Chapter 1: What playful banter sets the tone at the beginning of the episode?
Hi, man. Hi, Hayden, my little truffle nugget.
That's not even a thing. That's not a thing that exists in the world.
That's how I think of you, Hayden.
What is a truffle nugget? What is a truffle nugget in your weird little brain?
Hayden, when you strip off head to toe naked in front of the mirror and look at yourself, that is a truffle nugget.
Okay. Well, I... You know what? I'm not sure that I do that very often, but maybe I should because I haven't encountered a truffle nugget and I need some insight.
Yeah, man, get naked, get in front of that mirror, take it all in. You've only got that one bod, one life.
You know what? I will. I'm going to get naked and get in front of the mirror and see what a truffle nugget looks like.
Now, look, I'm going to be honest. I'm going a bit loopy over here. We're in some kind of a winter heat wave, which is weird. But the episode we're doing today is about food trucks, which are a big deal in the United States of America. Some areas more than others. But I'm wondering, in New Zealand, when I say food truck, what do you think? What's your vibe?
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Chapter 2: What significance do food trucks hold in American culture?
Always accidental. Yeah. Just quickly, some admin at the top. If you are a Patreon member...
um we're going on tour very soon we're doing uh salt lake city we're doing austin we're doing dallas if you're a patreon member we're going to be doing some little meetups in each city um we'll be posting the details a couple of days before the um tour date so join us patreon.com slash flightless bird there's a lot of fun stuff going on over there we do bonus weekly episodes there's bonus posts there's ad free episodes all that stuff
Feet pics.
Sometimes, when you feel like it. Nude feet. Nude feet.
Optional.
You don't have to look at them. Yeah, you can skip over those.
Although, everyone that's seen my feet, 4.98 on wikifeet.com has, I've never had a complaint. They've always enjoyed the experience. I mean, something brought that down from a five.
What?
Right? You.
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Chapter 3: How do food trucks compare between New Zealand and the U.S.?
Like we're not food adverse, but we don't, and correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't do a lot of good Mexican food. So being in Los Angeles, I feel one of the luckiest things about being here is holy shit, it's good. Yeah. And it's everywhere. And when you go to a food truck, it's quick and it's delicious and it's...
like affordable a lot of the time as well yeah yeah absolutely um i mean yeah food trucks were definitely like a drunken food too the one yeah i used to partake um in that i feel like i in in america i did a lot of them with you when we we go to concerts and stuff yeah which is like the late night food thing as well yeah it's like you're driving back from some venue somewhere and they're scattered all around the city and it's like oh there's one
Or you might go to a certain location where you know it's good. Because obviously there are good food trucks and there are not great food trucks. It's like a fucking variety out there. And it's almost the joy of it seems to be able to find the one that you like and that is good and is near you.
Well, and I think at some point it hit the zeitgeist as kind of a hip thing. Because Portland was the first time I remember it. And Portland is always a cool city. Yeah, Portlandia. But then I do remember, like, the next big run-in with food trucks was Austin at South by Southwest. They've got a lot of really great food trucks.
Right, so they bring them out from there, which is a festival that's gotten bigger and bigger and more sort of up its own.
Like, to the point where you're, like, in search of the food trucks, and it's like, on Tuesdays, they park in this bar in the back. Yeah, right. And then they eventually did make their way to Chicago. I think the, like... bureaucracy around them. I recall like people being annoyed that it's hard to, yeah, there's a lot of just like red tape.
We talked with Roy Troy a bit about this, about like how cities become accepting of them or not. Cause like, yeah, I mean, they're also an interesting thing because they're not a building.
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Chapter 4: What challenges do food truck owners face in America?
They're like, they're on the street. They got wheels. It's like they're, they're taking up some sort of space that could be parking or sidewalk. And I feel like America is obsessed with those spaces as well. And in certain cities, like I feel like, yeah, hiking wards and cops and everything. There's that whole culture of it as well.
