ColumnHave we lost our ability to do – and appreciate – the beauty of the simple things in life?

I had walked by the socca stand once before.

All the way in the back of Paris’ popular Marché des Enfants Rouge, full of various food stands and markets, there was a gray-haired man making the traditional street food from Nice, “socca” scribbled in white on a black chalkboard. A crepe made of garbanzo bean flour; it’s a specialty that’s hard to find out of the region. Tracking down garbanzo bean flour a couple of years ago at an ethnic food market, my mother started making them. They became an instant family classic.

In the middle of a very cold day at the height of rush hour, we opted for a pot of Moroccan tea instead, but I made a mental note to come back.

A couple of weeks later, we were in the neighborhood just at the end of lunch hour. The market had mostly cleared out after the midday rush, and the line at the socca stand was only a few people long. Beyond socca, the specialty was obviously galettes – large crepes filled with whatever you wanted – and grilled sandwiches. The gray-haired man working the stand filled ciabatta with a variety of ingredients and put them on his expansive crepe griddles.

“Alors, vous voulez quoi?” What would you like?

“Deux cornets vegetariens… et un socca”

Two galettes stuffed with a handful of vegetables and a socca for good measure. The man, whose name was Alain, went to work. Throwing a pre-made galette on the grill and filling it with grated carrot and fennel, mushrooms, lettuce and a roasted eggplant spread. He opened up a Tupperware filled with goat cheese and threw on more than a few rounds, his fingers covered in bits of cheese. He moved in a meticulous yet artful way; a frantic type of methodical in the way that only someone that has been doing something for many years can do.

He looked up, “et le miel!” he said emphatically, as he brought out a jar of honey and held it high up as he drizzled it over the entire thing. He wrapped the cornets in paper and handed them off. “Tout bio vous savez!” All organic.

Meanwhile the socca had been cooking on the crepe griddle at the edge of the stand. I asked him if it was easy to get socca in Paris. “Non, je suis le seul à le faire.” I have yet to verify whether or not he’s actually the only one in town making socca, but I took his word for it. He sprinkled the garbanzo flour crepe with an herbed salt, broke it into small pieces and threw it into a white bag. It was so warm it was steaming. Comfort street food.

The cornets were huge, more food for 6.50€ than you could probably get anywhere else in Paris, unless you were stuffing yourself on a baguette and a jar of Nutella.

This city, like many other food metropolises, is full of five star restaurants and world-renowned chefs, but it’s moments like these that are a reminder that often, the simplest ones are the best. I asked Alain what the name of his food stand was. “Il n’y en a pas.” There isn’t one. Of course there wasn’t. This was a man cooking food simply for the love of food.

We like to over complicate things with multiple course dinners and fancy drinks. Those all have their place, but in an complex world, simplicity is more and more sought after, be it at a food stand in a market or in the kitchen.

Compare a cookie recipe from the early 1900s to a more modern one. The former will be a single mixture of butter, eggs, sugar, flour and baking powder. Simple ratios. There may not even be a temperature or time indicated. The home cooks of the day were merely supposed to have the knowledge to take care of that on their own and know when the cookies were done.

Take that same recipe from a modern book and it will fill up a page, you will be instructed exactly how to beat your eggs and cream your sugar and you’ll probably even get a complex icing concoction. Not to mention the images that show the cookies sitting on a romantic farm table, lightly dusted with the flour from the baking process and a cozy cup of tea in the corner. It might provide for inspiration, or it might just be a reminder that you’ll never accomplish the same thing.

We have made food for millennia, crafting and concocting and figuring out how to put ingredients together and create something new. From the more caveman methods of roasting a freshly caught animal over a fire, to modern day boiling, whisking, broiling and frying, we have evolved into a species that doesn’t just forage for fruits and berries: we do something with them. Culinary evolution has followed that of mankind, bringing us to the current day and age of the food cart, the five star restaurant and the cookbook shelf with thousands of new titles.

And yet somewhere along the way we reached a moment where we stopped cooking. Where convenience and prepared food became such the norm, that we didn’t have to know what to do with ingredients. Someone else could do it for us.

These days, we don’t know basic ratios. We have never roasted a turkey. Stocking a pantry is beyond us. Eating has nothing to do with the effort of our brains or hands, all we have to do is order, and so in this complex process of culinary evolution, we ourselves have actually devolved, unable to put simple ingredients together and make a meal out of it.

