Menu Mix: Food Truck Fusion

The great thing about food truck menus is the opportunity for unexpected side trips. Road-worthy food truck menu items must be bold, fun and portable. This sometimes means putting something like Pad Thai into a taco.

The wild-and-free spirit of road-trip adventure drives the Fud Truk at Lehigh University, in Bethlehem, Pa.

“We collect student input all the time and use that as a base for daily and weekly menu specials,” says Dan Burke, concessions manager with Sodexo at Lehigh. “We’re willing to try almost anything!”

That includes some popular fusion dishes, such as a Thai Curry Shrimp Po’ Boy (pictured) and Bulgogi Korean Barbecue Tacos.

Another vehicle for great food truck fusion on the Fud Truck is fresh-cut, locally sourced french fries. Burke plays around with the format, offering a mash-up of a mash-up with Banh Mi Fries (the Banh Mi itself is a mix of Vietnamese and French culture). There are also non-Asian french fry versions, including Philly Cheese Steak Fries and Meatball Parmi-giana Fries.

Kids Get On Board with Portable Rice Bowls
At Orange County Public Schools, the food truck doubles as a test kitchen, with kids rating meals on an iPad, helping inform menu-making decisions for the regular school menu. All of the food truck meals meet federal school lunch requirements, and include Warm Asian Chicken Salad with Rice, Asian Beef Teriyaki with Rice and the Bangkok Rice Bowl with Chicken.

Hitting the strEAT
At Texas Tech University, in Lubbock, the road to food truck fun began last summer with a few private events, and then hit the ground running for the fall semester, building up a student following on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram along the way. It also doubles as a portable emergency kitchen. These Korean BBQ strEAT Tacos (below) feature savory-sweet Korean beef, pickled red onion, cabbage slaw and a special pico de gallo made with pineapple and cilantro.

Korean BBQ strEAT Tacos. Photo: Texas Tech University