Ride for your supper

Eggjactly, at the moment, serves either breakfast and dinner or lunch and dinner, though plans to begin catering all three meals soon. Similarly, Super Sucker, currently based out of East Delhi, is scouting for locations in Gurgaon. The target audience is the yuppie diner, besides college students, though most owners agree that it’s a mixed bag that arrives. The pricing is largely competitive, with a meal for one setting you back anywhere between Rs 80 and Rs 240.

Not that food trucks are a new concept by any means in the city, even if their current format is. Street-side vans, usually in matte shades of orange and black, serving either Delhi-Chinese or chaat and all its variants, have been a ubiquitous sight for the Capital’s commuters for decades now. It all started in Vasant Kunj. “My dad, Anil, started what was probably Delhi’s first food truck in 1976, operating out a converted Dodge vehicle,” says Abhinav Narula, whose family-owned Hawkers Indo-Chinese food truck company is an indelible part of Delhi’s dining milieu. He says that it was about seven to eight years ago that the civic authorities really started creating problems for vendors. “The MCD and other bodies think that food trucks will bring traffic problems and other nuisances. Many people aren’t aware of the concept, there are no policies or regulations dealing exclusively with the format, which makes it difficult to operate, especially in Delhi. In that sense, Gurgaon and Noida are easier to navigate,” says Malik.

For Eggjactly, the next phase includes an online delivery service and an Android app, besides three more trucks within the next three months. “Since our trucks will be GPS-enabled you can use the app to track the one closest to you, whenever you’re hungry,” says Misra. So go ahead, ride for your supper.