text:
Published by American Palate

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC 29403

www.historypress.net

Copyright © 2013 by Tiffany Harelik

All rights reserved

Cover design by Tom Kirsch Designs, LLC.

_Photo credits_ : **John Sherman** p. 97; **Chad McMullen** p. 71. All other images by the author.

First published 2013

e-book edition 2013

Manufactured in the United States

ISBN 978.1.62584.540.5

Library of Congress CIP data applied for.

print edition ISBN 978.1.62619.087.0

**_Notice_** : The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
**_A bird doesn't doubt the wind. This series is dedicated to anyone who has ever taken a leap of faith_**.
Contents

Acknowledgements

Houston Food Truck Culture

The Trailer Food Diaries Cookbook Series

Sauces and Spreads

Bacon Jam

_Golden Grill_

Chocomonsterlicious Almond Butter

_Monster PBJ_

Chimichurri Sauce

_Stick It_

Citrus Aioli

_Speers Rolling Bistro_

Cinnamonsterlicious Peanut Butter

_Monster PBJ_

Cookiemonsterlicious Cashew Butter

_Monster PBJ_

House Whole-Grain Mustard

_Good Dog Hot Dogs_

Sesame Oil Vinaigrette

_Coreanos_

"Ask a Local" with Paul Galvani, Author of _Houston's Top 100 Food Trucks_

"Ask a Local" with Debra Ford, Haute Wheels Producer

Appetizers, Sides and Small Plates

Apple Horseradish Slaw

_Good Dog Hot Dogs_

Boudin Balls

_The Lunch Bag_

Bernie's Pickles

_Bernie's Burger Bus_

Creole Shrimp Fritters

_Southern Lunchable_

Homemade Kimchi

_Coreanos_

Korean Slaw

_Coreanos_

Salmon Quettes

_Soul Cat Cuisine_

Seafood Bloody Mary

_St. John's Fire_

Snails Gone Wild (Spicy Escargot Poppers)

_L'es-Car-Go_

Southern-Style Green Beans

_Southern Lunchable_

"Ask a Local" with Mai Pham, Houston Food and Travel Writer

"Ask a Local" with Rebecca Masson, _Top Chef_ Competitor and Owner of Fluff Bake Bar

Handhelds

Beer-Braised Lengua Tacos

_Craft Infusion_

BDL Hot Dog

_Happy Endings Asian Fusion_

Fozzey Bear

_Big Daddy Z's_

Fried Avocado Taco

_HTown Streats_

Joel St. John's Shrimp Corn Dogs

_St. John's Fire_

Lamb Burger Patties

_Fraiche_

Korean BBQ Pork Belly on a Stick

_Stick It_

Pineapple Habanero Burger with Korean Bulgogi Beef and Spicy Habanero Mayonnaise

_Chi'Lantro BBQ_

Rockabilly Diner Rocking Blue Burger

_Rockabilly Diner_

Shanghai Egg Rolls

_Happy Endings Asian Fusion_

Shrimp Tempura Taco Baos

_Happy Endings Asian Fusion_

Veggie Burger

_Fraiche_

Sloppy Slaw Dog

_Good Dog Hot Dogs_

Swamp Pig

_Big Daddy Z's_

The Pi Burger

_Pi Pizza Truck_

Tips from the Food Trucks: Starting Your Own Food Truck Business

Where the Food Truckers Eat: The Best Food Trucks in Houston

Sweets

Brownies

_Frosted Betty_

Froot Loop Cereal Milk Crème Brûlée

_HTown Streats_

Pineapple Jalapeño Italian Soda or Snow Cone

_Snow Cone Angels_

Kevin Bacon: Chocolate-Covered Bacon

_Custom Confections_

Red Velvet Fritters

_Speers Rolling Bistro_

Spiced Mini Doughnut Holes

_Fraiche_

Tony's Caramels

_Custom Confections_

Food Truck Appendix

About the Author
Acknowledgements |

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The Trailer Food Diaries Cookbook series and projects are dependent on many people. I love my role in compiling and narrating and would like to acknowledge all those who made this edition possible.

First, my deep appreciation to The History Press and American Palate for taking a leap of faith with me by publishing this series.

Thank you always to my supportive parents, Patsy and Jimmy Harelik, and to Roy Spence and Haskell Harelik for being my leading sources of inspiration on how to encourage others to live the American Dream, the very core mission of this series.

Local food truck authorities Debra Ford and Paul Galvani were integral in helping me get a pulse on the food truck scene. Thank you also to colleagues Mai Pham and Rebecca Masson for providing additional perspective in the "Ask a Local" sections.

Additionally, without the encouragement of my writers' group, my daughter Callie and my close friends, none of this would have been possible.

Thanks to all those who have influenced this volume: to all the readers and to each of the entrepreneurs who spent time with me sharing their histories and recipes. You are the heroes taking a leap of faith that so many of us admire.

Houston Food Truck Culture

The Houston food truck culture is similar to other large metropolitan cities. Trucks can prep onboard or in their commissary and tweet their locations for lunch and dinner. Hungry fans in the know follow the food trucks' social media accounts to determine where to find them at any given mealtime. Additionally, several trucks appreciate the opportunity to cater private events or gather for public festivals.

I had the opportunity to visit the Haute Wheels festival when my friend Jae Kim of Chi'lantro BBQ invited me down. Several food trucks gathered in the parking lot of one of Houston's college campuses to offer a limited menu to their guests. The ticketed event did sell out, and many patrons came to enjoy all five hours of the food truck festivities. Live music and bar stations provided entertainment for all ages without overshadowing the trucks. What did I learn? Houston food truck fans are devoted followers who are serious about their street food cravings.

While I was in the line to order from a truck, I met two of the truck's fans that had tattooed the Pi Pizza logo on their legs and were donning Pi Pizza Truck black-and-yellow shirts. In so doing, they are entitled to free pizza for life, according to Anthony Calleo, the owner of the truck who ran the tattoo challenge alongside tattoo artist Gabriel Massey of Scorpion Studios in Houston in 2012.

In Houston, food trucks are on the go. Although with permission they can park in the same place every day, they are not permitted to stay in one location. The trucks must check in at a commissary and must have documented permission of landowners if they are set up at a bar or business.

Being close to the Gulf Coast and near Louisiana, I found plenty of trucks that were using a Cajun twist on their menus, but overall the food offered from Houston food trucks is diverse. You'll find nearly every walk of life behind the wheel of these trucks and menus from every continent: fried escargot, bacon dipped in chocolate, chocolate almond butter, boudin balls, Shanghai egg rolls, beer-braised lengua tacos and a green tomato BLT with bacon jam are a few of the creative items featured in this volume of the Trailer Food Diaries Cookbook series.
The Trailer Food Diaries Cookbook Series

I began writing the Trailer Food Diaries Cookbook series in 2009 as a blog. I had gone on a food truck crawl with some neighbors and friends to eat at some of Austin's newest culinary endeavors that were coming out of stationary Airstream food trailers. Some of the food trailers were paired up with other food trucks in parks spread throughout the city, and some stood alone. We had a map, a plan and a Sunday afternoon off to eat our way through town. What we found was unexpected. Several of the trailers were closed on Sunday, some were not where they said they would be and others had run out of the very thing we wanted to try. A little discouraged, we ended up with a case of beer on the curb of the famous Gourdough's donut trailer (trailer parks in Austin are BYOB) and split some donut holes.

When I looked to the Internet for help assessing the food trailer scene as a whole, I found a void. Since I had recently quit my job, I decided to start the "Trailer Food Diaries" blog, making myself one of the first authorities on food trailers in my hometown. I knew the chefs were creative, I knew they had amazing stories to tell and I wanted to help them market and share their recipes and histories so that others could enjoy them.

After a few months of blogging, I met Shay Spence, who introduced me to his father, Roy Spence, founding partner at the illustrious GSD&M advertising agency. Roy soon became an integral figure in shaping the Trailer Food Diaries. "Working his way down the corporate ladder," as he will tell you, Roy opened the Royito's hot sauce trailer, fashioning his mission after three critical lessons learned from his father:

  _Be kind to everyone—for you never know what someone is going through_.

  _Keep it simple_.

  _Don't do mild_.

With these principles guiding the inspiring hot sauce trailer, Roy continues to spread the word about the importance of small businesses. "Our country was founded on mom and pop businesses," he says as he explains why food trailers offer such a great outlet for entrepreneurs of any age to pursue their passions.

A few months later, I pitched a food truck festival concept to C3 presents. Together, we created the Gypsy Picnic trailer food festival in 2010. With close to thirty food trailers and nearly twenty thousand attendees, we learned just how much Austin loves its food trucks. We did it a second year in 2011, when the first Trailer Food Diaries Cookbook was launched: _Austin Edition, Volume 1_.

Beyond the Gypsy Picnic, I began co-producing "Trailer Food Tuesdays" in 2012, an event held on the last Tuesday of every month at the Long Center in Austin. The event hosts an average of ten food trucks per month with live music and the city skyline as the backdrop. Since it's across the street from the Auditorium Shores park, people enjoy using the trail to walk or bike over to the heart of the city for dinner.

At the time of the writing of this volume, I have been in ten different states researching food trucks, carts and trailers: Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Washington, D.C., New York, Oregon and New Mexico. The notion of street food is worldwide and has its roots in almost every culture. Toward this end, I have eaten street food in Peru, Honduras and Mexico. From my experience interviewing owners of food carts or stands, I can tell you three key things these folks have in common:

_1. They are entrepreneurs. They do not want to work for anyone else and will work an eighty-hour week to avoid working a forty-hour week for someone else_.

_2. They have at least one good recipe that someone has complimented them on or that they have loved cooking since childhood. It's a recipe they are proud to share with you, and their favorite part of the day is when you take that first bite and your eyes light up. They are cooking to see you smile, not for a grandiose payday_.

_3. They are community-oriented people. For the most part, the food truck owners report that one of the things they love most about owning and operating their cart is the opportunity to meet so many different people during the day. They are as intrigued about your story and what brought you to their food as you are about their menu_.

Although I have several editions out in various cities, there are no duplicated recipes in the cookbooks; each cookbook has completely different recipes in it. To date, I have volumes in Austin, Portland, Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston, with more volumes coming out as fast as I can write.
Sauces and Spreads

Bacon Jam

_Golden Grill_

Chocomonsterlicious Almond Butter

_Monster PBJ_

Chimichurri Sauce

_Stick It_

Citrus Aioli

_Speers Rolling Bistro_

Cinnamonsterlicious Peanut Butter

_Monster PBJ_

Cookiemonsterlicious Cashew Butter

_Monster PBJ_

House Whole-Grain Mustard

_Good Dog Hot Dogs_

Sesame Oil Vinaigrette

_Coreanos_

Bacon Jam

Courtesy of Golden Grill

_Bacon jam is part of the Green Eggs and Jam sandwich from Golden Grill, as featured in the image on the right_.

2 pounds bacon

4 medium red onions, diced small

1 tablespoon fresh garlic, minced

4 cups light brown sugar

1¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar

½ cup mirin

pinch of five-spice

pinch of Japanese seven-spice

• Dice bacon in medium-sized chunks and start rendering on medium heat for about 10 minutes or until most of the fat is rendered out. Strain fat out and save ½ cup. Add bacon and ½ cup fat back into pan along with diced red onions. Cook on medium heat until onions are very caramelized but not burned. Add minced garlic and continue to cook on low for about 10 more minutes. Add remaining ingredients and cook as long as needed to reduce by one-third, or until you reach desired consistency. Use immediately.

**_Golden Grill_**

Matt Pak is the chef behind two popular Houston food truck concepts: Koagie Hots (Korean BBQ) and Golden Grill (grilled cheese sandwiches). "Koagie Hots started first," Matt explains. "I came up with both concepts before we started anything and decided to do Koagie Hots first. Two months later, I opened Golden Grill." The name Koagie is a combination of the words "Korean" and "hoagie," while "Hots," he explained, is a play on the name of several of the late-night places in New York that combined the name of the city with "hots" behind it.

Prior to opening his food trucks, Matt worked in New York, Las Vegas and Scottsdale before settling into the food truck groove in Houston, Texas. "I never went to culinary school; I just learned from working under great chefs and taught myself. I moved when I was twenty-one from New York to Vegas and started a catering company with my friends. A few years later, I moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, where my parents had moved. There I worked under some well-known chefs for a few years and then made my way to Houston. After working at Benjy's for four years under one of the best guys you want to work with in the restaurant business, I decided didn't want to work for anyone else, so I decided to open a food truck. Originally, I wanted to open a restaurant, but the investment and overhead is hard in Houston with property so expensive. A food truck is a little flashier and can evolve more rapidly. Eventually, I'll open a restaurant," Matt explains.

On his Koagie Hots truck, most of the recipes were a trial-and-error learning process. However, the kimchi recipe is one passed down from his grandmother. "I modified my grandmother's kimchi recipe to make it fit the American palate: a little sweeter and spicier, fresher and more sour," shares Matt. This special kimchi is also used on the Golden Grill truck on the KimCheese sandwich, which contains kimchi, cheddar and a fried egg on whole wheat.

On Golden Grill, everything is made from scratch. "The bread is baked fresh daily from a local bakery," explains Matt. "The menu changes a little according to season. It's so hot in the summer and so cold in the winter, we change it up. There are options to build your own grilled cheese or get one of our specialty sandwiches." The Green Eggs and Jam is their bestseller. It contains green tomatoes, gouda, a truffled egg and bacon jam. The Buff Chic offers buffalo chicken breast, cheddar and garlic ranch sauce on sourdough, and there are many other specialty sandwiches to try. There are six cheeses to pick from when building your own sandwich and close to ten add-ons.

His partner, Shawn, is an entrepreneur in the Montrose area who is well known in the Houston bar industry. "His partnership was especially helpful because I park Koagie Hots right outside of his bar," shares Matt. Koagie Hots has a permanent spot Tuesday through Sunday, although they do pickup lunches and catering events. Matt attributes the more mobile nature of the Golden Grill to the grilled cheese truck's increase in followers. "Our followers for Koagie Hots are definitely different than our followers on Golden Grill. Golden Grill is growing fast. We have surpassed our followers on Koagie Hots."

Chocomonsterlicious Almond Butter

Courtesy of Monster PBJ

_This almond butter is a great substitute for Nutella. It goes well on sandwiches, waffles, pancakes, apples, bananas, cookies, graham crackers or ice cream. You can also heat it up and drizzle it like chocolate syrup_.

2 cups roasted, unsalted almonds (other nuts would work too)

1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

¼ cup agave nectar

½ cup chocolate chips

½ cup milk of your choice

• Add the nuts to the food processor and process until smooth. If you are using raw nuts or less fatty nuts, you may need to add a tablespoon of light oil (grape seed, coconut or nut oils work well).

• Add in the rest of the ingredients slowly and keep processing and scraping down the bowl for another 5–10 minutes or until smooth.

• Store in an airtight container in the fridge for about 3–4 weeks. It will harden slightly when chilled. Simply bring it to room temperature or heat it to soften.

**_Monster PBJ_**

"In 2008, when I was thirty-eight years old, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and quickly decided to begin eating a vegan diet and living a vegan lifestyle," shares Jill Butler. "I had been a vegetarian for about ten years, but because of the diagnosis (and I was lucky because it was early-stage cancer), I decided to do whatever I could to make sure I was living as healthy as possible to keep the cancer from coming back."

Jill Butler and William Lidwell began talking about the Monster PBJ idea in the summer of 2010. "We got serious and hired our first employee (Sherif) in August 2011 and served our first PB&J in July 2012," Jill shares. "I own a design business in Houston, and one of our largest clients develops online training for the restaurant/hospitality industry. We are responsible for building out the training so that it works on the web. We have been creating these online courses for over eleven years. So I have been exposed to a lot of restaurant training over the years. Will and I own and manage Monster PBJ, but we do not work on the truck.

"It can be tough being a vegan in Houston if you want to eat out. There are a few restaurants where you can get vegan options, but in 2008, it was a lot of salad and steamed veggies. We also had a good friend who had recently learned he couldn't digest gluten, so we also had an awareness of how hard it can be for gluten-free diners to get good sandwich options.

"Food trucks were starting to get more popular in Houston in 2010, or at least we started noticing them more, and Will and I started talking about how it would be nice if there were more food truck options for people with non-standard diets (vegetarians, vegans, people who avoid gluten). We are both designers, and while it may seem like a stretch that designers would open a food truck, we see everything as a design problem. So opening a food truck presented us with fun design challenges like: What is the right cuisine that is fast but still healthy? How do we appeal to lots of people but also people with restricted diets? What would the name be? What would the menu look like? How do people order at the truck? What do people see when they approach the truck? What are the employees wearing? How can we be different from other trucks that already exist? etc., etc.

"Will was traveling quite a bit and called me one night to tell me he had eaten a PB&J sandwich at a food court in the Detroit airport. We talked about what perfect airport food PB&J is: it's fast, inexpensive, comforting, delicious, family-friendly, nutritious, vegan, can be gluten-free and can be customized in many different ways. It hit us that for all these reasons, PB&J would also be the perfect food truck cuisine. But neither of us really wanted to work on a food truck, and we were both busy with full-time design jobs, so we shelved the idea for another day."

Jill loves a classic sandwich from their menu with almond butter, apples, blueberry jam and spicy En Fuego sauce on wheat bread, grilled and cut diagonally with the crust on.

