Bangkok, who needs food trucks when you have all this? (Soi Convent styles)

I like food trucks.  I like the idea of a mobile restaurant, and I like the idea of someone with a vision for food finding an alternate path to market.  Food trucks can be an amazing part of the culinary and cultural landscape of a city.  Toronto desperately needs them.  Los Angeles and New York's food scenes have been enriched by the diversification and growth in food truck culture.

Potential diners checking out their options

But what I don't understand about food trucks is WHY WE NEED THEM IN BANGKOK?!?! Like all trends, food trucks made their way to our fabulous city, but this one should have come and gone with nothing but a little yawn.

Kao man gai - drooling still...Tell me why I need a food TRUCK again?

Why?

Because street food vendors all over Thailand beat all you food truck fans to the punch decades ago.  Nine out of ten of my meals in Bangkok are cooked and served by people who work miracles each and every day out of a cart on a sidewalk or in a parking lot.  They set up, cook, serve,  and wash dishes anywhere and everywhere.  Most have a 'fixed' spot only in that they return to the same place each day, but they are mobile in every other sense of the word.  Many of these restaurants literally disappear at the end of their opening hours, leaving only an empty stretch of sidewalk where moments before culinary delights appeared one after the other to hungry patrons eager.

I have eaten some of the most amazing meals of my life on the streets of this fair city.  A cart, some plastic stools, and a few flimsy tables are all some of the finest chefs on the planet need to draw huge crowds of people.  So far, I can't find any advantage for food trucks, especially since most of them end up selling overpriced Western food.

I got on this anti-food truck rant about a week ago.  I had spent a late night out and decided to have a first-class Bangkok 'brunch' by visiting Soi Convent.  I won't even go into why Soi Convent is better than a hotel brunch; I'll just focus on my original pro-food cart rant.

To start heck this cart out.  First and foremost, they sell amazing kao man gai for 40 baht for the normal sized portion.  Second, this cart looks pretty mobile to me.  In fact Khun Noy can actually roll this cart away.  Finally, she can park it on the sidewalk, set up tables beside it, AND wash dishes because it's not some giant beast of a food truck.

And that was just my first stop in my Bangkok food cart brunch.  From the kao man gai, I moved on to spring rolls and then som tam.  I ended the meal with a coffee from a mobile coffee cart.  Everyone was mobile, everyone was friendly, and everyone served high quality food FAST.

Just last night I was at The Great Outdoor Market down by Rama IX Bridge.  There were tons of food vendors, and I started with a grilled cheese.  After placing my order, the very nice lady told me it would be 25 minutes.  Wait...what?  For grilled cheese?  From a truck?  Umm, sorry, no matter how good it is (and it was okay), you're missing the point if it takes 25 minutes.  And they didn't have any tables and chairs!  AND THEY SERVED EVERYTHING ON DISPOSABLE PAPER TRAYS.

So, tell me again why I need a food truck?  Let's face it, Thai people, you basically invented the idea of delicious mobile food.  You perfected it - turned it into an art form - and probably feed a few million people a day this way.  Don't fall for the imported fad of the food truck.  You and your food carts would destroy any food truck competition.

I salute you.

Just another Soi Convent bonus