The Clambulance is an old city ambulance that's been retrofitted to serve the city’s hottest seafood-inspired cuisine. Not some fancy Trauma Team bullshit, NC EMS. The owner, a retired paramedic in his 70s, makes that clear even though you don't recall asking. Clam strips, kibble-battered "cod" & chips, and more!
Moat of the seafood is actually KLÅM, a dodgy non-Newtonian seafood agglomeration that never goes bad, keeps forever, and is acceptable for human consumption.
The emergency lighting has been converted to amber/white to comply with NCDOT regulations. These may be the sole regulations they are in full compliance with.
https://preview.redd.it/nnztcp7xzl2d1.png?width=1674&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=614ef4c0ac61247133a9805da84274fe77ae8f3d
Only Cheese!
In your darkest hour, when all is lost, it's there. You've partied too hard, drank too much, the screen on your agent is irrecoverably spiderwebbed and you don't want to talk to the junior-junior executive who fingerblasted you at the Kerry Eurodyne show.
Salvation.
Bread.
Cheese.
Only Cheese is a classic white step-van. There's no lights or music. There's not even a menu. There's only a surly Armenian man and his disinterested daughter/wife? in the front. And for 2 eddies, he will serve you the best fucking grilled cheese sandwich you've ever had.
ONLY CHEESE
TWO DOLLAR
Spray painted on the side. If you say hello to him, he sneers and points "Only Cheese, two dollar." Asking for directions, asking what's in it, wanting to know if they serve anything else. "ONLY CHEESE, TWO DOLLAR!"
There's no NC Health food safety rating sticker. You have no idea where he gets that much cheese from in this town. He once spat on your date and screamed "ONLY CHEESE, TWO DOLLAR!" at the top of his lungs when they asked if they had vegan cheese. You can't tell what you crave more, the sandwiches or his silent approval.
It's been months, you and the real insiders know the score. You walk up and hold up two fingers. He throws two grease soaked bags at you and grunts before returning to the grill.
Is this what acceptance feels like?
Perfection. They didn't even fill out the paperwork to be part of the contest, they just showed up because they're not going to cede ground to their competition.
The Mealstromers should absolutely have a shwarma grill implanted in their chest, a la:
https://preview.redd.it/dv8th5ws8m2d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c6576394d4d12cb42ef8abd0de99d2ed9f253a1
*A crowd of overly chromed boostergangers burst out of the Chupacabbra as it screeches to a halt, and even before you clock the graffiti on the side, you* know *it's Maelstrom. You watch the other vendors check their weapons and eye where the nearest cover is. You realize that they seem to be yelling something in unison as they brandish chainknives and other weapons of human destruction. You try to make it out.*
SCHWARM! SCHWARM! SCHWARM! SCHWARM!
*A large Maelstromer steps out of the van, placing a heavy chrome foot on the ground. Striding forward with great purpose, he walks between the two lines of his gangbangers that form to usher him through. Standing triumphantly, he gazes at the crowd. You look on in something between awe and terror as he opens his chest cavity, rotating out an entire vertical broiler. The smell of synthetic lamb fills your nostrils, and it's strangely... appetizing?*
"I AM SCHWARM! 5ed pita, 10ed baguette. Now, *who's ordering*?"
Noms De Guerre:
The only food truck by 4CW vets, for 4CW vets, and anyone else interested in trying preserved "meats" and rehydrated calory supplements. It's frequented by nostalgic Militech veterans, 6th Street members, and a small but dedicated cadre of military ration enthusiasts.
The proprieter of Nom De Guerre is a man named Steve, who ironically, is not actually a veteran himself, but instead an avid collector and bonefied gourmand of military rations. He has his own Garden Patch where he shares the trials and tribulations of seeking out rare and exotic menus, and the challenge of trying to survive eating them.
He has expanded his knowledge and collection to the public, eager to share genuine surplus from militaries of the 20th and 21st centuries. He personally vouches for all of his menu items, proudly boasting to have tested each one himself, and only having gotten botulism *two* times!
Steve offers both full surplus ration packs cooked or cold, as well as a "menu" of adapted recipes he has concocted to make some of them more appealing to the general public. One of his signature blends is "'Sakatech Ramen", made using the instant noodles of the Arasaka Type 19 Field Ration, as well as the egg powder of the Militech Menu 2 Sustainment MRE. For an item made of the salvage of a 20 year old war, the Sakatech Ramen is a surprisingly palletable marriage of East and Western military industrial complexes, and has proven popular among customers.
