Interviewed for a street food profile posted on Serious Eats, the owners of Mom’s Delicious Dishes food truck in Raleigh, NC, had the following words of wisdom:

“Find a good compatible partner! You don’t necessarily have the same skills, but you must have the same goals and drive. It’s like a marriage but worse. You spend lots of time together in a very small space and it’s usually hot. . . . Spend some time on a food truck that’s similar in style to what you hope to create. Create a business plan and add 20 percent more for expenses than expected. Prepare to devote your entire life to a new business for at least one year until you can figure out your trends and establish some benchmarks.”

Thao Beck and Ardath Church update their whereabouts daily on Facebook, Twitter, and their website. They started their business (salads, sandwiches, fish tacos, fresh doughnuts) because they thought that “it would contribute a vibrant new addition to the already interesting food scene” going on in Raleigh. Neither of them has “any desire for a permanent location as the mobility is part of the appeal” of what they offer.

[images from Mom's Delicious Dishes]

History and street food complement one another in Germany. Alas, we didn’t run into the guys who wear portable grills shaped like aprons and cook sausages while walking on the sidewalk (we looked) but we saw plenty that Atlanta should emulate during a ten-day blitz trip around Deutschland.

Thanks to this cool little infographic spread, New York magazine’s article about “Trucks on a Roll” as part of their yearly Cheap Eats issue really pops out.

Read the full text of the article and drool with envy…

If one doesn’t count potato chips (charmingly spelled xips in Catalan) on the beach or homemade empanadas peddled by South American immigrants during the festivities of Sant Joan, pretty much the only game in town is the famous Churreria J. Argiles, a beloved beachfront trailer that, for more than four decades, has supplied magnificent freshly fried churros and thick hot chocolate (xurros amb xocolata) to the youth that pours out of the discotheques and heads for the beaches to sleep off their buzz or sober up.

Now that we are (barely) back in Atlanta, we can’t think of anything we’d like more than a food truck selling churros and chocolate at 6 a.m.!

[photo by MorroFi]

According to an article by Carol Ness found on the website of the San Francisco Chronicle, shoppers at the Pop-Up General Store in Oakland had about two hours to stock up on boudin blanc sausages, bronze-cut rigatoni, chicken confit, potato-chard gratin, and heritage pork gyoza prepared by some of the most talented pedigreed young chefs in the area, who were vending restaurant-quality food out of “a red-painted building in an otherwise unremarkable Oakland neighborhood.”

“None of the Pop-Up cooks make much money from the store,” explains one of its founders. “The motivations are more about helping develop the sustainable food system–and about the cooks making their products known.”

Sound familiar?

[photo via Melissa Schneider]

Cool-hunter and muse Alfredo Aponte, who launched our blog and recently moved to Denmark and, hopefully, a career in design, filed the following from Copenhagen with a sincere hope that Octane should take note and perhaps give Atlanta a version of the KobenKaffe!

Dave Jones recently returned from a short vacation in Seagrove Beach, Florida, where he ran across a bunch of Airstream trailers parked on the central square in prissy Seaside. “I only got a chance to snack at the Barefoot BBQ trailer,” he writes, “but all seemed to be doing a rollicking business. All together, there was the barbecue, a fruit stand/bar, cupcakes, ice cream and a juice bar.”

Jones, who has been interested in the idea of a street food scene in Atlanta since a trip to Asia some years ago, hopes to get involved.

“Nice to see some movement!” he wrote us.

Amen!

[photos by Dave Jones]

Having food trucks on campus or nearby is an excellent move for many universities, and we can only wish that, when the students return to Georgia Tech, Georgia State, Emory, Agnes Scott, Atlanta University, et al., scenes such as these taken at Penn last month by a friend of ours will provide an alternative to dining halls and fast food!

[Photograph: Esther Hahn]

Look closely at the picture and you’ll recognize the landscape: Los Angeles (perhaps Santa Monica) rather than Buford Highway…

We, too, would love access to roasted Peking duck tacos and shrimp dumplings!