Just what do all those food trucks mean for Los Angeles culture?

March 24, 2011 5 AM PT

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If you’ve partaken from any of the groovy new food trucks roaming L.A. these days, you might have wondered what effect street food is having on the culture of the city.

Evan Kleiman, restaurateur and host of KCRW’s ‘Good Food,’ has organized a panel discussion on May 1 at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica about just that topic. She will be joined by Gustavo Arellano of the O.C. Weekly, and two guests via Skype: Lelsley Tellez from Mexico City and Robyn Eckhardt from Kuala Lumpur.

Tellez runs Eat Mexico, which offers tours of Mexico City’s street food and markets. And Eckhardt is a writer and former food editor at Time Out Kuala Lumpur.

No conversation about street food would be worth much without some food, of course. On hand will be several food trucks, including Mariscos Jalisco, Let’s Be Frank, India Jones, Piaggio Gourmet and Nom Nom.

Tickets are on sale at KCRW.

-- Mary MacVean

File photo: Taking orders at the Tacos ‘El Galuzo’ Estilo Jalisco truck. Credit: Ann Johansson / For the Times

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Mary MacVean

Mary MacVean is the former Mind & Body editor at the Los Angeles Times. She’s a runner and a cook, and has worked at The Times as morning assignment editor, web liaison, food writer and copy editor. She was a national editor and writer focusing on food at the Associated Press and a features editor and a columnist in Moscow, where she also ran a children’s cooking school. She left The Times in 2015.