The truck is busiest on the weekends at the Menil Collection, an art museum in the middle of Houston. "It sits on a few blocks that also contain the Rothko Chapel, a bookstore and lots of green space where people can bring their kids, dogs, picnic blankets and Frisbees. It is one of the prettiest places in Houston, and we love being there," Jill describes. "I am happily surprised at the different types of people who stop by and enjoy the truck. We assumed kids would like our PB&J offering, but we get businesspeople, senior citizens, teenagers, etc. who stop by the truck and love our sandwiches. It's been great to see the diversity."

Sherif Farag manages the truck. "Monster PBJ would not exist if it weren't for Sherif," Jill says. "We had shelved the idea of starting a food truck because neither Will nor I could work on it. Sherif and Will have been friends for over twenty years. Sherif was managing a local restaurant and was ready to quit but had no idea what he was going to do next. So we pitched the idea of a PB&J food truck, and the rest is history.

"We have a 2006 Chevy Stepvan that we bought in Decatur, Indiana. Sherif flew up to Indiana and drove it back to Houston. On the drive, Sherif named the truck Moby because it was big and plain white. It must have been used as a delivery vehicle before, as it had no kitchen equipment. We had it built out and wrapped in New Braunfels, Texas."

The Monster PBJ is dog-friendly. "We have some customers who even buy sandwiches for their dogs," says Jill. "We are very interested in helping local causes, and the ones nearest and dearest to us are animal rescue groups. We support a few local groups in Houston; for example, every Wednesday, we post a dog on our Facebook page that is up for adoption at a local rescue group called RED Collar Rescue. We try and do what we can to help these dogs get exposure so that they can be adopted into good homes.

"Everything on the truck is vegan except the Nutella and honey. We get our bread from a local baker, Best Bread Around. They worked with us to develop a really tasty, vegan, gluten-free bread option. We think it is the best-tasting gluten-free bread available anywhere. We offer gluten-free bread and chips. Getting good gluten-free bread is a real challenge, much less vegan gluten-free bread! That's why we are proud to offer what we believe to be the best vegan gluten-free bread you can buy."

Kristin Lajeunesse, of "Will Travel for Vegan Food," has paid the Monster PBJ truck a visit. "That was really exciting, as she is quite a celebrity in the vegan world. She raised money to travel around the country and visit every 100 percent vegan restaurant in all fifty states. She visited Houston in the summer of 2012 and stopped by the truck. It was great! She left us some great stickers as proof of her visit," shares Jill.

Chimichurri Sauce

Courtesy of Stick It

_This is a traditional Brazilian condiment for grilled meats_.

1 bunch cilantro

1 bunch curly leaf parsley

4 cloves garlic

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

1 cup olive oil

• Rinse the cilantro and parsley thoroughly and cut off the stems. Place in a blender or food processor with oil and blend until the leaves are fully chopped. Add garlic and red pepper and continue to blend until garlic is minced. Add vinegar, salt and pepper. If the sauce is too dry, add olive oil to create desired consistency. Serve with grilled meats and/or vegetables.

Citrus Aioli

Courtesy of Speers Rolling Bistro

_This citrus aioli pairs well with pork, fish or chicken_.

4 egg yolks

2 cups olive oil

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 teaspoon lime zest

1 teaspoon lemon zest

pinch of salt and pepper

juice of 1 orange

Special Utensils Needed

Cuisinart

microplane or zester (microplane is preferred)

• Place the egg yolks in the Cuisinart and turn the Cuisinart on. While the machine is on, slowly incorporate the oil into the machine. This will create an emulsion, and your aioli will thicken. After all the oil has been added, add the remaining ingredients. If the aioli is too thick, you can add the juice of a lime or lemon to thin it to taste.

Cinnamonsterlicious Peanut Butter

Courtesy of Monster PBJ

_This peanut butter is delicious on toast, English muffins, pancakes, waffles, graham crackers, sliced apples and ice cream. The apple butter really lightens up the peanut butter and, along with the cinnamon, fills this dish with delightful fall flavors—although it's great any time of year_.

1 cup apple butter

2 cups roasted, unsalted peanuts (or 1 cup premade peanut butter)

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 teaspoons pure maple syrup

  cup raisins

  cup peanuts (optional)

• Put the apple butter and peanuts into a food processor and process until smooth and creamy. This may take a few minutes, depending on the power of your processor.

• Add the remaining ingredients, except the raisins and extra peanuts, and process until smooth.

• Once the mixture is smooth, stop the food processor and add the raisins. If you like chunky nut butter, add the extra peanuts as well. Pulse the mixture a few times until your peanut butter is still chunky but well mixed.

• Store in the fridge in a sealed jar or container for 3–4 weeks.

Cookiemonsterlicious Cashew Butter

Courtesy of Monster PBJ

_This cashew butter tastes just like cookie dough. It's great on graham crackers, cookies, ice cream or right off the spoon_.

2 cups raw unsalted cashews

½ cup raw unsalted macadamia nuts

1 tablespoon natural cane sugar

2 tablespoons brown sugar

½ tablespoon non-dairy margarine

1½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup vegan chocolate chips (optional)

¼ cup chopped nuts of your choice (optional)

• Place cashews and macadamia nuts in a powerful food processor and process until smooth. The mixture should look like creamy nut butter. This may take up to 10 minutes.

• Gradually add the sugars, margarine spread, vanilla and cinnamon.

• If you are going to add chocolate chips, put your nut butter in the fridge for a few hours first. If you add the chips while the nut butter is still warm, they will melt. Once chilled, stir in the chocolate chips and nuts, if desired.

• Store in the fridge in a sealed jar or container for 3–4 weeks. The nut butter will harden slightly when chilled but will soften again at room temperature.

House Whole-Grain Mustard

Courtesy of Good Dog Hot Dogs

_This recipe yields one quart of homemade mustard_.

2 cups yellow mustard seeds

2 cups brown mustard seeds

6 cups white wine vinegar

3 tablespoons Texas honey

3 tablespoons mustard powder

1 tablespoon horseradish

4 ounces water

1 teaspoon salt

• Soak both mustard seeds in the white wine vinegar for at least 2 days.

• Once soaked, drain the mustard seeds from the vinegar and place in a food processer (the drained vinegar can be reused for another batch of mustard). Next, add the remaining ingredients into the food processor. Process in the food processor until the mustard seeds are broken down and the ingredients are incorporated, approximately 10 minutes. Store in a sealed container in refrigeration.

Sesame Oil Vinaigrette

Courtesy of Coreanos

_Coreanos uses the sesame oil vinaigrette in the OG Burrito and on their tacos. It also makes for a great salad dressing_.

½ cup vinegar

  cup sugar

4 tablespoons Korean chili flakes (Gochugaru) (look on the back and make sure it says "Product of Korea" for best flavor)

5 tablespoons sesame oil

• First, mix the vinegar with the sugar until thoroughly combined. Next, add the Korean chili powder and sesame oil. In the same bowl, whisk everything together until thoroughly combined. The flavor you are looking for is a bit of vinegar with an aftertaste of the chili powder.

"Ask a Local"

With Paul Galvani, Author of _Houston's Top 100 Food Trucks_

Tell us a little about your involvement in the Houston food truck community and your book.

I have been writing about food in Houston for over fifteen years, and a couple of years ago, I noticed that more and more food trucks were beginning to appear on our streets. When I searched around for books or articles on the subject, I noticed that there was not much available, and so I decided to go on a quest to document the best food trucks in Houston. That's what led to my book, _Houston's Top 100 Food Trucks_. My quest took me all over the city, and I met a lot of great people, including Chef James Ashley, with whom I went into business in the Bare Bowls Kitchen truck.

How long has it taken to do the research for your book and what were some of the lessons you learned along the way?

I spent two years locating, documenting, photographing and telling the stories of these trucks, but I visited a whole lot more than just the one hundred that made it into the book. All in all, I think I visited more than three hundred trucks during this voyage of discovery. The first thing I learned was never to judge a book by its cover. There are some trucks that look a little tattered on the outside but that turn out some of the best food. Next was that it didn't matter how far I had to drive to find a truck. If the food was outstanding, the drive quickly faded into oblivion. I also learned that the people who own food trucks are really great people. Ordinary folks have no idea what it takes to open a food truck or the hassles involved with breakdowns, theft of generators, equipment malfunctions or any host of other problems that face food truck owners. In many cases, food truck owners wanted to do for themselves what they had been doing for others for so long. For these, the food truck was a way to express themselves, to show their creativity and to work when and where they wanted.

Who are some of the least likely characters operating food trucks in Houston?

Some people open a food truck without so much as a business plan. They had an idea, passion, desire and the backing of many friends who said something like, "You know, you are such a great cook, you should open your own place." These are the owners that most concern me. Passion can only get you so far. It takes a lot to open and run a food truck, and you can certainly increase your chance of success by following some basic rules of business.

How long have you been in the Houston area and when did you start following the food cart scene here?

I first moved to Houston from London in 1978, and I discovered my interest in food trucks a couple of years ago.

If it's someone's first time visiting Houston, how would you describe the food trailer scene and where would you tell them to begin?

Taco trucks and barbecue trailers. They're all over the place, especially if you know where to look. It would certainly be easy to find nothing but taco trucks since probably 90 percent of the 1,400 trucks we have in Houston and the surrounding area are taco trucks. Lest you imagine, however, that once you've eaten at a taco truck they're all the same, I'm here to tell you that if you know what to look for, you can find many of Mexico's regional cuisines represented in various taco trucks around town, from Michoacan to the capital, or the _Districto Federal_. If you want to get an education on Mexican taco trucks, visit Airline Drive from Canino's Produce Market all the way to the Beltway. You'll find at least 50 trucks on this stretch.

In addition to Mexican trucks, one of the things that makes Houston a great city is the ethnic diversity of its population. With very few exceptions, if there is an ethnic population represented in Houston, chances are there is a food truck representing that country or region as well.

There are a large number of barbecue trailers all over town that are producing some terrific brisket and ribs. Look for smoke, and if it's not a fire, it'll be a barbecue truck.

Next are the chef-driven trucks. These are the ones that really excite me. Many talented young chefs have decided to try their all in a food truck and are making some outstanding dishes in an area generally less than one hundred square feet. Chefs such as Josh Martinez of the Modular, Jason Gould of HTown Streats and Ruth Lipsky of Stick It are just some of the many chefs that will create a meal that you won't soon forget. If you had their food in a brick and mortar place, you'd pay two or three times as much, but on a food truck, not only is it considerably cheaper, but you get to see the chef prepare the food right in front of you. It's like having a front-row seat right in the kitchen.

What are the top ten food trucks everyone should eat/experience when in Houston?

Bernie's Burger Bus

Craft Infusion

Eatsie Boys

Happy Endings

HTown Streats

Kurbside Eats

The Modular

Muiishi Makirritos

Phamily Bites

Stick It

What are the top ten landmarks or points of interest you recommend people visit while they are in Houston?

There are so many things to see in Houston, it's hard to just think of ten, but these are some of my favorites: the campus of Rice University, the Heights, Montrose, the Asia Society, the Menil Collection, River Oaks, NASA, Thaxton House, Shri Swaminarayan Mandir and the Museum District.

What is the most outlandish meal you have eaten from a food trailer in Houston?

I once had a dove taco. I saw it on the menu of an obscure Mexican truck that I literally stumbled on while driving on Aldine Mail Route. It was listed on the menu as _paloma_. I knew exactly what it was, but since I had never seen it before or since on any menu, I decided to ask before ordering it. What made it even more interesting was the story that went with it. The owner told me that her brother shot the doves on their farm in northern Mexico and then brought them to Houston every once in a while. I had visions of the bird heading south for the winter, meeting its fate then returning in a cooler in the back of a pickup truck only to be cooked and served in a taco.

How about the healthiest meal you have eaten from a food trailer in Houston?

This is an unabashed plug for the Bare Bowls Kitchen truck, which can be found every day on the main campus of the University of Houston. Chef James creates some spectacular dishes using spices and local ingredients, particularly vegetables. His Malasian Bowl consists of grass-fed beef short ribs with grated carrots, pickled turnips, toasted coconut and Swiss chard over lemongrass-infused local brown rice. He really showcases what can be done with vegetables.

What is the best meal you've eaten at a food trailer in Houston?

That's a really tough question for me to answer since there have been so many memorable meals; however, if I was on death row and my last meal came from a food truck, it would be from Matt Mui of the Muiishi Makirritos truck. Matt is one of the most creative chefs I met. I'd start out with his Mac and Cheese Egg Rolls, which are so good, I can still taste them now, followed by his Swaggy Dog Roll, where he takes a full sheet of _nori_ and stuffs it with shrimp, rice, avocado and lots of other stuff. His Sous Vide Pork Belly would be the final flourish.

What is the food trailer with the coolest or most noteworthy story in Houston?

That would have to be the Plantation BBQ trailer in Richmond. It's been owned by Lolo Garcia since 1987. He has so much experience in running a food truck that when a newbie truck owner approaches the health department, they tell them to go visit "The Godfather," which is how they refer to Lolo. Lolo has taught the trade to his son and daughter, who both help out in the truck. While the kids are responsible for most of the cooking, under Lolo's watchful eye, it is Mrs. Garcia who can be found quietly making the handmade flour tortillas that they use to make such things as the smoked brisket and egg tacos.

What are the trends in menus with Houston food trucks?

Fusion anything. Anytime two or more cuisines collide, what you get is fusion. But instead of viewing fusion as some kind of mishap, look at it that the chef has handpicked ingredients from two different cuisines and combined them together in something totally new.

I'm also seeing a lot more sous vide cooking techniques. The minute something cooked sous vide hits your tongue, you'll know it by the texture. It's unmistakable. I'm also beginning to see dishes cooked with different craft beers as one of the ingredients. This adds a fascinating dimension that you can't get with any other ingredient, other than wine, of course.

What laws and mechanics of business do Houston food trucks have to adhere to?

The City of Houston Health Department regulates food trucks. They approve the building plans before a truck is built. They also require the truck to be inspected before it goes into commission and annually thereafter. Owners have to provide the health department with their menus, ingredients and the names of their suppliers. The health department is assisted by the fire department, which inspects the trucks for compliance with fire codes, and any truck using propane also has to have the propane installation inspected. All trucks must also be linked to a commissary and must visit the commissary every day they are in operation to get fresh water and dump dirty water. You can't just dump your dirty water on the side of the road or hook up a garden hose to any water source. It has to be approved. Health inspectors frequently visit food trucks to ensure they're complying with the requirements or face fines if they are in violation.

Every truck also has to prepare their food in a commercial kitchen. It is also a requirement that each truck have a water heater so that they can properly wash their equipment. Finally, the truck owner must provide the health department a letter from the landlord where they plan to operate showing that the truck has permission to operate there as well as that they are within five hundred feet of a public restroom. Finally, no truck can provide any kind of seating arrangement; otherwise it would be considered more of a permanent fixture and not a mobile food unit.

Describe the overall development and growth of the Houston food truck movement.

Houston has moved so far beyond the taco trucks or lunch trucks that call on construction lots. Houston was a little behind the trend that swept the nation in the past few years, but we caught up very quickly. Over the past two years, there has been a literal explosion of the number of trucks on the streets of Houston. Today, I'm beginning to hear from some truck owners that it's getting harder and harder to find a good location, which simply means that we may be becoming oversaturated, but we have a long way to go to catch up with LA's estimated nine thousand trucks.

How do Houston food trucks compare to other cities with food trucks?

Some of the City of Houston ordinances that prevent trucks using propane from serving downtown and in the medical center are preventing more trucks from operating there, but there are some indicators that these regs may be changing. We may have lagged behind other cities like Los Angeles, Portland and even Austin, but we're catching up fast. Houston is such an outdoorsy city with so much to do and with so many festivals that it seems only natural that people want to eat where they are, not necessarily where the restaurants are. Where there's demand, there will undoubtedly be a food truck, or two, or three.

Are there more stationary food trucks in Houston or are they truly mobile?

There are very few "Fixed Location Mobile Food Units" in Houston; the vast majority of food trucks are truly mobile.

How many (and which) food trucks have grown into brick and mortar establishments?

Eatsie Boys and Green Seed Vegan have moved from truck to brick and mortar. Then there are those trucks that started out as brick and mortar and then added a truck, like Syvia Casares's No Borders truck

Are there food truck parks in Houston? If so, please describe the different pods.

There have been some attempts to create food truck parks, but none have materialized. The only one that has _any_ traction is Phul Court on the east side of downtown. The _Houston Press_ also sponsors Food Truck Fridays once a month at the House of Dereon, and the HEB Montrose Market also sponsors a series of trucks in their parking lot on Fridays.

Anything else you'd like to add about your involvement and the overall food truck scene in Houston?

Houston is fast becoming a destination spot for its food, and now that we can add food trucks to that list, it's an exciting time to be part of a growing community of creative chefs that just enjoy the hell out of making people good food to eat. Street food, after all, is part of what makes any city great.

"Ask a Local"

With Debra Ford, Haute Wheels Producer

Tell us about your involvement with the food truck community.

Haute Wheels was the original food truck festival in Houston. We started in 2011 when food trucks were on the scene and popping up. There was lots of enthusiasm for it from both the food trucks and the patrons. Our goal was to celebrate the great food truck culture and chefs in the industry. Like anything, it was a challenge to get it off the ground, but we are grateful for their support in being involved.

Describe the Haute Wheels festival.

