Latest Fad: Gourmet Food Trucks

One of the best places to get gourmet food for cheap isn't your neighborhood brick-and-mortar joint anymore -- it's that truck that's parked on the corner of the street.

The food truck concept has taken the culinary world by storm, with everything from tacos to vegan food to cupcakes being offered. Previously branded "roach coaches," the new generation of trucks are now widely embraced as a perfectly decent place to get great food.

Take for instance the latest Los Angeles phenomenon known as the Kogi Roja truck. The truck serves Korean-style meat in a taco tortilla. On a typical night, people will wait up to 45 minutes for $2 tacos.

Los Angeles has seen an explosion of trucks selling all kinds of food. The Los Angeles Times reports that there are trucks selling hot dogs made of grass-fed organic beef, ice cream sandwiches, sushi rolls and pan-regional barbecue. In Seattle , trucks hawk pulled-pork sandwiches, Cuban fare and fusion tacos.

In New York, there are turf wars erupting between upscale food trucks and the old street carts that have sold kebabs and cheap coffee for years. The New York Times reports that Grant Di Mille and Samira Mahboubian, the owners of the Street Sweets food truck, were warned to stay off streets where ice cream drivers made their rounds, and cursed by a gyro vendor who threatened to set their truck on fire.

"I want to be a good neighbor," Mr. Di Mille said. "But I am nobody's fool, and nobody's pushover, and I should not have to carry a baseball bat on my truck in order to sell cupcakes."

Much of the appeal of selling food in trucks is a lower overhead compared to opening a restaurant. John Bowler, owner of Barbie's Q in Hermosa Beach, Calif., told the Los Angeles Times that it cost him $40,000 to start his truck business versus the $200,000 he would need to open a restaurant.

The trucks are also mobile -- they can go to where the people are. Not only can they park on streets and wait for people to come to them, they can also cater events and parties. Bowler estimates that 40 percent of his business comes from private catered events.

While food trucks are nothing new, the new generation is targeting a very different group of people. Part of the way that's happening is through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook, through which these trucks are able to get their word out. The Kogi trucks in Los Angeles, for instance, inform the public of where they will be every night via posts on Twitter . By this very marketing scheme, these food trucks du jour are appealing to those with more technological savvy and those who want to be in the know.

"Traditionally, taco trucks were very working class -- janitors, secretaries, people on public transit -- but now they've been adopted by the middle class as a legitimate way to buy and sell food," James Rojas, founder and co-chairman of the Latino Urban Forum, told the Los Angeles Times. "I think people under 30 want to bike and walk and take transit. These aren't Latinos that have to take transit. These are privileged, middle-class kids. So taco trucks are targeting this group."

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