The Maley Daily

“It’s very convenient. It’s very individualized. You don’t get a bunch of yogurt like a pizza pie and celebrate with everybody else. This is just for you. It’s your own flavor. It has a health halo certainly surrounding it. It really does define what I think America wants from its food supply.”

Kim and investors have acquired the Calbi Fusion Tacos and Burritos, a mobile vendor truck concept born in Los Angeles earlier this year offering tacos, burritos and quesadillas with Korean-style beef short ribs. Menu prices range from $2 to $7, and the trucks publicize their daily street routes on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.

I would expect that what this article calls the “current mobile food craze” will only continue to grow in the coming years, especially now that corporate America is beginning to take note.

While Chicago doesn’t seem to be hip to the mobile food trend, my own experience with taco trucks in New Orleans was overwhelmingly positive, although I’m sad to say that @SucreGelatoVan appeared on the scene after I left.

‘Top Chef’ is a product placement juggernaut.  Their domination continues on this season’s ‘Top Chef: Las Vegas’ with new partners Alexia Crunchy Snacks and Diet Coke, among others.

Kudos to Bravo for creating such a distinct personality for this show that advertisers clamor to be associated with a popular ‘foodie’ media property, but sometimes the appropriateness of the sponsors is a bit of a stretch.  (Anyone remember the Cold Stone Creamery quickfire challenge?)  I can’t help but wonder if soon we’ll see something along the lines of Fancy Fast Food, in which chefs compete to make gourmet “food” entirely out of processed, artificial ingredients.

I, too, have pondered the origins of the “quesadilla explosion.”