LA's first Native food truck

Auntie's Fry Bread--LA's First Native American Food TruckIn LA's culturally diverse Food Truck Culture, Native American culture has been underrepresented. Not just food trucks, but brick and mortar restaurants as well. Seeing this need, Kate Koyama and Eric Evans are opening the Auntie’s Fry Bread Gourmet Food Truck in a few weeks. According to Koyama, “Growing up in a community where fry bread is as common as hamburgers, I was surprised that a city as large and culturally diverse as Los Angeles did not offer fry bread.”

Los Angeles, CA, March 05, 2011 -- Koyama’s family has owned and operated Koyama Indian Tacos at the Little Big Horn Days Festival in Montana for over 20 years. Little Big Horn Days is a four-day festival honoring the anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. Their family recipe for fry bread and fry bread tacos (also called Navajo Tacos or Indian Tacos in different parts of the country) is a hit with both the locals and visitors every summer.

Auntie’s Fry Bread got their start last year utilizing a web 2.0 fundraising company called Kickstarter. Kickstarter is an online community where artists, filmmakers, designers, foodies, and other creative types can post a project or concept and an amount needed to realize that concept. If the community likes the idea, “backers,” or donors, will give to the project often in exchange for “prizes.”

After successfully funding their project, Koyama and Evans opened Auntie’s Fry Bread at Farmer’s Markets throughout Los Angeles and participated in festivals and special events such as the American Indian Arts Marketplace at the Gene Autry Museum. Auntie’s Fry Bread takes the traditional recipes with modern and unexpected ingredients creating what they call “Native American Fusion.” Realizing the demand for good Native American fusion food was greater than their small booth could handle, they decided a food truck would be the best way to share their food and grow their business. The Auntie’s Fry Bread truck is set to hit the road in late March, so all your Tweeters and Facebookers, get ready for Auntie’s to roll into your neighborhood soon.Comment:  Sounds like an enterprising idea. But let's recall that Americans are grossly overweight because of frybread and other fried food.

For more on the subject, see "One of the 50 Fattiest Foods" and Frybread = "Impending Doom."