Tech Beat: Food trucks have tech-savvy following
The growing popularity of specialty food trucks is being fed by the increased consumption of some of the latest technology. Adam Balkin has more.
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With all due respect to big city hot dog vendors, food carts have gotten a bit more sophisticated lately. In fact, there's even an entire Food Network show devoted to food carts.
"It's gone from serving dirty water dogs to gourmet Korean burritos, Korean tacos, stuff like that. And there's some of the best burgers you can find on the street, anything you can find in a brick and mortar restaurant you can find in the streets, maybe even better," said Edward Song of Korilla BBQ.
You may be wondering what a technology reporter is doing covering food trucks. Well, a big reason why these trucks are doing so well even though they're rarely in the same spot two days in a row is word of mouth. And today, word of mouth can be perhaps the most powerful marketing tool available thanks to social networking.
"Without Twitter and Facebook, let's just say we wouldn't be where we are today. I think it's the backbone of modern day street vending. Without it it'd be very difficult to let 10,000 people know where we are. Now we can do that with the click of a button," Song said.
Many foodies willing to wait on long lines will tell you following food trucks can become somewhat addictive.
"I read a bunch of food cart blogs and follow a bunch of them on Twitter. I try to eat at one every couple of days it's the best meal you're going to get for under ten bucks in the city," said one food cart fan.
"The fact that you can get a specific type of food at this truck it's like a real restaurant it's awesome," said another.
Following your favorite trucks even more simple thanks to a growing number of mobile phone apps that tell you the locations of many, if not all, of the specialty food trucks parked near where your mouth will become chow time.