There’s no simple answer to this dilemma. It involves better food education in schools. It requires better access to food for everyone, not just those that live in food capitals. It involves a serious investment in revamping the entire food system. But it does also require a personal re-commitment to simplicity. A re-commitment to buying carrots from the farmers market and washing the dirt off ourselves, to working with the ingredients we have instead of ordering take out, to appreciating good food for good food’s sake, not because a magazine or guidebook said we should care about it.

That’s what people like Alain stand for. The love of food for food’s sake. Food doesn’t have to be complicated. It just has to be good and made with a little bit of passion. There’s beauty in simplicity after all.

This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’ weekly column at EcoSalon: Foodie Underground, an exploration of what’s new and different in the underground movement, and how we make the topic of good food more accessible to everyone. More musings on the topic can be found at www.foodieunderground.com.

Photo Credits: Anna Brones

The post Foodie Underground: The Beauty in Simplicity appeared first on EcoSalon.

Food on-the-go.

In recent years, the food truck phenomenon has exploded, bringing cheap, tasty cuisine to parking lots, sidewalks, and street fairs around the country. Whether you love food trucks or hate them, you can’t deny their convenience and relative cost-effectiveness, particularly when they’re parked outside your office at lunch hour. Here, a look at some classic, cool, and completely wacky roaming restaurants from across America (and beyond).

(above) Steve’s Catering Homemade Chunky Fries, Toronto, Canada

Fojol Brothers Truck, Washington, DC

The Fish Box, Miami, Florida

Coolhaus Ice Cream Truck, Los Angeles, California

Mr. Good Stuff, Miami, Florida

Pyongyang Express, San Francisco, California

King’s Fries, Toronto, Canada

Mud Coffee Truck, New York, New York

Ludo Bites Food Truck, Los Angeles, California

Suzi’s Lunch Truck, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tamale Spaceship, Chicago, Illinois

Love Balls, Austin, Texas

Pi On Wheels, Washington, DC

Stephanie Taco Truck, Los Angeles, California

Good Dog Hot Dogs, Houston, Texas

Happy Kebab, Charlottenlund, Denmark

Fish & Chip, Toronto, Canada

Bernie’s Burger Bus, Houston, Texas

Honest Tom’s Taco Shop, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Divan Bakery and Coffee Truck, Dania Beach, Florida

Drift Truck, Edmonton, Canada

The Crispy Truck, Santa Monica, California

Burger Theory, Adelaide, Australia

Chimi Truck, New York, New York

Gyores Express, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Cookie Time, San Francisco, California

Nineveh Assyrian, Olympia, Washington

Curbside Cupcakes, Washington, DC

Fahrenheit Truck, Cleveland, Ohio

Farmhand Foods, Durham, North Carolina

SEE ALSO:

40 Photos of Bikes from Around the World

40 Photos from Flea Markets Around the World

30 Photos of the World’s Most Uniquely Designed Buildings

25 Photos of Urban Green Spaces

View more photo collections here. 

The post 30 Photos of Food Trucks appeared first on EcoSalon.

Shop ’til you drop.

When I travel, the first thing I do in a new town is check out the local flea market. Nowhere am I better able to get a sense of a place’s culture than by hobnobbing with locals while perusing dusty antiques, trying on secondhand clothing, or sampling bizarre street foods.

The world’s most famous markets are a kaleidoscope of sights, sounds, and smells. These 40 photos provide a taste, just enough to jog that wanderlust.

(above) Bazar Mora, Valparaiso, Chile

Camden Passage Market, London, England

Feria de San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Izmailovsky Flea Market, Moscow, Russia

Otavalo Market, Otavalo, Ecuador

Chengalpattu Market, Chennai, India

Monastiraki, Athens, Greece

Santa Fe Indian Market, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Buleshwar, Mumbai, India

Place du Jeu de Balle, Brussels, Belgium

Boxhagener Platz, Berlin, Germany

Anjuna Market, Goa, India

Jaffa Flea Market, Tel Aviv, Israel

Le Marché aux Puces, Paris, France

Food Market, Mopti, Mali

Tsukiji Fish Market, Tokyo, Japan

Alemany Flea Market, San Francisco, California

Otavalo Market, Otavalo, Ecuador

Night Market, Luang Prabang, Laos

Central Market Hall, Budapest, Hungary

Flea Market, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Flea Market, Nairobi, Kenya

