Food Trucks In India – An Idea Whose Time Has Come

India has always had a huge street food culture. So the concept of food trucks was a phenomenon just waiting to happen. While the ‘redis’ and ‘thailas’ have long been serving us chaat and pani puri to Chinese to pau bhaji to momos to ice cream, a more refined version of street food is now a reality in many cities of India. There is also an annual food festival dedicated to food trucks now.

Food trucks give discerning people with a well traveled palate, the option of an informal outdoor dining experience beyond the usual dabeli-haka-noodles-pakoda. You may find interesting fusion cuisine or exotic dining experiences that may be difficult to find in proper restaurant settings. The 'kichen' is in the truck and people are served directly. Small sitouts provide an enjoyable al fresco dining experience. 

There are many different options available for foodies looking for new options. The choice is wide, the service quick and personal. Aditya, who serves up some excellent BBQ pork ribs at the Grumpy Old Man imports his ribs from Australia because of the superior quality.

The trucks serving food are interesting not just for the out of the ordinary menu options, but also for the clever names, the fun décor and attention grabbing retrofitting of the vehicle that serves as the restaurant.

Food trucks with cuisine concepts to tickle the fancy of the well traveled Indian are to be seen in the NCR region, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Mumbai and elsewhere. In Gurgaon, there is a location close to Leisure Valley that is a semi permanent home for many of the most popular food trucks; Noida being another location where the food truck concept has become popular.

Young, enterprising people looking to follow their heart rather than join the rat race can be found manning the trucks. Friendly, knowledgeable, urbane young people typically greet you at one of these food trucks. This is an attractive option because the capital investment may be much less than a conventional restaurant, with lower overheads and a high turnover. Online stores such as indiamart.com offer many food cart/ van options as well.

There is now an annual food truck festival each year. This year it was from 9th to 11th March 2018 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Delhi. It was a fun outing with interesting décor and a wide range of food options to satisfy the conventional to the eclectic palate.

The festival attracts the hip young set as well as families looking for an outing. Communal seating spaces, great bar options and some live music acts added to the experience.

The festival also offered some fun, irreverent shopping options. Stalls were selling funny t shirts, quirky home décor, customized perfume and more.

This stall was manned by some hip young people with a sense of humour: there was wall décor, mugs and more on offer.

The food truck festival and the food truck eating out experience over all, are only set to grow in times to come. There are enough enterprising people bringing us these experiences and enough foodies out there to appreciate them as well!

(All original author images except where indicated)