Meals on wheels: People queue at a food truck for a quick, accessible meal. (Courtesy of Kebab Wagen)

If you want to eat out and enjoy the outdoor atmosphere, you may want to look for mobile food vendors, popularly known as food trucks.

They stand ready to serve various types of food and drink — from Indonesian and Western to Mexican, Korean or Turkish.

For some people, watching the public activities around them while eating or drinking makes for extra delight.

One mobile vendor called Tabanco Coffee offers various specialty coffees from Papua, Toraja, Java, Gayo and other regions of Indonesia.

Food trucks began to roam the streets of Jakarta in the early 2010s and experienced a boom in 2013. Although the business suffered a dip around 2016, it has since rebounded, with some 150 mobile vendors currently in business across Greater Jakarta, a significant increase from some 70 in 2015.

For Anggi, the owner of Jakarta Food Truck, the increase has been too much to cope with; she is struggling to lure customers.

“Supply and demand have become imbalanced. Frequent rain also means people are discouraged from coming,” she said.

Another vendor, Kathy has also suffered, reporting a 20 percent drop in sales.

Yet, she seems to have navigated the slow business period.

Beginning her business in 2011, she now operates two mobile vendors — Kebab Wagen and Mr. Curry Go Lucky.

“My husband and I used to eat kebab in Melbourne and when we returned to Jakarta, we did not find anything of the kind that would [appeal] to our taste. We thought, we might open an outlet, and we wanted to do it in a unique way — a food truck,” she said.

The early phase of their business saw them endure a hard time, being compelled to pay illegal levies and having to put up with sporadic evictions by the city administration.

“It was difficult to find a good public space at the time. Now, people are becoming aware of food trucks,” she said.

They now still roam the streets, but not as often as before, with the Jakarta Food Truck Community (KFJ) helping them get orders.

“We go out almost entirely on invitations by event organizers. We do not need to bother seeking a permit for [selling] locations anymore,” said Kathy, who is in charge of marketing and communications at the KFJ.

KFJ chairman Joko Waluyo said his organization, which had some 40 members, adopted one-door policy in engaging with event organizers.

“If they have complaints about food services, they may file them with us, not with the vendors,” he said, adding that the KFJ got around 20 catering invitations a month.

He said the KFJ had the duty to educate its members, given that almost 90 percent of them did not have any food and beverage (F&B) experience when starting the businesses.

Safety, he said, had become the KFJ’s main concern, given the mobile kitchen setting with cooking tools, fuel tanks and gas canisters placed in a restricted space.

“The KFJ implements high-level standards in the food truck business,” he said.

Joko, who has 30 years of culinary experience, including three years of service on a cruise ship in the United States, has chosen Mexican food as the core menu on his Road Chef truck.

Besides the need for consistency in service delivery, Kathy believes one important aspect of making it as a food trucker is devising a solid and memorable concept. She strives to communicate with her customers about the company.

A brochure of her business carries a picture of her husband Fany Hermawan, described as an award-winning, professionally trained chef with more than 15 years of experience in the F&B industry, both locally and internationally.

“He makes and develops the recipe and menu,” Kathy said about her husband’s role in their business. “As for me, I look after the operations and marketing.”

She markets her products under the tagline ‘Gourmet on Wheels’.

That means, as the brochure reads, “we provide street food that’s good for you by using only fresh, healthy and good ingredients. We also want to emphasize the major quality of our brand, the competitive advantages that set us apart from the rest.”

In a rare outing, Kebab Wagen, as Kathy said, would visit CBD Bintaro next week for a month-long stint, taking turns with fellow food truckers.

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