Kolaportið, Reykjavik, Iceland

Khan-El-Khalili, Cairo, Egypt

Montmartre Street Fair, Paris, France

Ubud Market, Bali, Indonesia

Grand Bazaar, Istanbul, Turkey

Christmas Markets, Barcelona, Spain

Food Market, Lake Atitlan, Guatemala

Panjiayuan Market, Beijing, China

Porta Portese, Rome, Italy

Chinchero Sunday Market, Urubamba, Peru

Portobello Market, London, England

Brooklyn Flea Market, New York, USA

Floating Market, Ratchaburi, Thailand

Flea Market, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

Flohmarkt, Calw, Germany

Setagaya Flea Market, Tokyo, Japan

Brooklyn Flea Market, New York, USA

Grand Bazaar, Tehran, Iran

SEE ALSO:

40 Gorgeous Photos of Europe

40 Gorgeous Photos of North America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Latin America

40 Gorgeous Photos of Asia

40 Gorgeous Photos of Africa

25 Photos of Islands Threatened by Climate Change

25 Images of Female Adrenaline Seekers

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ExclusiveSan Francisco’s Mission District recently served up local street fare to a hungry crowd.

In the Mission district of San Francisco last Saturday, an expansive variety of street food was served at the 3rd annual San Francisco Street Food Festival, put on by La Cocina. Food carts, trucks, stands, coolers, grills, and brick-and-mortar restaurants showcased their offerings of food and drinks priced from $1-$8. People carried cash or special event passports in search of all the best food they could find. EcoSalon was on the scene scouting local foodie goodness.

Here are the top picks from this indulgent day:

#6 Watermelon Gazpacho from Commonwealth

In several years of covering food events, I like to think that I have reached some kind of method for the madness. For instance, after judging a cupcake challenge, I go straight to a vegan restaurant for some on-the-fly cleansing. Rational? My approach perhaps makes no nutritional sense, but it’s what I do. Another well-honed tactic: There is something to be said about starting an event off with a shot of liquid courage, so that is another food fest rule. For this afternoon, I started with a shot of watermelon gazpacho with lemon verbena oil artfully decorating the top. It was sweet and tart as I shot it down, prompting a handful of fellow foodie goers to ask, “That looks so refreshing, where did you get?”

The answer was Commonwealth, a top Mission restaurant who had a stand for this event and offered the shooter for $2. It was an inexpensive way to coat my stomach with something ostensibly healthy before the delicious abuse it was about to endure.

#5 Thai Grilled Chicken with Sticky Rice from Lers Ros

Next up was the most beautiful-looking chicken and sticky rice I’ve ever seen. I was on the prowl for something substantial but not too heavy (read: fried). I was excited to encounter Lers Ros, a top Thai restaurant in San Francisco. The restaurant features a diverse menu including items such as frog legs and alligator. I have yet to visit and try these exotic meats that “taste like chicken,” so it was beneficial to see how they actually prepared their food. They do it very well. It fell off the bone. I generously rescued it with a spoon and grabbed some sticky rice for a full dip in the sweet and spicy chili sauce. My first thought? Oddly enough, that this is how mall food should taste.

#4 S’mores from Kika’s Treats

In an interview I did with San Francisco local and Top Chef: Just Desserts winner, Yigit Pura, he confessed that Kika’s Treats were one of his favorite sweets. I endured the long line to see what spell the chocolate-dipped graham crackers held over a master pastry chef. One look at the torch turning a marshmallow and a graham cracker into a S’more and I got it.

#3 Banh Mi and Pad Thai Taco from The Peached Tortilla

Some out-of-state vendors were present and I was so intrigued by one menu that I had to try all of the offerings. A food truck from Austin, Texas that was serving a Pad Thai taco and a Banh Mi taco? Obviously I had to try both. I got the Pad Thai taco with tofu and was a little turned off by the look it. Noodle-free, essentially a mash-up of toppings, I had my doubts. One bite in and I realized the best part of pad thai: the sauce, the crushed peanuts, the bean sprouts and the lime wedge. The tortilla was just the vessel for this flavor powerhouse. The Banh Mi taco was similarly fashioned, but had Vietnamese braised pork belly with pickled Daikon and carrots topped with Srichacha mayo and cilantro. Once again, the toppings were supreme. If I lived in Texas, you can guarantee this would be my go-to truck after a night of cocktailing.

#2 The Yes Please! from The Crème Brulee Man

Living in San Francisco, the Crème Brulee Man – and his Twitter feed – is one of my regular haunts. For the festival, I had a mouthwatering brulee featuring Nutella and balsamic strawberry. I can now die and go to heaven.

#1 Arepa de Queso from The Arepa Lady

I do not recall when or where I first heard about The Arepa Lady, but like a mythical creature, I knew she existed. Hailing from Jackson Heights in New York, she also goes by the nickname “Sainted Arepa Lady.” As part of the visiting vendor program, she graced us and gave us all a great Arepa gift. It may have the same appearance as a Salvadorian Pupusa, but the Arepa version is much denser and sweeter. Summed up? Imagine tender dough cheese-filled, buttered and grilled to a brown and crispy sweet perfection – and then topped with more cheese. This was, without question, the best thing I ate at the festival. Possibly ever. (Butter! Cheese!)

I was quite full by the time I ate this, but my mouth and taste buds were completely reawakened by all the cheesy goodness. I am one who prefers to savor, so with only two bites taken, I saved it. Later in the day in my food coma nap, I even dreamed about it.

Editor’s note: The author and EcoSalon’s editor-in-chief, Sara Ost, are not related (except by their love of food).

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A weekly round-up of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Take five. Here’s an at-a-glance chance to reconnect with or catch top stories you might have missed this week at EcoSalon:

1. Fashion writer Kelly Drennan thinks We Can All Afford To Slow Down, asking us to consider why it is we need so much in our wardrobes. Investment dressing, slow fashion and an awareness of clothing production are highlighted.

2.Frenzied marketing campaigns to move out excessive SUVs are the target of senior editor Luanne Bradley’s article on Greenwashing The Beast. Says Bradley: “While the sticker deals appeal to all consumers, the language lauding eco-flavored 2011 models is shamelessly aimed at a specific audience: The responsible buyer who might break down and crossover to a road hog at last.”

3. Is it possible to disappear off the grid and do it in style? Writer Leigha Oakes says yes with her article on an Australian eco-friendly retreat in No Water, No Electricity, No Roads. Architect and owner Rob Brown, of Casey Brown Architecture says: “You can stay and be at one with nature on a mountain. The ability to go to a place and be in solitude in today’s over-scheduled urban lifestyle is romantic, something perhaps we all long for.”

4. Food expert and chef Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate: Street Eats, shows how you can virtually travel all over the world eating street food from the comfort of your kitchen. From Banh Mi in Vietnam to Falafel in Israel, Barrington has even gotten you all the recipes.

5. Ever open your bedroom’s closet doors and realize your wardrobe is less than interesting? Writer Rowena Ritchie asks you to take a New York Fashion Week challenge in her Catwalk Considerations: ‘Why Not?‘, implementing five quick wardrobe fixes to make your closet runway worthy.

The post The Friday Five, Vol. 2 appeared first on EcoSalon.

Column10 global street foods to try.

When a real vacation isn’t possible, a virtual food vacation can be just the (plane) ticket. Join us as we survey 10 mouthwatering street foods with links to recipes that you can make at home.

One thing is certain, every culture around the world has some sort of street food scene. As we continue to develop our street food culture here in the US, it’s fun to see how long-standing street food traditions elsewhere may have influenced our new local food vendors.

1. Banh Mi in Vietnam

My traveling companion once crashed our motorbike into a curb as I yelled “Duck Banh Mi” and pointed excitedly at a cart parked on a busy sidewalk in the city of Hoi An Vietnam. The accident prevented us from trying that particular Banh Mi. Thankfully the country is full of chicken banh mi, pate banh mi, pork banh mi, and more. The classic sandwich is generally some type of protein piled onto a mayonnaise slathered, fluffy crumbed, crackly crusted baguette. What really makes the meal are the cilantro, sliced chiles, and pickled carrots and daikon tucked into the roll.  Want to make your own? Vietnamese food authority Andrea Nguyen provides a great master recipe on her blog.

2. Gorditas in Mexico

Tacos may be the ultimate street food and Mexico may be justifiable famous for its elote (corn on the cob smothered with mayo, chile, lime, and queso) but I’ll be going back to the Cuernavaca market for these gorditas—delicate, pillowy, freshly fried discs of masa dough filled with beans or meat and then topped with fiery green salsa, crema, and queso.  Try this recipe from Rick Bayless.

3. Burek in Turkey and the Balkans

These meat or cheese-filled hand pies are the best portable food imaginable. What’s not to like about flaky pastry filled with savory goodness? They’re great for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. I haven’t had the pleasure of trying them in their countries of origin but I did luck out last time I was in Portland where I dined on Burek at a Bosnian stand called Ziba’s Pitas. The versions vary by country. Here is an authentic sounding Turkish Burek.

4. Satay in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore

When people think of satay, they usually think of Thailand. However, according to James Oseland in his book, Cradle of Flavor, about Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, satay were first introduced to Indonesia by Middle Eastern spice merchants. Satay are the most popular street foods in these countries. Versions and proteins vary but all have in common a savory, spicy, sweet, richly seasoned paste rubbed on before grilling. Here is a recipe for a Malaysian style chicken satay.