It is the largest gathering of food trucks in Houston. The third festival was a complete sellout with a little over six thousand attendees in 2013. For a food truck fan or for someone who has never experienced them, Haute Wheels is a great opportunity to experience some of the best food trucks from the city in one place. We also have great craft beer, specialty wine and Houston bands.

Bernie's Burger Bus was the first truck I reached out to when I started working on Haute Wheels. I think he was the first truck on board. He has three buses now and has launched his own ketchup business. What's so neat is the stories behind the food trucks too. The couple at Kurbside Eats came in 2011 as a guest to Haute Wheels and came back in 2012 as a business.

How have food trucks affected the Houston culinary scene?

I think food trucks have contributed to the color and flavor that's uniquely Houston. Houston really is a vibrant food city. People in this city love food and love experimenting and trying new flavors. The food trucks add to the zest and flavor of Houston. What's interesting, too, is how many of them are pedigreed chefs that have taken to the streets.

If it is someone's first time in Houston, how would they go about finding the food trucks?

They are all over the city. Each of the trucks have their own spots that they frequent. You can find some of them in the Heights, on Westheimer, etc. The best thing for someone new to the scene is to follow the Haute Wheels Facebook page or Paul Galvani's page (author of _Houston's Top 100 Food Trucks_ ). Unless you know a specific truck, those are great resources. The trucks are active in social media, so Facebook and Twitter are great places to get current information about any of them.

When did the food trucks blossom?

I heard recently there are upward of nine hundred food trucks in the city now. In 2011, Oh My Pocket Pies and some of the other founding trucks were already on the scene when we started Haute Wheels. I think the festival heightened the general awareness of food trucks. That's the great thing about the festival is that it gives food trucks exposure to people who like food as well as introducing them to the industry of the trucks. I'm amazed that every day we get contacted by a new truck. It's really fun. As an entrepreneur in what we do, it's great to watch these chefs. We've been thrilled to be involved.

What else can we do in Houston, or what are some hotspots for people visiting Houston?

The great thing about Houston, in addition to being an incredible culinary spot, is that we have so many wonderful museums, operas, ballets and unique city festivals. Houston is bustling with sports too. It is a great entertainment town. We have a craft beer scene and all kinds of live music. It's a great time to be in Houston. The Houston CVB website [www.visithoustontexas.com] is a good resource for people researching coming to the city for the first time.

What is the most outlandish thing or your favorite thing that you've eaten from a food truck?

For me, escargot from L'es-Car-Go. I love it. Musubi has been serving spam, which was a huge hit at the festival. I'm particularly partial to Bernie's Burger Bus and Good Dog Hot Dog because I love comfort food. Monster PBJ takes the graphics award for sure.
Appetizers, Sides and Small Plates

Apple Horseradish Slaw

_Good Dog Hot Dogs_

Boudin Balls

_The Lunch Bag_

Bernie's Pickles

_Bernie's Burger Bus_

Creole Shrimp Fritters

_Southern Lunchable_

Homemade Kimchi

_Coreanos_

Korean Slaw

_Coreanos_

Salmon Quettes

_Soul Cat Cuisine_

Seafood Bloody Mary

_St. John's Fire_

Snails Gone Wild (Spicy Escargot Poppers)

_L'es-Car-Go_

Southern-Style Green Beans

_Southern Lunchable_

Apple Horseradish Slaw

Courtesy of Good Dog Hot Dogs

_This tangy slaw is given a sweet boost with sliced apples. This batch makes approximately one quart_.

7 ounces mayonnaise, handmade if possible

3 ounces white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon celery seed

1 teaspoon salt

1½ cups large diced green cabbage

2 apples, sliced thin on a mandolin (Honeycrisp, Braeburn or Pink Lady work best)

1 large shallot, shaved fine using a mandolin

1 tablespoon horseradish

salt and pepper to taste

• In a large bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, celery seed and salt. Next add the cabbage, apples, shallot and horseradish. Mix until everything is incorporated. Salt and pepper to taste.

Boudin Balls

Courtesy of The Lunch Bag

_Boudin (pronounced boo-dan) is a regional specialty sausage native to Louisiana. It normally includes cooked rice, seasonings, peppers and onions along with pork or other meat (beef, alligator, crawfish, shrimp, etc.)_.

1 box Zatarain dirty rice

1 pound hot pan sausage

1 quart vegetable cooking oil

2 eggs

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons Tony Chachere's seasoning

• Cook rice according to box instructions. Scramble pan sausage over medium heat until thoroughly cooked. Heat cooking oil in deep fryer or deep cast-iron skillet. In a mixing bowl, dump rice, cooked sausage and eggs. Fold mixture until thoroughly combined. In a separate mixing bowl, pour flour and Tony's seasoning. Fill ice cream scoop with rice mixture. Take mixture into gloved hands and roll in flour. Make sure that you mold mixture tightly and then drop into deep fryer. Fry until golden brown, approximately 3–5 minutes.

**_The Lunch Bag_**

Originally from West Columbia, Texas, Arthurene Smith has been in Houston for thirty years since attending Texas Southern University for her degree in education and psychology. Arthurene's grandmother owned and operated a café in a small town southwest of Houston where she offered a variety of meals off the grill: burgers, barbecue, pork chops, catfish, fried chicken, mustard greens, peas. This family history, combined with Arthurene's desire to provide food service to her community, was the inspiration behind starting the Lunch Bag food truck.

Arthurene's favorite item on her menu is the Mediterranean Chicken Pocket: grilled chicken breast pieces lightly seasoned and sauced and stuffed into a pita pocket with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions and olives. Her Boudin Balls are crowd pleasers. In her words, she offers food that's "like eating at home or a southern-style restaurant. Great taste at great prices."

Bernie's Pickles

Courtesy of Bernie's Burger Bus

_This recipe will make a large batch of pickles_.

3 ounces whole mustard seeds

3½ ounces coriander, whole seeds

2 gallons distilled vinegar

3 ounces kosher salt

25 ounces Turbinado sugar

2 ounces celery seed

2 ounces turmeric

10 ounces onion powder

11½ ounces granulated garlic

2 pounds fresh garlic, peeled cloves

3 ounces crushed red chili flakes

3 ounces whole pickling spices (a mix that includes crushed bay leaves, juniper berries, etc.; you can find these spices in the grocery store)

10 pounds fresh cucumbers, sliced into chips ½ inch thick

• Toast all the whole spices over medium heat until you see the mustard and coriander seeds starting to pop like popcorn, approximately 5–6 minutes at the most. The spices will become very fragrant. Pour all ingredients except cucumbers in a large stockpot and boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Pour the liquid while it's as hot as possible right off the stove over the cucumbers and seal hot.

• Bernie's uses big five-gallon buckets, but for the home cook, they suggest sterilizing mason jars in boiling water for 5 minutes. Pour hot brine over cucumbers in hot sterilized jar. Seal. Drop sealed and filled jars back into boiling water for 5–8 minutes to create seal. Then put on shelf and let sit or refrigerate. Refrigerate after the seal has been opened.

**_Bernie's Burger Bus_**

"Bernie was my grandfather," shares Bernie's Burger Bus Chef and owner Justin Turner. "He was a great guy who opened a couple of businesses in Chicago that he named after my grandmother's father Jack. Twelve years ago, I decided he did a really special thing and I wanted to name my restaurant after him. It just happened to be that some of my chef buddies and I would get together on Sundays and cook together, watch sports and hang out. My thing was always burgers. I would grind all my meat, make ketchup and all my toppings from scratch and I found a local bakery to get the buns from. All my chef buddies encouraged me to sell them. So the name Bernie's Burgers became a good fit. 'Bernie's Burger Truck' doesn't sound good, so I went with Bernie's Burger Bus. I didn't want to take away the yellow and black and decided to keep it school themed."

Justin was a personal chef for Shane Battier, a professional basketball player, for seven years before he opened the truck. "Before working for Shane, I had been working in restaurants since I was sixteen. I've been cooking for eighteen years, and it was coming to that point where I needed to decide whether I wanted to continue to be a personal chef or do my own thing. The food truck was a viable option," Justin shares.

Justin told me a little more about his experience as a personal chef for Shane: "I was working as a restaurant and in charge of fish specials. I had to create five to six dishes once a week. Shane and his wife, Heidi, would frequent the restaurant and enjoyed what I did and had started making contact with the bartender and mentioned to her they were looking for someone who cooked like I did to cook meals and drop them off in their refrigerator. I knew he was Duke-educated and that I could have a reasonable conversation with him. I told him on the phone, 'Hey, I want to cook for you, but dropping off meals isn't going to work for you because you'll be reheating it and hurting the food quality.' So I met with his wife and personal trainer, and they hired me on the spot. I worked in their house cooking lunch and dinner five days a week, so about ten to twelve meals a week.

"He's a great guy with a great wife and a wonderful opportunity. They were big-time foodies, so he let me play with an unlimited food budget," Justin says humbly. "I ordered fish from Hawaii and had micro vegetables sent to me from Ohio. I kept a chef's logbook of everything I did for seven years, literally thousands of dishes for him; it was really awesome. Probably the best job I've ever had."

Justin was working for Shane in Memphis when Shane got traded to play for the Houston Rockets. Originally from Chicago, Justin was excited about the opportunity to move back to a bigger city. "I like risk and opportunity and I like to say that I've done it. In May 2010, there were all these things on the Food Network about _The Great Food Truck Race_ [August of that year], and there was nothing in Houston like that," Shane explains. "There were two gourmet food trucks at the time, and I knew it was going to be big, food trucks. I wanted to get in on it as soon as possible. I'll never find a player to work for that's as good as they [the Battiers] were to me. I knew that with his age, he was probably getting closer to retirement, so I knew eventually I was going to have to start over. I was thirty-one at the time and felt like I could work ninety hours a week and not sleep and just do it [open my own truck]."

Justin has three trucks now. "I opened the one and quickly realized I couldn't serve enough people out of my one bus to really put my brand out there," he shares. "The truck has always been a means to an end for me; it's a steppingstone. In the beginning, I gave a lot of food away. My idea was to have a restaurant that has a food truck that goes out to caterings and special events and is the extension of my restaurant, but I did it the backward way. I started with my truck to see if people liked my product and if it caught on here in Houston. My hope is to go brick and mortar. It is challenging to run three trucks and make sure the consistency stays the same, but my thought was if I control the commercial kitchen where I do my prep and make sure the product coming out of there is up to my standards, hopefully teaching people to cook burgers and fries will be okay. It's the sauces and seasonings that I need to make sure are consistent. They are the heart and soul of my food."

He currently bottles his ketchup and chipotle aioli. "During the first go-around of finding a co-packer, I wanted to make sure I felt comfortable that my product was going to be presented properly without altering the recipes I use. I wasn't going to bottle anything if I had to put preservatives in it. I was really stoked to be able to not do anything but sign some confidentiality clauses and send my recipe over. It was a really cool process," shares Justin. He has sold close to 2,400 bottles of his ketchup from the trucks alone.

The Principal is their bestseller. It is described as "a traditional approach to the classic American burger with mayonnaise, mustard, ketchup, pickle, thin sliced onions, shredded lettuce and slow-roasted garlic tomatoes." You can add certain electives to the burger, such as Texas cheddar, bacon and Bernie's caramelized "tipsy" onions. The Substitute is Justin's personal favorite: "a burger topped with blue cheese, thick-sliced applewood-smoked crispy bacon, burgundy-laced mushrooms and Bernie's tipsy caramelized onions." The tipsy onions are slowly caramelized and deglazed with Jack Daniels.

If you're wondering where Justin learned how to cook, he will tell you he went to a cool culinary program in Memphis. "I told my mom I wanted to go to culinary school," he shares, "but with my track record she didn't want to pay for it. It was a three-month course. Chef Joseph Carey took me under his wing, and then he got me a job working for Erling Jensen, a notable chef/restaurateur. At that time, he had the three best cooks in Memphis working for him, and that is where my education took a big leap. I remember chopping five pounds of bell peppers and I had a few mistakes in that pile. They threw the whole thing away and made me start over. It really hit home for me, taking pride in what you do, perfection and concentration."

Creole Shrimp Fritters

Courtesy of Southern Lunchable

_These make a great appetizer or snack. This recipe yields approximately 24 servings_.

water, for cooking

2 cups Creole seasoning (your favorite)

12 unpeeled 20-24 size shrimp

vegetable oil

1 cup flour

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 small onion, chopped

3 cloves garlic, minced

• Fill a large pot three-quarters of the way full with water, bring to a boil and add Creole seasoning. Wait 3–5 minutes and add shrimp. Cook 3–5 minutes or until pink. Remove, drain and chill.

• Heat 5–6 inches of vegetable oil in a Dutch oven to 325 degrees.

• Mix flour, eggs, salt, pepper and baking powder, then add the onion and garlic. Mix well to create a thick consistency.

• Peel and devein shrimp and cut each one in half. Press one shrimp half in the middle of a large spoonful of mixture until it's covered. Drop the shrimp ball in the oil and fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. You may like to sprinkle a little Creole seasoning on top to garnish before serving.

**_Southern Lunchable_**

Originally from Tennessee, Lynda Garrison came to Houston looking for a change of pace and new opportunities. She held positions as a waitress and bartender and then managed a sports bar before opening the Southern Lunchable food trailer. "I had always wanted to open a brick and mortar restaurant," she says. "When I met my boyfriend, he had always wanted to have a food trailer, so the seed was planted. We kept on talking about it for several years before finally taking the plunge.

"When Steven was growing up in Wisconsin, his neighbors had a funnel cake trailer," Lynda shares about her boyfriend. "Every summer when school got out, they would pack up the kids and follow the fair circuit selling funnel cakes and cotton candy until it was time to go back to school. He thought how great that would be to do that, so he made up his mind that someday he would have a food trailer of his own. His plan was to retire with one and set it up along the beach in Galveston."

Their menu revolves around comfort food made for "anyone who wants to enjoy the food they had around the holidays as a kid at grandma's; the food that makes you happy and want to take a nap," says Lynda. "We offer great food, generous servings and it's all made fresh in the unit, from our hand-blended and -pressed half-pound hamburgers to homemade lemon bars, real mashed potatoes. Once you try us, you're hooked.

"We tried the permanent location for a year but found it got to be too routine. Now we are mobile and love it. I have a forty-two-inch flat screen TV hooked to a satellite outside for the customers to watch while they wait," Lynda explains. "It's a great customer draw at fall festival events because I keep a football channel on. I'll have twenty-plus people standing there watching the game and eating, drawing others over to see what the crowd's all about. It's fun to look out and see them cheering on the teams."

Lynda enjoyed telling me about the process of finding and repurposing the Southern Lunchable trailer: "Wow, this was the fun part. Steve's company sent him to Auburn, Alabama, to manage a construction project for Auburn University, and I decided to go along. I was searching all the Internet sites for a trailer I could afford when I stumbled upon a 2004 twenty-eight-foot furniture-vending trailer that a guy in Talladega had bought and started to convert for a barbecue rig. We went and looked at it and decided it had potential but we needed to start over. I had an idea of how I wanted the trailer laid out, so I made a crude drawing, and that's what we followed. For the next six months, we completely gutted the trailer, cut and modified the walls for the serving windows, plumbing and electrical. We installed FRP wall covering. We were about halfway through when he [Steve] got transferred to El Paso, Texas, so we pulled the unit from Auburn to El Paso, where for the next six months we installed the stainless wall surround, installed the hood and exhaust system, water tanks and pump, lighting, gas piping, appliances and all the little stuff that never ends. So this process involved two people, two states, twelve months, 1,460 hours of labor and we were open. Now, after being in it for almost a year and a half, we have decided what to put in a new unit and what not to and how to make it more efficient and user friendly."

Homemade Kimchi

Courtesy of Coreanos

_Kimchi is a traditional Korean side dish made of fermented cabbage and vegetables. This is Coreanos' version_.

4 tablespoons sea salt or kosher salt (not iodized salt)

2 teaspoons fish sauce

4 cups water

1 pound Napa cabbage

1 daikon radish, thinly sliced in half moons

3 carrots

1 medium yellow onion

4 garlic cloves

2-inch knob of ginger

2 tablespoons gochugaru (Korean red chili pepper flakes)

3–4 sliced green onions

glass jar to let the kimchi ferment

• Mix a brine from the sea salt, fish sauce and water. Stir well to thoroughly dissolve salt.

• Coarsely chop cabbage and slice radish and carrots and let vegetables soak in brine, covered by a plate or other weight to keep the vegetables submerged. Soak for at least 5 hours and up to 24 hours.

• Prepare spices: dice the onion and garlic. Use a food processor to process onion, garlic and ginger into a paste. Mix in the gochugaru and green onions.

• Drain brine off vegetables, reserving brine. Taste vegetables; you want them to taste salty but not overpowering. If they are too salty, rinse them with water. If you cannot taste salt, sprinkle the vegetables with a couple teaspoons of salt and mix.

• Mix the vegetables thoroughly with the spice paste. Pack them tightly into a clean glass jar, pressing down until the brine rises. If necessary, add a little of the reserved vegetable-soaking brine to submerge the vegetables. Weight the vegetables down with a smaller jar if necessary (fill the smaller jar with liquid to keep everything weighted down).