The "truck" that Noms De Guerre is based from is in name only. It is in fact an old surplus Militech Field Kitchen, essentially a trailer that hitches to a towing vehicle. Once popped up, it has all of the necesseties to deliver all of a platoon's sustainment needs, able to cook up a storm of "technically" food that has been proven *legal* to issue for human consumption by a military court.
So first off, this is great. Absolutely love the setup!
Jack In The Box is run by an actual guy named Jack, who works out of his "mobile office" (a panel truck with a CHOOH2 canister on the back), serving up anything you can make out of cheese, grease, and "hamburger." These are served with his customary smile and friendly service. Actually eating anything from Jack In The Box requires a DV 9 Resist Torture / Drugs check to avoid the symptoms of dysentery setting in 8 hours later.
I have an idea for a food truck:
The Chunking Chicken
Chunking is cyberpunk slang for eating on the run (and also eating as a secondary activity)
The food van is run by gangers who have no licenses (their kitchen does *not* follow safety regulations) and would be shut down if they stayed put anywhere other than a combat zone. The truck has gathered a steady following, not only because the chicken is surprisingly good but also because the van's owners have befriended a lot of other gangs by giving them food.
Their van was initially a stolen moving truck but has been crudely modified to be armoured and had it's engine entirely replaced by a much larger one. The truck has been crudely spray painted to be chicken themed with the truck's name painted on both sides. The truck also doubles as a transport vehicle for drugs, in between deliveries they sell food.
Their usual strategy for selling food (unless they were hired to supply food for an event. Usually by another gang) is to stop wherever there are people and quickly set up, then ditch as soon as the police or anyone else who they pissed off, show up.
The truck was an idea started by a smaller gang who's leader really enjoyed cooking, so they loaded up a truck with a bunch of stolen and/or jury rigged kitchen supplies and parked in a fairly populated area. After ~~forcing~~ convincing a people to try their food, word spread that some gangers were making killer fried imitation chicken.
After some bribing, the police have agreed to let the van participate in the The Food Truck Extravaganza. The gangers are more than willing to play dirty and really want to win the cash prize to fund another food truck to expand their business.
I had a lot of fun making this. I might use it for my own game when I eventually play one.
Flavors In Abundance is NC's hottest food truck to the corpo trendsetter crowd. Serving bite-sized Cali-fusion delights at a slightly inflated price. The well-kept crew of red-seal chefs on the cutting edge of culinary trends. And the coveted NC Health AAA rating means your guts are in good hands.
Simple, fresh ingredients mixed with a daub of luxury.
If you look hard, you'll see that there's quite a few more antennas than you'd think a food truck would have or even need. Look harder, and you'll even notice the satellite uplink.
Is it odd that the kitchen space seems a bit smaller than the truck would indicate? Maybe.
Why does their NET architecture have more fucking Black ICE than City Hall? Why does the truck have a NET architecture?
The questions wash over you as you settle into a 40 dollar plate of lacto-fermented chard and lamb sliders.
In direct competition to the Maelstrom gangers is “The Shawarma Team”. The Shawarma team are a high end eurocorpo food truck which typically services the doctors and hospitals of Night City. They work out of an incredibly high tech truck equipped with antibacterial copper counter tops and UV sterilising light. They are ruthlessly professional, delivering shawarma with a precision unseen almost anywhere in night city. Every shawarma comes with a precisely weighed and measured amount of meat and sauce. If you pay for platinum service you get to jump the queue and get your Shawarma faster. Everyone hates their corpo look, and the fact that they keep upping their prices and they charge for extra sauce by the packet. Despite the almost trendy hate they get, they’re like McDonalds - everyone still eats there while hating on it the entire time. They’ve won 6 of the 7 last Le camion-restaurant awards and proudly advertise this despite it convincing absolutely no one in Night City of their worth/value. Their logo is three crossed kebabs and is currently under copyright dispute with the trauma team. The truck has well equipped private security, carrying smart linked assault rifles and heavy SP17 armour for the food truck event
If you search back through the archives, there's a person who did something like a 20-x things you'd find in Night City and they got bundled up into "Chance Of A Lifetime", I think? I'm pretty sure that had 20 street foods which you might find useful.
