Festival of food trucks

The food truck craze has taken over public artwalks and hipster hangouts in Los Angeles and Orange counties but have remained quiet in the Inland Empire because of an existing ban. Except for special events like the one in Ontario, food trucks aren't permitted to roam the streets of San Bernardino and Riverside counties.

That could soon change.

Next month, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors will discuss whether to repeal the existing food truck ban. County staff members are working on regulations to allow food trucks here.

"I think it's a tremendous opportunity. There are a lot of customers hankering for this," said Supervisor Janice Rutherford. "It's not the role of government to stand between businesses and customers. All but two counties in the state (allow) these trucks - San Bernardino and Riverside - and we don't want to be the last one."

Some food truck owners say they would jump at the chance to enter the Inland Empire market. When asked if he would drive his Los Angeles-based truck out east, Lawrence Lie said, "We'd love to come. What's the point of having a truck if you don't drive it, right?"

Lie is co-owner of the Don Chow taco truck, which features corn tamales with Chinese barbecue pork. They call them "chimales." Their slogan - "Where Chino meats Latino."

With good food comes great slogans.

The Tapa Boy truck serves up "Filipino food on Filipino time." The truck specializing in meatballs is the Great Balls on Tires. It's "Not your typical weiner" at Dogzilla, where you can get seaweed and yakisoba on top of hot links.

Angel Mendoza of San Bernardino spent her 33rd birthday eating a grilled cheese sandwich with caramelized onions and sausage.

"It's really good," she said. "And I don't even like grilled cheese."

Mendoza said she hopes the food truck ban will be lifted soon.

"I'm all for it," she said. "You can get different flavors without going all the way to L.A."

With the help of Twitter and other social media sites, the new generation of food trucks has been able to garner a hungry following. Saturday's fare included Vietnamese bahn mi sandwiches, truffle fries, fried flan and lobster on a stick.

At Frysmith, french fries are served underneath shawarma steak and roasted poblano chiles.

Erik Cho, who owns Frysmith, said he wants to return to the Inland Empire in the future especially for special events.

"Food trucks are spreading a wider net because there are so many in L.A. They're going out farther and farther," Cho said. "We're going to San Diego tomorrow so this is a drop in the bucket."

By midday, a bit of frustration set in as the heat got more intense and the lines got longer. A shady spot with chairs was hard to find.

One truck ran out of carne asada. Another truck ran out of ice cream.

But when festivities wrapped up by 6 p.m., nobody went home hungry.