5. Green Papaya Salad in Thailand

Sweet, spicy, fishy, and pungent, a good green papaya salad is a wonderful thing to behold. Though I’ve never visited Thailand, I’ve been told that this salad is one of the country’s beloved street foods. Unfortunately, many versions of the salad found in restaurants here in the US are lackluster, too sweet, or just not fresh enough. When gauging a recipe’s authenticity, look for fish sauce, palm sugar, and some type of dried (or fermented) fish. These items are generally readily available in any urban area with a Southeast Asian grocery store. Here’s a recipe that looks authentic. The trick is to balance the sweet, spicy, hot, and tart elements in the dish.

6. Bhel Puri in India

India is famous for “chaat,” or street food of all types. Bhel Puri is one of the most fun to eat. Crunchy bits of puffed rice mixed with tiny diced tomatoes, cilantro, and maybe some mango, along with tamarind chutney and spices. The combination is irresistible. Crunchy, sweet, spicy, tart, and lively in the mouth. A chorus of flavors! I had a great version by Soul Cocina at last year’s Eat Real Festival. This recipe is a good one to start with.

7. Arepas in Venezuela or Colombia

There is some debate as to the origin of the arepa, but no disagreement on their utter deliciousness. Arepas are masa cake sandwiches made from a special corn flour fried, split, and then stuffed with a variety of fillings (though sometimes the fillings are cooked inside). I’ve heard friends wax poetic on their virtues, but have never experienced them in either of their home countries. I did, however, have the good fortune of visiting the famous “arepa lady”, a street vendor in Queens, several years back. It was worth the subway trip. This recipe might have to satisfy my next arepa craving.

8. Falafel in Israel

Bus stations all over Israel sell crisp falafel balls stuffed into either half or whole pita breads to travelers on the run. The difference between falafel here and falafel in Israel is the abundance of salad-like accompaniments that eaters pile on themselves to their liking. You’ll find tomatoes, cucumbers, pickled beets, spicy salads, fried potatoes, eggplant, yogurt, harissa, and more. Here’s a video recipe for falafel.

9. Squid on a stick or Ika Sugatayaki in Japan

This street snack is a whole squid body marinated and grilled over wood. It’s traditionally eaten during the Festival of the Ancestors (Obon) during which the ancestors return to the villages of their birth. Here’s a simple recipe featuring homemade teriyaki sauce.

10. Snails in Morocco

I’ve never had the pleasure of trying the snails in Morocco, but they sure are lovely to look at. Sold at street stalls in small bowls accompanied by steaming hot broth, they are one of the classic street foods of Morocco. Learn how to make them from two Moroccan women and learn how to eat them with this video.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Images:

Top: flickr4jazz via Flickr

Bahn mi:  Stu Spivack via Flickr

Gorditas: Vanessa Barrington

Burek: Dear Barbie via Flickr

Satay: Jensen Chua via Flickr

Green Papaya Salad: Avlxyz via Flickr

Bhel Puri:  _foam via Flickr

Arepas: Bob B. Brown via Flickr

Falafel: Meaduva via Flickr

Squid: Jerone2 via Flickr

Snails: Special krb via Flickr

The post The Green Plate: Street Eats appeared first on EcoSalon.

Food carts. If you’re not up to speed on the latest trend in food movements you’ve been living in a cave; a very dark one. Food carts are everywhere, and they’re bringing rise to some of the coolest in local, sustainable creations by some of the most up and coming chefs out there. And they’re quick and cheap.

Portland, Oregon has long been one of the US leaders in street food – even ranked #1 by some – so it’s no surprise that Microsoft would choose this city to launch a hyperlocal Bing product: the Portland Food Cart Finder.

You can use the desktop and mobile application to access information on over 250 carts in the Portland metro area, including reviews, photos and menus. With carts offering food from Guam to Germany, you’re sure to find something.

The food cart finder is part of the search engine’s larger foray into localized products, and we can only hope that this means more food cart-related search apps for other foodie centers. In the meantime, there are plenty of websites devoted to tracking individual city’s food cart scenes, like Austin, San Francisco and Atlanta.

Thanks to Read Write Web for the tip!

Image: vespar avenue

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We’d rather live near a taco truck, than a Taco Bell. Sure. And summer wouldn’t feel the same without the occasional Mr. Softee/Frosty Treats/ or Tactical Ice Cream Unit soft serve indulgence.

But at some point this whole thing gets a little ridiculous. First there’s all those disposable plates and utensils – though some trucks use only compostable ware, provide receptacles and recycle their frying oil into biofuel.

