Pubs using food trucks

GrannyGravy13

Monica when we used to get up at silly o’clock in the morning to take DD to ODE’s, pony club or Gymkhanas there was no more welcome sight than the burger van when we arrived at our destination. The same with football matches and karate gradings/competitions.

Five minutes walk from our home is a Kebab Van, you can order online and the food is delicious, always fresh salad along with freshly cooked kebabs. They do gf, vegetarian and now vegan.

This Gran is a fan if a good ^food van^

We'd love to purchase tempah kebabs. Alas, not locally.

Lucky you.

Dempie55

I would never buy anything from a food truck, I would worry about hygiene.

I’d worry more about eating in some people’s homes to be honest, as they aren’t inspected and subject to strict regulations.

Already used them. A few pubs around here book The Travelling Taverna which does a selection of greek food. Even though we don't use the pubs we have gone and bought food from the trucks when they are in our area. I think they are a good idea personally

Casdon you are correct in identifying the safe and sanitary issues that Dempie55 has.

Restaurants have storage areas, basements, cellars that are used for food storage - and not to shock you - drug dealing, sexual and other nefarious activities - around the food you order and eat.

By comparison food trucks are kept immaculate to the public eye. They are becoming more popular in my city and the downtown business centers and around heavily trafficked shopping areas. Inexpensive food and delicious since it’s freshly made.
Bon Appétit!
USA Gundy

Alas all we get here is a chippie with very fatty chips who roves the streets twice a week. We had a fabulous gastro pub up until last year but the owner sold it and the new ones immediately slapped in a planning application for housing and closed the pub!

Part of the fun of going to the Sunday market on Newcastle Quayside is the street food area. It’s usually heaving, often with long queues, but always worth the wait……food from all over the World…..including old favourites like mac ‘n cheese and Geordie bangers (sausages).
Very high standards too, all displaying their food hygiene certificates.

MerylStreeo, how do you know they are made from grass-fed organic meat. I’m always a bit suspicious of such grandiose claims. How are they verified?

How do you verify the source and characteristics of the food you are served, anywhere, for a fact?

Restaurants don't offer a certificate of authentication with your dish

grass fed?
Aren’t beef animals and sheep normally ‘grass fed’?

Yes, and no. I think it's all to do with whether farmers fatten the animals up with grain at the end purely to get a better market price for them.
In the West Country, and no doubt elsewhere, we have stickers on meat which say "Pasture for life" which means ALL their life. It's on packs of butter too.
DH, a bit of a food connoisseur, always seems to think the 100% grass fed meet actually tastes different.

*meat

Joseanne

Yes, and no. I think it's all to do with whether farmers fatten the animals up with grain at the end purely to get a better market price for them.
In the West Country, and no doubt elsewhere, we have stickers on meat which say "Pasture for life" which means ALL their life. It's on packs of butter too.
DH, a bit of a food connoisseur, always seems to think the 100% grass fed meet actually tastes different.

Most beef cattle are at pasture during the summer and housed in yards during the winter very few would be “pasture for life”
Some are fattened outdoors on grass plus extra rations, grass is high in protein, good for growing, extra carbohydrate to finish an animal properly is needed. This may be grain or maize silage or several other feeds, often mixed together to give a “complete diet”.

It’s easy to tell if an animal has been fattened at grass, the fat will be yellow rather than while, do they taste different?, that’s difficult to prove because so much depends how the butcher keeps the meat and on the cooking.
We had 8 of us to dinner party on Sunday, Ribs of Beef from my favorite butcher, cooked to perfection of course, a rare luxury.

Blue Balou, No, all cattle and sheep do not normally eat grass. When out in the coubtry side you see fields of rape and maize, this is being grown to feed to animals, especially beef cattle. Cattle no longer normally graze outside all year but in winter are brought under cover and fed rape, maize, and soya.

This is even worse in the USA where in the midland states there are huge feed lots containing, as much as 100,000 cattle raised in small crowded feed lots with no access to grass and constantly ill and in discomfort because, although fed soya, rape and maize, their digestion can not cope well with it so they are routinely fed antibiotics to stop them getting infections and as growth promoters. Thousand of square miles of Amazon jungle is cleared every year to grow soya for cattle feed

The contribution made to climate change by aimals bred in these conditions is immense.

This is why movements like the Pasture of Life movement in this country is growing so fast. Mear raised all year round on pasture and hay from that pasture lead happier lives, are healthier and rarely need antibiotics. This method of cattle raising is also environmentrally beneficial. The meat is more expensive, but My family deals with that by eating less: smaller portions and more meals without meat, not a difficult rule to follow these days.

