Today, a sample of some of the vendors at this year's Taste of Chicago will be setting up in Daley Plaza. A selection of the new vendors, including Texas de Brazil, Lao Sze Chuan, Beggars Pizza and Chicago Sweet Connection Bakery, will be on hand, according to the Sun-Times, which recommends Lao Sze Chuan's Dry Chili Chicken (we'd have to agree). Though, if it actually gets to 98 degrees, going outside to hunt down inferno-chicken might not be quite as popular. more ›

It’s mid-afternoon and you’re looking for a sugar fix. Your best bet? Check Twitter to see if Flirty Cupcakes on Wheels is parked near you. With regular weekday stops around the city, there’s a good chance they’re within walking range. more ›

Good news keeps coming to Matt Maroni and the Gaztro-Wagon. No, he still isn't able to cook on the truck, but the website Foodtrucktalk.com has named Gaztro-Wagon as its "Food Truck of the Week," citing Maroni's inventive naan-wiches and his efforts in helping to lay the foundation to Chicago's food truck scene. more ›

The Belly Dog has undergone some changes since it was first introduced. more ›

Go back to spring, when word started to spread about this food truck called the Gaztro-wagon looking to do business in Chicago and owner Matt Maroni lobbied to City Council to rewrite the current legislation on the books to allow for food trucks to actually prepare their food in their rolling kitchen. Since Maroni fired his shot across the bow, the nascent steps of Chicago's street food revolution are becoming clearer by the day. New trucks are popping up seemingly by the week, although they're limited to what they can sell in part to the current food truck legislation. But cupcakes and sandwiches are often the foundation for many things, from a simple lunch to a sea change for food in Chicago. more ›

While you were drinking last weekend, former Lockwood chef Phillip Foss and his wife Kenni launched their own food truck. The "Meatyballs Mobile" is serving meatball sliders, smoked pork shoulder in a bourbon-cola barbecue sauce and chicken curry with saffron and mango chutney. The Fosses took the truck on a run through Wicker Park and Lincoln Park with little more than an announcement on twitter, to a good reception. more ›

Hot on the heels of the Jason Hammel/Bill Kim/Logan Square Kitchen pop-up restaurant a few weeks back comes news that Lockwood's Phillip Foss and his wife Kenni are taking over the kitchen at Gaztro-Wagon Sunday to give curious gourmands a sneak peek of their Foss Family Food Trucks street food concepts. more ›

Share Our Strength's Taste of the Nation, one of the biggest gatherings of chef and bartending talent this year, takes place next Thursday at the Aragon Ballroom. The annual event raises money for for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Near North Health Services and the Illinois Hunger Coalition, three organizations fighting the rise of childhood hunger in the greater Chicago area.. more ›

Was caught in a downpour on the bike leaving work yesterday that cleared up by the time we reached Edgewater. We resembled a soaking wet opossum in clinging lycra when we stopped for a bite at Matt Maroni's newly opened Gaztro-Wagon storefront (5973 N. Clark, twitter: @wherezthewagon). Kept it simple while we dripped all over Maroni's floor: a short rib naanwich and an order of plantain chips. more ›

If you keep seeing all this talk of "food trucks" and aren't exactly sure what it's about or, more likely, why there are none in Chicago and why people really want them, consider this Crain's primer video and then TOC's Street Food Now blog. [via] more ›

Every year, the National Restaurant Association releases its top 20 trends in the restaurant industry on the eve of its annual trade show (closing its run today at McCormick Place). And yet we've stopped being surprised at the disconnect between the report — with its focus on local, sustainable and nutritious foodstuffs — and the realities on the show floor with its emphasis on pre-packaged, processed food, factory farms and heavy duty refrigeration. more ›

The fight for Street Food is gaining momentum so we round up the latest news, websites, and other info that's available. more ›

If you watch television you're sure to run across the archetype of the "cool dad:" the father who stumbles into middle age futilely trying to relate or stay relevant to his kids by adopting their slang and diving head first into their hobbies only to come across as the bumbling buffoon they fear becoming most. Usually you find the "cool dad" in drug awareness commercials, but actor Ty Burrell plays the role perfectly in the role of Phil Dunphy on the ABC comedy "Modern Family." Then there's the other "cool dad," who really was cool back in the day. He smoked, drank, trolled for some strange on the weekends, probably met his wife at some boozy last call at Green Mill one Sunday morning, settled down, had kids and now allows himself a chuckle or three whenever his teenage kids act out, thinking "Yeah, I remember my first beer." more ›

Thanks largely to his win on "Top Chef Masters," Rick Bayless is riding an unprecedented wave of popularity that shows no signs of cresting soon. At present, Bayless is arguably the most recognizable chef on the planet, if not the United States, putting in 15-hour days between the kitchens of Topobolampo, Frontera Grill and XOCO. Anticipation for XOCO, Bayless's paean to Mexican street food, was already at a fever pitch before his winning "Top Chef Masters" turn with his usage of Twitter. While we were able to get in and out on XOCO's opening day — XOCO opened on the same day as the Oprahcalypse on Michigan Avenue — subsequent days haven't been so fortunate. Diners heading to Bayless's Frontera compound on Clark Street have been subjected to an average 2-hour wait time to any of the restaurants. more ›

Cities like New York, Philadelphia, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles are lauded for their street food scenes, and rightly so. Here in Chicago we have the Maxwell Street Market, the tamale men, sno cones, elotes, a couple vendors at farmers markets and the stray hot dog cart. Otherwise what constitutes street food here is sorely lacking. As with most things, city ordinances restrict what food carts and trucks can and cannot do, limiting their presence to not much more than roach coaches serving warmed and pre-cooked product. more ›

In last month's edition of The New Republic an article by Steve Pinker quoted Leon Kass, chairman of the President's Council of Bioethics (which recently published a 555-page conservative tome called Human Dignity and Bioethics), as saying of street food: more ›