And then I remember in 2010, there was a show called The Great Food Truck Race. Oh, it was a show. Food Network. Reality show? A reality show. I don't know if you know this about me. I don't watch a lot of reality TV. So it's like kind of real. I mean, it's based in reality.
Wait, so what happened in the show? What was the premise?
uh different like little restaurants they would help them build a food truck and they would go around they'd like race across the country and have challenges oh my god so it's like it's part building part food part race they would like build a little business essentially with this food truck and then the winner got to like keep it and a bunch of money yeah yeah yeah but i looked it up before we started recording this and they've been 18 seasons of that at this point oh my
Which I remember, yeah, I watched like the first season of it. There's a lot more of it.
That's like the dream when you make a TV show. It's like the dream to come up with a format that is just never ending.
Yeah. That's just going to keep making and making and making.
18 seasons. Have you had any sort of chaotic food truck experiences? Have you ever had like a bad experience, sort of food poisoning, or you've been attacked? Because you're sort of out in the wild at a food truck. No, I don't.
People that drink after a concert. All of my food truck experiences are great. Like LA at this point too, like you go to events, food trucks are there. Like if it's some sort of outdoor event or thing. I've been to like birthday party where we've had the Kogi truck that the person rented. Oh, amazing.
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Chapter 5: How did the food truck industry evolve in America?
And this was all happening quickly, relatively. This all happened in a year.
That's insane. I didn't know.
This is blowing my mind. Yeah, it all happened in a year. So from 2000 up to 2008, end of 2008 when we started, roach coach, rhetoric, dirty, diarrhea. By 2009, gourmet food truck, billion dollar industry, Cities around the country changing. England getting on board. Australia getting on board. Poland getting on board. John Favreau getting on board. That guy.
Well, I remember watching that film in New Zealand. You can consult on that whole thing.
It's based on your shit. I saw the poster for New Zealand. Every country had a different poster. Oh, yeah. Totally. Yeah. But yeah, that all happened. That all happened in a year. And it hasn't looked back, you know. And it filled a void of like...
uh beyond just the food i think it created a bridge of culture for people to love each other a little bit a little bit more in a way that they didn't know they could office workers going down and having a moment for themselves at a food truck People in neighborhoods coming out of their homes and meeting their neighbors, looking at things.
A lot of people going to neighborhoods they normally wouldn't have gone to and standing for two, three hours. We brought a lot of people together because the waits were really long and the people coming to eat the trucks were all kind of...
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Chapter 6: What cultural impact do food trucks have on communities?
similar spirit so they were all there for this for the same reason it was very um you suddenly got something in common with all these people that you thought you might have very early burning man you know before it turned to shit yeah it's also so much more accessible too for different socioeconomic classes of like i can have good food at a reasonable price now
It was a gateway. It was also brought generations together from grandpa, parent to kids. I like to look at Kogi as all the nuances, individual people that were lonely, you know, and needed a place to go or, you maybe not lonely, but just needed some time for themselves.
Kogi was a sanctuary for that, you know, because in that first year, you could put on your headphones, go wait in a Kogi line for three hours, read a book, talk to the person in front of you or behind you. It was like waiting in a line for a ride at Disneyland, but it wasn't aggro. It was extremely loving and caring and you chose to be there. That was the difference. I think that's the number one
The characteristic of the Kogi line is that everyone that was there chose to be there for three hours. You see that in anime culture, comic book culture, right now in K-pop culture. There's a community that's built, yeah. And it was really beautiful, man. I miss it so much. You're doing Porvita now, right? Yeah, we do Tacos Porvita. That is an offshoot of Kogi.
Kogi's always been... And it kind of shows in a way where society and the financial society continues to falter and go for us as people because Kogi's always been a very affordable option. It's been a cornerstone to our business to be the entry point for anyone, right? So our food... in 2008 started at $2 and 50 cents or actually $2 for a taco. It's only $3 now, you know, and that's insane.