Then there’s the fact that street food is supposed to be affordable, simple, and accessible. But with the cool factor off the charts, people sometimes wait hours for a small portion of very expensive food that they then have to scarf down while perched precariously on a urine soaked curb. Is it that good, really?

Then there are all these trucks driving around and sometimes idling in parking places all day and spewing out noxious fumes along with the emissions caused by their refrigeration systems, stoves, fryers, and grills.

In New York, the city council just moved forward on its first anti-food truck law due to idling and parking issues.

Not to mention complaints from non-mobile restaurants.

Though some trucks are greener than others, there is a real lack of discussion overall about the environmental impact of the explosion in food trucks. This how-to article doesn’t mention it at all.

Thankfully, there are food trucks heading in the right direction. Here’s our list of 10 mobile vendors and one futuristic pop up restaurant that are curbing the use of excess resources.

1. Kickstand Coffee in Brooklyn NY uses bikes to transport its coffee and even uses bike power to fuel a portion of the brewing. If they don’t use disposable cups or plastic lids, they’d get extra points in my book, but their website doesn’t mention it. Hey Brooklynites! Are they totally green or not?

2. The Green Pirate Truck Juice Truck in Brooklyn NY runs its truck on biodiesel, composts all organic waste and works with farmers to get it to farms in upstate NY. They also use compostable cups.

3. Green Trucks in the LA area power their trucks on vegetable oil and biodiesel, make their food in a solar powered kitchen, use green packaging (though they don’t say what kind), and have a lot of organic vegetarian choices. They still serve meat of the slightly more humane variety, though it’s not grass-fed from family farms and “sustainably farmed” shrimp. To me these look like compromises to stay in business and keep their price points reasonable, which is understandable.

4. Liba’s Falafel Truck in San Francisco and Emeryville, CA serves a totally organic, vegetarian (mostly vegan) menu, recycles its frying oil into fuel, and uses all compostable packaging while providing the necessary receptacles to customers.

5. On the Fly in DC vends organic, local foods from their specially designed, American made zero-emission plug-in”smartkarts®“. They also use eco-friendly packaging, though they don’t say what kind.

6. Austin’s Soup Peddler has been around since before the current mobile food trend grew wheels. Soup Peddler started out delivering soups by bike in his Austin neighborhood. The business has grown to include entrees, and other foods and, while some deliveries are still done by bike, customers have the option to pick up as well. Hopefully at least some of them are on two wheels.

7. Steubens Food Truck in Denver is still in development but founders say its solar-powered, biofueled, locally grown goodness is coming soon!

8. DC’s Sweetflow Yogurt is a truck designed to run without a generator so it uses less fuel. They also use local and organic ingredients and 100 percent compostable packaging.

9. Fresh Local in New Hampshire is run by actual farmers. The products are all sourced from local family farms, the disposables are biodegradable and they feed any kitchen scraps they don’t compost to their very own chickens.

10.  Clover Food Lab runs trucks in Boston and at MIT. Founders are nuts about compost and are working toward a zero waste operation. The trucks are run on biodiesel, and the food is local and organic. Their blog, which documents the process of getting the business up and running, provides a fascinating window into what it takes to start a green food truck.

The whole scene in Portland is greener from an emissions point of view because many of the carts are stationary and in pods concentrated in downtown areas easily accessible by bikers and walkers.

And here’s the future of the pop-up restaurant – somewhere between a stand-alone business and a restaurant on wheels, the solar powered, foldable, moveable Muv Box may be the biggest future trend yet.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

Image: ricardodiaz11

The post What Starts with F, Ends with Uck? Our Love/Hate Affair with Food Trucks appeared first on EcoSalon.

The long awaited artisan food marketplace at 331 Cortland in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood opened quietly about a month ago. I finally had the chance to enjoy some of the vendor’s wares during a small open house celebration.

As discussed here before, 331 Cortland is a completely original business model. One that is rooted in the neighborhood and intended to be an incubator for small, talented food producers by giving them a chance to enter the market legally in a real store front, but without the risk (and cash outlay) of a stand alone shop.

The market also provides neighborhood residents with a unique selection of high quality, healthy foods available for pick-up. On both accounts, it looks like a winner.

The tiny railroad car shaped storefront is warm, bright, and welcoming with vendors situated on either side of a narrow walkway behind counters and refrigerated displays. The feeling is at once old fashioned and modern. Each vendor’s nook has its own look, feel, signage, and personality. It’s a loveable mishmash with an unplanned, old-timey sort of feeling.

