Food Trucks: Dispatches & Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels

The idea of eating something cooked inside of a vehicle has, for too long, kept the true greatness of the food truck culture under wraps. For some, it might be hard to imagine that these high caliber and culturally diverse foods are the product of something so simple and unexpected — a chef with a truck and a new idea, or a recovering junkie wanting to give people a taco that was “the most delicious fucking thing they’d tasted.”

Food Trucks: Dispatches & Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels will bring you out to the streets and inside some of the best food trucks in the United States. This book provides profiles and full-color photographs of more than 100 of the hottest food trucks in 20 cities.

Heather Shouse presents us a vast array of mobile cuisine, arranged geographically from coast to coast. The book helps us understand the true passions of food truck operators.

Often starting from scratch, with minimal funding, their love of creating great food and serving it at reasonable prices to the public is the driving force. A common theme is that many food truck owners are making no (or minmal) money but continue on for various reasons including the ability to work with family members, create new food, or with the hope of growing their food truck business into a profitable enterprise or even a traditional sit-down restaurant.

As mentioned earlier, the book is divided by geographical region. The food trucks from each region are described in detail, along with the story behind the truck. Also included are incredible photographs and a wide variety of food truck recipes. The photos of the trucks and food are indicative of the creativity that abounds in this burgeoning industry.

Shouse had a difficult task in differentiating one truck from another in each market. While she couldn’t feature each and every unique cart, there were a few that stood out to her.

“There was a criteria. It had to have a product that was delicious. It had to be unique. I didn’t want to duplicate,” said Shouse. “And they had to have a good story. There are a lot of longer profiles of people who I followed. They have a very interesting story about how they started their business.”

Many of the dishes detailed in the book are accompanied by easy-to-execute recipes, a creative and pleasantly surprising feature of the book. The secrets behind the vibrant flavors found in within the pages share more than 45 recipes, contributed by the truck chefs themselves.

Shouse said that her intent was to make it worthwhile to foodies and culinary adventurers, but also for it to be a kitchen companion those playing along at home. “Not everybody’s going to be able to make it to LA to eat kimchi quesadillas, so it’d be kinda cool to make it in your house, or in the summertime and you wanna make this awesome barbecue from a truck in Philly. It’d be great for people who don’t have the ability to travel and find all these trucks, and it’s great for people to be able to say, ‘I made the famous whatever from Portland.’”

If you are a food truck or street food lover than this new book from Heather Shouse is a must for your reading list. This book belongs in both cookbook and travel sections. If you travel on business, make sure to put it on your iPad or Kindle for quick reference.

Whether you are interested in it for the food truck history, food, recipes or photos you will find this book entertaining and a lot of fun to read. Share it with your friends, we are sure it will lead to a very active “discussion” about everyone’s favorite food trucks and dishes. This is all part of the fun of food trucks.

The book can still be purchased at Amazon or at a local bookstore.

About the Author

HEATHER SHOUSE is the senior food and drink correspondent for Time Out Chicago, as well as the Chicago reporter for Food & Wine magazine. Shouse has contributed numerous articles to CHOW, Rachael Ray, Men’s Journal,Playboy.com, and Draft magazine. She has edited and coauthored multiple editions of Time Out Chicago Eating & Drinking Guide and contributed to the Native’s Guide to Chicago. While her position as a local authority on Chicago’s drinking and dining scene has offered numerous opportunities to direct appetites toward notable spots in every corner of the Windy City, this is her first book to truly combine her passion for travel and eating, the two things that make life worth living. Learn more www.heatherjshouse.com.

Win a copy of Food Trucks: Dispatches & Recipes from the Best Kitchens on Wheels

Thanks to continued support of our readers, we are giving you the chance to win a free copy of Food Trucks this week. All you have to do is:

Connect to the Giveway Widget and follow the instructions, it only takes 30 seconds to enter. You’ll then be able to earn multiple entries into a drawing for this book by taking the following social actions: