“Wherever you see the Beast, please come and try our food,” said Joan DeGoma, owner and operator of the Hungry Beast food truck in Red Deer.
With the summer season and its accompanying festivals and events just around the corner, food truck operators from all over are gearing up to serve St. Albert.
Two of those trucks, Social Scoop and Hungry Beast, both attended the city's Food Truck Inspection Roundup on April 24 to obtain their 2024 operating permits.
At the city's inspection event, fire protection officials and city safety code personnel meet with food truck operators and walk through their vehicles to ensure that ventilation systems, heating equipment, deep fryers, fire suppression systems, and more are all in tip-top condition. Make sure there is.
Sosyal Scoops is a food truck spinoff from Edmonton-based ice cream maker Yelo'd's food truck, owned and operated by Jason Wong and Ailynn Wong.
“Our ice cream is flavored with Filipino and Asian influences,” Jason says. “All the flavors are what his wife and I grew up with, and we're melding them a little bit with North American flavors.”
For example, a typical North American Neapolitan is strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate, but our Neapolitan is purple sweet potato, pandan, and [which] We liken Asian vanilla to manga, or mango. ”
Wong explained that the company introduced food trucks in 2020 in response to the pandemic.
“We needed a way to reach people where they were,” he said. “It started out as just a way to stay away from people and be able to be involved in the community, but it ended up becoming a very popular option.”
“We had a variety of different flavors than usual, and they were delicious.”
Wong said his personal favorite flavor is queso (made from mascarpone cheese and ube cake), and said Social Scoop will be installed at farmers markets throughout the summer.
Joan Degoma, owner and operator of The Hungry Beast in Red Deer, has been working in food trucks for over 10 years.
DeGoma said the limited space is certainly one of the most difficult parts of driving a truck, but he has gotten used to it over the years.
“When you’re really, really busy, you get confused,” she said. “But I get it.”
Hungry Beast offers a variety of dishes, but DeGoma said the ones that keep customers coming back are the Filipino pork buns (siopao), a dish called pancit (meaning noodles in Tagalog), and It's a barbecue skewer.
The menu hasn't changed much in the seven years that Beast has been on the road.
“People like coming back.”
DeGoma said the crew will be attending next month's St. Albert Rainmaker, as well as the Calgary Stampede, Big Valley Jamboree and several other big events in Alberta.
“Wherever you see the beast, come and try our food,” she said.
Fire Protection Officer Michael Voss told the Gazette that while the menus at Social Scoop and Hungry Beast are completely different, the safety inspections are fairly similar at both trucks, and all trucks.
“We look at all the safety factors,” Boss said. “Starting with heating and ventilation, [and] In the case of air conditioners (HVAC), we look at the vents at the top to ensure that the grease-laden vapors escape there and do not get trapped inside. There is a risk of fire. ”
“In addition to that, we want to make sure that any combustion products are coming out of the exhaust gases, so there may be burning gas appliances installed, so we want to make sure that there is proper ventilation. We want to make sure that what is being said.”
Beyond considering flammable gases and grease-laden vapors, Voss said an essential element of food truck fire safety is the fire suppression system.
Unlike common fire suppression systems such as building sprinklers, using water to put out kitchen grease fires only makes the fire worse. The fire extinguishing system is usually a chemical foam fire extinguishing system.
“There are two ways to do it [a fire suppression system in a food truck] will be launched,” the boss explained. “One is that if there is a fire, the fusible link is activated and all the flame retardant (or extinguishing agent) product gets on the surface.”
“We also have a manual pull station, and in the event of a fire, the manual pull station can be activated and extinguishing agent will also be released from the fire extinguishing system.”
Bos said food trucks have become increasingly common in recent years, so inspectors now rarely see serious safety concerns in the trucks.
“When food trucks first started becoming popular, people had the idea that they could do whatever they wanted,” he said. “So we're going to see a lot of different things. [like] Using unlisted (or unregulated) equipment.have a barbecue [with] One of these has charcoal briquettes or something like that in it. No fire extinguishing equipment. [and] Lack of proper ventilation. ”
“We've seen a lot of different things, and we can honestly say pretty safely that it's behind us.”
In total, only three trucks were registered at the city's inspection event this year, but Boss said the city is likely issuing permits based on inspections completed in Strathcona County and Edmonton, and that the county will He said this may be because the company held its own testing event.
“Strathcona County, we fully embrace testing,” Boss said. “We want people to come here or to Strathcona or Edmonton and get approved, and then we'll be happy to go ahead and do your job. ”
“We don't want to be in the business of going to an event and telling people they have to drop off their food truck and go somewhere else.”