The food, however, is thoroughly modern, healthy, and entirely unexpected. You won’t find the usual tasteless grocery store prepared pasta salads, or ho hum sandwiches, or really anything you’ve ever seen before. It’s like inventive street food invited indoors, with every vendor offering a unique selling proposition.

Wholesome Bakery and Sour Flour

Wholesome Bakery is an all vegan bakery that uses only the healthiest ingredients possible. In addition to being diary and egg free, all the baked goods are wheat free, soy free, yeast free, and the only sweetener used is raw organic agave syrup. (These goodies aren’t deliciousness free, however). On Thursdays and Saturdays you’ll find Sour Flour Bread, small-scale, wild fermented sourdough bread.

Ichi Lucky Cat Deli

Ichi specializes in sushi and other Japanese treats with a special eye to sustainability and inventive vegan options.

Bernal Cutlery

Bernal Cutlery will sharpen your knives by hand, the proper way. “˜Nuff said.

Della Terra Organics Produce

Here you’ll find an attractively arranged array of fresh, seasonal, organic produce to take home for dinner tonight. It feels very European. You’ll also find pestos and other condiments made with the fresh produce.

Dezy’s Drinks

Put down that Coca Cola. At Dezy’s Drinks you’ll enjoy healthier and much tastier handmade drinks from local produce and herbs. Dezy also makes granola.

Paulie’s Pickling

Paulie’s serves pickles and a whole lot more. Like fab sandwiches with pickles, slaw, and fun condiments made from some of their special pickles or brines.

El Porteño Empanadas

I discovered El Porteño Empanadas at last year’s Eat Real Festival. They are the best ever, hands down! Don’t forget the Alfajores de Dulce de Leche.

Images courtesy of Kelly Kozak

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You may have noticed some of the interesting new foodish ventures happening in various parts of the country. L.A., Portland and the San Francisco Bay Area all have thriving street food cultures.

New York always has – especially in Queens where informal vendors gather under the overpasses at odd times of day and night.

There’s a cool factor in this (anything underground is automatically cool), but the compelling thing is how the economy is driving interesting new models and innovations. People are attempting to color outside the lines. New ideas are flourishing and they don’t always match up with the regulations meant to keep everything tidy, legal and predictable.

Why Food Crazes Are Taking Off

On the consumer side, people are searching for authenticity and connection, and they want to meet face-to-face with the people who make their food. My theory is that the economic collapse has shaken our trust in “the system” (food safety scares haven’t helped either), and as evidenced in Katherine Butler’s piece on guerilla gardening, people have become so passionate about “going green” they are willing to break the law by planting their own produce.

Producers, who want to meet this need, and perhaps monetize a passion for artisan food production, are finding that the barriers to starting a new food business – whether leasing a building, licensing a cart or setting up a table at a farmers’ market – are sky high. From permitting to health department inspections, there are many hoops to jump through and daunting up-front expenses.

Many chefs who lost their jobs when their restaurants closed (not to mention great cooks from other employment sectors) would like to start their own food businesses. Whether that’s a salami and sausage business, a hot soup delivery service or a cart selling prepared foods, such start-ups are challenged in trying to get their wares to potential customers. Confusing regulations and conflicting rules between cities in the same metropolitan areas are just a few of the issues. There’s also the high start up costs due to the requirements that all such foods be produced in commercial kitchens.

But the customers want it, as evidenced by the lines around the block at the “underground farmers’ market” or the hours-long waits at the San Francisco Street Food Festival last August.

Here’s a rundown of just a few of the creative (and barely legal) ventures enabling would-be food sellers to creatively work with existing regulations until they can be rewritten.

Pop up General Store:

This venture is in Oakland (mere steps from my home, I’m happy to say). It’s a collection of local chefs and legit food producers who use commercial kitchens but don’t have brick and mortar stores.

Samin Nosrat and Chris Lee, two chefs who were thrown out of work when their restaurant closed, founded the Pop Up General Store. The store “pops up” every two weeks in the large, open lobby of a historic streetcar station turned catering kitchen. Customers can order ahead using a digital form, or pop in and buy what’s available. Until the website is built, organizers communicate with their customers through Facebook and an email newsletter. The foods are fantastic, and seasonal. Recent offerings included Posole Verde, Fresh Rigatoni, Corned Beef and Cabbage, Spring Lamb Roasts and for Passover, Matzoh Ball Soup.

I caught up with Nosrat and asked her where the idea for the general store originated. She told me she and Chris would often run into former regular customers of Eccolo, the Berkeley restaurant where the two chefs worked, and customers would tell them how much they missed certain foods.

