Meals On Wheels: Ten Great Mobile Eateries

We love vehicles. We love to eat. Whether pushcart or Airstream, Mexican or Korean cuisine, we love the combination of wheels and meals. Here are ten diverse vehicles serving up hot meals.

There are just a few of the hundreds of delicious portable restaurants. What's your favorite truck, van, cart, wheeled-stall, motorcycle or otherwise mobile platform dishing out food?

Sénor Tacombi
Located in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico, the Sénor has combined two great Mexican products: the taco and the VW Combi, which was produced in Mexico until the mid-1990s. The story of Sénor Tacombi is one of a wandering soul/wrestler who marched across the Andes with Che, partied at Studio 54 with Freddy Mercury, and chilled with Gandhi in India. Today, he mostly served tacos to college kids who are looking to carb-up after a night on the town.
Photo Credit: Playa Maya News

Fat Daddy's Ice Cream Truck
We'd never thought of giving the classic lowrider treatment to a GMC Ice Cream Truck, but the folks at Las Vegas' Fat Daddy's Ice Cream did just that. Painted in a creamsicle orange with white walls, the truck has four-way hydraulic control. Oh, and it serves just about any ice cream novelty you might want.
Photo Credit: Roadside Pictures @ flickr

Hey Cupcake!
A trip to Austin's groovy South Congress would be wasted without a stop at Hey Cupcake! Peddling cupcakes out of a frequently shined Airstream trailer, a personal favorite, the cupcakes are simple and delicious. Some noticed that a pic of the trailer sneaked into our Mustang Bullitt review. Our fave is the Michael Jackson, which features a chocolate bottom with a cream cheese top.
Photo Credit: Justwatchthesky @ flickr

The Grilled Cheese Grill
Due to lax food sales regulations and a culture supportive of local businesses, Portland, Oregon is the epicenter of food cart dining. It's hard to just pick out one delicious eatery, but we're fond of the Grilled Cheese Grill concept. Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches and sides served inside a school bus is 18 kinds of brilliant. For more on the local digs check out Food Carts Portland.
Photo Credit: Truth Development @ Flickr

Kogi Korean BBQ Truck
Big fans of Korean cooking, and there are many in Los Angeles, love the Kogi BBQ-To-Go truck. Fusing Korean tastes with classic American fare, such as tacos and burgers, it's a portable flavor experience. Traveling from place to place in what looks like a typical taco truck, you know you're at a hot spot when the Kogi truck arrives. Korean BBQ slider anyone?

Calexico Carne Asada Cart
New Yorkers take their street food seriously so when someone is named the best street food you take note. The Brooklyn-based, So-Cal inspired Mexican cart serves up tacos with a California twist, thus combining west, east and south coasts. They serve the food all afternoon... or until they run out.

El Ultimo Taco
With an abundance of construction sites and hungry people Houston is a mecca of taco trucks. El Ultimo on the northwest side offers both humongous portions and super cheap prices. A fully stuffed egg, potato, and chorizo taco on a handmade flour tortilla with a spicy salsa is just $1. Wash it down with fresh fruit aguas frescas and you could probably live forever on the food. Just look for the truck with pictures of fruit painted on the side.
Photo Credit: Dave77459 @ flickr

Street-za Pizza Truck
Just like it sounds, the Street-za truck delivers the flat, Italian-inspired pies out of a truck window to hungry Milwaukee residents and visitors. Unlike your typical pizza kart, the very mobile Street-za offers a ginormous slice in between Chicago and New York style with a flakey crust and gourmet toppings such as smoked Nueske's bacon, Gouda, and roasted Italian eggplant.

Magic Curry Kart
The simplest of all carts, the Magic Curry Kart wanders San Francisco on a mixture of non-matching bike wheels. The chef cooks up delicious curry using two gas-powered hotplates on the neon-adorned cart. Put your name on his clipboard with your wants and he'll cook you up a delicious curry in about ten minutes. When you're done with that you can hit up the Créme Brûlée cart. Seriously.
Photo Credit: HoodScope

Goosebeary's
Most M.I.T. grads we know are fairly smart, if not a bit socially awkward, which goes to explain how they figured out the unappealingly named Goosebeary's van on Kendall Square was so good. Top notch pan-Asian cuisine served out of a crappy van and tossed into cheap Styrofoam may confuse some, but the M.I.T. students are prepared for the culinary dialectic.
Photo Credit: Mr. Joro

Send an email to Matt Hardigree, the author of this post, at matt@jalopnik.com.

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