The Taco Truck: How Mexican Street Food Is Transforming the American City Paperback – May 16, 2019

It’s refreshing to read insight you hav not thought of/ great read & unexpected !

The Taco Truck by Robert Lemon is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in mid-May.This book had been created through qualitative interviews with taco truck operators and owners in Texas, Ohio, and California to offer a kind of socioecological view of where a taco truck is situated, its history, how people view them (realistically or as a stereotype), and the rare conflicts but mostly benefits that it offers the city it’s in. The topics include obtaining permits, following ordinances and health/safety codes, making street food easy for any class to obtain, and revising a menu to appease a variety of taste buds. However, Lemon usually steps into peripheral topics like restaurant management, urban planning, civic services, and the flow of Mexican immigration, and loosely wraps up with an unsuccinct ending.

The Taco Truck: How Mexican Street Food Is Transforming the American City, by Robert LemonI received this complimentary book via Net Galley and chose to review it. The following is my own, honest opinion.Robert Lemon has a PhD in Geography from the University of Texas and is a lecturer and teacher. The Taco Truck, is an academic work. He outlines the history of the taco truck in Mexican culture and how it’s appearance in the USA impacted on America, along with health and social reforms. He took the material from his PHd dissertation “Taco Truck Urban Topographies”. The resulting book was eight years in the making.The taco truck began life as a mobile small food business, offering cheap authentic food, following Mexican immigrants around parts of America. They introduced, what have become universal favorites, like carne asada, chilli con carne, sour cream, guacamole, corn tortillas, maize pancakes, chilli beans, and tacos. They were the cheap staple foods that Mexicans had grown up with and loved.Historically, taco trucks served the low waged, Spanish speaking immigrants during the day at their places of work at vineyards, construction sites and tomatoe groves. In the evenings they moved to public spaces at the Mexican barrios. They offered a culinary community where Mexicans far from home could interact with each other.Slowly, Chicago, San Antonio, Los Angeles, Texas, California and San Francisco became the recipients of Mexican cheap eats, during the late 19th century and early 20th century.Today there are over 4,000 gourmet taco trucks serving the USA. Mexico and the United States will be forever conjoined. This was a pleasant read and I feel well informed about this fascinating bite of culinary history.

The taco truck and Latinos are synonymous with fast food, that is, mobile fast food. Having entered into an arena of cultural diversity, the taco truck struggled to find its niche in society. The author did a great job in framing the trials and tribulations faced by many of its vendors.

I received an Advanced Reader Copy from University of Illinois Press and NetGalley for my unbiased opinion of the book. This book is a history of Mexican culture and the birth of the taco truck. I found the book slow moving yet enlightening. I learned a lot and will never look at a food truck the same.

It was an interesting book (not fascinating). It is definitely an academic work. Not the kind of book that I would read in one afternoon.But you can feel the passion of the author on the subject in every page. A lengthy study of the origin and evolution of the tack truck, with all it's cultural meaning.