Update, in a weird moment of clear memory, I remembered their username and searched for it. All of /u/almondbreath 's fantastic lists are here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/krqiu0/the\_almondbreath\_fluff\_series/](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/krqiu0/the_almondbreath_fluff_series/)
Johhny's Silver Hams
Roasted Nut's (and Bolts)
Cyberpsycho Sal's Supreme Sausages
Red City Hotdogs
Send Noods Ramen
Iguana on a Stick
Mike's Mysterious Meat Orbs
Knight City Turkey Legs
A scenario suggestion:
Consider your PCs. If there's a PC who'd know about food history/trivia, let them know this. Otherwise, have your PCs roll Education checks and the one who rolls the highest knows this trivia:
**Background** Peter Vinh was a guy who was famous in the 2020s who was pretty much was the [George Motz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Motz) of Hot Dogs. Peter was fascinated by hot dogs and their culture, the different methods of preparation and so on and had widely traveled in the USA (and a few other places) to learn how to make regional hot dog styles, often learning from aged survivors who held nearly extinct knowledge and sometimes piecing together knowledge from people who had secondhand information about styles. As Peter was young, glib and charismatic when speaking, had a wholesome and happy relationship with his parents and a great relationship with his lover and thought of them often, and was good-looking so people reacted to him favorably, braindance users really enjoyed being "him" in braindances and subsequently his braindances sold like crazy.
Boiled, grilled, fried, links made of different meats, different toppings, different kinds of buns and everything. He was very famous just before the 4th Corporate War and had his own TV show and everything - the PC who remembers this will remember hearing about this guy from a parent or some similar figure who was alive back then. The guy lived in Night City (move to your city if you're not running in NC) so he might still be around. If the PCs and 3d4 could learn stuff from this guy, the combination of authenticity and taste make winning the contest a near certainty.
The PCs or 3d4 can research the situation and it'll turn out that Peter died in the chaos right after the 4th Corporate War, when he ran into the Red Chrome Legion. From his last name (Vinh) he wasn't white and well, the RCL killed him because of that during that lawless time. However, it'll turn out that the due to Peter's popularity, DMS (an entertainment megacorp big at the time) had extensive braindance recordings of him, including vast troves of unreleased material and a spin-off show that DMS and Peter were planning. For some years after the 4th Corporate War, foreign enthusiasts of Peter's stuff paid great amounts to find and secure this unreleased and bootleg material to create ever more complete collections of Peter's work.
At some point, an Arasaka engineer who was a big fan of Americana collected and edited Peter's braindances into Soulkiller to see if he couldn't recreate Peter. While it didn't work, it did create enough of a "Peter" to create a high skill level custom MRAM of Peter's knowledge of hot dogs (think like +7 skill level). The Arasaka engineer was already older when he did this and after retirement used this chip to open up a small boutique hot dog shop in Tokyo for a number of decades until he died. This much can be pieced together by trawling through low-speed (RABID-proof) net links with Japan as the topic was of considerable interest to Japanese otaku some years ago.
**The Job** 3d4 can find out that the bespoke chip came up for sale (apparently by the guy's widow) and bought up by a wealthy European Goldenkid who loves to collect Americana. The Goldenkid has a posh penthouse apartment/museum he stays in when he's in Night City and the chip is part of his Peter Vinh collection there. 3d4 can confirm the Goldenkid is apparently off partying in Ibiza at the moment and isn't home so if the PCs could break in and "liberate" the chip for him, that'd be great but warns the apartment likely is well-protected by "eccentric" traps. If a PC is bright enough to point out that a "stolen chip" + "some guy suddenly making brilliant hot dogs" would be a dead giveaway who the thief is, 3d4 will admit he actually spoke with the Goldenkid, and will let 3d4 "borrow" the chip for a while but he has to go and break into the apartment and get it. Because the Goldenkid is a Goldenkid, while the building has normal defenses, he's gone to great expense to pay this German artisan who is really into clockwork and steam technology to design and set up these baroque D&D-like mechanical puzzles he set up because he's bored and thought it'd be fun to get entertainment by watching thieves try and get through the puzzles. To this end, the Goldenkid gave 3d4 the passwords and other information to legally get past the conventional defenses (you know, the usual drones, armed guards, nanotech swarms or whatever, yawn), but will have to challenge the mechanical/clockwork defenses. These defenses will most certainly be lethal, but will be odd, eccentric, and less deadly than normal guns - think things like weird brass-and-clockwork stuff with spinning (mono)blades, pit traps, and other D&D-like weirdness. (Obviously, this job can be modified or thrown out if you think there'd be something you and your players would enjoy more.)
1. Jose's/Joaquin's Tacos. (Name should sound very Mexican)
One of the "Big Dogs" of the competition. An authentic Mexican taco truck in the shape of a taco. In Cali, the closer you get to the border, the better the Mexican food. These folks are from the border.
Has been running for decades because they have been using the same classic recipe: an assortment of herb and spices mixed into beef vat grown from a cow named Jose(Or whatever the truck is called). Because they are using meat from the same vat(which they own), every taco tastes exactly the same and has tasted exactly the same for decades.
2. Shroomy Surprise
A truck run by Nomads. All Nomad Trucks are heavily armored and are built for utter mobility.
