Concrete Playground’s Guide to Sydney’s New Food Truck Fleet

Street food is something most Sydney-siders have only previously understood as a kebab purchased at two in the morning and eaten gutter-side under flickering fluorescent lights. But with the eminent introduction of food trucks into Sydney's night-time economy, that idea is set to be utterly transformed. These food trucks aren't like chico rolls and hotdog stands at the cricket - they're restaurants on wheels, with a commitment to making incredible food, with all the freedom of being mobile and serving customers at random times in random places.

Back in January, the City of Sydney announced that a fleet of ten food trucks would be introduced as part of the Night Time City Policy. Food trucks are a regular feature of cities like New York, Los Angeles, London and Bangkok; places with vibrant and diverse late-night cultures which Sydney is hoping to replicate at home. Food trucks offer good food at affordable prices and at all times of the day, night and early-morning. They generate customer devotion and allow emerging chefs to present innovative food and create trends, while becoming visually arresting aspects of the urban streetscape.

The contenders for Sydney's food trucks were chosen by food experts after a selection process, which included a Masterchef-style cook-off challenge, to ensure Sydney's food trucks will be of impeccable quality. Despite the promise of a March opening there have been the usual boring red-tape issues about zoning and planning. Now they look set to be on the roads from April onwards.

To get you prepared for yummy things roaming the city's streets in the next few weeks, we've assembled all of the Sydney food trucks in one place, so you can check out what'll be on the menu and the amazing amount of creativity and innovation that's going into their creation. The City of Sydney is due to release a smartphone app any day now, which will allow you to track down the trucks from your phone, and we'll update you as soon as it's been unveiled. In the meantime, get hungry.

Agape

Agape is the food truck version of the eponymously named Botany restaurant, Sydney's largest organic restaurant and bar. Bringing the expertise and skills of their years in the restaurant, Agape is all about fresh, sustainable and organic food.

Their fruit and vegetables are sourced from farms or organic distributors, and all the meat used by Agape is bought directly from farmers and broken down by the chefs themselves, which shows a remarkable commitment most omnivores would run screaming from. Star dishes on the menu are set to include the Gundooee Wagyu Beef Meatball Spelt Pizza and the Spelt Chocolate Brownie.

Al Carbon

After five or six years dreaming of a food truck scene in Sydney, Al Carbon's Attila Yilmaz is finally seeing fantasy become reality. Al Carbon are going to be serving up soft-shell tacos true to the flavours of Northern Mexico. Instead of trying to over-complicate the ultimate street food, Al Carbon are attempting to keep it simple and stay true to authentic flavours.

Star dishes will include the Carne Asada, a traditional beef taco from the Sonora region, reinterpreted and cooked over charcoal, and the Al Pastor marinated pork tacos cooked on rotisserie, again over charcoal ('al carbon' means 'cooked over coal' in Spanish, guys). The tortillas will all be made fresh on the truck, and all produce is sourced from local businesses and market gardeners, except for the dried chillies, which come straight from Mexico.

Check out our interview with Attila and one of the girls behind Veggie Patch.

Bite Sized Delights

Traditional Maltese baked goods will be the go when you stumble across the Bite Sized Delights truck. Think old school pastry pockets and pastizzi filled with, amongst other things, spinach and ricotta, salmon and dill, cherry and apple and chocolate mousse.

Bite Sized Delights is the most enigmatic of the forthcoming Food Trucks, with a mysterious dearth of attention-hungry interviews given and not even a Facebook page to their name. Make of that what you will, but given my love of all things spinach and ricotta and my admiration for people with no digital footprint I'm anticipating impressive things from Bite Sized Delights.

Burger Theory

Burger Theory have been servicing the good people of Adelaide for some time now. As one of the pioneers of food trucks in Australia, the boys from Burger Theory know what they're doing, making sure to foster positive relationships with local suppliers, sourcing fresh local food, and keeping things simple and efficient in the narrow confines of a truck.

The burger you purchase from Burger Theory is made from 100% Coorong Angus Beef, ground by the staff themselves. The meat is served in a Breadtop bun and accompanied by either lettuce, tomato American cheese and the non-specific 'truck' sauce, or crispy pancetta, onion confit and blue cheese sauce. There's also chips, drinks and a chocolate chip cookie on the menu.