• The most important tool you need is a suitable pickling or fermenting jar. It should be glass or ceramic and sealable. Ferment in your garage or other warm place to accelerate the fermentation process. Taste the kimchi every day and check it to make sure it is still submerged under the brine. Depending on your tastes and the temperature of where it is stored, the kimchi can be ready in as soon as a few days or a few weeks. The fermentation process generally takes longer in cool weather and shorter in warm weather. When your kimchi tastes ripe (sour and tangy), move it to the refrigerator. It can last for several months, if not longer, in the fridge as long as it still has some brine in the jar.

Korean Slaw

Courtesy of Coreanos

_This brightly colored Korean slaw is a great addition to fusion tacos or as a side dish_.

1 head white cabbage

½ head purple cabbage

½ yellow onion

3 tablespoons cilantro, finely chopped

Sesame Oil Vinaigrette (see page 22)

sesame seeds, for garnish

• Using a mandolin, finely slice the white and purple cabbage in a medium-size mixing bowl. Next peel and cut the yellow onion in half and, using the mandolin again, finely slice the onion into the same bowl. Chop up half a head of cilantro and mix all ingredients together. To make a healthy and tasty Korean salad, add Sesame Oil Vinaigrette (see page 22) on top with some toasted sesame seeds.

**_Coreanos_**

Tom Morris owned several customer service–oriented businesses prior to purchasing Coreanos from Kevin and Gene Cho in December 2011 but had never been in the food industry. "I'm just an avid foodie and entrepreneur. Going to school in Austin at St. Edward's University, the food truck culture was at every corner, and I absolutely loved the unique concepts and cuisines they offered." Born and raised in Midland, Texas, Tom moved to Austin in 2003 and lived there for nine years. He moved to Houston in August 2012. Coreanos originally opened in Austin in 2010 and is now operating exclusively in Houston.

When I asked if he had any family history in the business, Tom shared the business ethics passed down to him from his grandparents: "Both sets of my grandparents owned their own businesses and taught me how hard work and dedication pay off. They were both very inspirational in different ways. I approach business based on the values and advice that they instilled in me during my childhood, and to this day, I look to them for advice during difficult periods."

Tom's favorite item on the menu is the OG Korean BBQ Burrito: marinated beef short rib, French fries, Korean slaw, caramelized kimchi, sesame oil vinaigrette, garlic spread and their signature El Scorcho Sauce, wrapped in a twelve-inch flour tortilla.

Tom mentions a few notables who have enjoyed Coreanos: "Our Korean BBQ Burritos with French fries wrapped up in the burrito and the fries (voted best drunk food in the nation by ESPN.com and top fifteen fries in the nation by _Travel & Leisure Magazine_). We have had Andre Johnson and Bun B eat at our truck. We also catered an event for the ex-mayor of Houston, Bill White.

"My favorite part of the food truck life is constantly meeting new people, especially when you see them for a second or third time returning to the truck," shares Tom. "It is the greatest feeling of all to see someone for a second time. We have some many wonderful customers that make me laugh each and every day with their tweets. The best regular story was a customer we had in Austin; his name was Dawson. He visited the truck at least twice a week trying different items, and one day he requested a burrito with all three meats, onions, cilantro, French fries and our El Scorcho Sauce. As soon as he bit into it, it was immediately his favorite item. After that, he brought so many new customers so they could try his burrito that we ended up putting it on the menu in his honor."

Tom's long-term plan is to have two operational trucks in Houston and then expand back into Austin and eventually Dallas. "The emerging food truck scene really attracted us to Houston. We planned on having both operations (Austin and Houston), but after seeing how great the market and food truck community was, we are staying to help build Coreanos as well as the Houston food truck scene."

Salmon Quettes

Courtesy of Soul Cat Cuisine

_The Salmon Quettes (pronounced "ketties") are Robert's play on his grandmother's salmon croquettes. The croquettes are normally flattened and pan-fried, but he wanted to make balls coated in bread. The panko holds everything together really well, and they taste great. This recipe yields about six to ten balls depending on how big you make them. Robert suggests molding each ball into approximately 1.5 ounces_.

1 pound fresh salmon, baked with your choice of seasonings (option: you may use canned salmon, drained)

15–25 Ritz crackers, crunched into bits (use more if you want a dryer ball or less if you want a wetter ball)

1 egg

 –1 cup mayonnaise

a couple pinches dill seed

½ stick butter

½ teaspoon black pepper

½–1 teaspoon season salt

½ teaspoon lemon juice

  cup red bell peppers, diced

  cup green bell peppers, diced

  cup green onions, chopped

1-2 cups Japanese panko bread crumbs

vegetable oil, or any oil you like to fry

remoulade, for garnish or as a dipping sauce

green onions, chopped for garnish

• Mix everything except the panko, vegetable oil, remoulade and green onions together, and make them into balls. Roll the balls into Japanese panko bread crumbs. Deep fry them at 350 degrees for 5–6 minutes or until golden brown.

• If you do not have a deep fryer, you can use a stock pot to fry at home as long as the ball is completely immersed. Another cooking option is to flatten the balls and cook approximately 4 minutes on each side in a pan with vegetable oil coating the bottom of the pan.

• Top with remoulade and chopped green onions for garnish. Use the remoulade as a dipping sauce if you like.

**_Soul Cat Cuisine_**

After Robert Stokes was laid off in 2011, he couldn't find a job after having taught and coached for eighteen years. "I always wanted to have a restaurant, and a food truck is a vehicle to get there," he shares. So he opened Soul Cat Cuisine as a food truck in May 2012.

"All my recipes come from my mother and grandmother. My gumbo, bread pudding, sweet potato cheesecake—everything I learned, I learned to cook from my family," shares Robert. Having grown up in Chicago and spending summers in his grandmother's kitchen in New Orleans, he was exposed to some great-tasting home cooking from an early age. "I grew up as the family taster. My mom and grandmom would ask me to taste whatever they were cooking, and I'd always say, 'It doesn't need anything, let's eat.'" In fact, the "Let's Eat!" motto is part of the Soul Cat truck and something Robert is known for saying as an invitation to try his food.

The Hot Mess sandwich is his bestseller. He developed it by just playing in the kitchen. "I love hot sauces and trying to top things with different things. With the Hot Mess, I grilled and seasoned some peppers and onions and put things hot on top. It got hotter and hotter and hotter and has become a favorite thing on my menu," says Robert.

Seafood Bloody Mary

Courtesy of St. John's Fire

_This Gulf Coast special makes a great appetizer for seaside entertaining. This recipe will yield 4 servings_.

1 small onion

1 seeded jalapeño

1 seeded tomato

½ peeled jicama

½ seeded and peeled cucumber

½ bunch cilantro

16 ounces Clamato juice

1 tablespoon key lime juice

1 teaspoon horseradish

pinch cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, cayenne

2 dashes hot sauce

½ pound 70/90 shrimp

¼ pound crawfish tails

4 lime wedges

4 crab claws

1 bag tortilla chips

• Dice onions, jalapeños, tomatoes, jicama and cucumber. Chop cilantro and mix all with Clamato juice, key lime juice, horseradish, cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper, cayenne and hot sauce.

• Marinate vegetables and spices for 24 hours. Add cooked and chilled shrimp and crawfish before service. Garnish with lime wedge and crab claw and add tortilla chips on the side.

**_St. John's Fire_**

Joel St. John had been cooking and consulting in Houston and New Orleans for close to thirty years before he opened his food truck in Houston in January 2012. "We asked friends, family and colleagues about four or five different names for the truck, and we ended up picking St. John's Fire. Obviously my last name is St. John, but cooking is my passion and it keeps me going. It takes fire to cook and I like spicy stuff, so that's where we came up with it," Joel shares.

It was a rainy day in Austin, Texas, when he first got the idea to start St. John's Fire. "I was on South Congress looking at the food truck park across the street," shares Joel. "I saw people standing in line for cupcakes in the rain and realized there was something to the trend. I knew Austin was way ahead of the curve, but I knew Houston was coming about, and I picked a perfect time to get into it."

Since Joel opened, there has been a huge influx of new trucks in the Houston area. "Personally, I think it's to our advantage," he explains. "I don't see it as competition because I don't see anyone doing seafood like we do. I think there is huge room for growth with food trucks here in Houston. Also, I don't do late nights at the bar scene, and that is a lot of trucks' mainstay; I've positioned myself to do lunches and early dinners."

One of the best parts about operating a food truck that is in demand is getting to create your own schedule. "I only have one regular spot at a museum, and I book everything else depending on availability," Joel says. "Last week I worked five days, but two of those days were a double. I did a catering party for seventy people on Saturday night. It was a great week for us," he smiles and shares.

Joel has been cooking the Cajun egg roll for twenty-five years. It has shrimp, crawfish, tasso, the holy trinity (onions, bell peppers and celery) and spinach and is served with a guava and Creole mustard that is similar to a sweet and sour sauce. "My parents used to entertain a lot," he shares about his culinary background. "I went to college to study marine biology and decided it wasn't for me. So I started cooking at restaurants in New Orleans. My second job was with the Brennan family at Commander's Palace. I stayed there for six years. That's where Paul Prudhomme and Emeril Lagasse worked. I kept pestering the chef until I got a job. I went every week until they hired me."

The St. John's Fire menu is built around seafood. "I try to use as much Gulf seafood as possible," says Joel. "My shrimp and crawfish are local, but sometimes I source out for fish. I actually worked on a shrimp boat one summer in Alabama. That experience taught me I didn't want to shrimp for a living. I do fish, not as much now since I started my own business, but I've always been a very avid fisherman. I'm pretty competitive in fishing; it's not so relaxing. I'm trying to outsmart them."

Joel's wife, Gretchen, is the marketing genius of the two. She has a background in journalism and marketing and "definitely provides that skill set for us," says Joel. He may be known for the Cajun egg roll, but his personal favorite item on the menu is a seasoned tortilla–crusted fish on a bed of lime cilantro rice with a mango jalapeño glaze and pico de gallo.

Snails Gone Wild (Spicy Escargot Poppers)

Courtesy of L'es-Car-Go

_A typical serving size for smaller events is 12 snails per portion_.

vegetable oil to fry with

12 snails

2 cups flour

1 tablespoon salt, or to taste

1 tablespoon pepper, or to taste

1 tablespoon paprika, or to taste

1 tablespoon onion powder, or to taste

1 tablespoon garlic powder, or to taste

½ cup wing sauce (or any spicy sauce of your liking)

1 tablespoon butter

• Preheat vegetable oil to about 350 to 375 degrees. Clean the snails using fresh water. Make a dredge for frying by mixing the flour, salt, pepper, paprika, onion powder and garlic powder. One tablespoon of each spice is recommended, but everything can be altered for personal taste preferences. Dredge each snail in flour mixture and deep fry about 2–2 ½ minutes, or until they are crispy but not burned.

• Mix approximately ½ cup hot wing sauce or any spicy sauce of your liking with a tablespoon of melted butter and toss fried snails in the hot sauce/butter mixture.

• Option: For a non-spicy version, try the "Snails Gone Mild." Use the same dredge and frying procedure, but instead of rolling in hot sauce/butter, roll the fried snails in *Garlic Parsley Butter.

*Garlic Parsley Butter

1 tablespoon garlic, chopped

1 tablespoon parsley, de-stemmed and chopped

1 stick butter, melted

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl and use to dress the Snails Gone Mild.

**_L'es-Car-Go_**

Restaurateur Jean-Phillipe Guy of Bistro Provence was the first owner of the L'es Car-Go lime green food truck. The well-known chef and his wife started the snail-centric food truck for fun. "When we partnered with them, he had gotten so busy that he wanted to transition the business to us," share Jeanne Van Craenenbroek and her husband, Pascal. "We stepped in at the end of February–beginning of March 2013.

"Pascal is from Belgium and has owned and managed several brick and mortar restaurants," Jeanne continues. "This was right up his alley. He's kind of like Gordon Ramsay in the kitchen. He enjoys getting to do what he wants without anyone telling him how to do it," she adds with a smile.

"Escargot is our featured item, but it's not the only thing we sell. We have some great menu options that have a French twist," says Jeanne. For example, Pascal is doing a burger topped with foie gras in efforts to keep the European flair to their food.

Jeanne and Pascal offer three varieties of snail, which are imported and arrive in cans. Two are battered and fried and then rolled in either a spicy sauce ("Snails Gone Wild") or a garlic herb butter ("Snails Gone Mild"). The third option is escargot sautéed with onions and mushrooms served on a baguette.

Southern-Style Green Beans

Courtesy of Southern Lunchable

_Green beans are a staple side dish in the South. You can substitute fresh or frozen green beans in this recipe_.

1 large can green beans (your favorite)

1 large yellow onion

1 ham hock

2 tablespoons seasoned salt 1 tablespoon pepper

1 tablespoon garlic, minced

2 large potatoes (cut into ¼-inch pieces)

• Place green beans and all other ingredients except potatoes in large pot and cover with water. Boil for about an hour or until ham hock is falling apart. Cut up ham hock and return meat only to pot; add potatoes and boil until potatoes are tender.

"Ask a Local"

With Mai Pham, Houston Food and Travel Writer

_Mai Pham is a freelance food and travel writer based in Houston. A known local food personality for her regular appearances on Fox 26's segment "Houston Blogger Reports,"she currently acts as a Forbes travel guide correspondent for Houston, a Citysearch Houston expert scout and a feature writer and blogger for local online and print media, including_ Houston Press, My Table Magazine, _Examiner.com_ , Houston Chronicle _and_ 002 Magazine. _She has traveled extensively to pursue her love of food, art, architecture and culture_.

Tell us a little about your involvement in the Houston food truck community.

I'm a Houston-based freelance writer of food and travel. For the last two years, I've been making regular appearances on the local Fox 26 on the Friday evening news, where I dish about food and feature a restaurant. I've written for many publications in Houston and act as the Houston correspondent for several notable travel companies. I'm a subject matter expert on all things Houston.

If it's someone's first time visiting Houston, how would you describe the food trailer scene and where would you tell them to begin?

Houston is very interesting because downtown currently prohibits trucks from parking. The trucks are scattered about Houston, but there's a large concentration around the Montrose and Heights areas. Montrose is west of downtown, and the Heights is northwest of downtown.

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) is one place where you can always find food trucks Monday through Friday for lunch. MFAH has a cool program where if you buy food from the food trucks parked across the street from them and you show them your food ticket, you will get free admission to the museum for two hours that day. Rice University always has a good concentration of food trucks. There is also an H-E-B store on Dunlavy at West Alabama that has a food truck Friday dinner event series. Everything else is scattered at different icehouses, bars or places that don't serve food. A few are Liberty Station, Inversion Coffee House, Boondocks late at night, etc. The best plan is follow the trucks on their social media. There are also many, many taco trucks all over Houston, but the ones I'm talking about are more gourmet trucks plugged into the social media scene.

Have you interviewed some of the food truck owners?

Yes, I have interviewed Van Pham of Phamily Bites; they were just featured on _Eat Street_ in May 2013. I'm interviewing Matt, the owner of Koagie Hots and Golden Grill, for the "Chef Chat" series I write for the _Houston Press_. I've also talked with Amalia Pferd of Good Dog Hot Dogs and Jon Petersen of Rice Box Truck for a series called "Where the Chefs Eat," also for _Houston Press_.

How have food trucks made an impact on the overall scene of the Houston food community?

The food trucks are a great outlet for young entrepreneurs to strike out on their own and build their own businesses. Matthew Mui, who owns Muiishi Makirritos, was still working as a sous chef at local restaurants while he was launching his food truck, which is a concept that marries Japanese maki rolls with burritos.

How do local restaurants view the food trucks?

There's one big pie, and everyone is trying to get a piece of it. Some of the restaurants may have felt that food trucks were taking away from their business. But when the food trucks started partnering with bars, I think that view changed. I don't hear many grumblings. We have a very supportive food community here in Houston, and I think they have been welcomed more than anything.

What are the top five food trucks everyone should eat at/experience when in Houston?

Koagie Hots: Their Koagie Dog reminds me of a fusion between the Japa Dog in Vancouver and traditional hoagie grilled cheesesteaks, only with a Korean twist. Koagie is a play on the words "hoagie" and "Korean," and the Koagie dog is an all-beef hot dog topped with grilled Korean rib-eye, or bulgogi, and a fried egg, kimchi and other delicious toppings.

Bernie's Burger Bus: They have won several competitions and do a juicy gourmet burger and awesome truffle fries.

Phamily Bites: They were the first Vietnamese food truck. I like their pho and egg rolls. They'll have noodles on special sometimes too. What's great about them is you don't have to drive out to Chinatown to get authentic Asian food; they are usually inside the loop.

HTown Streats: The owners are two bona fide chefs that are super funny. Anything you get will be really good. I like their tacos and boudin balls.

Eatsie Boys Truck: They started as a truck but have turned into a brick and mortar. They still operate their truck for special events. I love their pork snuggies and their Shipley's donut ice cream.

Waffle Bus, Pi Pizza Truck, Rice Box Truck and Good Dog Hot Dogs are all great food trucks as well.

What are some landmarks or points of interest you recommend people visit while they are in Houston?

The Galleria is our main mall and the largest in the area. It is a destination shopping experience, with all the luxury brands having a presence there. For art, the Menil is a free museum located in the heart of the museum district. The Rothko Chapel is also free and very close by, a cool artsy space that is good for meditation.

I think it's important to invest the time to go eat when you're here. The Rainbow Lodge is set in a hundred-year-old log cabin that has been expanded. It has a rustic interior with animal trophies all over the walls, which is totally wild.