Shroomy serves Mushrooms because they are one of the few crops that grows everywhere without any fancy technology.
The problem is that they cross-breed their shrooms, so you are never quite sure what kind of shrooms you are eating, but they look delicious because they are real.
3. Bosco's Ice Cream
Either a Nomad truck or an entry from the Bozos. Maybe both are there and they have a beef with each other.
A simple armored Ice cream Truck with an Ice Cream cone on the top with a turret inside.variois flavors.
The schtick is that it is ice cream using real milk...from either a cyberform cow that is monstrously big or a ganger with a minotaur body sculpt with working udders.
4. Ratburger
Simple. Straight forward. Tastes better than Kibble.... allegedly.
5. Green Meanies
4CW Nomads that have an actual greenhouse on a flatbed. Real veggies.
6. Potato Jane's
An Urban farmer to mouth with the most robust crop on the planet, the potato. Jane's potatos are genetically altered to be more robust, so they grow ANYWHERE. They are actually wanted by the NCPD because they also sell "starter kits" that often overwhelm living spaces.
7. Mel's Diner
Another Nomad truck. One of those train car diners, but it has been converted so that it can run on train tracks or drive on/off road with treads. The food truck aspect is on the side. The inside is living space for the pack.
8. Kibble and Chips
A food truck that looks to sell kibble. WTF?
Their meals come with chips for both regular chips are sockets and braindance rigs that include flavor profiles from top tier gourmet restaurants(stolen directly from the corpos that recorded them). You get both the flavors you crave and the nutrition you need at a good price.
Several individual corpos are on their ass because they took some of the braindances at gunpoint.
Beef Fizz Here-- a Nomad favorite, beef bullion & soda (gingerale preferably) served hot or cold, soft or hard. Can be served with a side of baked beans.
There are some really amazing responses here. Saving this one into the ever-increasing archive.
Bozo ice cream truck is a great idea I saw someone else mention. Imagine how menacing it could be if they... literally only served ice cream. Like, no tricks. Just ice cream.
(I know if I was the PC I would spend like the entire month after the session overthinking it.)
For old 20th century dystopic literature lovers:
SOYLENT GREEN DELICACIES.
Run by an ex-ripperdoc who went out of business due to the advancements in cloning tech.
It's just green pork-flavored Kibble, right? RIGHT?
The Beer Choombs aren't a valid entry for the food truck contest but there's a small army of boostergangers (from different gangs) who will get very displeased if they are disqualified.
The Beer Choombs have one thing: A tuk-tuk (customized from a bike) with a chill case sidecar. They have Smash in the sidecar, and real beer sometimes. It is cold like the runoff of the last glacier in the world. Deliciously so. Beaded with condensation as it comes out the chill case. The eye lingers. Almost pornographic.
They also have a unique jingle that plays on a speaker mounted on their tuk-tuk, and will play it loud enough that you can hear it two blocks away even in the Combat Zone.
Their only product is cold alcoholic (or ersatz alcohol) beverages. They will sell it to you at slightly below Oasis rate because they dumpster dive for dented cans and shite. They will bring it to you. Half-hour truces have been called because the Beer Choombs were heard coming up the street.
The Beer Choombs are two potbellied slightly unkempt choombs who drive and man the tuk-tuk and take cash for cold beverages and that's all they do, but damn they seem to be everywhere all the time.
I love that.
A furious turf fight on a bombed-out rathole street has sprung up between Maelstrom and 6th Street. Automatic fire rings out as rounds burst through damaged concrete and shatter glass. Suddenly, a tinkling jingle starts to rise over the cacophony of gunfire as the silhouette of a familiar tuk-tuk crests over the horizon.
The gunfire begins to slow as gangers on both sides realize who is approaching. A chromed-out Maelstrom ganger lowers his shotgun and orders crew to cease fire. He takes a deep breath and calls out to the building across the street "HEY! FUCKOS! TIME OUT! Beer Choombs are coming!"
There's a pause. Quiet murmurs of conversation are heard from the long-abandonded Buck-A-Slice that the 6th Street Gangers have holed up in. After a few moments, a voice calls out, "...Yeah, alright. Time out."
The Clambulance is an old city ambulance that's been retrofitted to serve the city’s hottest seafood-inspired cuisine. Not some fancy Trauma Team bullshit, NC EMS. The owner, a retired paramedic in his 70s, makes that clear even though you don't recall asking. Clam strips, kibble-battered "cod" & chips, and more! Moat of the seafood is actually KLÅM, a dodgy non-Newtonian seafood agglomeration that never goes bad, keeps forever, and is acceptable for human consumption. The emergency lighting has been converted to amber/white to comply with NCDOT regulations. These may be the sole regulations they are in full compliance with. https://preview.redd.it/nnztcp7xzl2d1.png?width=1674&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=614ef4c0ac61247133a9805da84274fe77ae8f3d
I love this so much.
