Food Trucks/Food Carts/Street Food

[dt_toronto_geek]

This Chinese food van always makes me smile. It sits in front of The Robarts Library Building on St. George St., north of Harbord St. I tried the food there a few years ago, it wasn't bad but not great either.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

They're truly vile - you can smell the grease upwind from a distance. I also suspect that the hygiene standards are sub-par.

*same goes for chip vans*

The only thing good I can say is that it breaks Aramark's (or whatever the franchise is) monopoly on campus "food".

AoD

 

[urbandreamer]

Oh wow, they've got a new(er) truck! Used to be a real tank down there. I never ate from it, but it was popular in the '90's.

 

[bleeepbluuup]

I always bought the #9 lunch from Ken Ho's truck, a little further south down the street. He was such an energetic guy. "Yesmyfriend howcanIhelp you? Soychiliplum?"

Vaguely related story: One day at lunch I'm in a long line at the Chinese food truck, and a car with American plates pulls in to parallel park behind the truck. Bored, everyone in line watches the car move into place. The driver comes out and notices everyone staring at his car. Puzzled, he asks "Is something wrong?" Everyone snaps out of a daze and replies -- in perfect unison -- "Pardon?", positively dazzling the man with our legendary Canadian courtesy. Giggles all around.

 

[whatever]

Ken Ho was always the best of the trucks when I was there. The worst (and I think I was the only person that actually ate off the damn thing regularly) was the gut truck that parked outside of McClennan. Haven't seen that one in ages tho, it seems to have been replaced by a chip truck.

 

[starmoon]

This Chinese food van always makes me smile. It sits in front of The Robarts Library Building on St. George St., north of Harbord St. I tried the food there a few years ago, it wasn't bad but not great either.

Click on the thumbnail to enlarge, then click again on the image for full size.

he is great

 

[MindMe]

I noticed an A La Cart cart up at Yonge/Finch. According to the city hall site, there should be no A La Cart cart at Yonge/Finch and certainly not one serving Korean food. After all, this is Korea town and would only make freakin' sense. Also what's being served does not match what the city hall site claims the Korean cart should be serving. See details at my Yelp review:

Yelp review

Anyway, I hope more of the A La Cart owners give city hall micromanaging the finger and set up their carts where they think they can do the most business serving the food they thing will actually sell.

 

[ian]

Young Jin Kim, who had trouble selling Korean food at Yonge and Eglinton Ave., is moving up Yonge to Finch, to tap into the Korean community there. - Toronto Star, April 12, 2010

The PDF linked to in the Yelp review is for 2009. The current version says the location is "5576 Yonge Street (just south of Finch)".

 

[urbandreamer]

Here's how they do it in LA:

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/05/12/inside-l-a-s-food-truck-phenomenon/?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl8|link6|http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/05/12/inside-l-a-s-food-truck-phenomenon/

 

[khristopher]

Food trucks; like ice cream trucks, are a very bad idea. They have to have the engine running, which is just blasting out pollution all day long.

 

[grey]

The jerk chicken cart at King & Bay seems to be doing very well during lunchtime. I saw a huge lineup earlier this week.

 

[wild goose chase]

I remember a while ago, there was some experimental attempt at introducing food trucks/carts that failed.

Have there been plans to reintroduce street food? Would it be popular?

 

[DSC]

At Council this week they will be discussing

LS26.2
Extension for Stationary Food Trucks (R55 Curb Lane Vending Permits)

Staff recommended that the grand-fathering of these curb-lane permits at locations like Nathan Phillips Square should be extended for 2 years to 2020. The Licencing & Standards Committee amended this to 12 years - until 2032. These are the old-fashioned trucks that sell basic street food. They currently have sole access to several key locations. See: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2018.LS26.2

 

[JasonParis]

This needs to end at some point. Hopefully, 2020 is it.

 

[DSC]

This needs to end at some point. Hopefully, 2020 is it.

Don't count on it - the Report is up for debate on Friday and I suspect that the suburban Neanderthals on the L&S Committee will be out trawling for votes to support their crazy 12 year extension!