Food trucks in Pune

I got a chance to explore some famous food trucks in Pune. This is an account of my Pune Food Truck escapade. Before we get there, a backstory:

Some years ago,… no, I should say many years ago… in fact many, many years ago… during my high school days to be precise, I used to be infatuated with a red Herald car parked in Kalamassery junction.

Kalamassery junction, if you don’t know, is a busy junction on one of the state highways in Ernakulam and is located right in front of the Apollo Tyres factory.

Now if you are wondering what on earth a Herald car is, let me explain. In those days, if you wanted to buy a car, you had 3 choices: get a bulky, manly Ambassador; a petite, chic Fiat or a tired-looking, elderly Herald. While Ambassadors and Fiats ruled the roads, one could occasionally see a Herald sputtering along.

Now, this specific, aforementioned Herald that was parked in Kalamassery junction was quite different. For starters, it never moved from where it was parked.

It was painted bright red and had some chrome that caught your eye. And to top it all, it was a topless model. Now if you are drooling over that thought, wait till you hear this – come nighttime, this topless model turned into a topless model with great racks … of terrific street food!

Yeah, baby! I’m talking Food truck here – the earliest version of a food truck that I’ve seen in my life. Thus began my love for topless models…err… food trucks.

Cut to the present day. Since I have been living in Pune for close to a year now, and since Pune has numerous food trucks, and since I don’t have my wife here to tug me away from junk food eateries, I decided that I should visit some of these trucks to see how their food compared with that of their tyre-less counterparts.

I searched on the internet to identify a few popular ones. Here are some notes from my food trucks adventure:

Food trucks in Pune: Boston Food Truck

The first food truck I checked out was called ‘Boston Food Truck’. This was just a stone’s throw away from where I lived. A white truck with the image of a man waving an American-like flag is hard to miss.

I’d reached the spot early – around 6 pm and hence I didn’t see many customers around. The owner – Mr Anand Jamdhade – was there himself.

I ordered a chicken burger and got to talk to him.

It’d been more than two years since he opened this food truck. Before opening this truck, he was based near Boston, MA (That explains the name of the food truck).

He talked me through the construction and economics of a food truck and mentioned that the kitchen is created with 3 mm steel insides to keep away the heat (don’t ask me the physics of that).

It took him close to 17 lakh Rupees to set this one up! He is working out a franchisee model to scale.

While we were talking, a pair of hands (belonging to his helper) appeared from inside the truck and extended a basket containing the burger that I’d ordered.

The burger looked good, and I lifted the top half of the bun to see what was under the hood.

Some mayonnaise, a few tomato slices, pickled cucumber pieces and a chicken patty stared back at me. So far, so good. I put the top back, squeezed the burger and gave it a big bite.  

While I was doing this, I could hear Mr. Anand passionately describing the making of this burger. “…we ever so slightly toast the buns; just enough so that the flavours break out…” – was all I could make out before the rest of his words were drowned by my own munching sounds.

I took a few snaps of his food truck, thanked him and booked an Uber to get me to my next destination – Breaking Bread Food Truck.

Breaking Bread

Breaking Bread is a blue and orange food truck located opposite the Crossword book store in Aundh. The location looked lively, with food joints all around.

There was a small crowd lined up in front of the truck. A young man carrying a messenger bag was taking orders and collecting cash from the customers while two men were busy cooking up dishes inside the truck. The menu looked interesting, and I ordered a Piri Piri Burger.

The burger served on a paper plate, looked massive yet wasn’t big enough to contain the chicken filling.

The filling spilt out of the buns and appeared dark and spicy.

My kind of burger – I thought to myself as I tried to get my palm around the burger to lift it up. The buns were soft and juicy – all buttered up.

With one bite; the bun melted and many flavours burst inside my mouth – the salty flavour of butter, the sourness of tomato and the fieriness of Piri Piri spices, all lit up my taste buds.

Having discovered a food truck worth its salt, I left the place a happy man. That was all my stomach could handle for the evening, and hence I decided to return to the other shortlisted food trucks another day.

Burgertron

It took another week for me to get back on the food truck trail.

On a very rainy day, I took a cab to Wanowrie, where the next food truck on my list – Burgertron – was. Though located near a park and some busy streets, the place looked kind of isolated and was infested with street dogs when I got there.

I was apprehensive that the dogs would get a bite out of the buns – my burgers and mine; so I decided to wait for some time before I went to the truck. I stood on the opposite side of the road, keeping my eyes on the truck and the pack of dogs.

Once the dogs moved away, I made my way to the truck and ordered a chicken steak burger.

Shortly, the burger arrived in a basket.

Now I had to balance an umbrella, a camera, a bag and a burger. To make matters worse, the basket was just large enough to hold the burger, and there was no space to slip my fingers in to hold the burger.

I decided to do the ‘dosa style’ of eating – by breaking pieces of the bread and eating them with pieces of chicken. The burger was slightly disappointing, given its blandness.

Maybe I should have ordered some other flavour.

Food trucks in Pune: Hennys Gourmet

Now this place appeared to be the most popular among the food trucks that I read about and hence kept it for last.

Located in Wanowrie, it specializes in desserts – specifically waffles with sweet toppings. I walked from Burgertron over to the (slightly worn-out) green truck parked by the side of the road.

It was, however, closed. I had read that it opens every night at 8.30 pm. I checked my watch – it was 8.30 pm sharp. Slightly disappointed, I decided to wait for some time.

I ambled over to a café located across the street and ordered some coffee. I sipped my coffee and waited. I waited for some time, and then some more. No sign of the operators.

At around 9.30 pm, I decided that I had waited long enough. I gave a call to the Hennys Gourmet phone number that I had found online. When someone picked up, I asked:

“Hello, do you plan to open today?”

“We are already open sir”, came the response in a female voice.

Perplexed, I shot a glance at the truck. It was still dark and the windows were down.

“But..but..your truck is all dark – I don’t see anyone there”.

“Oh..oh…we don’t operate from the truck anymore. Please walk back about 450 meters, and you will see our shop”.

Dang. I quickly paid up for the coffee and walked back as directed. Sure enough, I soon came across the bright, inviting green sign of Hennys Gourmet.

The sweet aroma of freshly baked waffles filled the air. In the cold, wet weather, that aroma and the warmth emanating from the shop evoked an awesome feeling in me.

A long queue had formed in front of the store, consisting of happy people.

Children were giggling in anticipation and talking excitedly.

When my turn came to order, I decided to go for a slice of Belgian chocolate waffle and a mango one.

I had to wait a bit before my number was called. I got to the counter, and a sweet lady handed me the pieces of heaven that I had ordered.

I dug into the Belgian chocolate waffle first.

Bliss!

There are a few more food trucks that I will need to check out – Buddhas Food Palace, L’dorado, JW Marriot, Mexican Rodeo to name a few.

Maybe another day. For now, from among the ones I did check out, I think I will return to Breaking Bread and Hennys Gourmet for more.

Finally, as a closing note, I would like to mention that this assignment indeed helped me grow as a person. My waist size has increased to 38 from 36.

Now to get some new pants!

Have you tried any of these food trucks? Which one did you like best?

If you liked this article about food trucks in Pune, please check out my post about the Pune heritage walk. Here: https://sampathmk.com/pune-heritage-walk-reliving-history.