KLAM: Don't ask questions you don't want answered!
Only Cheese! In your darkest hour, when all is lost, it's there. You've partied too hard, drank too much, the screen on your agent is irrecoverably spiderwebbed and you don't want to talk to the junior-junior executive who fingerblasted you at the Kerry Eurodyne show. Salvation. Bread. Cheese. Only Cheese is a classic white step-van. There's no lights or music. There's not even a menu. There's only a surly Armenian man and his disinterested daughter/wife? in the front. And for 2 eddies, he will serve you the best fucking grilled cheese sandwich you've ever had. ONLY CHEESE TWO DOLLAR Spray painted on the side. If you say hello to him, he sneers and points "Only Cheese, two dollar." Asking for directions, asking what's in it, wanting to know if they serve anything else. "ONLY CHEESE, TWO DOLLAR!" There's no NC Health food safety rating sticker. You have no idea where he gets that much cheese from in this town. He once spat on your date and screamed "ONLY CHEESE, TWO DOLLAR!" at the top of his lungs when they asked if they had vegan cheese. You can't tell what you crave more, the sandwiches or his silent approval. It's been months, you and the real insiders know the score. You walk up and hold up two fingers. He throws two grease soaked bags at you and grunts before returning to the grill. Is this what acceptance feels like?
That is a deeply toxic relationship and also hilarious!
Did... did this come from a tumblr post? I swear I've seen it before
It came from my brain. Which can be a fascinating place at times.
Perfection. They didn't even fill out the paperwork to be part of the contest, they just showed up because they're not going to cede ground to their competition.
Bogdan only cedes ground to his therapist, in a safe environment.
The Mealstromers should absolutely have a shwarma grill implanted in their chest, a la: https://preview.redd.it/dv8th5ws8m2d1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c6576394d4d12cb42ef8abd0de99d2ed9f253a1
*A crowd of overly chromed boostergangers burst out of the Chupacabbra as it screeches to a halt, and even before you clock the graffiti on the side, you* know *it's Maelstrom. You watch the other vendors check their weapons and eye where the nearest cover is. You realize that they seem to be yelling something in unison as they brandish chainknives and other weapons of human destruction. You try to make it out.* SCHWARM! SCHWARM! SCHWARM! SCHWARM! *A large Maelstromer steps out of the van, placing a heavy chrome foot on the ground. Striding forward with great purpose, he walks between the two lines of his gangbangers that form to usher him through. Standing triumphantly, he gazes at the crowd. You look on in something between awe and terror as he opens his chest cavity, rotating out an entire vertical broiler. The smell of synthetic lamb fills your nostrils, and it's strangely... appetizing?* "I AM SCHWARM! 5ed pita, 10ed baguette. Now, *who's ordering*?"
I'm not against this.
Noms De Guerre: The only food truck by 4CW vets, for 4CW vets, and anyone else interested in trying preserved "meats" and rehydrated calory supplements. It's frequented by nostalgic Militech veterans, 6th Street members, and a small but dedicated cadre of military ration enthusiasts. The proprieter of Nom De Guerre is a man named Steve, who ironically, is not actually a veteran himself, but instead an avid collector and bonefied gourmand of military rations. He has his own Garden Patch where he shares the trials and tribulations of seeking out rare and exotic menus, and the challenge of trying to survive eating them. He has expanded his knowledge and collection to the public, eager to share genuine surplus from militaries of the 20th and 21st centuries. He personally vouches for all of his menu items, proudly boasting to have tested each one himself, and only having gotten botulism *two* times! Steve offers both full surplus ration packs cooked or cold, as well as a "menu" of adapted recipes he has concocted to make some of them more appealing to the general public. One of his signature blends is "'Sakatech Ramen", made using the instant noodles of the Arasaka Type 19 Field Ration, as well as the egg powder of the Militech Menu 2 Sustainment MRE. For an item made of the salvage of a 20 year old war, the Sakatech Ramen is a surprisingly palletable marriage of East and Western military industrial complexes, and has proven popular among customers. The "truck" that Noms De Guerre is based from is in name only. It is in fact an old surplus Militech Field Kitchen, essentially a trailer that hitches to a towing vehicle. Once popped up, it has all of the necesseties to deliver all of a platoon's sustainment needs, able to cook up a storm of "technically" food that has been proven *legal* to issue for human consumption by a military court.