“Why can’t we make it and sell it?” says Nosrat, explaining the thought process. “We wanted to find a way to keep making the foods we loved and share them with the people who want to eat them, while making a name for ourselves for the future,” she added.

Starting with the restaurant’s email list, the two got a much larger response than they expected. Soon, other chef friends and food artisans joined in. Many were chefs having a hard time economically due to layoffs or reduced hours. Others simply wanted to start their own food businesses, but not before testing the waters. Many, like Lee and Nosrat, are alumni of the illustrious Chez Panisse in Berkeley, so we’re talking about some stellar vittles. If you visit the Pop Up General Store, more likely than not, the very people who produced the food items you see there will be proudly hand-selling them too.

Just a few weeks in, the popularity of the Pop Up General Store is growing fast. Nosrat ventured a guess as to why customers so immediately latch on. “People like seeing the cooks who make their food,” says Nosrat. “In restaurants, cooks are never the ones sharing the food with the customers. They are always in the kitchen.”

331 Cortland:

This San Francisco start-up is an incubator. Somewhere between an indoor collection of food carts and a store, it’s a cooperative retail space that, once open, will house six vendors selling delectables like Japanese deli foods, vegan baked goods, fresh produce, pickles, sandwiches and more. There’s also a knife sharpening business that for years has been housed in the operator’s nearby home.

The original intent of the space was to be a flexible, indoor food market. The spaces were to be customized to the tenants so vendors could cycle in and out as they find success, gain clientele and move onto their own retail spaces.

The building’s owner, Debra Resnik, wanted to provide a place for vendors who were producing their foods in commercial kitchens and had begun to make a name for themselves through personal deliveries, catering or other avenues, but who weren’t ready to take the leap into a retail space all their own.

I spoke with Resnik on the phone, where she outlined her mixed success with the planning/permitting functionaries in the city of San Francisco. I knew the opening of the space had been much delayed due to permitting issues, mostly because the space doesn’t fit into any well-defined category.

She explains, they were cleared to open and the vendors had started their build-outs, but her original idea for the space had to be adjusted to make it happen. “Because of the regulations,” said Resnik, “Some of the aspects of the flexible floor plan are impossible. We basically won half of what we wanted.”

In this case, the neighborhood and city wanted 331 Cortland to open, but it was difficult to get off the ground due to regulations. The various agencies haven’t been able to figure out where 331 Cortland belongs.

Resnik added that because they “went out there and tried this new concept, maybe other people will have an easier time. Hopefully their experiences will be streamlined.”

Though the process has taken much patience and work, Resnik remains excited. “Working with all of these creative food people has been incredibly rewarding,” she says.

331 Cortland is planning a mid-April 2010 opening.

Vendors are Della Terra Organic Produce, Bernal Cutlery, Paulie’s Pickling, El Porteño Empanadas, Wholesome Bakery, and Ichi Lucky Cat Deli.

Community Commercial Kitchens:

For farmers, being able to sell value-added products like jams, preserves, canned vegetables and pickles can mean the difference between survival and getting an office job. Legal food production, however, has to be done in a licensed, inspected commercial kitchen. Most farmers don’t have the resources to build one from scratch.

All over the country community kitchens are popping up. Many are in rural areas near farms. This is very exciting because, with all the talk of local food, it’s still a minuscule percentage of total food dollars spent. The distribution and transportation issues are just too great with perishables. But once a food is shelf stable, this becomes much easier. A quick Google search turns up dozens of these ventures across the country, in areas as diverse as New Mexico, Florida and North Carolina. (Some of the funding for these operations is coming from the USDA’s new Know your Farmer know your Food program.)

SF Underground Farmers Market:

The SF Underground Farmers Market is a project of Forage SF, a business that offers a CSA box and dinners to help diners become acquainted with the wild foods that exist all around.

Attending The SF Underground Farmers Market is a way to taste and purchase the food that is being produced in backyards and home kitchens in the Bay Area by artisans who lack the resources to “go legit”. The SF Underground Market is a place where budding businesses can get a leg up on their road to legitimacy.

According to the website, the first market was held in a private home in the Mission neighborhood of San Francisco, with eight vendors and about 200 attendees. By the time the third market was held, there were 47 vendors and over 1,200 people attending. How does The Underground Farmers’ Market stay on the right side of the law? To get notification for the events attendees must sign up for a free membership.

All these businesses have two things in common: Creativity and cooperation. Our society could use a little more of both.

Leave a comment and tell us about any favorite innovative new food businesses in your neck of the woods.

This is the latest installment in Vanessa Barrington’s weekly column, The Green Plate, on the environmental, social, and political issues related to what and how we eat.

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