Deg Thai
Lovers of international cuisine can get an authentic sampling of Asian fusion daily from Deg Thai. The Massaman beef with jasmine rice and cucumber sauce is a real crowd pleaser: it won the 2013 "Best Hot Nashville" category in the annual local Food Truck Awards, but the red and green curries pack more heat for those who really like their food with a kick. Wash it down with the Thai tea, for which Deg Thai loyalists really go wild. Be sure and check out the new breakfast treats such as house-made honey soy milk and Asian dough sticks, offered on Saturdays from 7am-9am outside Friedman's Army Navy Store. You'll also find the truck parked there for lunch every Saturday from 11am-5pm.
• Deg Thai Twitter account @DegThaiTruck for location updates and degthai.com
Biscuit Love Truck
You can't come to Tennessee without going on a self-guided tour of the best biscuits – a deep south staple – and the Biscuit Love Truck should be a stop on your itinerary. Menu items such as the East Nasty, with buttermilk-fried chicken, cheddar and sausage gravy are always delicious and filling, though sweet lovers would be wise to indulge in the Gertie, a biscuit with caramelised banana jam, house-ground peanut butter with pretzel crunch and local Olive and Sinclair chocolate gravy. There's a calendar on its website but Biscuit Love Truck is at Franklin Farmers Market every Saturday, as well as at White's Mercantile – owned by singer-songwriter and fashion entrepreneur Holly Williams, daughter of Hank Williams Jr – for a festive bluegrass brunch each Sunday.
• Biscuit Love Truck's Twitter feed @BiscuitLuvTruck for location updates and biscuitlovetruck.com
Riffs Fine Street Foods
President of the Nashville Food Truck Association BJ Lofback and his co-chef/co-owner Carlos Davis have one of the most famous carts in town. Their motto is simple: "Eat. Good. Food." Though the menu always changes, the duo keep a healthy supply of Korean BBQ tacos – the most ordered item – ready, and serve breakfast and lunch daily from Monday to Friday at Bridgestone Americas, Inc. If you can't catch Riffs while it's on the move, you can always stop by the new bricks-and-mortar Riffs Café (555 Marriott Drive) near Bridgestone and the airport, which is open from 6am to 3pm on weekdays.
• Riffs Fine Street Foods' Twitter feed @riffstruck for location updates and riffstruck.com
Crepe a Diem
Brittney Blackshear brought her mobile crepe shop to Nashville in the spring of 2013 after two years of catering and festivals in Savannah. It was an instant hit among Music City's foodies. A stint in southern France, followed by an opportunity to study under a Michelin-starred chef from Brittany, lit a fire beneath Blackshear to start her own truck dedicated to French street food (the only one of its kind in town). The Crepe Complete – an egg sunny side up with Black Forest ham, Swiss cheese and baby arugula – is a must, but you can also have your crepe with a sweet Nutella-and-banana filling for dessert. You'll find Crepe a Diem at the Franklin Farmers Market every Saturday morning, at White's Mercantile or the 12 South Farmers Market for dinner Tuesdays (4pm to 8pm) or outside the Yazoo Brewing Company on Fridays.
• Crepe a Diem's Twitter feed @crepeadiem) for location updates and crepeadiem.com
Smokin Thighs
While fried chicken is the pièce de résistance around Nashville, Matthew Carney opted to start a food truck centered upon poultry that is smoked, not fried. The result is Smokin Thighs, a meat-centric cart that allows you to choose your meat (wings, thighs or legs), style (on the bone, in a pile or on Texas toast), flavour (how hot or dry you'd like it), and any toppings or other accoutrements. Find Smokin Thighs at CHS (7100 Commerce Way, Brentwood) every other week, downtown at 150 Deaderick Street each Thursday from 10.30am to 2pm and at Corsair Distillery on Tuesday nights.
• Smokin Thighs' Twitter account @SmokinThighs for location updates and smokinthighs.com
The Grilled Cheeserie
How many kinds of grilled cheese combinations can there possibly be? Well, lots of them, as far as Crystal De Luna-Bogan is concerned. The Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef and her husband Joseph whip up a bevy of melts, patties and other comfort food, which they serve from their roaming restaurant. From a pimento mac and cheese sandwich to the Harvest Melt – brie, kale and pumpkin seed pesto with maple roasted butternut squash – you can get your cheese fix at the 12 South Farmers Market every week of the season (from May to October) from 3pm to 6pm.
• The Grilled Cheeserie's Twitter account @GrlldCheeserie for location updates and thegrilledcheeserietruck.com
Smoke Et Al
With its perfectly seasoned meat and smattering of other delicious comfort food, Smoke Et Al is one of the most popular trucks in town. It's also hard to pin down as it often gets booked out for weddings and other special events. Still, if you can find it, you'll want to line up for the Fiddler's Biscuits: dough baked with sour cream and sage, topped with shredded smoked chicken, drizzled with Tennessee wildflower honey and finished off with local green onions. Smoke Et Al can frequently be spotted driving around downtown Nashville but camps out at Centennial Park for lunch on Thursdays during warmer months and at Church Street Park every other Wednesday.
• Smoke Et Al's Twitter feed @SmokeEtAl for location updates and smokeetal.com
DoughWorks
At this create-your-own doughnut shop, you can add sauces, glazes and icings to your order, or have each creation tossed in powdered or cinnamon sugar. While the truck boasts sweet and savoury, it's the speciality doughnuts piled high with sweetness - like the Amazing Monkey (salted banana caramel, fresh banana, toasted walnuts) and the Black Cadillac (cocoa cream, crumbled brownie, powdered sugar) - that are so over the top, you can't help but crave them. The menu rotates regularly so you never quite know what you'll find on any given day.
•DoughWorks' Twitter account @doughworks for location updates and doughworksnashville.com
Bacon Nation
From the BLT to a Tennessee Taco served in a bacon shell, Bacon Nation's menu is not for the faint of heart but will keep carnivores satiated. And it only gets zanier from there, with items like French fries topped with slow-roasted ranch chicken and smothered in white queso, sour cream, tomatoes and bacon, and even a white chocolate-covered bacon dessert. Bacon Nation alternates Tuesday lunch service (beginning at 11am) between Airways Plaza (1281 Murfreesboro Park) and Grand Avenue between 19th and 20th Streets. The truck is also at the TN Tower (737 7th Avenue North) every other Thursday.
• Bacon Nation Twitter account @BaconNationNash for location updates and baconnationnash.com
Hoss' Loaded Burgers
What's a food round-up without a mention of some of the most sinful burgers in town? Hoss cooks up some fantastic and hearty concoctions, such as the Jackalope, a slab of beef filled with provolone and topped with Benton's bacon, jalapeno honey mustard and avocado. Hoss' Loaded Burgers stops at 4th and Deaderick downtown every other Tuesday for lunch.
• To find out where the truck is on other days, text "burger" to 88000 or follow Hoss' Loaded Burgers on Twitter @hossburgers and hossburgers.com
To follow all of the local food trucks in real time download the Nashville Food Trucks Association's mobile app before your trip
Kristin Luna is a travel writer and photographer. She blogs at camelsandchocolate.com
• For more information on holidays in the USA, visit DiscoverAmerica.com
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