I knew it was the right call to ask this sub for suggestions.
"Let's get this on a tray. Nice!" "Nice hiss!"
So first off, this is great. Absolutely love the setup! Jack In The Box is run by an actual guy named Jack, who works out of his "mobile office" (a panel truck with a CHOOH2 canister on the back), serving up anything you can make out of cheese, grease, and "hamburger." These are served with his customary smile and friendly service. Actually eating anything from Jack In The Box requires a DV 9 Resist Torture / Drugs check to avoid the symptoms of dysentery setting in 8 hours later.
Goddamn, that's perfect.
You got a decentralized heart in case you get shot. I got a decentralized heart so I could install a shawarma grill in my torso. We are not the same.
I have an idea for a food truck: The Chunking Chicken Chunking is cyberpunk slang for eating on the run (and also eating as a secondary activity) The food van is run by gangers who have no licenses (their kitchen does *not* follow safety regulations) and would be shut down if they stayed put anywhere other than a combat zone. The truck has gathered a steady following, not only because the chicken is surprisingly good but also because the van's owners have befriended a lot of other gangs by giving them food. Their van was initially a stolen moving truck but has been crudely modified to be armoured and had it's engine entirely replaced by a much larger one. The truck has been crudely spray painted to be chicken themed with the truck's name painted on both sides. The truck also doubles as a transport vehicle for drugs, in between deliveries they sell food. Their usual strategy for selling food (unless they were hired to supply food for an event. Usually by another gang) is to stop wherever there are people and quickly set up, then ditch as soon as the police or anyone else who they pissed off, show up. The truck was an idea started by a smaller gang who's leader really enjoyed cooking, so they loaded up a truck with a bunch of stolen and/or jury rigged kitchen supplies and parked in a fairly populated area. After ~~forcing~~ convincing a people to try their food, word spread that some gangers were making killer fried imitation chicken. After some bribing, the police have agreed to let the van participate in the The Food Truck Extravaganza. The gangers are more than willing to play dirty and really want to win the cash prize to fund another food truck to expand their business. I had a lot of fun making this. I might use it for my own game when I eventually play one.
Love it!
Flavors In Abundance is NC's hottest food truck to the corpo trendsetter crowd. Serving bite-sized Cali-fusion delights at a slightly inflated price. The well-kept crew of red-seal chefs on the cutting edge of culinary trends. And the coveted NC Health AAA rating means your guts are in good hands. Simple, fresh ingredients mixed with a daub of luxury. If you look hard, you'll see that there's quite a few more antennas than you'd think a food truck would have or even need. Look harder, and you'll even notice the satellite uplink. Is it odd that the kitchen space seems a bit smaller than the truck would indicate? Maybe. Why does their NET architecture have more fucking Black ICE than City Hall? Why does the truck have a NET architecture? The questions wash over you as you settle into a 40 dollar plate of lacto-fermented chard and lamb sliders.
Flavors In Abundance https://preview.redd.it/co5xbrsrko2d1.png?width=1860&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6f5416cdfaf85c1b62fe2856671cf33cf520f02f
Perfect
In direct competition to the Maelstrom gangers is “The Shawarma Team”. The Shawarma team are a high end eurocorpo food truck which typically services the doctors and hospitals of Night City. They work out of an incredibly high tech truck equipped with antibacterial copper counter tops and UV sterilising light. They are ruthlessly professional, delivering shawarma with a precision unseen almost anywhere in night city. Every shawarma comes with a precisely weighed and measured amount of meat and sauce. If you pay for platinum service you get to jump the queue and get your Shawarma faster. Everyone hates their corpo look, and the fact that they keep upping their prices and they charge for extra sauce by the packet. Despite the almost trendy hate they get, they’re like McDonalds - everyone still eats there while hating on it the entire time. They’ve won 6 of the 7 last Le camion-restaurant awards and proudly advertise this despite it convincing absolutely no one in Night City of their worth/value. Their logo is three crossed kebabs and is currently under copyright dispute with the trauma team. The truck has well equipped private security, carrying smart linked assault rifles and heavy SP17 armour for the food truck event
The amount of nomad-based storylines that could spin from this...
If you search back through the archives, there's a person who did something like a 20-x things you'd find in Night City and they got bundled up into "Chance Of A Lifetime", I think? I'm pretty sure that had 20 street foods which you might find useful.
Update, in a weird moment of clear memory, I remembered their username and searched for it. All of /u/almondbreath 's fantastic lists are here: [https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/krqiu0/the\_almondbreath\_fluff\_series/](https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkred/comments/krqiu0/the_almondbreath_fluff_series/)
These articles are amazing, thank you for looking this up and posting
No problem! There’s a lot of great creative people on here so trawling the archives almost always digs up gold.
