MOTI ROTI

The Pakistani street food brand, founded by Tahir Shah, is probably a great fit for the food truck bandwagon. Shah expands on his plans and the sub-continental truck art he’s keen to promote:

Finally, a food truck! Tell us more?

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It’s could not be a more perfect evolution for a mobile pop-up shop to become a food truck. Our artwork and design is based on truck art which is a sub-culture in northern Pakistan. Sub-continental folk will understand ‘Horn OK Please!’ for example. These will directly translate into our trucks.

What can we expect from the menu offering and operations?

Currently we have a central kitchen and then the food goes to the pop-up shop, and it’s served very quickly. The truck is now an extension of that operational model. The menu will stay the same, but the best thing with the truck is that we can have live cooking, which is not possible with the pop-up trucks. People will finally get the roti fresh and live, and we will debut a new breakfast menu.

How do you feel about this development in the brand’s lifecycle?

It’s really exciting. I’m sure we’ll face difficulties. For example, in some places, the footfall isn’t there. But it will be a great experience and a great showcase for Moti Roti. That truck driving down Sheikh Zayed Road with wonderful truck art, with colours that cannot be missed... People will ask, what is this food concept and what are we doing, and it gives us a real visual platform and that’s what we need.

TAQADO MEXICAN KITCHEN

Taqado Mexican Kitchen general manager Timothy Hocks is usually a tough one to pin down. And when you do, he talks so fast, you need to double check what he’s said. But Hocks has finally told us more about Taqado’s top-secret plans:

Are you confirming you have a food truck?

I am confirming I do have a food truck. It’s not here, but it’s on the way.

Is Taqado partnering with anyone on this?

As of now, we are am doing this on our own. This is something we’ve been working on for around two years. We started off with an events licence and we may not be joining any of the schemes right now… we haven’t made a decision. Until the truck arrives, we’re not sure how we’re going to use it. I am, as you know, taking a more independent point of view.

Tell us about the truck?

It’s a 1968 Airstream that has been fully rebuilt from the ground up, including chassis. It was then fitted out with a hatch and everything else to be used as a food truck. It is will be branded as Taqado but it’s slightly different; it’s taken its own identity.

When do you see it launching?

If everything goes according to plan, we will probably have the truck in a little over a month. When it arrives, we will find out where other people are, what’s happened with everything else. The idea would be to get it out as quickly as possible. We haven’t decided where we’re going to launch it yet, but it will be pretty big.