Burgeoning Food Truck Offerings Fast Becoming Columbus, OH Culinary Favorites

COLUMBUS, OH, October 06, 2010 (Press-News.org) Once seen as a cheap, quick fix for hungry college students, food trucks are now sought-out local specialties. Street food has become the hottest trend in the nation's culinary scene, with Columbus again on the leading edge of that trend. Taco Trucks were among the first street vendors to appear on the local scene. But now food trucks in Ohio's capital city are dishing up everything from gourmet Japanese crepes and sweet potato cupcakes to smoked brisket sandwiches and pork-belly quesadillas.

The trend started to catch fire when local food blogger, now adventure food tour operator, Bethia Woolf, launched TacoTrucksColumbus.com in 2007. Her Columbus Food Adventure Tour business opened in July, featuring a Taco Truck Tour. Both celebrate and introduce diners to Columbus' ethnic street food culture in a city where its Latino population is among the fastest growing in the country.

More than three dozen taco trucks around Columbus, are serving regional specialties from different regions around Mexico, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Columbia, Honduras and other Latin American countries. Each offers a wide variety of fresh, unique and affordable foods, including steak, chicken, carnitas, fish and other menu items. A comprehensive list of trucks, taco truck etiquette, translator, facts, terms and a Columbus taco truck map is available at www.tacotruckscolumbus.com.

Despite its innocuous name, Foodie Cart offers addictive Japanese-style crepes that draw daily lines around downtown Columbus and the nearby Short North. Foodie Cart dishes up funky fusion crepes in both savory and sweet varieties that change daily. Recent offerings include Bulgogi (Korean beef) cheese steak, Tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet) with cream cheese or Brie with veggie and egg. Strawberry-banana or Kabocha (Japanese winter squash)-pumpkin Mont Blanc (wispy noodle-like strands of sweet chestnut cream) crepes offer sweet endings to entree crepes. Fans follow Foodie Cart on Facebook, where daily location updates and photos of the day's menu are posted.

"Street food is yet another affordable, flavorful and memorable way to experience Columbus' incredible culinary scene," said Experience Columbus President and CEO Paul Astleford. "We take pride in the fact that Columbus offers visitors unlimited culinary experiences of all kinds."

Rad Dog drove onto the local scene in 2008, offering vegetarian, vegan and meat dogs, brats, sloppy Joes and reubens, making this dog a virtual veteran in food truck years. Ray Ray's Hog Pit serves up great barbecue and brisket, with customers lining up roadside in trendy Clintonville. Slabadabado BBQ, typically parked in more rural Sunbury, specializes in pulled pork sandwiches and ribs.

Even breakfast is dished up truckside from the Eggfast truck, with hash brown casserole and breakfast burritos dominating the menu. Mikey's Late Night Slice frequents Short North and the Ohio State campus neighborhoods, selling his popular pizza by the slice. Local culinary darling, Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams has gone mobile with a new Bajaj scooter truck selling ice-cream sandwiches and mini containers of the popular artisan ice creams (cool push-ups, too, in pink, blue and something else, I forget). Former bakery owner Carla Saunders just launched her 3 Babes and a Baker cupcake truck in August, with daily sell-outs of her luscious banana split, German chocolate, cookies & cream, coconut and other cupcake flavors.

Columbus is a city unlike any other. Vibrant and alive, Ohio's capital city is known for its unique style: an uncommon blend of neighborhoods, events, attractions and accommodations. Free visitors guides, maps and complete information about visiting Columbus are available at www.ExperienceColumbus.com or by calling 1-866-397-2657 (1-866-EXP-COLS). The website offers online booking at more than 125 hotels.

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