The Food Truck, Food of the Recession
By: Grace Geiger
Published: February 22, 2011

One key component surrounding the new food truck and street food craze is that diner cars, food carts, and food trucks are all just cheap, affordable ways to eat during hard economic times.
If we take a look back at history, diner cars were simply old railroad cars that were converted into restaurants to serve cheap, affordable food (greasy spoons!) to workers and people of modest incomes. The American Diner Museum states “During the Depression most diners remained in business because they offered inexpensive places to eat. The replacement of street cars and interurbans in the late 1930s and early 1940s with internal combustion buses provided another low cost opportunity to own a converted trolley/diner.”
Since we are currently experiencing one of the biggest economic depressions in America since the 1930s, it’s no surprise that street food, diner food, and food trucks have resurfaced. People simply cannot afford to eat out at sit-down restaurants like they used too.
And it’s not just the customer’s that are looking to food trucks as an affordable way to get their afternoon lunch. Emerging chefs have recently taken to food trucks as a way to make names for themselves and promote their culinary skills without going into debt by opening an entire restaurant. Food trucks allow chefs a way to build from the ground up.  By starting with a food truck chefs can build up their personal brand by wooing the crowd and gaining customers through word of mouth.

So what does it cost to start one of these mobile food-making facilities by yourself? To start a food truck, you’re looking at some hefty initial fees, but you can get all the details right here.
Check out this cost effective and delicious recession-proof recipe to make at home. Plus, cooking really is the best way to save money!
Fried Egg and Asparagus

Comments:
Richard Johnson

Dear Grace,
We hear you! In the UK, street food has gone crazy over the last few months. As the recession bites, more and more people are abandoning over-priced restaurants to Eat Street. We've even got our own awards now -- check out www.britishstreetfood.co.uk!