For fun, try drinking tequila at El Gran Malo ("the big bad" in Spanish). It's a place where they do tequila infusions of all different types. The last time I was there I had an olive and cheese tequila, and it wasn't bad. They have twenty to thirty infusions that translate into flavorful shots or multi-layered cocktails, things like beets, cilantro, lemon, jalapeño—many many different flavors and combinations of infusions. Also, their walls are painted with colorful images of Mexican wrestlers.

Go visit Chinatown. Dun Huang Plaza on Bellaire Boulevard has it all. In that one plaza alone you can have Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Malaysian, Thai food and people all in one place.

You absolutely have to eat at Uchi. It's superlative and unlike anything else you'll ever have. It challenges you visually, mentally and on the palate.

Kata Robata is my favorite restaurant in town. I like to get the tasting menu from Chef Hori. He is creative and has an impeccable palate. When you eat his food, it's right, it's perfect. The composition is in such a way that you automatically register "delicious." It's not a stretch to like—it's empirically good. My best meals have all been eaten there. His restaurant is also regularly named by local chefs as one of their favorite places.

"Ask a Local"

With Rebecca Masson, _Top Chef_ Competitor and Owner of Fluff Bake Bar

Tell us about your background and how you are part of the Houston food community.

I moved to Houston in 2007. I was a pastry chef at age seventeen and have worked as a pastry chef at Catalan and Ibiza. For the last few years, I've owned Fluff Bake Bar. Fluff Bake Bar is a wholesale bakery that produces comfort desserts like Fluffer Nutters, moonpies, SHO (sugar-hooker-Oreo). We used to have our product in Eatsie Boys truck, but they have grown into the brick and mortar. In addition to that we are in eight more places. We go through a few hundred of each of our products per week.

What are the top five food trucks you would recommend people try?

My favorite food truck is HTown Streats. They both were chefs in restaurants before they opened their food truck. The best thing they make is a Monte Cristo Ball.

Bernie's Burger Bus: The Homegrown is my favorite burger on his menu.

Muiishi Makirritos: We had the chicken karaage, a karaage with a biscuit, the mac and cheese egg roll. They are doing Asian food that is comforting.

If it is someone's first time in Houston, where you would tell them to visit?

• Beer Can House; it's a cool house that is covered in beer cans in Rice military.

• Houston Zoo.

• There's a new bar downtown called the Bad News Bar that Justin Burroughs started. The building is really old, and Justin makes really good drinks.

• The Menil museum in Montrose has a great collection.

• The Astros games are always fun because it's so weird to watch a baseball game sitting inside.

Have you noticed any trends in food trucks in Houston versus some of the other cities?

They don't have it easy here like in Austin or Portland, where they can congregate, unless it's private property or a private event.

One thing we don't have that Austin has is something like the Odd Duck and Barley Swine. We don't have anything like that. We do have guys that do pretty and unique things. We have a lot of taco trucks because we have a large Hispanic population. But people still associate trucks with tacos and not the more creatively driven trucks we are seeing now.

Have you been to any of the food truck events?

We have Haute Wheels, which is a food truck festival that brings thirty to forty trucks together in an organized event. You walk around, the lines are long and crazy and you eat too much.
Handhelds

Beer-Braised Lengua Tacos

_Craft Infusion_

BDL Hot Dog

_Happy Endings Asian Fusion_

Fozzey Bear

_Big Daddy Z's_

Fried Avocado Taco

_HTown Streats_

Joel St. John's Shrimp Corn Dogs

_St. John's Fire_

Lamb Burger Patties

_Fraiche_

Korean BBQ Pork Belly on a Stick

_Stick It_

Pineapple Habanero Burger with Korean Bulgogi Beef and Spicy Habanero Mayonnaise

_Chi'Lantro BBQ_

Rockabilly Diner Rocking Blue Burger

_Rockabilly Diner_

Shanghai Egg Rolls

_Happy Endings Asian Fusion_

Shrimp Tempura Taco Baos

_Happy Endings Asian Fusion_

Veggie Burger

_Fraiche_

Sloppy Slaw Dog

_Good Dog Hot Dogs_

Swamp Pig

_Big Daddy Z's_

The Pi Burger

_Pi Pizza Truck_

Beer-Braised Lengua Tacos

Courtesy of Craft Infusion

_These "talking tacos" give you a unique recipe to use lengua in home cooking_.

¼ cup vegetable oil

6 cascabel chilies, dried and whole

6 ancho chilies, dried and whole

3 cow tongues

1 tablespoon kosher salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1 growler your favorite craft beer

onions, diced to top tacos

cilantro, chopped to top tacos

*Beer Tortillas

• Pour vegetable oil into bottom of pressure cooker. Cut stem off whole chili peppers and layer in bottom of pressure cooker on top of the oil. Cut each tongue into eight equal pieces and layer into pressure cooker on top of peppers. Add salt and black pepper. Pour beer into cooker until all ingredients are covered by at least half an inch of beer. Seal cooker and heat to pressure. Reduce to low pressure and cook for 2 hours.

• Remove from heat and allow to cool. Once pressure has released, open pot and remove tongues, reserving liquid and peppers. Peel all skin off tongues and discard. Slice tongues thinly and then crosscut so they are approximately  -inch cubes. Place in a large container.

• Place all peppers into blender or food processor and puree with ½ cup to 1 cup of braising liquid. Combine puree with chopped tongues. Top lengua with diced onions and chopped cilantro in a warm *Beer Tortilla.

*Beer Tortillas

4 cups masa hernia

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 tablespoon kosher salt

3 cups beer

• Combine dry ingredients. Add beer and mix until a ball is formed. Moisture is correct when a ball can be rolled and holds together. Roll out approximately 24 balls. Use a tortilla press or just roll out with a rolling pin 2 or 3 at a time. Cook on a medium-hot to hot greased griddle or sauté pan.

**_Craft Infusion_**

Born and raised in Houston, Troy Witherspoon got his culinary experience from working in various positions in the food industry. "My first job at age fourteen was working at Chuck E Cheese pizza place. When I was old enough to get behind a bar at eighteen, I started working in bars. I bartended in Lake Tahoe for eight years, moved back to Houston and got into management. I always loved the culinary arts and got some great exposure to fine cuisine and wonderful chefs," shares Troy.

Heights Autohaus is a Houston business that owns the Craft Infusion trailer and approached Troy about being the chef. "The menu concept behind Craft Infusion is my opportunity to combine my passion for craft beer with my love of food. It was a great opportunity to offer eclectic cuisine from all around the world without pigeonholing myself. The only thing in common is infusing local craft beer into everything on the menu,"Troy explains.

"I've always had a great passion for craft beer," says Troy. "When I was at Petrol, I became very involved in the craft beer movement in our city, which afforded me a lot of great contacts here. I went and talked to several of the local craft breweries about putting their name on my menu and cooking with their beer, and I was amazed at the support. Generally, I get to go fill up my growlers and use their products to pair with my food, and it's a win-win. Food trucks have become a really amazing phenomenon that the breweries recognize and want to be represented in this way. It's great to pair beer with food instead of wine. I love making food for people, I love making people smile and I really love craft beer."

Even though his menu is beer-centric, Troy says it is possible to assemble gluten-free specialty items. "I'm in this to make people smile, so if I can make something happen for someone, I'm going to do it," he says. "We try to always have at least one vegan or vegetarian item on the trailer."

His bestseller changes according to what he is offering, but the pulled pork is very popular among his fans. "We do a twenty-hour slow-roasted, two-hundred-degree pork butt using a house-made St. Arnold's root beer barbecue sauce," he shares. "Our fish and chips with Weisse Versa tempura batter is another popular item. My personal favorite is our oxtail empanadas, which currently utilizes Elda M Milk Stout from a brewery in Katy, Texas.

"My philosophy is you need to do something you love. If you're not doing something you love, you're doing the wrong thing. I absolutely love what I do. That's what it's about."

BDL Hot Dog

Courtesy of Happy Endings Asian Fusion

_A number of the items required for this recipe can be made at home or purchased in a store: kimchi, Japanese mayo and Katsu sauce_.

1 quarter-pound, 100 percent beef hot dog

toasted handmade Hawaiian rolls

2 tablespoons Philadelphia cream cheese

3 tablespoons kimchi

½ teaspoon Sriracha

½ teaspoon Japanese mayo

½ teaspoon spicy mayo (a combination of Sriracha and regular mayo)

½ teaspoon Katsu sauce

½ teaspoon bacon bits

½ teaspoon green onions, sliced

• At this truck, the dog is deep fried in a fryer until fully cooked at 300 degrees. At home, you can cook over a grill or stovetop. Once the hot dog is fully cooked, place it on the toasted roll and top it with cream cheese, kimchi, sriracha, Japanese mayo, spicy mayo, Katsu sauce, fresh bacon bits and green onions.

Fozzey Bear

Courtesy of Big Daddy Z's

_At Big Daddy Z's, you can pick your choice of protein (beef, chicken, pork, turkey, etc.), so this recipe is written accordingly. The below recipe can be used to make two four-ounce sliders. You'll have to visit the truck to ask Blake ("Big Daddy Z" himself) for some pointers on his Z sauce_.

½ cup vegetable oil

4 jalapeños, julienned

¼ onion, julienned

¼ cup flour

8 ounces your choice of cooked protein

2 sweet fluffy sandwich rolls

4 ounces shredded Monterey Jack cheese

Cajun seasoning, to taste

10 sweet and spicy pickle slices (Famous Dave's are Big Daddy Z's favorite)

drizzle of Z Sauce

• Heat oil to about 325 degrees F. Toss jalapeños and onions in flour and shake off excess. Then place floured jalapeños and onions in oil and fry for about 3–4 minutes. Remove jalapeños and onions from oil and place on a paper towel to dry excess oil. Place cooked protein on the bottom roll, then top with cheese, Cajun seasonings and sweet and spicy pickles. Place fried onions and jalapeños on top and drizzle with Z Sauce.

Fried Avocado Taco

Courtesy of HTown Streats

_This recipe yields four tacos_.

Coating

1 box cornflakes

1 cup almonds

1 cup arbol chili, dried and whole

½ cup flax seeds

½ cup sesame seeds

1½ tablespoons salt

1 tablespoon black pepper

1½ tablespoons chili powder

1 tablespoon cumin

• Put all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you have made coarse crumbs. Place coating in a mixing bowl.

Breading Station

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 cup buttermilk

1 cup coating (see above recipe for 'coating')

• Mix flour, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Pour buttermilk into a separate similar-sized bowl. Set up all three bowls (flour on the left, buttermilk in the middle and coating on the right).

Cilantro Slaw

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

2 ounces buttermilk

2 ounces Hellmann's mayonnaise

salt, to taste

pepper, to taste

½ cup green cabbage, shredded

½ cup red cabbage, shredded

1 carrot, shredded (or to taste)

¼ red onion, diced (or to taste)

• In a blender, mix cilantro, buttermilk and mayonnaise until smooth. Add salt and pepper. Mix with the slaw mixture (cabbage, carrots, onion). Note: You can also use store-bought slaw mix.

Building the Taco

2 avocados, seed removed

vegetable oil for frying

8 corn tortillas

• Slice avocado into four equal-size wedges, discarding seed and stem. Bread each wedge by dipping into the flour, then buttermilk, then coating. Place on a plate to fry (or at this step you can freeze for later use).

• Fry breaded and coated avocado slices in hot oil (350 degrees) for 4 minutes or until golden brown. While the avocado is frying, heat tortillas on a hot frying pan.

• To build the taco, place 2 tortillas on a plate. Place two slices of fried avocado on the tortillas and top with the slaw.

**_HTown Streats_**

Jason Hill and Matt Opaleski have worked together on and off for the past sixteen years. They opened Aries, a restaurant in Houston, under chef Scott Tycer. After that opening, Jason and Matt continued to work together in several other fine dining restaurants in the early 2000s. Both men are classically trained chefs who went to culinary school and eventually met in Houston. Preceded by Oh My Pocket Pies and the now defunct Fusion Taco, their food truck HTown Streats was the third food truck to establish business in Houston.

"Jason was doing tacos at a table outside of bars. He would pack his portable grill and sit outside the bars all night making tacos," explains his wife and business partner, Amy Ponterella. "He found the truck online. We started looking in Houston and then broadened our search to Austin and Dallas. He saw one for sale in Gainesville, which was about an hour from where his parents live in Florida, so he flew out there and drove the truck back. He thought it was a great deal," she smiles and laughs, looking back on the experience. "After he purchased it, the engine fell out about twenty miles down the road. They were able to get it towed near to his parents' house, where it sat for two to three weeks. We ended up having to tow it from Florida to Houston. It only took two days for the tow and a lot of money. It showed up outside our house at 6:00 a.m. It was this big ugly white eyesore of a truck outside our house in the Heights.

"At the time, there were two food trucks: one was more of a catering truck and the other was Oh My Pocket Pies. They would go out every now and then, but they weren't doing what we wanted to do. We had this idea of gourmet everything and trying to emulate what they have in Austin and LA. Jason knew that Houston needed it. We had a great idea that took about four months to get off the ground and up to code."

The food truck scene in Houston started around 2010 and found immediate growth. "We had it very hard in the beginning," shares Amy. "It was hard to find spots. When we first started, we were a very tightknit community. We would let anyone else starting out work on the truck with us and we would help them out. We tried to be good role models. Pocket Pies helped us out, so we tried to help the other newcomer trucks. The food truck community in Houston in general is very supportive of each other. Other cities the trucks may be fighting over spots, but here we try to be as open to each other as we can because the city laws are more or less against us. We have to stick together.

"We don't have a wrap on the truck," says Amy. "We are the most homegrown ghetto truck on the road. We had a local artist paint it to look like the classic taco truck. I used stencil and spray paint to paint our name on it. We weren't trying to be glitzy or glamorous; we just wanted to serve gourmet food out of a truck."

Their Shorty Mac, which is a short rib mac and cheese grilled cheese sandwich, is their bestseller. Their menu is ever-changing and globally inspired, sourcing locally when possible.

HTown Streats has what they consider a humorous tradition of losing competitions. "We never quite win anything; it's become a joke," explains Amy. "We always get fan favorite but never first place. One time, we were supposed to be in the _Houston Press's_ 'best burger' in the food truck bracket. Then I went into labor the day they were supposed to come test the burgers. I had to call Jason that morning and tell them they couldn't go out. We are a four-person team, so if someone is having a big issue (like having a baby), the truck can't go out. So our burger didn't get judged. We do like to consistently lose now; it's just funny to us. We don't even have a website, and yet we are still consistently at the top. I do thank our fans, Facebook and Twitter for that."

Joel St. John's Shrimp Corn Dogs

Courtesy of St. John's Fire

_Dipping your shrimp corn dogs in Dijon mayo makes a great lunch or snack for all ages. This recipe will yield 4 servings_.

16 bamboo skewers, 6 inches long

16 shrimp, tail on, peeled and deveined (21–25 count)

oil for frying

Flour Mix

2 cups flour

½ cup cornstarch

Batter

2 eggs

2 cups buttermilk

2½ cups cornmeal

1 cup flour, all purpose

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup chopped parsley

1 tablespoon St. John's Fire Creole Seasoning (or Creole seasoning of your choice)

2 tablespoons oil

Dijon Mayo

½ cup Dijon mustard

1 cup mayonnaise

1 tablespoon lemon juice

pinch cayenne pepper

• Skewer shrimp through tail toward head, dust in flour mix and dip in batter, rubbing off excess. Hold shrimp by the stick and place in 350-degree oil, holding stick until batter starts to cook. Let go and cook 4 minutes more until shrimp is thoroughly cooked. Serve in boat with Dijon mayo dipping sauce on side.

Lamb Burger Patties

Courtesy of Fraiche

_This lamb burger adds Mediterranean flair with grains, currants and a unique spice mix_.

½ cup quinoa or bulgur

1 pound ground lamb

¼ cup currants

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

Spice Mix

½ teaspoon ground coriander

¼ teaspoon paprika

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1½ teaspoons fennel seeds

¼ teaspoon cayenne

1½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 egg

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon olive oil

• Cook quinoa according to package instructions, or cook bulgur in 1 cup boiling water. Once it boils, reduce heat to medium-low to simmer, cover and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off heat and let sit 5 minutes.

• Combine all the ingredients and mix well. Let mixture sit in the refrigerator to chill for a few hours. Make patties once mixture is firm after chilling. Grill or pan fry to desired level of doneness and serve on a bun with your favorite condiments.

Korean BBQ Pork Belly on a Stick

Courtesy of Stick It

_Pork belly is typically portioned similarly to bacon. When purchasing your pork, be sure to find a thick and meaty piece. You can find fresh pork bellies at your local Asian market. This recipe serves four_.

Pork Marinade

1 (1 pound piece) pork belly, sliced ½" thick into bacon like strips

5 tablespoons soy sauce

3 tablespoons sesame oil

½ teaspoon chili flake

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar

3 tablespoons dark brown sugar

3 garlic cloves roughly chopped, or ½ teaspoon garlic powder

• Mix all ingredients and whisk until sugar is dissolved. Marinate sliced pork for at least 8 hours or up to 24. Soak bamboo skewers at least 30 minutes before grilling. Thread pork onto skewers while grill is preheating on high. Allow excess marinade to drip off before grilling 3–5 minutes on each side, depending on thickness. Watch closely while cooking; the oil in the marinade will cause the grill to flare.

• Serve with your choice of rice garnished with scallions and sesame seeds.

