food trucks

We spent last weekend at the San Francisco Street Food Festival and didn't walk away with too much damage to our pockets, but that could be changing. According to SFoodie, the latest event to hit San Francisco is a Street Eats Benefit Gala that'll set attendees back as much as $225.

The price tag — which is awfully steep to pay for something coming out of a cart or a truck — got me thinking about what the price ceiling is when it comes to street food. What seems like a reasonable amount to pay for offerings such as banh mi tacos and caramelized s'mores? I don't think I would spend more than $12 on any single item I've ever seen come out of a food truck. Do you, like me, have a magic number?

There's a reason why food trucks have taken off as a national craze: not only are they an easy and fast dining alternative, but their flavors are also inventive and fresh. But with so many options, and many food trucks congregating in similar areas, it can be difficult to decide what to get. I know it's tough to pick a favorite — it's like choosing a favorite child — but what's your go-to when you're looking to chow down on the goods from a truck? Is there a certain food truck that's completely rocked your world?

Source: Flickr User star5112

Though he races around the country serving up alternatives to fast food as the host of The Great Food Truck Race, Tyler Florence slows things down when it comes to feeding his own kids. The Food Network veteran and father of three — Miles, 14, Hayden, 4, Dorothy, 3 — is making it easier than ever for parents to cook healthy, veggie-rich meals for their kids. I sat down with the chef to discuss his new family cookbook, Start Fresh: Your Child's Jump Start to Lifelong Healthy Eating, and learned a little more about his one family meal concept. Here are some more excerpts from our conversation:

On why he's making children's food his new mission: If you think about most baby foods, at 33 cents a portion — and that’s two different companies making a profit on top of that — you have to wonder, what kind of quality is really in that jar. I’m a dog lover, and our pet food costs more per portion than the jarred [baby] food you find at the grocery store. When we start to piece this whole thing together, we started to realize that there was a market for super-premium baby food.

On avoiding the creation of picky eaters: Dr. Alan Greene writes in my book that if you don’t introduce children to foods by the time they’re 2 or 3, there’s a syndrome to protect themselves from experiences that may harm us. So if you think about that from a primate state, that if your mother hadn’t shown you something to eat by the time you’re 3-4 years old, maybe you shouldn’t eat it . . . they look at it like it will harm them.

On sending kids to bed without dinner: Sure, [we do it] all the time. They’re not going to die. If it gets to a point where you’ve had enough of them throwing the plate on the floor, then you have to remove them from the situation. Because they’re just destroying the experience for everyone else. It's really about knowing in your heart that you’re creating a well-balanced adult, and that you’re not going to create that child that is still eating chicken fingers when they’re 16 years old.

Keep reading to see what Tyler recommends parents keep in their freezers and whether or not he's opening a baby food truck!