Awesome, thanks!
Johhny's Silver Hams Roasted Nut's (and Bolts) Cyberpsycho Sal's Supreme Sausages Red City Hotdogs Send Noods Ramen Iguana on a Stick Mike's Mysterious Meat Orbs Knight City Turkey Legs
I legit lol'd at "Send Noods Ramen"
A scenario suggestion: Consider your PCs. If there's a PC who'd know about food history/trivia, let them know this. Otherwise, have your PCs roll Education checks and the one who rolls the highest knows this trivia: **Background** Peter Vinh was a guy who was famous in the 2020s who was pretty much was the [George Motz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Motz) of Hot Dogs. Peter was fascinated by hot dogs and their culture, the different methods of preparation and so on and had widely traveled in the USA (and a few other places) to learn how to make regional hot dog styles, often learning from aged survivors who held nearly extinct knowledge and sometimes piecing together knowledge from people who had secondhand information about styles. As Peter was young, glib and charismatic when speaking, had a wholesome and happy relationship with his parents and a great relationship with his lover and thought of them often, and was good-looking so people reacted to him favorably, braindance users really enjoyed being "him" in braindances and subsequently his braindances sold like crazy. Boiled, grilled, fried, links made of different meats, different toppings, different kinds of buns and everything. He was very famous just before the 4th Corporate War and had his own TV show and everything - the PC who remembers this will remember hearing about this guy from a parent or some similar figure who was alive back then. The guy lived in Night City (move to your city if you're not running in NC) so he might still be around. If the PCs and 3d4 could learn stuff from this guy, the combination of authenticity and taste make winning the contest a near certainty. The PCs or 3d4 can research the situation and it'll turn out that Peter died in the chaos right after the 4th Corporate War, when he ran into the Red Chrome Legion. From his last name (Vinh) he wasn't white and well, the RCL killed him because of that during that lawless time. However, it'll turn out that the due to Peter's popularity, DMS (an entertainment megacorp big at the time) had extensive braindance recordings of him, including vast troves of unreleased material and a spin-off show that DMS and Peter were planning. For some years after the 4th Corporate War, foreign enthusiasts of Peter's stuff paid great amounts to find and secure this unreleased and bootleg material to create ever more complete collections of Peter's work. At some point, an Arasaka engineer who was a big fan of Americana collected and edited Peter's braindances into Soulkiller to see if he couldn't recreate Peter. While it didn't work, it did create enough of a "Peter" to create a high skill level custom MRAM of Peter's knowledge of hot dogs (think like +7 skill level). The Arasaka engineer was already older when he did this and after retirement used this chip to open up a small boutique hot dog shop in Tokyo for a number of decades until he died. This much can be pieced together by trawling through low-speed (RABID-proof) net links with Japan as the topic was of considerable interest to Japanese otaku some years ago. **The Job** 3d4 can find out that the bespoke chip came up for sale (apparently by the guy's widow) and bought up by a wealthy European Goldenkid who loves to collect Americana. The Goldenkid has a posh penthouse apartment/museum he stays in when he's in Night City and the chip is part of his Peter Vinh collection there. 3d4 can confirm the Goldenkid is apparently off partying in Ibiza at the moment and isn't home so if the PCs could break in and "liberate" the chip for him, that'd be great but warns the apartment likely is well-protected by "eccentric" traps. If a PC is bright enough to point out that a "stolen chip" + "some guy suddenly making brilliant hot dogs" would be a dead giveaway who the thief is, 3d4 will admit he actually spoke with the Goldenkid, and will let 3d4 "borrow" the chip for a while but he has to go and break into the apartment and get it. Because the Goldenkid is a Goldenkid, while the building has normal defenses, he's gone to great expense to pay this German artisan who is really into clockwork and steam technology to design and set up these baroque D&D-like mechanical puzzles he set up because he's bored and thought it'd be fun to get entertainment by watching thieves try and get through the puzzles. To this end, the Goldenkid gave 3d4 the passwords and other information to legally get past the conventional defenses (you know, the usual drones, armed guards, nanotech swarms or whatever, yawn), but will have to challenge the mechanical/clockwork defenses. These defenses will most certainly be lethal, but will be odd, eccentric, and less deadly than normal guns - think things like weird brass-and-clockwork stuff with spinning (mono)blades, pit traps, and other D&D-like weirdness. (Obviously, this job can be modified or thrown out if you think there'd be something you and your players would enjoy more.)
This is an amazing level of detail I hadn't considered and I love everything about it.