**_Stick It_**

Ruth Lipsky attended culinary school at the Le Cordon Bleu in Scottsdale, Arizona, before moving to Chicago to pursue her career. "My internship was at Moto working with Chef Cantu, a pioneer of molecular gastronomy," shares Ruth. "I became executive chef of a gastro pub, where I built a rooftop garden and had a beehive where we cultivated over one hundred pounds of honey in one summer." But it was Ruth's grandmother who really gave her the inspiration she needed for becoming a professional in the food industry. "My grandmother taught me the love of cooking. She showed me to do things the right way: from scratch."

Ruth, originally from Dallas, partnered with her boyfriend, Alberto Palmer, originally from Puerto Rico, to open Stick It in 2012. Collectively, they bring nearly twenty years of food service and management experience to their truck. "Our staffing is unique because Alberto and I do everything: shopping, prepping, cleaning, dishes and service! Needless to say, we really like each other. I only burned him once—and I promise it was an accident," Ruth jokes.

"We have both always had dreams of ownership, and when we were learning more about food trucks and trailers, it became apparent that it was a perfect fit for us," Ruth shares. "The Stick It truck is a Grumman Olson from 1997. We purchased the truck when it was just a linen truck with the food service window freshly cut out. We designed the interior every step of the way and developed the Stick It concept after purchasing the truck to be built. The Stick It idea was stemmed from a combination of my love for steak on a stake at the renaissance festival and the ease of walking around and eating on a stick."

Ruth's favorite menu item is the grilled beef tenderloin. She describes it as "a quarter pound of char-grilled beef tenderloin cut into bite-size pieces served on bamboo sticks over a bed of brown rice, herb aioli, mixed grilled vegetables and topped off with a fresh chimichurri sauce."

Alberto's favorite menu item is the Korean BBQ pork belly: "thick cut marinated pork belly strips caramelized on the grill, served over brown rice, sweet chili crema, sautéed cabbage and zucchini, scallions and sesame seeds."

The best part about owning and operating their own food truck is "watching the customers' faces light up when they get their food," shares Ruth. "I feel excited for them! Also, the close food truck community we have here in H town; we are friends with some great people thanks to the trailer food life. We have a core group of regulars that we 'experiment' on with new menu ideas, such as our fried spaghetti on a stick. Everyone loves it!" Children are their least expected customers, but Ruth says the "little ones absolutely love the beef tenderloin and our beer-battered fish sticks."

There is something for everyone on the Stick It truck. Vegans can enjoy a choice of hand-cut fries or brown rice topped with your choice of marinated or grilled vegetables with fresh sauces that pair. Additionally, vegetarians will like trying the gravy fries, which are hand cut and topped with homemade peppercorn cream gravy and cheddar cheese. The rice, fries and vegetable options are all gluten free, as are all the sauces except for the gravy.

The rapper and Rice university professor Bun B has been known to enjoy Stick It. UH students appreciate the menu diversity as well. Ruth says, "We offer a variety of menu items all served on a stick. I don't know any restaurant that serves funnel cake–battered brie cheese on a stick."

Pineapple Habanero Burger with Korean Bulgogi Beef and Spicy Habanero Mayonnaise

Courtesy of Chi'Lantro BBQ

_The heat of the habanero and sweet pineapple, combined with the Korean bulgogi burger, makes this recipe a true reflection of the fusion of Korean and Mexican flavors that Chi'Lantro BBQ celebrates_.

Korean Bulgogi Beef

1 yellow onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, minced (approximately 2 tablespoons)

4 tablespoons white sugar

1 teaspoon fresh ginger root, minced

14 tablespoons soy sauce

2 tablespoons vinegar

2 teaspoons sesame oil

2 pounds rib-eye beef, thinly sliced

• Mix all ingredients together by hand and form into patties. Grill over medium-high heat to desired level of doneness.

Spicy Habanero Mayonnaise

½ cup mayonnaise

1 cup Bravado Spice Company Pineapple Habanero Salsa

• Combine ingredients until the salsa is distributed evenly.

Burger Garnish

cheddar jack cheese

Monterey cheese

burger buns

2 whole fresh pineapples, peeled, cored, sliced into rings and grilled (use 2 slices per serving)

chiffonade green leaf lettuce and Napa cabbage, for serving

1 fried egg

• To build the burger, melt cheese over the grilled burger in the last few minutes the patty is on the grill. Spread spicy habanero mayonnaise on one or both sides of the buns, to taste. Build the burger starting with the patty and cheeses as the base, then add pineapple, lettuce and fried egg. Close the burger with the top bun and serve warm.

**_Chi'Lantro BBQ_**

Jae Kim opened his first Chi'Lantro BBQ food truck in Austin, Texas, and later expanded his fleet into Houston. The concept was based on memories of food from his childhood in both Korea and Orange County. He refined his cross-cultural menu, pulling from both Korean and Mexican cultures, and soon became known for developing the Kimchi Fries in the food truck industry.

Originally from Colorado, Mike Hong (in above photograph) manages Chi'Lantro's Houston operations. Prior to getting involved with Chi'Lantro, Mike's experience was in the coffee business. Like many food truckers, his goals with the business are to eventually help grow Chi'Lantro into a brick and mortar restaurant. His favorite part about the mobile food truck industry is "always being on the road."

Rockabilly Diner Rocking Blue Burger

Courtesy of Rockabilly Diner

_A delicious combination of hot meat, tangy blue cheese, butter, garlic, flavor-absorbing mushrooms, caramelized onions and crispy bacon. This recipe yields enough for 6 burgers_.

3 pounds of 80/20 ground chuck

1 tablespoon dried onions

1 teaspoon seasoned salt (preferably Lowry's)

½ teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic powder, divided into two ½ teaspoons

½ teaspoon onion powder

¼ cup water

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

½ cup onions, sliced

2 tablespoons butter

12 slices bacon

6 hamburger buns

½ cup crumbled blue cheese

• Mix by hand the ground chuck, dried onion, seasoned salt, pepper, ½ teaspoon garlic powder, onion powder and water.

• Sauté sliced mushrooms and onions in a frying pan or on a griddle with butter and ½ teaspoon of garlic powder. Cook until mushrooms and onions begin to brown and the onions caramelize, a few minutes. Remove from heat.

• Form patties for six burgers. Fry in frying pan or on griddle until cooked medium or to your preference. Cook bacon in frying pan or griddle until crispy. Toast buns.

• Assemble by placing burgers on buns, then bacon, mushrooms and onion, adding blue cheese to the top before closing with the top bun.

**_Rockabilly Diner_**

After twenty years in software sales, Chad McMullen decided to open Rockabilly Diner in January 2012. "In my personal life, I have been to many motorcycle rallies, art shows and festivals. As a customer of these events, I always enjoyed the various types of foods available from the food trucks. I also grew up in New York on street-bought hot dogs, knishes and gyros. Rockabilly Diner was founded to serve motorcycle rallies, art and music events and festivals. However, it now is at a permanent location serving the Houston and Spring areas," Chad shares.

Chad received his love of cooking from his grandmother. "My grandmother was the stereotypical Italian grandmother, complete with gray hair, an abundant waistline and a closet full of cooking aprons. She had a love of good food and passed her passion on to me," Chad explains.

The Rocking Blue Burger is his favorite item on the menu: hot meat, tangy blue cheese, butter, garlic, flavor-absorbing mushrooms, caramelized onions and crispy bacon. At the current location, Rockabilly Diner is known as "the place with the mannequins." Chad sets the mannequins out each day, dressed differently and in different postures, usually waving. "All day long, they get honks!" he says.

Shanghai Egg Rolls

Courtesy of Happy Endings Asian Fusion

_These egg rolls are a secret; the recipe has been handed down through the owners' family. They couldn't give the precise measurements, but home chefs will enjoy having this flexible recipe with room to embellish with their own personal touches. The miniature egg rolls from this truck are premade at their commissary, as is their dipping sauce, and then brought on the truck and deep-fried fresh to order_.

vegetable oil for frying

beef, cooked

carrots, shredded

celery, diced finely

garlic, diced finely

egg roll wraps (available at the grocery store)

sweet and spicy dipping sauce

• Preheat oil to 300 degrees. Put enough oil in a skillet to be able to submerge the rolls. Create a mixture for the stuffing using the beef, carrots, celery and garlic. Put a heaping spoonful in the middle of the egg roll wrap. Take the bottom of the wrap and fold it up to the top, making a crescent moon or half-circle shape with the stuffing folded inside. Fold the end edges in and then roll it up like a miniature burrito. The seams will need to be sealed before frying so the egg roll doesn't fall apart. You can use a beaten egg wash to seal the seams. Serve with a sweet and sour dipping sauce of your choice.

**_Happy Endings Asian Fusion_**

Emily Ng was born and raised in Houston, while her husband, Ryan Javier, was born in Midland, Texas. Since Emily maintains a job in the marketing and advertising industry and Ryan manages his parents' Filipino restaurant, they opened Happy Endings in January 2012 as a second business, which they operate during evenings and on weekends. "A couple years ago, both my husband and I were laid off from our jobs," explains Emily. "We wanted to open our own business, and it just made sense to expand off my in-laws'. Food trucks were becoming the new trend and a more viable option than opening a restaurant. My husband is Filipino and I'm Chinese, and we thought it would be a great idea to take an American classic and fuse it with Asian ingredients. It probably took about half a year to execute."

Emily's favorite item on the menu is the BDL Hot Dog: 100 percent beef, quarter-pound hot dog on Hawaiian sweet buns that they bake themselves. This hot dog is topped with cream cheese, kimchi, Sriracha, Japanese mayo, spicy mayo, bacon bits and green onions. "We were fortunate to have my in-laws' help in having their own restaurant, Godos," says Emily. "The egg rolls and barbecue pork buns are a family recipe and are some of our top-selling items. My kids, parents and in-laws inspire me. If it weren't for them, we would not have gotten to where we are today."

Happy Endings offers tofu hot dogs for vegetarians, and their egg rolls are gluten free. The egg rolls contain beef, carrots and celery.

When I asked about her favorite part of owning and operating a food truck, Emily shared, "Meeting all different types of people; that's really the best part of the job. We have a lot of regulars and are so thankful for them. I love repeat customers; they know our menu and still have a look of awe every time we hand them their order."

The rodeo customers are those they least expected to be serving. Emily shares, "During the rodeo, we had a lot of people from the rodeo that knew what kimchi was. And they love our food! I usually expect the younger, trendy, foodie type of crowd to know what our ingredients are, but a majority of them don't. So when I had people from the rodeo come by, I was pleasantly surprised!

"We originally were going to name our truck Just BEE and serve nothing but burgers, empanadas and egg rolls. But our vision changed and includes family recipes for several fusion items. We've had the rapper Bun B [from UGK] visit our truck a couple of times. He's a huge supporter of food trucks and has done a lot for our community."

Shrimp Tempura Taco Baos

Courtesy of Happy Endings Asian Fusion

_The shrimp tempura taco baos are a secret family recipe. This recipe is the general idea behind the tacos that many home chefs will be able to re-create while also adding their own twists and flavors_.

steamed clamshell bun

batter

whole large shrimp (2 per taco)

oil for frying

avocado, sliced

*sweet chili mayo sauce

cilantro, chopped with stems removed

• Steam the clamshell bun in a steamer for approximately 1 minute right before you are ready to build the taco. Batter and deep-fry whole large shrimps until they are thoroughly cooked through at 300 degrees. Place both shrimps in steamed buns, place a slice of avocado on top and squirt sweet chili mayo sauce over shrimp and avocado. Garnish with cilantro.

• *The sweet chili sauce is purchased and mixed with regular mayo 1:1.

Veggie Burger

Courtesy of Fraiche

_This version of a homemade veggie burger utilizes lentils, bulgur, mushrooms and more to create a dense and nutrient-rich patty_.

1 cup lentils

½ cup bulgur

1 pound mushrooms, chopped

3 medium bell peppers (different colors if you like), chopped

1 yellow onion

2 cloves garlic

salt and pepper

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon garlic powder

½ cup cracker meal or bread crumbs

• Cook lentils and bulgur in separate pots according to package instructions. Sauté veggies in a skillet until soft. Using a food processor, puree half the lentils with the cooked vegetables. Add mixture to a stand mixer or large bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients until it all comes together. It is easier to make patties when they are cold, so chill for a few hours before you make them.

• The crew at Fraiche also like to add cornmeal to the outside of their patties to help from sticking and give the patty an added needed texture. Top with whatever condiments you prefer and enjoy. They love theirs with spinach, pickled onion and a Dijon garlic aioli.

Sloppy Slaw Dog

Courtesy of Good Dog Hot Dogs

_This hot dog is decked with Homemade Whole-Grain Mustard, Apple Horseradish Slaw and thin wedge-shaped slices of green apples laid diagonally across the top of the dog_.

1 toasted split-top bun

1 ounce Swiss cheese slice

1 (Good Dog) hot dog

1 tablespoon House Whole-Grain Mustard (see page 21)

6 ounces Apple Horseradish Slaw (see page 32)

1 teaspoon celery salt

thinly sliced green apples for garnish

• Toast bun and melt the cheese around the dog. Add Whole-Grain Mustard and Apple Horseradish Slaw. Sprinkle on celery salt, add apple slices if desired and enjoy!

**_Good Dog Hot Dogs_**

Since opening Good Dog Hot Dogs in March 2011, partners Daniel Caballero and Amalia Pferd have been voted "Best Hot Dog in Houston" (2012) by the _Houston Press. Houston Chronicle's_ Alison Cook recommended them as one of Houston's top one hundred restaurants, ranking Good Dog Hot Dog at number sixty-three.

With a combined twenty-plus years' experience in the restaurant industry, it is easy to see why the partners make such a good pair. "Daniel's father and family have owned several restaurants throughout his life, and this has been and continues to be a big help to our endeavor," Amalia explains. From busser to manager, Daniel has done a little bit of everything in the restaurant. "He also has four years of experience in the sales industry, which adds a different approach to his refined customer service skills," shares Amalia. Amalia began her career at age fifteen, gaining various positions both in front of house and back of house. "I started cooking professionally and graduated from the Culinary Institute, Alain and Marie LeNorte, in 2007. To refine my skills, I worked under some of Houston's top chefs, including Chef Bryan Caswell of Reef/Little Bigs/El Real, Chef Charles Carol of River Oaks Country Club, Chef Jamie Zelko and Jeb Stewart with the opening of Zelko Bistro in 2010, where I was sous chef until opening Good Dog Hot Dogs in 2011."

The Sunshine Dog is Amalia's personal favorite, composed of pickled red onion, fresh dill relish, cream cheese and handmade mayonnaise. Daniel prefers the Ol' Zapata, which is named after Daniel's hometown as well as his family's restaurant located in San Antonio, Texas. This dog is built with bacon, muenster cheese, caramelized onions, tomatoes, jalapeño relish, homemade ketchup and mayonnaise.

"Our families have been a launching pad for our concept and execution," the partners share. "Our Sweet Blakeslee Relish is Amalia's grandmother's recipe. This delicious bread and butter pickle is what started up the concept to make all of our own condiments. That was the catalyst that helped Amalia create all the favorite condiments, including our Short Bus Mustard, Good Dog Ketchup, Sriracha Ketchup, Jalapeño Relish and Fresh Dill Relish, to name a few. Daniel's father owned and operated a food truck in the early 1990s and also from 2007 to 2008. His passion was cooking and making the best enchiladas he could. Daniel's father unfortunately passed in December 2009, and the memory of his entrepreneurship and drive to do what he loved to do is still a driving force in our business today.

"Though both of us consider ourselves Houstonians, we, however, are both originally from out of town," Amalia explains. "I am from Orange County, California, and moved to Houston, Texas, in 1993 with my family. With both of my parents and extended family either living or originally from New York, the concept of hot dogs is not that farfetched. After two decades of living in Texas, I love Houston for everything that it has to offer and the complex diversity throughout the city." Daniel was born in Zapata, Texas, and moved to Houston in 2005 after living in Austin while attending college. "I moved here for a change of scenery and ended up calling it home after being immersed in the awesome diversity the city provides," he shares.

"Our biggest inspiration is our seven-year-old redhead dachshund, who is _the_ good dog and is also our mascot," the partners explain. "With her help, we created our motto 'eat well and live long,' which is on our T-shirts and painted all around the truck."

The partners offer good reasons for you to try their hot dogs: "Our all Texas–made product makes us unlike any of our competitors. We have a slew of unique combinations of hot dogs composed of our handcrafted condiments. Our signature condiments are all natural and made in house with no artificial ingredients. They are complemented by our one-of-a-kind hot dogs, which are handmade for us right here in Texas. All served in a warm toasted artisan split-top bun, baked fresh daily from the local and delicious Slow Dough Bread Co. We strive for our customers to enjoy an American favorite the way we prefer it: handcrafted, local and made to order."

Swamp Pig

Courtesy of Big Daddy Z's

_Boudin or boudin dressing is a Cajun sausage typically made from pork and rice. You can purchase this in grocery stores or markets regionally. This recipe will feed 2_.

4 ounces boudin dressing

¼ teaspoon butter

1 ounce mayonnaise

hot sauce

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 sweet fluffy sandwich rolls

handful of baby spinach

8 ounces your choice of cooked protein

few dashes Tiger Sauce

drizzle of Z Sauce (you can substitute sweet soy glaze and Sriracha)

• Cook boudin dressing on medium heat in skillet with butter until lightly browned, then mix in a small bowl with mayonnaise and lemon juice (with a couple dashes of hot sauce if desired). Spread onto two sandwich rolls evenly and top with baby spinach. Place cooked protein on top of spinach and add Tiger Sauce and Z Sauce.