Cantina Mobil

Cantina Mobil is a Mexican food truck run by Stephanie Raco and Rode Vella, emerging from a Manly restaurant a few years back and a regular feature on the Northern Beaches since. Given that they've been operating for a few years, they're well acquainted with the challenges of cooking in a mobile outlet with fewer staff.

You might have caught them at the many festivals they help cater (they were due to show up at this year's ill-fated Playground Weekender). The Cantina menu features chilli corn - a traditional Mexican snack - as well as burritos and tacos of the soft or hard shell variety. You'll need to decide between three fillings - the chipotle beef with red cayenne chilli sauce and lime, achiote chicken slow-cooked with green jalapeno chilli sauce and coriander, or vegetarian pinto beans: not for those who fear spicy food.

Eat Art Truck

Eat Art Truck is the baby of former Tetsuya sous-chef Stuart McGill, and probably the best example of just how high-end the Sydney food trucks are intended to be. Eat Art food is set to serve affordable high-end style Korean and Japanese food with a bit of an American influence thrown in for good measure.

Food will include pickled beetroot with puffed wild rice and seeds, grilled spatchcock, kingfish ceviche and twice-cooked steak, wrapped in butter lettuce and cooked Korean ssam-style. The truck will also host a strip of canvas on one side where artists will be able to show off their work, parading it around town as the truck makes its nomadic way around Sydney.

Let's Do Yum Cha

Let's Do Yum Cha are the product of a restaurant hailing from the oft-overlooked culinary wonderland that is Marrickville. As you'd expect from their cheerful name, they're going to be offering yum cha favourites, including barbecue pork buns, dim sims, spring rolls, Peking duck pancakes and vegetarian dumplings.

Originally starting out catering corporate events, you may have sampled Let's Do Yum Cha before at music festivals and gigs around the country, where they often appear in the food stall sections. Their truck is set to be built in the style of old-Beijing with a couple of nifty twists, and will open up to a 360-degree kiosk reminiscent of the street food vendors you find in big Asian cities.

Taco Truck

The Taco Truck is a Melbourne import, and in the year since it opened down south it's gained a pretty stellar reputation. Started by Raph Rashid - the man who makes the number 1 burger in Victoria - for Beatbox Kitchen, the Taco Truck has gained a cult following for their fresh, seasonal take on Mexican street food, and many envious mutterings from Sydneysiders who've sampled their delicious goods on a visit.

The Taco Truck menu has three choices - meat, fish and vegetable. All are served in soft corn tortillas garnished liberally with salsas and special sauces, crunchy radish and cabbage sald, fresh corn chips, guacamole and a Mexican soft drink on the side if you fancy it.

Tsuru

A visit to the Tsuru food truck is going to involve a particularly difficult choice between one delicious thing and another. With a pan-Asian menu, Tsuru will be selling steamed Chinese buns with fillings like roasted duck, BBQ beef and fried chicken,and onigiri (Japanese rice balls).

Tsuru's signiature dish is called 'the PIG', essentially a piece of slow-braised and roasted pork belly sandwiched between house-made steamed buns. The head chef at Tsuru, Ellyn Tse, has for the last few years been volounteering her time cooking for Eat. Drink. Give., a not-for-profit that cooks for the city's more disadvantaged communities. With the same kind of charitable ethos at heart, the Tsuru food truck will have special days where a percentage of the truck's proceeds will go towards the Food Without Prejudice project, giving you even more reason to stuff your face with pork belly buns.

Veggie Patch

Veggie Patch is the vegetarian food truck, and arguably the most eco-friendly. Not only will the Veggie Patch truck be kitted out to look like a barn with a mural of a vegetable garden, the truck will run on vegetable oil and solar panels, there'll also be a herb garden on the roof, and all the waste will be composted.

Inspired by the 'paddock to plate' movement, the Veggie Patch truck is the joint product of TMOD's Milenka Osen and Georgie Swift and Carl Kooney from Surry Hills vegetarian restaurant Yulli's, and will be dedicated to serving up all things organic, seasonal and locally sourced. Delivering delicious vegetarian versions of classic street food, you'll be able to score yourself the Ancient Grain Veggie Burger or snack on some gluten-free chips made from potato, kumera and beetroot served with wasabi mayo or aioli. There'll also be fresh juice, organic lemonade and homemade ginger beer to wash all the wholesomeness down.

The City of Sydney recently announced the locations for the Food Trucks. Check them out here.