My hunt for lunch wagons

When we decided that a lunch wagon round-up would make a good cover story for TGIF, we knew it was going to take some time — and a whole lot of driving around the island, eyes peeled for parked trucks that might be selling some kind of food.

Over the course of a few months, I, and whomever I could cajole into going with me, circled this rock looking for the 309 lunch wagons that are allegedly in operation. (That stat comes courtesy of the Department of Health, which issues the food permits for lunch wagons.)

I can say this for sure: I didn’t find 300 wagons. Not even close. But I did find out a bunch of other things, like…

• I’m a wimp: It’s possible to make yourself car sick, even when you’re the one driving. How?  By driving up and down every street in Kalihi looking for lunch wagons.  Neck craning + frequent sharp turns = nausea. And when you feel like that, the last thing you want to encounter is a lunch wagon!

• I can’t go it alone: Next time I go on a quest for something as elusive as a parked truck, I’m taking people with me every time. Driving while trying to spot lunch wagons is hard! Not to mention a little bit dangerous and a LOT annoying to the people stuck behind me while I drive at granny speed and do that lost tourist thing: pulling over to get your bearings even if it means causing a 14-car pile-up. Yeah, I did it. I’m not proud of it, but at least I can blame it on work.

• I can’t trust my own eyes: A parked truck does not a lunch wagon make. I’m embarrassed to say how many times I came screeching to a halt in front of a parked truck on some back road somewhere because I thought it might be a lunch wagon. I even did it with a Fed Ex truck — as if the bright orange and blue exterior wasn’t a bold enough indication that I was in fact approaching a delivery guy on his morning route. Whatever. I blame it on the carsickness.

• I'm irrational: Even though I knew that lunch wagons are mobile — the ultimate moving targets — I still felt shocked and annoyed when I would arrive at a location that was supposed to house a lunch wagon (according to a website, a guide book, a colleague, my fallible memory), only to find an empty parking lot. Why it was so shocking to me that something as mobile as a truck would not stay in one place (the audacity!) is beyond me.

There are a ton of wagons out there that didn't make it into this round-up, and I'd like to know about them. What are your favorite mobile eateries?