Food truck phenomenon— phenomenal!
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by Nick Nunes
he modern world is moving swiftly towards minimalism. Fast, effective, efficient, other adjectives that we’re in too much of a hurry to stamp out! Food trucks aren’t new, but you would be well off the mark if you didn’t realise that their proliferation has truly taken off in the 21st century, especially the last few years. The world over has been blessed with the explosion of the street food phenomenon. There are countless shows about street food, food trucks, quick set-up stalls, and all forms of mobile food purveyors for the modern person on the go. Barbados is no stranger to the fast-paced foodie world. Though tourism is currently the largest industry in the island, it wasn’t always the case. For that matter, mobile munchie mongers have been a part of the Barbadian landscape for more than 50 years. Nearly half a century ago, Sue Walcott of Waterfront Cafe started travelling the island and selling food out of the back of her vehicle. Her case is the opposite of the way food trucks really started to take off in the 21st century. She started with a mobile food operation and grew it into a highly popular restaurant. They have sadly since closed its doors due to the current climate. According to Barbados.org, “Barbados has had a culture of travelling kitchens and food vans for decades. Long before tourism became an industry in Barbados, cooks carried meals to workers on the job and to homes, cricket fields and places where people gathered. Home cooking predated sandwich boxes and Barbadians
12 FineCuisine | DECEMBER 2020
(Bajans) have always enjoyed the arrival of the food van with hot plates of delicious home-cooked ‘peas ‘n rice’ and macaroni pie.” The idea of mobile food stretches back centuries across the globe. The ability to provide food on the go and go to where that food is most needed, could be considered a form of convergent evolution, albeit social evolution rather than biological. Convergent evolution is when similar characteristics pop up separately and unrelated to one another. One of the first recorded instances of a “food truck” can be traced back
