot, and the Slide Ride.

Download the app here.

http://chicagoist.com/2013/05/19/new_food_truck_tracking_app_launche.php

Photos by Nick Murway

How does the saying go? You can take the gourmet chef out of a kitchen…and he turns into a gourmet chef on a food truck. It may not be the conventional career path, but after working at Everest and then fine dining restaurants in Spain and New Orleans, chef Sam Barron left the kitchen to be his own boss alongside his wife Sarah Weitz. Together they outfitted an old delivery truck with a griddle, deep frier, oven, prep space and refrigerator. The Fat Shallot was one of the first food trucks in Chicago to earn a mobile food prepare license and have been on the road since early May. Check out the dynamic duo and find out why their sandwich needs to be your next lunch.

http://blog.zagat.com/2013/05/food-truck-of-week-fat-shallot.html

]]> http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/05/chicago-il-food-truck-of-the-week-the-fat-shallot/feed/ 0 http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/05/chicago-il-sandwich-monday-tamale-spaceship/ http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/2013/05/chicago-il-sandwich-monday-tamale-spaceship/#comments Tue, 14 May 2013 16:45:29 +0000 MFN Editor #1 http://www.mobilefoodnews.com/?p=53283 By Eva Wolchover | NPR.org

Eva and Tamale Astronaut

Chicago’s Tamale Spaceship food truck happened to land near our office this Sandwich Monday. We considered it our duty as hungry earthlings to eat as many tamales as it takes to ensure we’re never called up for NASA’s astronaut program.

The tamale heroes who run Tamale Spaceship wear Mexican wrestling masks. They do this to intimidate you into spending $4 on a single tamale and to protect themselves from flying tamale debris.

Object larger than it appears (Ian has giant hands).

Miles: I think an entire fleet of Tamale Spaceships could reignite American interest in the space program.

Robert: Houston, we have a cholesterol problem.

Miles: One small step for man, one giant leap for pant sizes.

Eva: I was a little offended when I went to space after eating one of these and there was still gravity.

A naked tamale.

Mike: I hope in space, someone can hear me ask for more.

Robert: Major Tom would have a hard time stepping out of his capsule if he were aboard the Tamale Spaceship.

Mike: Yeah, Hal would totally open the pod bay doors for these guys.

Eva: I think they have to count down from 10,000 to lift this spaceship off the ground.

Tamales are a lot like bananas, except better because they’re tamales.

Miles: This is a clear rip-off of my chain of Schnitzel Submarines.

Eva: The pork one is delicious. I’m not sure how I feel about the one filled with losers from the last big wrestling match.

Robert: If I could surround all my food in masa I’d die happy. And I’d be dead right now.

[The verdict: Four dollars per tamale is steep, but that's about 1/1 millionth of what it costs to go to space as a space tourist. So consider it a good deal. Also, they're enormous.]

Sandwich Monday is a satirical feature from the humorists at Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/05/13/183646464/sandwich-monday-tamale-spaceship

Shortly after establishing an initial 21 designated food truck parking spaces, Mayor Rahm Emanuel proposed the addition of nine more spots. These spaces are located in high-density neighborhoods that would benefit from additional lunchtime options. These locations include colleges and business areas, according to the Chicago Tribune, and the new spots will be voted on during next month’s city council meeting. This announcement comes shortly after an agreement was made with the Chicago Park District to allow trucks to set up shop at six parks, including Lincoln and Grant Parks. Trucks must apply for additional approval to use Park District property.

http://blog.zagat.com/2013/05/mayor-proposes-nine-new-food-truck.html

Credit Stan Golovchuk

Northbrook’s only food truck, the Roadside Kitchen, sits at the corner of Dundee Road and Skokie Boulevard Tuesday through Thursday, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. It’s also the only place you can still find an original-recipe Lucky Cake, the small, moist chocolate and vanilla cakes that were popular in the 50s and 60s.

The food truck is owned and operated by Joe and Louise Rycraft, who say they’ve held Northbrook’s only food truck license since November of last year.

“We decided not to do traveling [service] like all the other food trucks do because we wanted to find regulars,” Louise said. “We didn’t want to fight for spots. It’s less stressful that way.”

The Northbrook residents makes most of their food in the truck, but occasionally rent kitchens to prepare for high volume service such as catering. They’re also the only distributor of classic Lucky Cakes, using the original recipe people were eating 50 years ago.

“For those who remember this snack cake treat never forgot how great they were,” the couple’s website reads. “In the late 1950′s & 60′s Lucky Cakes were found mostly in the Ma & Pa corner stores and major chain grocery stores.”

Credit Photo courtesy Roadside Kitchen

The Lucky Cakes are also for sale online in chocolate, vanilla, red velvet, coconut, banana and hazelnut.

The couple has been married for 38 years and “worked together since day one,” Louise said. “He was 21, I was 19.”

The food truck serves Italian beef sandwiches, Vienna hot dogs and meatballs, and even accepts credit card. Starting next week, the food truck will also serve shaved ice.

About this column: A look at unusual eats around the North Shore.

http://evanston.patch.com/articles/northbrook-s-only-food-truck-still-carries-lucky-cake

The Giordano’s food truck is covered in an image of its trademark deep-dish pizza. (Giordano’s / May 8, 2013)

Giordano’s has officially joined the food truck frenzy.