**_Big Daddy Z's_**

Blake Zeitman opened Big Daddy Z's food truck in December 2012. "I had held just about every job in the industry except for general manager. I love to cook, and I wanted to open my own place," Blake explains. "I played with a whole bunch of ideas and just decided to go with something I truly love. Summertime, the beach, the pool, bikinis, barbecues—and my concept was born. The food truck idea has been years in the making.

"My mother spoiled me by taking me to Houston's finest restaurants growing up, and my different housekeepers through the years taught me about Ecuadorian, Vietnamese, Venezuelan, Guatemalan, Cuban and soul food."

The Swamp Pig with Chicken is Blake's favorite thing on his menu. It has a boudin remoulade spread topped with baby spinach, grilled Cajun chicken breast and Tiger Sauce and Z Sauce all on a fresh-baked Hawaiian challah roll.

"Being new, the very loyal regulars at Boneyard have been very good to us. Not to mention my friends that come and see me on a regular basis. I never expected to serve some higher-class clientele. I have seen a multimillionaire stand and eat one of my sandwiches right next to a tattoo-clad motorcycle club member." Originally from Houston, Blake has lived a few other places but always returns to his favorite city: "No matter how far I have traveled or where I went, this town always calls me home."

Blake has two staff members who really shine. "I have two awesome people that work for me," he says. "I got Wocka Flocka and Big Worm. Wocka Flocka [Lamonica Howard] just finished culinary school at HCC and is both witty and a phenomenal chef. I'm very lucky to have taken her off the market. Big Worm [Matt Martinez] is a student and incredible artist who happened to really want to work on a food truck. They are the best food truck crew in the city. It's weird how they pretty much just fell into my lap."

All of their items are offered "Paleo Style." About his menu, Blake says, "I do flavor combinations that haven't really been done. I strive to be outside the box. Plus, who doesn't like to eat on a surfboard? I love food and people, and I think that shows in the food I serve. It's got love and pride."

The Pi Burger

Courtesy of Pi Pizza Truck

_This deconstructed meatball burger comes from an unparalleled rebel gourmet pizza truck_.

Burger Patties

1 pound ground (70/30) hamburger beef (this will make four burgers)

1 tablespoon salt

½ tablespoon fresh-ground black pepper

1 tablespoon granulated garlic

2 tablespoons red chili flake (crushed red pepper)

1 tablespoon dried basil

50/50 blend cheese

• Combine all ingredients except the cheese until mixed thoroughly and hand form patties. Grill each burger until cooked medium, placing cheese on top toward the end to let it melt over the cooking burger.

You'll Also Need

shallot challah buns

1 quail egg per burger

fennel fronds (they are the top part of fennel bulbs and look like dill)

*Puttanesca Sauce

*Puttanesca Sauce

1 16-ounce can San Marzano tomatoes

olive oil

½ yellow onion, diced

4 cloves fresh garlic, minced

3 filets of anchovy

¼ cup kalamata olives, whole and drained

¼ cup capers, whole and drained

chili flakes, to taste

salt, to taste

• Puree the tomatoes. The best way to do this is with an immersion blender, but a Vitamix or food processor is fine. Set aside tomato puree.

• Coat the bottom of a saucepot with olive oil and throw in diced onion over medium heat. As soon as the onion becomes translucent, add the garlic to the pot. As soon as the garlic starts to sweat (you don't want it to brown at all, approximately 1 minute), add the anchovy filets. They will melt and vanish into the pan. As soon as that happens, pour in tomato puree, stirring everything to combine, and reduce heat to low-medium to let simmer. Pour in drained kalamatas and drained capers, stirring a few times. Let that reduce for 20 minutes on low-medium heat. Stir every 10 minutes or so and notice it start to thicken. The goal is to reduce the sauce by about one-third. Once the sauce is ready to come off, add in red chili flakes and salt to taste.

Building the Pi Burger

• Slice the shallot challah bun in half, pushing down a little well into the bun. Fry the quail egg sunny side up with the yolk solidified but still runny. Place the yolk on the bottom half of the bun in the well you created and the cooked meat patty with melted cheese on top of the egg. (Normally mayonnaise is the barrier between burger and bun, but instead use mayo in the rawest form—an egg. Plus, "quail eggs are cute and a typical Italian ingredient," shares Anthony.)

• Add the fennel fronds on top of the melted cheese patty and dollop some of the Puttanesca Sauce on the top half of the bun. (The fennel is normally part of the sauce, but here it gets reintroduced to the burger.) Close the bun and serve. On the truck, they finish cooking the Pi Burger in one of their large pizza ovens.

**_Pi Pizza Truck_**

Anthony Calleo will tell you he has pizza in his blood. After putting himself through college and graduate school by working at pizza joints, he vowed to have his own pizza place by age thirty-five. While working in real estate, he would see restaurant spaces and couldn't help but visualize his dream of owning a pizza restaurant. Eventually, he found a pizza truck for sale in Long Island that had the kind of equipment he wanted.

"I called the guy, not to buy the truck but to see how it was possible," Anthony shares. He ventured up to New York to see the food truck with the must-have pizza oven and bought it in December 2010. "To make good pizza, you need a deck oven. I'm not a fan of the conveyer oven that big pizza chains use," says Anthony. "My oven is a single deck oven and weighs 2,100 pounds (literally a ton). My truck has a custom-built suspension to handle the weight. The guy that built it is in Maryland and was very smart about it. I love those Baker's Pride ovens—they are like the Mercedes of ovens. In fact, that oven is the reason I bought the truck. If it hadn't had that oven, I wouldn't have bought it."

The menu item closest to his heart is the Drunken Peach Pizza. "It's the first pizza I came up with before the truck (working late night at a pizza place) that made me convince myself I should do this," says Anthony. "It has fresh diced habaneros under the mozzarella cheese and sauce, peaches and blueberries in whiskey syrup and Texas goat cheese. The one I'm proudest of overall is called the Outdoorsman, which has pizza sauce, mozzarella, wild Texas venison sausage and cherries in port wine syrup." The Who's the Mac pizza is a nod to his grandmother's mac and cheese recipe. In addition to mac and cheese, bacon is added atop this hefty slice.

When I asked him about his sauce, Anthony cracked a smile and said, "There are two kinds of pizza people: there are crust people and sauce people. My sauce is bright tasting and very fresh. I have strong opinions about everything, including pizza. I don't put any sugar or salt in my sauce and no olive oil. Most people mess up the sauce by putting too much in it. Mine has crushed tomatoes, garlic, basil and thyme—no sugar, no honey, no oregano, no Sriracha. I also don't cook my sauce; it goes in a seven-hundred-degree oven—it gets hot enough."

Pi Pizza Truck has garnered some regular customers, including some who drive over twenty-five miles to eat at the truck. One of Anthony's customers had a pregnant wife who was a schoolteacher when they first started coming to eat with Anthony. "They ate with me every weekend, sometimes twice a weekend," he explains. "When her class made her a baby quilt, they put a Pi Pizza Truck square on the quilt because they knew how much she loved my food. I have a photo of the baby on the quilt that says 'we helped grow this child.'" Another fun Pi Pizza story involves Anthony's offer for free pizza for life for anyone who got a Pi Pizza tattoo from his friend Gabriel Massey of Scorpion Studios in Houston. They had twenty-two takers.

With all the hard work, Anthony can still find his passion and purpose in prep and cooking. "I love being slammed. There is nothing more fulfilling for me than getting assassinated on the line, clearing all those tickets and sitting down and drinking a beer. It's the best beer you'll ever drink in your life. Life's about accomplishing goals—we are engineered for this. Being able to look down at a huge line of tickets you stabbed and knowing everyone enjoyed their pizza, that nothing got messed up—it's like conducting a symphony of chaos. It feels like doing aikido—a force comes at you and you redirect it. It's like dancing."

Tips from the Food Trucks

Starting Your Own Food Truck Business

Many people see the value of low overhead and accessibility when starting their own food truck, but often there is more to the business than meets the eye. From electrical challenges to city permitting, creating a following to watching the weather, an inexperienced food truck entrepreneur can learn much from a seasoned truck that has been in the field for a while. I asked the food truck owners what three things they wished someone had told them before they started their businesses. They responded with some invaluable tips to help any food truck rookies get off to a good start:

Big Daddy Z's:

Purchase all the different power adapters. Promote, promote, promote. Get started building your fan base before you are even open. Plan for the unexpected. You will never be 100 percent ready.

Chi'Lantro BBQ:

You have to dedicate lots of hours—most likely more than you expected.

Coreanos:

1. Before starting, find a mentor, someone who has been in the business who you can go to with questions, advice or help with the quirky food truck lifestyle. Visit other trucks and try and build a relationship with other truckers.

2. Be prepared to work 24/7! Literally, if you are not prepping, doing the books, buying food, fixing the truck, then you are on Twitter, Facebook or e-mail communicating with your customers. I have owned businesses in the past, and this one is by far the hardest and most time consuming of all.

3. From the time you open the window for business to the time you close it down, it is the greatest job in the world...everything in between is the difficult part of the job.

Craft Infusion:

Talk to every food trailer operator that you can find. You'll find they are very sharing; they want to share their experiences and help you be successful. The best thing you can do before you get started is to talk to every food truck operator you can find and see if you can stage on a couple of trucks. Work with them for a few shifts. Look at their plumbing and electrical. Try and do all the work yourself so you don't have to rely on other people to fix any issues. It takes more than a great chef to run a food truck business: bookkeeper, accountant, PR manager, plumber, electrician, etc., you have to wear a lot of hats.

Custom Confections:

1. You will not get rich running a food truck; do it because it is your passion.

2. Find a niche and stick to it; do not serve random stuff.

3. Make sure you have money put aside for repairs and event entry costs.

Fraiche:

That is so hard; every truck owner comes from a different place, and some are very successful at what they do, and others are not. I feel like if your drive is money, then don't open a truck. You have to have "food passion" to make it successful. But you also have to be personable and outgoing enough to tell everyone who doesn't want to hear about your business. I didn't want to start out with a bang, because success to me isn't instant. And that is what my family tells me too. You just have to be confident about what you're passionate about, and the rest follows.

Frosted Betty:

You have to have a lot of patience, don't quit even when you want to, find mentors if you can.

Good Dog Hot Dogs:

1. Save every penny! Food trucks are vulnerable to so many problems, and it is important to always keep some sort of "rainy day" fund.

2. Consistency. Like it is at all food establishments, consistency is extremely important. This is going to maintain your loyal customers and helps maintain food costs.

3. It's a learning experience. Each and every day is different and brings on new challenges. We joke with our friends and family that the next résumé update will include everything from plumber, electrician, mechanic to accountant, PR manager, bus driver and dishwasher.

Happy Endings Asian Fusion:

Make friends with all the other food truck owners. A majority of them are very willing to help find other spots and have great advice.

HTown Streats:

Don't do it. We wanted to write a food truck book and wanted the first chapter to be "Don't Do It." If you want to succeed, it has to be your main focus and your main goal. It's not lighthearted—you're going to sweat in a 140-degree box for eight hours a day. You do it because you love it.

The Lunch Bag:

New vendors must learn to be patient and stay the course. Like all new businesses, the process for success has to run its course. Riding the waves when there isn't any water in the beach. Believe in what you have started and it will succeed.

Monster PBJ:

1. Do your homework. You need to research the local regulations, competition, food suppliers, shelf life of products, inventory, etc. and then convert all of that into a business model with financial plans. Anyone can start a food truck. Very few can make a food truck profitable.

2. If you are not running it yourself, hire great employees and invest in them. This can be tough in the food business because the margins are so slim, but nothing is more expensive than turnover.

3. Form a good relationship with an affordable local mechanic—one with MacGyver-like skills. Bizarre things break on these trucks, and you need someone you can trust to fix your truck fast and work with you on the price. Downtime for a food truck is the worst possible scenario.

Pi Pizza Truck:

I take research and development pretty seriously. I was the last truck to open in town before the truck explosion really hit here. There are eight hundred taco trucks, but only a few are gourmet. I went to talk to those original people and spent time around them. They all had the same advice: don't do it. That's my first piece of advice: don't do it. You need a reason to do it. Unless it's something that keeps you awake at night because you don't have one: don't do it. The idea you're going to get rich off of one of these trucks in Texas is ridiculous. It's something people do to start doing something they love doing and have a passion for that drives them and this is the only way they can think to start doing it. It will grind you into dust. They only show the fun stuff on the Food Network. TV doesn't show generators dying in the rain, working in 150-degree heat in the back of your truck, crack heads stealing your tip jar, your truck breaking down with your battery dying randomly on days you have you to work a triple.

After I give my "don't do it" speech and you're sure you have to do it: bring your A-game with your food. Do something right with your food. Make your food really good, and everything else will sort itself out. I bleed pizza. If you're not bleeding your food, you don't love it enough to stay open. In Houston, you have to have amazing food to get a Houston consumer to eat at a food truck. When the gimmick wears off, they aren't going to make the hassle to find you again. We are drivers, not walkers, in Houston.

That, and Twitter. Get on social media. Thirty percent of my job is Twitter, which sounds stupid when I say it out loud. But I am on my Twitter, I always attach pictures and respond to people. Do something that gets people's attention. Social media—people really enjoy the relationship and it's a good experience for you.

Rockabilly Diner:

The biggest tips are be patient, keep a clean kitchen and differentiate yourself via great customer service. It takes a long time for word to get out, so be prepared to do a lot of sitting around and waiting. Business is typically slow at first, and that slow period can last months or even years. Keeping a clean food truck is very important, as it will go a long way to alleviating some people's belief that food trucks are dirty. Lastly, while there are many other food-related businesses available, the service is often horrible. Providing great customer service will go far to help you differentiate your business. People will often pay more or wait longer for food if the service is good.

Soul Cat Cuisine:

Research; do your homework.

Southern Lunchable:

Have plenty of patience, forget your social life for a couple of years, listen to what your customers are talking about while they wait for their order.

Speers Rolling Bistro:

There is a learning curve when you first start. I wake up every day and I'm excited about it. Follow your heart and go with your gut.

Stick It:

I recommend that new vendors realize that being an owner in this industry is more than just a passion for cooking. You have to love every aspect of service, from hearing the compliments from your customers to cleaning dishes...endless amounts of dishes.

St. John's Fire:

The City of Houston gives you a checklist to make sure you have all your ducks in a row: just follow that checklist. To me, the first inspection was very overwhelming with all the hoops you have to jump through (they don't take cash or checks, only cashier's checks, and you have to go to certain people first). Just make sure you follow the checklist. In my concept, in my graphics I pigeonholed myself into the egg rolls. I had on one side of the truck "Gourmet Egg Rolls," but everyone wanted Cajun egg rolls, so I changed it to "Gulf Coast Specialties" and regional cuisine of the Gulf from grouper sandwiches, Louisiana, Florida, etc. Don't try to be too limiting on your concept. I rolled with the changes, and I think that's what you have to do with any business. Maybe you have to make a decision to tweak your concept, so be willing to tweak it.

Where the Food Truckers Eat

The Best Food Trucks in Houston

Sometimes the best food truck recommendations come from within the food truck community. Although it's hard for them to get out to eat at other trucks when they are working the same long hours, the food truck entrepreneurs find time to support one another. I asked the food truck chefs where they like to eat when they weren't eating on their own trucks. They responded:

Big Daddy Z's:

That is a really tough question. It kind of depends on the cuisine. But I will give you a few of my favorites, how about that: HTown Streats, Phojita-Fusion, Happy Endings, Coreanos and FlipnPatties, just to name a few.

Coreanos:

That is a very, very tough question, and it puts me in a tricky spot since I am such good friends with many of the food truck owners. I eat almost all my meals at food trucks, but I would have to say Muiishi Makirritos offers some of the most unique food in Houston at this time, although there isn't a truck I have eaten at that I didn't enjoy and would go back.

Craft Infusion:

Both of mine have gone brick and mortar: Modular and Eatsie Boys. Right now I'd say my favorite food truck is HTown Streats.

Fraiche:

The Rice Box. So simple, yet there's something delicious about it. I tried it once a few weeks ago, and I am hooked.

Frosted Betty:

Good Dog Hot Dogs. YUM.

Good Dog Hot Dogs:

There are many, but we would have to say Taco Nazo. They are close to home and have some of the most delicious and consistent food out of a fixed location trailer in Houston. The best tacos!

Happy Endings Asian Fusion:

We love Bare Bowls. They use fresh ingredients and their portions are huge! Texas style!

HTown Streats:

Actually, it's Musubi, one of the newer ones. It's a fusion of Hawaiian and Chinese/Vietnamese. They do ramen, banh mi, but they do it really well.

The Lunch Bag:

Two Brothers BBQ has great barbecue.

Monster PBJ:

Green Seed Vegan. They were the first all-vegan food truck in Houston. In 2012, they moved into a brick and mortar location and became a restaurant. They still have the truck and bring it out to festivals and special occasions. I almost cried tears of joy when I found out there was a vegan food truck in Houston; it seemed so improbable. And their food is delicious!

Rockabilly Diner:

Corkscrew Barbecue.

