Sharing some experiences from the 4th Annual New York Food Film Festival, one of my favourite events was their day 4 event : The Worlds First Food Truck Drive-In Movie at the Tobacco House, Dumbo, Brooklyn. This is a special event as somehow the organisers managed to gather 20 of the top mobile food trucks in the city. People can get a sampling of New York's best street food in one place, at the same time. Now how about that?! Cool. People were impressed because if you were to queue for them at their normal locations, the lines on some of these trucks can be about 20-30 people long at any time. It's very special occasion to see them all in one place. Tickets were sold out way in advance.

In an almost day long event starting at 1pm, food fans got a steady feed of food films in a marquee setup whilst having the option of popping out to buy some food from the trucks nearby. According to one of the organising committee member Casey Benjamin, planning this was not easy. It took almost six full months and 'lots of calling repeatedly'. But in the end, Casey's efforts paid off when trucks such as the Van Leewen Ice Cream, The Krave and the Green Truck were amongst the lineup of participants.


Would you believe it, some food trucks have gone gourmet in NYC. Its not just halal carts and hot dogs anymore. One of my favourites is the Red Hook Lobster Pound. Yup, you heard it right! Lobster Rolls for $15. According to them, they drive to Maine every couple of days to source for the freshest lobsters they can find for their rolls. Nice, fresh, delicious and simple albeit a bit expensive. But hey, its lobsters after all.


You know the cheap fresh tilapia fish we have here? Looks like it's exported there as well. For $4, you are happily handed a deep fried tilapia taco. The Bistro Truck’s fish tacos are made with tilapia, something called charmoula (carmelized onions & roasted tomato), mayo and mixed greens on a tortilla. The tilapia is fried Italian-styled bread crumb and the tilapia is big enough that each bite of the taco contained mostly fried tilapia. The charmoula was a good complement to the taco. The also have a version of veggie burgie made from portobello mushrooms. But why have that when you can have the tilapia, right?


There is also a Kobe Hot Dog served by the food truck GO BURGER. Now sometimes when people try and use the best ingredients for streetside food, it can work against them i.e. prime meats for burgers might yield a dry patty. We wondered if the Kobe Dog might be too soft without enough 'yield' and bite. Well it was an "a-w-e-s-o-m-e" dog. Soft, yet with enough squeak as you chomp down. Kobe dogs are made by Snake River Farms from 100% American Kobe beef, but what really caught my eye were the apple coleslaw, spicy German mustard and pickled jalapenos toppings.Thats not all, the buns are grilled and the hotdog size is large and thick. $6 bucks of pure joy.


Boasting rights for the longest queue goes to The Krave which serves believe it or not, Korean tacos, kimchee quesadillas and Kraver sliders From the time they opened till they run out which was quite late, there were at least 25 - 30 people consistently on queue. Sweet Korean BBQ meat chopped up and placed in a nice soft flour tortilla. What's not to love? The onions and cilantro adds a nice crisp flavor to it. They were simple, served with a squeeze of lime, and reasonable at about $2.50 each. Not surprising as this is one of the top food trucks in Jersey City. Most delicious thing here though were the Kimchidillas. Spicy kimchi stuffed into soft tortilla with cheese then cooked until everything melts together. It should not work but it so does...


Runners up for longest queue probably goes to a Cooking Channel sponsored truck dispensing free icepops from Sucking People's Pops. We managed to catch Chuck Hughes from the show "Chuck's Day Off" ( we get it on the Asian Food Channel here), got a couple of photo's and managed to get interviewed for the Cooking Channel! Head-to-toe in food tattoos and once fried a Mars bar for a kiddie recipe on his show, he has heard so much about Malaysia and would really love to come to this region. My kind of guy! And really tall too. Wouldn't suspect that from his shows.


With over 4,000 licensed mobile food truck vendors, looks like New Yorkers are crazy about their street food as we are about ours. They also have the smaller street cart versions which normally sell hot-dogs and gyros which is a Greek name for kebab (loosely). Single cart, open air and a complete catering ecosystem all-in-one. Surprisingly, a lot of them plying the busy avenues of New York are halal. So here's I am holding a 'gyro' in one hand with a background of one of the mobile carts at the back. It looks like 'street dining' in NYC is very colourful and much celebrated. Besides the traditional hot dog stands, NYC's street food comes from different parts of the world from India, South America, Korea, Greek and the list goes on and on. Asian mobile trucks seems to be a hit there nowadays. Perhaps someone from Malaysia should have a mobile truck selling satay of some kind?

Anyway, awhile back, I was on-air at BusinessFM being interviewed by the lovely Azura Rahman about branding Malaysia through food. Zak Pelaccio of Fatty 'Cue New York was in town and was gracious enough to join us on-air talking about his experience opening up Malaysian inspired restaurants in the Big Apple. The discussion went on about street food and how we can preserve some of the street food culture in Malaysia as is it really a HUGE part of the country especially in KL. I was saying that Malaysia does not need to kill or hive all of them into sterile food courts which will totally kill the street experience but need to evolve and find new ways of existence. Some evolve into small cafes and restaurants but maybe to those who are not lucky enough to afford one, perhaps this can be a good alternative. Mobile Trucks! Did you notice how cool some of these trucks looked?

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