Paris Street Food: Taco Trucks Take Over

22nd August 2012

Gourmet tacos and Paris are two ideas that don't naturally flow together, but for travellers taking advantage of cheap flights to Paris they're likely to become a familiar sight. The latest food craze has finally hit the streets of the world's cuisine capital.

They’ve been seen on city streets from New York to Melbourne, but food trucks are a phenomenon that has been slow to hit Paris. In a city renowned for its food, and equally renowned for shying away from American-style fast food, restaurateurs were understandably dubious about meals being served out of the side of a street van. 

High Quality Fast Food

It's the high-quality angle that seems to have won Parisians over. One taco van, for instance, serves soft-shell tacos, almost unknown previously in Paris, stuffed with such delicacies as pork carnitas and masa harina. Another food truck, selling burgers, is operated by a California-bred chef who trained in cuisine schools in France. The result is fast food that has locals and visitors alike entranced, with lines forming up to one and a half hours before the vans open.

The food trucks are part of a rejuvenation of Parisian cuisine. Travellers hopping on cheap flights to Paris, with providers such as Jet2.com, have already been stunned by the influx of gourmet burgers on Paris menus, a fad that has hit in the last couple of years. 

From cheesy crepes to mayonnaise-laden fries, Paris has long been the home of cheap and easy street food. With the introduction of upscale, English slogan-bedecked vans travelling the streets, Paris is becoming even more of an opportunity for a food adventure.