Cruising along Broad Street on my classic blue bicycle - the kind that stops when you back peddle - I nearly crashed when a multicolored skull appeared beside me. It was the side of Honest Tom’s Taco Truck, providing shelter for long red-haired, blue bandana-ed, shaggy bearded Tom McCusker and his tacos.

We’ll get to his tacos later, but first, the evolution of street food.

American street grub first formally appeared in 1872… behind a horse. Walter Scott of Providence, RI packed his cart full of breakfast goods and pie to feed the hungry stomachs of hard workers tired of over-crowded cafeterias with questionable food. Luxury street food surfaced, with horse-drawn meal wagons even offering inside tables.

But in 1891, it all changed as Charles Palmer patented a food vehicle design. Mirroring the progression of the industrial revolution, horse-drawn trolleys transformed into electrically-powered lunch vehicles. Fast forward 120 years later, the food truck norm is a six-gear speedster, Tweeting and Facebooking their locations – “Open for business at ye olde Drexel University. Thirty-third and Arch,” McCusker writes - serving everything from cupcakes to curry to Bahn Mi.

And it makes sense. Low overhead and no rent allows no-longer-stay-at-home-moms and skilled home-cooks to sell more than the hot dogs or “Salt, Pepper, Ketchup” egg sandwiches – and for cheap. And when the chefs themselves are directly serving their creations to their customers, a relationship is established. You may know of the chefs at your favorite restaurants, but how often do you get to see them? To share a few words?

There’s even a Food Network show, Food Truck Wars, dedicated to food trucks, an Iron Chef-meets-Amazing Race combo mishmash hosted by Tyler Forence. And in early September, Iron Chef and restaurateur José Garces stepped out of his formal kitchen to enjoy the debut of Garces Group’s first lunch truck, Guapos Tacos.

Highlighting trucks as more than just a stomach-filling trend, Philadelphia Mural Arts Program (MAP) executive director Jane Golden sees the trucks as symbols of “the notion of journey, showing how there is dignity and wonder in people’s stories.” So, MAP has paired with independent artist and muralist Shira Walinsky to paint murals on four Philly trucks (Honest Tom’s, Koja, Candy Truck and Rami’s), to amaze and distract young ladies riding blue bicycles everywhere.

But back to Honest Tom’s.

Founded in 2009, the 29-year old Tom McCusker was initially inspired during a Harley road trip to Texas. A Drexel Hospitality Management graduate, he was enchanted by the Austin breakfast taco, and when strapped for cash upon his return, the solution was to start a taco truck.

Tom teamed with his brother, rising comedian Matt McCusker, to offer four types of tacos (breakfast, sweet potato, chicken, and Mahi Mahi) at three different locations – 33rd and Arch, Broad and Lombard, and Clark Park. The brothers make pico de gallo salsa and guacamole each morning with ingredients from Lancaster County farmers and patrons of the Italian Market.

It’s these little details, besides their being simply delicious, that have brought Tom success. One year after opening, the truck feeds as many as 300 people in a four-hour span at the Clark Park location. City dwellers rock black t-shirts emblazoned with his logo, that capricious Mexican candy skull while real Honest Tom fanatics drink out of his “Brunch is for A**Holes” mug. If the tacos can’t win people’s hearts, the Stumptown coffee, the blaring David Bowie, or the simply charming McCusker certainly will.

My favorite? Available on a toasted flour or corn tortilla, the sweet potato taco features grilled edge-blackened sweet potato topped with guacamole, pico, and melted jack cheese. Or the breakfast taco (shown left) of scrambled eggs, home fries, and Honest Tom’s house-made hot sauce. But come early; varieties sell out daily.

Sure, there are hundreds of plastic-wrapped bagel, soda, and mediocre coffee-selling food trucks in Philly, but there are also delicious, even sustainable and creative meals to be enjoyed while sitting on a curb or a bench. Honest Tom’s is just one of these. We’ll be back to highlight more.

Just returned from studies in Crete, Erica Hope is a Drexel University student and aspiring food writer. Her work has also appeared in The Triangle.

Article photos by author, "Street Chefs" photograph by Frau Mutant ia Flickr (Creative Commons), "Philly" photograph from camardella, via Flickr (Creative Commons).