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Is This the Food Truck of L.A.'s Future?
The food truck culture that started here in L.A. has since expanded to become a country-wide phenomena, but there's always been one problem with this unique mobile culture. Unlike the hawker stands in Southeast Asia, there's usually nowhere to sit while scarfing down your gourmet street eats. Which is why this new design project by Austrian designers Ania Rosinke and Maciej Chmara is so fascinating.
The two created a movable feast using two wheelbarrows that transform into a kitchen and a dining room that seats 10 guests. Could it be the mobile kitchen of the future?
For the forward-thinking creators of Mobile Hospitality, the project wasn't so much about unique design features like a foot pump for running water or pots with growing spices, but more about creating community around food.
Says Fast Company Design:
For the designers, the carts were a chance to reinvigorate public spaces around their city--places that were increasingly overlooked in today’s eyes-glued-on-our-smartphone society. As Rosinke explains, the real joy wasn’t in designing the kitchen-on-wheels (though it does cleverly pack in room for pots and pans, a small herb garden, some burners, and cooking utensils) but in actually putting the thing to work, having a spontaneous sit-down meal with the first 10 people to cross their path.
Of course, there are setbacks in that you'll have to walk the kitchen wherever you want to go. And "Nobody Walks in L.A."