Twitter & Food Truck/Food Carts

I won't go into this topic in great detail here as it will be a feature in the first issue of American Foodways magazine, but one of the keys to the growing popularity of food carts is the ability to use social media tools such as Twitter to tell legions of hungry fans where the cart will be parked that day. In some cities, such as Austin and Portland, there are designated spots for food carts so Twitter is used to send out specials and reminders. Again, we will cover this topic in more depth.

In the meantime, here is an NPR story about how one food truck in L.A. uses Twitter to keep its fans informed. 

Food Carts in L.A. and The World Cup

According to this article in the San Fernando Valley Sun, the fine folks at ESPN have two food trucks (although a fellow Texan warned me they are carts, not trucks) one in L.A. and one in New York, which patrol the streets selling a difference world cuisine every day based on the competing teams in the World Cup. These "trucks" are fitted with TV screens and portable satellite dishes so they can show the matches while they sell their wares to hungry passers by.

Shopping Cart Farms

Here's a news clip from an L.A. TV station that profiles a group of artists who are creating farms in abandoned shopping carts. This is the sort of trend that inspired me to start this project.