FOOD TRUCKS: MOVEABLE FEASTS

 Tita and Gonzalo Sandoval
 

Clyde Hedgeman, protectively cradling a $5 steak burrito the size of his forearm, looked up from painting on a layer of hot sauce just long enough to say, "These things are great!"

A few minutes later, Hedgeman was back in the cab of his ABF Freight truck and headed home to Southern California, a smile on his face, beans on his chin.

For more than a decade, the Diamond Bar trucker has been stopping at least three times a week at Tita's pupuseria truck, parked on Tracy Avenue, near the intersection of Interstate 5 and Highway 58.

"Ever since they opened; every time I drive by."

Surrounded by gas stations, convenience stores and just up the street from a cozy restaurant by the same name, Tita's offers tasty Salvadoran cooking, easy-on-easy-off freeway access and hospitality to truckers, tourists and townsfolk.

Judging from the line of customers on a recent afternoon and the families that filled the picnic tables outside the truck, it is apparent that Clyde isn't the only regular at Tita's.

The side of Tita's truck is splashed with a menu that includes tacos and burritos. But the standard fare appears to be pupusas -- thick, handmade corn tortillas filled with a variety of ingredients, including cheese, beans, squash and pork.

A pupusa is a traditional Salvadorian dish, which explains a lot about Tita and her husband, Gonzalo Sandoval, immigrants from El Salvador, who have supported themselves and their family and sent three kids to college by working the truck stops that line the westside interstate highways.

"My parents work so hard," said Roani Sandoval, an engineer with the city of Bakersfield. "But they love it. They love talking to people. They love their employees. Sometimes I feel it is a lot of work. And us kids gripe about it because they don't take vacations. But the food truck is a money maker."

The Sandovals seem to be typical of Kern's food truck operators. They are hard-working, middle-class folks who spend long hours in the hot kitchen of their vehicle, cooking food for hungry workers, travelers and families.

In Los Angeles and other urban areas, trucks serving up gourmet food have become the rage, with affluent customers flocking to the stops along truck routes, following their movement on Twitter.

In Kern, a gourmet truck used to park and serve customers near the Garces Circle on Chester Avenue. But county health officials believe it is no longer in operation.

Instead, the several hundred trucks that are operating in Kern County seem to park in regular locations and cater to the tastes of working-class customers. Like Tita's truck, they serve simple dishes and ethnic foods that reflect the owner's heritage.

Difficult beginning

Now in their 50s, the Sandovals moved to the United States from war-torn El Salvador as a young married couple. Initially, it was just to visit Tita's brother in Ontario. But when the violence back home escalated and their house was destroyed by an aircraft attack, they sought asylum in the United States.

The couple ended up in Kern County, with Tita washing dishes and Gonzalo working as a janitor at a truck stop on I-5. Soon Tita was waiting tables. At the coaxing of a customer, she enrolled in classes in Los Angeles, learning to cook Mexican and Salvadoran food.

The customer "asked me why I did not make my own business. There's a lot of Mexican truck drivers who would buy your food."

So after about 17 years of working for someone else, the Sandovals opened their own restaurant in Buttonwillow, near their home.

A few years later, they moved their restaurant to its present location in a former drive-in restaurant -- closer to I-5 and Highway 58, and closer to a steady flow of customers. Buying a truck, parking it at a spot down the road, and serving fast food from its window soon followed.

"It's a good life," Tita says, proudly adding that she and Gonzalo became U.S. citizens more than 20 years ago. They now employ 13 people in their truck and restaurant.

"Because of that truck, they are in the process of purchasing a (second) home in El Salvador next to my aunt's house," said Roani, explaining her parents will use the house for family visits but probably will never move back to their native home. "Family and grandkids are here."

And so are their faithful customers.

This article appeared in The Bakersfield Californian on July 21, 2012.

https://www.bakersfield.com/news/food-trucks-in-kern-a-moveable-feast/article_5d79f8a4-6dbf-5e36-9348-779f977ab377.html