18 years later, you should make it more. I should, I should, but, uh, but then it wouldn't be served the purpose of what Kogi is for catering. It used to be like someone could get the truck for like a thousand bucks. Right. And that was like affordable. Um, But that's like even expensive now for a lot of people.
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Chapter 7: How does Kogi maintain affordability in its offerings?
So we started Tacos Por Vida to go back to the essence of Kogi, to take Kogi even deeper. And so like for five, 600 bucks, you can get Tacos Por Vida. So, cause the truck itself comes with some built-in costs. So Tacos Por Vida is no truck, a grill set up. And, you know, and then like, if you were just throwing a party for like 30 people, your kid's birthday party, you could, you could,
we wanted to create another level of affordability.
How was the return to that? Because it was, you tested it as like a stand at first again. I remember when that opened and like it had that same buzz and feel that Kogi did of like Roy's got another pop-up Better, you want to go wait in line for four hours for tacos.
I guess it would be like a big actor going back and doing like a black box, one man, one person theater show. I love it, man. If I could just do that, that's great. So what we did was, this was like three, four years ago. And we just decided to start something out of the blue and just go back and start cooking on the streets and make it very, very like impulsive and spontaneous. So,
What happened was just going back to the original style, putting out a tweet, tell them we're going to be at this spot until we sell out. And people still showed up. Thousands of people showed up. It was crazy. It was like four-hour lines.
I've never been inside a food truck. I don't know what it's like under that pressure and making things. I've looked in from the outside. What... other main elements of chaos or what makes it make sense in there than working in a restaurant.
The limitations of the truck versus the restaurant.
Like it's so limited. Like it's this tiny space. Like what makes that good and what makes that like terribly stressful?
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Chapter 8: What challenges do food truck operators face in urban environments?
Well, one is you're in very close quarters. So I call it butts be button. You know, so you're going to you're going to touch butts a lot and you're going to bump into each other. And and, you know, it's like being in a submarine. You're going to have to get along with the person you're with for very long periods of time. And it's bumpy. You know, you got to travel from one location to the other.
You have to work in the rain. You have to work in the heat. You have to go through traffic. You have to hold your pee until you get to the bathroom. Yeah, of course. And you have to pre-plan ahead and go to the bathroom before. You have to prep on the truck. It's like there's a lot of things that... Make it really weird, but fun. But the limitations are the power of a food truck.
I think that's the most beautiful thing about it. Again, going back to GarageBand type stuff. It pushes you to have to be creative. It pushes you to be creative. You have enough equipment to pull off almost anything. Um, you have a hot, you have a hot plate, the hot, like plancha, you have a steam table, you have a cutting board, you have refrigeration, you have a little warm oven, um,
If you don't get in your own way, there's enough there for you to figure out what you want to do. And again, this I hope is my last music analogy. Sorry for so many. I'm really sorry. I apologize. But again, if you just have one small amp and a guitar, like you figure that shit out, you know, you figure it out.
Sometimes that might be the best music you ever made in your whole damn career, you know? And, and so that limitation is where a food truck is, where people, where people do get in their own ways. I'm a chef. I need all this stuff. You know, I need all of these bells and whistles in order to pull off this food. Well, again,
The way I look at it is if you don't have those bells and whistles, create a whole fucking different type of food then, you know? Don't create the food that requires bells and whistles. Look at what you have and then... plug into it and become one with what you have and then figure out how you're going to, how you're going to make the food around what you got. Yeah. Those limitations.
Those limitations. You can make something new. Look at what they make in prison, man. You know what I'm saying?
Less to hide behind too. If you don't have all those muscles, it has to be good. If it's going to be that simple.
Yeah. You could pull off so much with a hot plate, a microwave, a little, a little steam kettle. Like I could cook you a 12 course meal. Yeah. With a coffee kettle, a hot plate, and a microwave.
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