Mumbai to host its first food truck festival

Mumbai: Mumbai will host its first food truck festival, titled ‘Food Truck Square’, starting Friday. Organisers vouch to offer lip-smacking gourmet food at affordable prices at the event, to be held at High Street Phoenix here. [caption id=“attachment_2680926” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational image. Getty Images[/caption] The festival will present over ten food trucks with American gourmet sandwiches to Lebanese delicacies, from Mexican quick eats to different desserts. A joint initiative by The Food Truck Association (TFTA), co-curated by Mumbai Foodie and OPA hospitality, the foodie’s event will feature live graffiti art by an artist who will create an installation to serve as a reminder of the city’s upcoming street food culture. Patrons can also help the artist in making the graffiti, which will be dedicated to Mumbai. To pledge their case with Mumbai’s governmental authorities, TFTA will also create a second installation in the form of an ‘appeal board’ that will allow patrons and food lovers to pledge their support or voice their concerns against Food Trucks via ‘yay or nay’ columns to expedite legislation regarding Food Trucks here. “We need to give Mumbai’s food truck culture the impetus it deserves. Food tourism is touted to be the next big league for India and is rapidly ascending as the newest, most promising value proposition for the hospitality industry country wide,” Shubham Chaudhuri, TFTA president, said in a statement. “The festival was conceptualised to serve as our mouthpiece to pledge to Mumbai’s law bodies that Food Trucks are safe, valuable and here to stay,” he added. Food trucks are four-wheel shops with signature dishes from every corner of the globe. “World over, they are now being integrated into major events and festivals as a way to attract young attendees and to increasing awareness for different cultures and their cuisines. Our idea behind co-curating this festival was to bring the best food of this city to your doorstep -one food truck at a time,” Ashish Sajnani, director, OPA Hospitality and co-curator of the event, said. The food trucks which will showcase their concoctions include FoGo, which has the street food concept, Paninaro, which will offer fresh salads, sandwiches and submarines, and Lalit food truck. Average pricing of all dishes will cost between Rs.100 to Rs.200.