Soul Cat Cuisine:

Coreanos. I get the Dawson Burrito and the Three Wise Fries. I also love the fish pocket from Pocket to Me.

Southern Lunchable:

Nom-Nom.

Speers Rolling Bistro:

There are quite a few out there, but HTown Streats is one of my favorites.

St. John's Fire:

Flippin patties is a Filipino fusion truck that I really like.
Sweets

Brownies

_Frosted Betty_

Froot Loop Cereal Milk Crème Brûlée

_HTown Streats_

Pineapple Jalapeño Italian Soda or Snow Cone

_Snow Cone Angels_

Kevin Bacon: Chocolate-Covered Bacon

_Custom Confections_

Red Velvet Fritters

_Speers Rolling Bistro_

Spiced Mini Doughnut Holes

_Fraiche_

Tony's Caramels

_Custom Confections_

Brownies

Courtesy of Frosted Betty

_This recipe yields 2 dozen brownies_.

1¼cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

8 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1½ cups butter

¼ teaspoon espresso powder

1¾ cups granulated sugar

½cup light brown sugar

6 eggs

2½ teaspoons vanilla extract

• Whisk together flour, salt and cocoa powder. In a saucepan, combine chocolate, butter and espresso powder and heat over medium heat until everything is melted and mixture is smooth. Turn the stove off, remove saucepan and whisk in sugars until mixture is room temperature.

• Add 3 eggs to mixture and then add remaining eggs and vanilla. Whisk together. Fold flour into chocolate mixture until the flour is just mixed in completely. Pour batter into a deep baking pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool slightly and serve warm or room temperature. You can keep in airtight container for 3–5 days.

**_Frosted Betty_**

Nicole Mora opened an organic maid service before she launched the Frosted Betty food truck. "I have been baking since I was six, so it was always a passion of mine," Nicole says. "I ultimately wanted to open a store in Houston one day, so I got the truck to build a brand name for myself and introduce Houstonians to my product. We have some family recipes we have incorporated and a few of my grandmother's recipes we will start making eventually."

The Chocolate Cake Ball is her personal favorite item on the menu. The cake ball is mixed with batter and rolled into donut hole–size balls, dipped in Belgian dark chocolate and topped with chocolate sprinkles.

Originally from Boca Raton, Florida, Nicole sees herself as a native Houstonian, having lived here for over twenty years. She is proud that Frosted Betty was featured on _Cupcake Wars_ and says their creative flavors seem to have less sugar than some of the other cupcake trucks. "People can really taste the flavor over the sugar," she says.

Froot Loop Cereal Milk Crème Brûlée

Courtesy of HTown Streats

_Put that leftover cereal milk to use in this one-of-a-kind dessert. This recipe yields 12 4-ounce ramekins_.

1 box Froot Loops cereal (or cereal of your choice)

1 quart milk

1–1½ cups heavy cream

9 egg yolks

3 whole eggs

1 ounce sugar (about 2½ tablespoons if you don't have a scale to weigh it)

vanilla extract, to taste

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Pour Froot Loops into a large bowl. Pour milk over the cereal and stir. Place bowl in the refrigerator for 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Avoid leaving the milk for longer than 45 minutes or else it will become starchy.

• Lightly press the milk out from the cereal to strain into a measuring cup. Discard cereal. Add cream to milk to make approximately 1 quart of liquid.

• In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks, whole eggs and sugar together. Add milk mixture and vanilla to taste. Strain everything into a pitcher.

• Place ramekins in a baking dish. Equally distribute the liquid into all the ramekins. Fill the baking dish with water halfway up the ramekins. Cover the baking dish with foil.

• Place in a preheated oven. Bake for 40–50 minutes, or until just the center jiggles when tapped. Cool in the refrigerator until cold.

• After the custard is cool and is ready to serve, sprinkle with sugar and caramelize with a blowtorch.

Pineapple Jalapeño Italian Soda or Snow Cone

Courtesy of Snow Cone Angels

_"My neighbor grows jalapeños and handed me some to see if I wanted to do something with these, and they ended up in my juice," says Snow Cone Angels truck owner Monica Hawkins. This spicy and sweet flavor is Monica's favorite. Without the sparkling water, the juices can be used to pour over a snow cone as an alternative treat_.

1 pineapple, skin removed

1 jalapeño, whole

3 cups *Simple Syrup

crushed ice

sparkling water

• Juice the meat of the pineapple and the whole jalapeño in a blender or juicer. This should make about ½ cup. Pour the juice in the bottle you're going to be using and add approximately 3 cups of simple syrup to have the juice-syrup on hand. Add sparkling water to a cup filled ¾ with crushed ice. Pour two shots of the juice over the ice and fill the remainder of the glass up with sparkling water, or to taste. No sparkling water is needed if you're using the juice over shaved ice to make a snow cone.

*Simple Syrup

3 cups pure cane sugar

3 cups water

• Mix together with whisk so it's fully blended.

**_Snow Cone Angels_**

Originally from the Woodlands, Monica Hawkins lived in Austin for about twelve years at the Texas School for the Blind before she was called to move home and help take care of her mother until she passed away. "I went back to school at Sam Houston and majored in fine arts," explains Monica. "I had my daughter and needed a way to support myself. My sister-in-law has always been an avid juicer. She came up with the idea and helped invest in the business. I was throwing name ideas around and thinking of snow angels, and Snow Cone Angels just came to us."

Opened in the summer of 2012 in Houston, Snow Cone Angels is a mobile truck that books private parties, caterings and events. The concept behind the truck menu is organic fruit juices and herbs. "I juice real fruit and add real herbs to it, like basil or mint, and add simple syrup. I don't add anything artificial," Monica shares.

When I asked about her bestselling flavor, she said that "different crowds love different flavors. Mint lime honeydew is a popular one, and a lot of people love the grapefruit basil. My favorite is the pineapple jalapeño. I also make basic flavors like strawberry, grape—a lot of the kid parties prefer those flavors. They are sweet and don't have any artificial flavors."

Kevin Bacon: Chocolate-Covered Bacon

Courtesy of Custom Confections

_This recipe yields 8 servings_.

8 slices thick, center-cut bacon

½ pound melting chocolate (such as Guittard)

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Lay raw bacon out on a mesh rack on top of a half sheet baking pan, leaving at least ¼ inch of space between slices. Bake for 20 minutes. Remove bacon from oven and degrease thoroughly using paper towels. Flip bacon over and return to the oven for an additional 20–25 minutes until crisp. You do not want the bacon to be soft at all; this will dramatically affect your end product. Degrease the bacon completely again using paper towels.

• Melt ½ pound of melting chocolate, stirring every 30 seconds until smooth. Lay bacon out on a silicone baking mat–topped cookie sheet and carefully brush each slice of bacon in milk chocolate, making sure not to leave any spots exposed (except approximately ¼ inch at the top of the strip). Let the chocolate set for 10 minutes or until dry to the touch. Flip the bacon over and repeat the process for the other side.

• Option: Drizzle with melted white chocolate for contrast.

• Option: Sprinkle very sparingly with coarse sea salt before chocolate hardens completely.

**_Custom Confections_**

Kimberly Revis and her husband, Tony, both had a background in the food industry prior to opening Custom Confections in June 2011. "We did custom cakes for about four years before, but I have been baking my whole life," says Kimberly. "We wanted a storefront but found it too costly, so my husband said, 'If they can make tacos on a truck, why not cupcakes?' and we got started. We went from 'idea' to 'open' in one month. We were just so excited we didn't want to sit around any longer."

They developed all their recipes through trial and error. Their Frosty Bites are Kimberly's favorite, while Tony loves their Banana Foster. "We are fortunate to have many great regular customers," says Kimberly. "The Frosty Bites are really what keep people coming back to us. We also have a couple who call us to have a big bag of our Chocolate Popcorn waiting for them every time we are in Katy. It is their date night dessert."

Red Velvet Fritters

Courtesy of Speers Rolling Bistro

_This recipe takes an iconic cake flavor and uses it to make a dessert fritter_.

oil for frying

3 cups Bisquick

2 egg whites

  cup milk

¾ cup sugar

½ teaspoon baking powder

  teaspoon salt

¼ teaspoon cayenne

¼ teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon white vinegar

2 tablespoons red food coloring

powdered sugar

• Heat oil in *fryer to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients except powdered sugar until well combined.

• When fryer is ready, scoop mix and drop small fritters into the hot fryer using a spoon. The fritters will sink at first. Don't shake the basket; the fritters will rise on their own. Fry for about 5 minutes or until done. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve.

*If you don't have a fryer at home, a pot or cast-iron skillet would work as long as it is deep. A fryer thermometer is recommended when frying at home.

**_Speers Rolling Bistro_**

Shawn Speers is a classically trained chef who brought her love of Cuban and Key West flavors back to her hometown of Houston. Opened in October 2012, Speers Rolling Bistro is known for their seasoned pork. Made with slow-roasted pork braised over six to eight hours with orange chili aioli, sliced ham, Swiss cheese and pickle relish pressed on a panini roll, the Cuban sandwich is a fan favorite. Another bestseller is the Mojo Pork Taco, which folds orange chili aioli, seasoned pork, cabbage slaw, pickled red onion, cotija cheese and homemade salsa in a corn tortilla.

A true Houston Texans fan (National Football League), Shawn created a few specials honoring #99 defensive end J.J. Watt in hopes that the Swatt Dog or the Swatt Burger would get him to come try her food. Until J.J. can get over to Speers Rolling Bistro, Shawn will continue to dish out some of the best Cuban sandwiches that Houston has to offer.

Spiced Mini Doughnut Holes

Courtesy of Fraiche

_This recipe is easy to whip up in the mixer or food processor and use like a drop doughnut or fritter batter_.

4 ounces cream cheese, softened

3 cups flour

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons baking powder

1 tablespoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons ginger

2 teaspoons nutmeg

1 teaspoon clove

4 eggs

2 ounces buttermilk

oil, for frying

cinnamon sugar for dusting once doughnuts are fried

• Slowly mix cream cheese with flour and sugar. Add baking powder and spices once the cream cheese begins to break down. Add eggs and buttermilk alternately until batter becomes smooth and well mixed. Using a scooper or two spoons, add the miniature doughnut holes to fryer.

• These can be made and fried in sequence; they do not need to rest or rise before frying.

• Dust doughnuts with cinnamon sugar.

**_Fraiche_**

Both Kristen Schafbuch and Balmore Gomez were chefs before partnering to open the Fraiche food truck on December 12, 2012. "We actually met working at a restaurant in Houston that focused on farm to table cuisine; he was a chef and I was the pastry chef," shares Kristen. "The freedom we got working at the restaurant was great. It taught us to be creative on a daily basis. However, we both wanted that satisfaction of being able to call it our own. I was burning out on doing pastries every day and wanted to challenge myself with a manager/ownership role. I wanted to open a restaurant, but a truck seemed like a good steppingstone. Plus it is mobile, so if Houston is not where I want to stay, I can always move my business.

"I think where we get our ingredients makes us stand out. We support local ranches and make sure we always use quality humanely raised pork, lamb and chicken. We like teaching people about what is in season, which sometimes limits our menu, but it allows us to be creative and come up with new items that other trucks don't have because they don't embrace the season. Almost every restaurant I have worked at changes their menu seasonally, so that is what I am trained to do. The ingredients are better when they are in season. People should try us if they are a foodie or just enjoy great food. You will be surprised that it comes off a food truck."

Their Pork Belly BLT is made with cured/roasted local pork belly, Dijon garlic aioli, local greens, tomatoes and a fried egg, all sandwiched between toasted brioche that Kristen bakes herself. Their Carnitas Hash (veggies, potatoes, slow-roasted pork, local fried egg, cilantro crème) is gluten free, as are their Chicken Farmer's Salad (seasonal veggies, local greens, roasted chicken, hard-boiled egg, mustard vinaigrette), Farmer's Scramble (local farm eggs, herbs, veggies, potatoes, chipotle aioli) and Green Eggs and Lamb (herb scrambled eggs with local lamb house-made sausage).

Their Veggie Burger is vegan: "We use Kraftsmen Bakery vegan buns and make the patties ourselves using just oil to cook them and adding all natural ingredients. They are delicious when you add avocado," shares Kristen.

"My inspiration for being a baker came from my mom and grandmothers," shares Kristen. "It always came so naturally, and when I was ten, I wanted to open my own cake shop. Big dreams for such a small girl. After going to a university, switching to culinary school and winding up in Texas, I know that I am very career focused, and yet my family always is the top of my list. I couldn't have done any of this without them. They are very supportive and help out with whatever they can.

"I hope sometime down the line to either open a restaurant or a bar and have the truck as our kitchen for the local pub. Otherwise keep going with the truck, learn how to work maybe eight months out of the year and spend the rest of the time traveling the world."

I asked Kristen who their best customers were: "I have this guy who has been coming to the truck since day one. He is awesome; he eats at a lot of the trucks that park at this certain location, but he always tells us we are his favorite. He told us that he can really tell a difference that our food comes from trained chefs. We elevate the food truck scene. And he says he always hopes there will be more trucks like ours. I also always think it is cool when people show up to the bar, don't go in, order food from us and then leave. Then I know they specifically came to try our food, not just because we were the only food around. And that is always a nice feeling."

Getting out of the city inspires Kristen. "Sometimes it is hard to think or change something when you are constantly in the same state of mind. Farms, rural living, great food, great pictures of food, family, my partner," she said were all sources of inspiration. She also gives a nod to the restaurant where she and Balmore met: "The concept there was a blackboard changing menu using seasonal ingredients. The head chef spent a lot of time sourcing local products at the farmers' market, as well as changing the menu on a daily basis. It sparked a lot of creative juices for myself and my partner. I have always had a passion for local seasonal food. I have worked in other restaurants where that is the main focus. I knew if I started a truck it would be a smaller, less intimidating scale to source everything locally and get quality meat and eggs from local farms and ranches. We probably began brainstorming six months before we signed any papers for development, but that was the exciting part: knowing that our opportunities were endless. We are both very passionate chefs, and just being able to make anything we wanted, change the menu if we felt like it and be open to catering where we could make whatever the customer wants was exciting to us. Plus, giving Houston some knowledge about keeping things local and eating seasonally; you don't expect that from a food truck.

"We aren't doing tacos or quick Korean fusion; we are something different. We take time sourcing our ingredients, making everything from scratch and want to guarantee a great product. It is definitely a restaurant concept smashed into a truck. But that is what we like about it. We enjoy foodies and people that support trucks. I feel like they are always surprised by the quality of the food. We try to keep our prices competitive to show people you can still enjoy local food without breaking the bank. Houston is new to the idea of food trucks and new to the idea of local, natural food."

Tony's Caramels

Courtesy of Custom Confections

_This recipe will yield approximately 80–90 caramel squares. It will take about 45 minutes to cook, and you'll need 3–4 hours to allow them to set. Caramels can be wrapped in wax paper and stored in an airtight container or zip bag for upward of 3 months_.

2 cups light brown sugar (packed)

2 cups light corn syrup

1¾ cups and 2 tablespoons evaporated milk

4 cups sugar

4 cups heavy cream

  cup butter

2½ teaspoons vanilla extract

**1 tablespoon butter

• In a very large, deep, heavy-bottomed pot (at least 14 quarts), add all ingredients listed above except the vanilla and the **reserve butter. Mix well while cooking on high heat until all butter has melted and sugar has mostly dissolved. Monitor your pot with a candy thermometer, but avoid stirring once the mixture starts to boil.

• While you are waiting for your caramel to boil, prep 4 half-sheet jellyroll pans by greasing them using the reserve butter, very lightly.

• Note that it takes a long time for the caramel to come up to 210 degrees and after that it will come up to temperature rather quickly. When the mixture hits 250 degrees, pull the pot off the stove and onto a thick wooden board or other well-insulated area and quickly stir in the vanilla.

• Pour caramel into prepared jellyroll pans. Note this part is much easier if you have one person pour and someone else scrape and guide the caramel. Let sit for at least 2 hours or until cool and firm to the touch. Remove from the sheet and cut into desired size pieces.

• CAUTION: Working with hot sugar is simple, but you must use proper safe hot food handling to avoid injury.

• Option: After caramel just begins to set (10–15 minutes), sprinkle with coarse sea salt.

• Option: Once caramels have been set and cut, dip in melted dark chocolate and let set on a silicone mat to set up for at least 20 minutes or until chocolate is dry to the touch.

• Option: While caramel is coming to temperature, stick popsicle sticks in 30 large granny smith apples. After mixing in vanilla, let caramel sit in pot for about 10 minutes. Dip apples in caramel and let sit on wax paper for at least 30 minutes or until firm.
Food Truck Appendix

Bernie's Burger Bus

Big Daddy Z's

Chi'Lantro BBQ

Coreanos

Craft Infusion

Custom Confections

Fraiche

Frosted Betty

Golden Grill

Good Dog Hot Dogs

Happy Endings

HTown Streats

L'es-Car-Go

The Lunch Bag

Monster PBJ

Pi Pizza Truck

Rockabilly Diner

Snow Cone Angels

Soul Cat Cuisine

Southern Lunchable

Speers Rolling Bistro

Stick It

St. John's Fire
About the Author

Serving up the American Dream one plate at a time, Tiffany Harelik (rhymes with garlic) has been writing about iconic street food history and culture since 2009. An avid outdoorswoman and equestrian, Tiffany is also rumored to make the best fried chicken south of the Mason-Dixon.
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