Known for its deep-dish pizza (and spokesman Derrick Rose of the Bulls), Giordano’s announced it will be previewing its first-ever food truck by Memorial Day weekend.

The 28-foot-long, 12.5-foot-wide truck will be equipped with state-of-the-art conventional ovens and refrigerators, which hold up to 400 pizzas, according to Jessica Wenson, Giordano’s manager of media and community affairs.

Although the menu will be simplified, offering only personal-size stuffed pizzas in four options–cheese, pepperoni, sausage and spinach–along with salad and soft drinks, Wenson said the Giordano’s taste will not be compromised.

“Customers can expect the same quality of food as from the Giordano’s restaurant,” she said. “That is why we took so long developing the truck because we wanted the equipment and food to be comparable to our restaurants.”

Giordano’s food truck took a year to complete and was built by food truck manufacturer, Custom Concessions.

Spotting the food truck should not be hard for true Giordano’s lovers, as a huge air vent  above its oven will release the pizza fumes into the air. Also, the truck’s exterior displays pictures of the famous deep-dish pizza.

The truck is set to run 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. It will target events around Chicago along with specific locations approved by the Chicago Park District. Wenson said the food truck also will target neighborhoods with few or no Giordano’s restaurants in the area, such as Wicker Park and the South Loop.

Chicagoans can track the food truck’s location on the Giordano’s twitter page.

http://www.redeyechicago.com/news/local/redeye-giordanos-on-wheels-20130507,0,2205309.story

Tis the season for food truck rallies. These lovely events which saturated the food landscape last summer allow diners to sample the wares from many different trucks without chasing them around the city, Amazing Race-style, while frantically following them on Twitter. In an Oak Park first, Oak Park’s Great Food Truck Rally is bringing a whole mess of trucks to the suburbs on May 11.

Starting at noon, the food trucks (a list is below) will open up to the public. They’ll stay (with some switches) until 6 p.m. This event is more than just food trucks — there is live music and tours of the Pilgrim Congregational Church.

The list of trucks (subject to change) includes:

Beyond Borders Farm to Food Truck
Chicago Cupcake
Cupcakes for Courage
5411 Empanadas
Get Curried Away
Ice Cubed
JERK, Modern Jamaican Grill
Meatloaf-A-Go-Go
Mojo Express
Taquero Fusion
Tamales Spaceship
Toasty Cheese

Oak Park’s Great Food Truck Rally is at 460 Lake Street.

http://chicagoist.com/2013/05/06/oak_parks_great_food_truck_rally_in.php

Curry-chicken “baco”

Unite two food truck owners sans trucks, and the result is not a new food truck, but rather a restaurant by the name of Saucy Porka. Open today, it is a joint effort by Amy Lee and Rafael Lopez. Lee owns the Duck ‘N’ Roll truck, which has been off the road since January. Lopez was a chef on the Waygu Wagon. Together, they have a wealth of family recipes rooted in Asian and Latin cuisine, and decided to open a fusion restaurant in the Financial District.

The menu is similar to a food truck’s (if the City of Chicago didn’t make it so difficult for them) – appetizers, sandwiches, rice bowls and sweet bites. Also, similar to many of the food trucks, the restaurant specializes in lunch, though, it is open from 8 AM to 4 PM. For breakfast, it serves banana nutella or Azuki cinnamon donut holes as well as chorizo or queso fresco egg banh mi.

The star of the lunch menu is something called a “baco” – or bao taco. Steamed Asian buns are filled with Latin-style fillings such as pork carnitas topped with pineapple salsa as well as sofrito-marinated shrimp topped with Asian slaw and avocado aioli. Fusions make a second appearance is umami nachos and chorizo egg rolls. Overall, Lee and Lopez wanted to menu to transform comfort food with bold flavors and modern techniques.

One more food truck has its hand in the new space. Flirty Cupcakes provides four specialty cupcakes for the restaurant. The Spicy Pork exclusive cupcake is a ginger cupcake with lemon center and buttercream. Sticking to the Asian-Latin fusion theme, a pineapple cream cheese and chocolate-cinnamon with chili powder are also on the dessert menu.

400 S. Financial Pl.; 773-417-6013

http://blog.zagat.com/2013/05/two-food-truck-chefs-open-saucy-porka.html

Giordano’s Pizza

Giordano’s plans to satisfy Chicago’s craving for on the go stuffed pizza by hitting the streets Monday.

The Chicago-based pizzeria created its 41st restaurant with a custom-made food truck, designed by Executive Chef Russell Bry. The truck took over a year to create and features a state-of-the-art kitchen and refrigerator to store pre-made pizzas.

“With over 40 years in business we have simplified everything and built it for speed,” Bry said.

The menu is quite simple, a choice of pizza or salad. But when promised the same quality pizza as in the restaurant and faced with the aroma of cooking pizza from the truck’s exhaust, the choice of salad may fail in comparison.

The “mobile billboard” will be all over this summer, making several appearances at Park District events. The truck can even be rented to add an extra Chicago element to parties or events.

http://www.nbcchicago.com/entertainment/the-scene/Giordanos-Launches-Brand-New-Food-Truck-206010501.htmlx