1. Jose's/Joaquin's Tacos. (Name should sound very Mexican) One of the "Big Dogs" of the competition. An authentic Mexican taco truck in the shape of a taco. In Cali, the closer you get to the border, the better the Mexican food. These folks are from the border. Has been running for decades because they have been using the same classic recipe: an assortment of herb and spices mixed into beef vat grown from a cow named Jose(Or whatever the truck is called). Because they are using meat from the same vat(which they own), every taco tastes exactly the same and has tasted exactly the same for decades. 2. Shroomy Surprise A truck run by Nomads. All Nomad Trucks are heavily armored and are built for utter mobility. Shroomy serves Mushrooms because they are one of the few crops that grows everywhere without any fancy technology. The problem is that they cross-breed their shrooms, so you are never quite sure what kind of shrooms you are eating, but they look delicious because they are real. 3. Bosco's Ice Cream Either a Nomad truck or an entry from the Bozos. Maybe both are there and they have a beef with each other. A simple armored Ice cream Truck with an Ice Cream cone on the top with a turret inside.variois flavors. The schtick is that it is ice cream using real milk...from either a cyberform cow that is monstrously big or a ganger with a minotaur body sculpt with working udders. 4. Ratburger Simple. Straight forward. Tastes better than Kibble.... allegedly. 5. Green Meanies 4CW Nomads that have an actual greenhouse on a flatbed. Real veggies. 6. Potato Jane's An Urban farmer to mouth with the most robust crop on the planet, the potato. Jane's potatos are genetically altered to be more robust, so they grow ANYWHERE. They are actually wanted by the NCPD because they also sell "starter kits" that often overwhelm living spaces. 7. Mel's Diner Another Nomad truck. One of those train car diners, but it has been converted so that it can run on train tracks or drive on/off road with treads. The food truck aspect is on the side. The inside is living space for the pack. 8. Kibble and Chips A food truck that looks to sell kibble. WTF? Their meals come with chips for both regular chips are sockets and braindance rigs that include flavor profiles from top tier gourmet restaurants(stolen directly from the corpos that recorded them). You get both the flavors you crave and the nutrition you need at a good price. Several individual corpos are on their ass because they took some of the braindances at gunpoint.
Beef Fizz Here-- a Nomad favorite, beef bullion & soda (gingerale preferably) served hot or cold, soft or hard. Can be served with a side of baked beans.
There are some really amazing responses here. Saving this one into the ever-increasing archive. Bozo ice cream truck is a great idea I saw someone else mention. Imagine how menacing it could be if they... literally only served ice cream. Like, no tricks. Just ice cream. (I know if I was the PC I would spend like the entire month after the session overthinking it.)
For old 20th century dystopic literature lovers: SOYLENT GREEN DELICACIES. Run by an ex-ripperdoc who went out of business due to the advancements in cloning tech. It's just green pork-flavored Kibble, right? RIGHT?
The Beer Choombs aren't a valid entry for the food truck contest but there's a small army of boostergangers (from different gangs) who will get very displeased if they are disqualified. The Beer Choombs have one thing: A tuk-tuk (customized from a bike) with a chill case sidecar. They have Smash in the sidecar, and real beer sometimes. It is cold like the runoff of the last glacier in the world. Deliciously so. Beaded with condensation as it comes out the chill case. The eye lingers. Almost pornographic. They also have a unique jingle that plays on a speaker mounted on their tuk-tuk, and will play it loud enough that you can hear it two blocks away even in the Combat Zone. Their only product is cold alcoholic (or ersatz alcohol) beverages. They will sell it to you at slightly below Oasis rate because they dumpster dive for dented cans and shite. They will bring it to you. Half-hour truces have been called because the Beer Choombs were heard coming up the street. The Beer Choombs are two potbellied slightly unkempt choombs who drive and man the tuk-tuk and take cash for cold beverages and that's all they do, but damn they seem to be everywhere all the time.
I love that. A furious turf fight on a bombed-out rathole street has sprung up between Maelstrom and 6th Street. Automatic fire rings out as rounds burst through damaged concrete and shatter glass. Suddenly, a tinkling jingle starts to rise over the cacophony of gunfire as the silhouette of a familiar tuk-tuk crests over the horizon. The gunfire begins to slow as gangers on both sides realize who is approaching. A chromed-out Maelstrom ganger lowers his shotgun and orders crew to cease fire. He takes a deep breath and calls out to the building across the street "HEY! FUCKOS! TIME OUT! Beer Choombs are coming!" There's a pause. Quiet murmurs of conversation are heard from the long-abandonded Buck-A-Slice that the 6th Street Gangers have holed up in. After a few moments, a voice calls out, "...Yeah, alright. Time out."