Katir59 Pasture for Life is a movement. www.pastureforlife.org/ which is growing rapidly. It is easy to locate PfL meat because they list all those breeding and selling it on their website.

However, organic meat will have been reared to very similar standards to be both high welfare and environmentally sensitive with minimal use of antibiotics.

Friends in Devon have a farm where their meat is 100% grassfed and accredited. (They have supplied Harrods, and they were on Countryfile). They do meat boxes if anyone is interested.
Anyway, unlike supermarket beef that is reared for 12 – 18 months (and hung for 7-21 days if you’re lucky), their meat cattle are slow grown and reared up to thirty months to allow them to mature. Quality older beef is a niche market.

Joseanne

Friends in Devon have a farm where their meat is 100% grassfed and accredited. (They have supplied Harrods, and they were on Countryfile). They do meat boxes if anyone is interested.
Anyway, unlike supermarket beef that is reared for 12 – 18 months (and hung for 7-21 days if you’re lucky), their meat cattle are slow grown and reared up to thirty months to allow them to mature. Quality older beef is a niche market.

I wonder if that is the farm we used to go to many years ago - I think it just started out as a farm selling their own produce, it was collected in large bags and you had to portion it up yourself for the freezer. It was the first time we had a freezer, a huge chest one which we kept in the cellar!

The farm has gone rather upmarket now I think

Heck Norah….your life must be very restricted if you worry continuously about hygiene . Means you can’t use public loo’s …eat out…. fish and chips from a recyclable carton sitting on the embankment in London…... or Ice cream from a ‘food truck’
I will drop everything if someone offers me a lunch date /drink in a pub….I’ll take my chances rather than cook another bloody meal….which I’ve been doing 51 years of marriage….with a husband who thought very much like you! Very restricted.!

Some village pubs in Suffolk have been rescued from closure by the local community. They mainly open at weekends and have pizza vans, curry vans etc to provide the food. Wins all around!

GrannyGravy13 I was not dissing kebab or burger vans, merely referring to the tone of so many posts that rather suggests that no one on this thread would ever admit to using a burger van.

When we we ran an antiques stall and went round the antique fairs, opening up at 7.00am, we often started the day with a burger or bacon sandwich from one of the many mobile food stands that are usually the only form of catering at such events.

As for quibbles about the name, mobile/truck/van/trailer what does it matter what it is called, we all know what is being talked about, food cooked and served from something with wheels that is brought on site at the beginning of the morning/noon/night, and is towed away when the selling time ends.

In my childhood, some street vendors had hand carts that they pushed along, others sold from bycycle powered carts (ice cream). now all such caterng comes powered by an internal combustion engine in some form.

Wow many of you seem to have had an interesting range of meals from the food trucks you have used. Unfortunately the only ones I have come across at pubs sell only burgers or pizza neither of which I eat. Glad your experiences have been better than mine.

Saggi

Heck Norah….your life must be very restricted if you worry continuously about hygiene . Means you can’t use public loo’s …eat out…. fish and chips from a recyclable carton sitting on the embankment in London…... or Ice cream from a ‘food truck’
I will drop everything if someone offers me a lunch date /drink in a pub….I’ll take my chances rather than cook another bloody meal….which I’ve been doing 51 years of marriage….with a husband who thought very much like you! Very restricted.!

Not restricted at all. I just don't like dirty or germs.

Correct no fish/chips or ice cream - entirely different reason.

I love to cook for my family, and have been for over 60 years. What works for me won't be everyone's cuppa. So what? I do have opinions as do you.

We are all covered with bacteria.In fact our bodies contain 39 trillion bacteria www.nature.com/articles/nature.2016.19136. Many highly specialised living only on your eye lashes or just the edge of your nose. Many bacteria keep us alive, and of course what is our human biome but bacteria.

Some bacteria are harmful and some people at various times of their lives are more vulnerable to harmful bacteria than others, but our immune system is built up by meeting harmful bacteria in small quantities and building up our resistance to such bacteria, if met in larger numbers.

Because of our strict hygiene rulles and regular inspections and the high standards the vast majority of caterers adhere to because their businesses and livelihoods are dependent on them not making their customers ill, I suspect that most catering establishments are much cleaner and more hygienic than most homes.

Today I learned - apparently the nearest town has a decent food truck which works from the kitchen of quite good catering shop.

Weddings are a learning experience.