FAQ about India Jones Chow Truck!

It's been a roller coaster ride for us at IJCT.... many parking blues, missing friends by a few minutes etc etc. But still the restaurant on wheels scene is super exciting!

As so many people are sweet and give us love and support, many people are wondering about our truck more. Cyrus at CA Taco Trucks (@catacotrucks, californiatacotrucks.com) is going to a blog entry for us and just interviewed our Chef Sumant. Might be a good read for all of us so we'll post it here :D

AND also a photo of Chef Sumant cooking at home!

1) Indian food in a taco truck? Are you serving Indian tacos? What's the deal here? Why a truck?

Our "featured" item is Indian frankie, meat or cheese wrapped in paratha. It is actually a very popular and staple street food in India. The idea of it is similar, but our frankie is an authentic Indian dish, not an "Indian" take or version of taco.

2) Do you have any regional specialties? Where is the chef from? What's his background? How'd you decide on the menu? How does real Indian street food impact what you choose to sell?

Chef Sumant Pardal is originally from a famous restaurant family in the city of Jaipur, India. He covers all regions on India but more prominently Punjabi cuisine. Some of his signature dishes include butter chicken and lamb biriyani. He's had 12 restaurants in LA so far and this being the newest venture.

Menu is designed to feature easy-to-carry street style food like frankies and also his signature dishes like butter chicken: more simply street food and curry. It is as authentic as it gets.

3) How much of an influence was the Kogi BBQ truck? How did you decide on your route? Do you have a set location/route? Being from Santa Monica, I approve of the Westside. :)

Kogi showed many restaurateurs as Chef Sumant a possibility of different style restaurants. So for that we are greatly inspired and very much motivated. The economy is said to be one of the worst times for our industry, but this whole phenomena that Kogi created has given alot of us hope.

We've only been on the road for 4 days as we speak, so we are still in the process of testing our location: i.e. parking situations etc. Chef Sumant lives with his wife and a son in Santa Monica, so that's why the West Side is our domain.

4) What's been the most surprising thing that you've learned about operating a truck? Did you buy or lease it? How much harder is it to work in a truck kitchen than a real kitchen?

We are leasing the truck. Quite a few things have surprised our chef: that truck kitchen is actually really not bad to work in, he was able to set this whole business up in 10 days (rather than in months in regular construction of a restaurant) and most of all the power of Twitter!