The EggWagon

MikeElliott

God Bless America,,,, and the Green Egg.

Village Idiot

Über cool !  Where do you go, and why, with your mobile Egg kitchen?

Firemedic183

Awesomeness!!

Eggcelsior

Nice Egg-ride dude.

nolaegghead

@MikeElliot Nice setup - BBQ party on wheels. 

I keep seeing this question pop up now and then and you're probably the right person to ask.  What do you do to secure the eggs for transportation?  Pull out the fire box and ring?  Tie the lid down?  Any broken eggs or egg parts from past transportation?

Griffin

Very cool. Glad you came through with more pictures for us.

Doc_Eggerton

Very cool.  This reminds me of something I wanted to comment on.  My favorite Egg dealer used to do demo cooks and sell the food.  The Government showed up and shut them down unless they give the food away for free.

Seems food for fee requires an all powerful bureaucrat to protect us from ourselves, but free food is miraculously safe.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

amen Doc. Seems a good Samaritan can send someone to the hospital free of charge but god forbid someone make $4 off that pulled pork sammie.

Village Idiot

Doc_Eggerton said:

Very cool.  This reminds me of something I wanted to comment on.  My favorite Egg dealer used to do demo cooks and sell the food.  The Government showed up and shut them down unless they give the food away for free.

Seems food for fee requires an all powerful bureaucrat to protect us from ourselves, but free food is miraculously safe.

Anytime you sell food, you are essentially a restaurant, and you must have a license from the Health Department and probably from the State.  That's not a bad thing, IMHO.

We used to have a TV reporter (Marvin Zindler of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas fame) that used to follow the health department around on their inspections and video it.  You would not believe the filth, dead rats, roaches everywhere, employees not washing hands after going to the bathroom,  in some of the licensed establishments. The Health Department has the authority to shut them down until they get their acts together.  I am not opposed at all to health inspections and licensing.

Eggcelsior

Well that's the business of making money, apparently. A way to skirt the sudden business(goods for services) and the health department purview is to ask for "donations". As soon as you charging for a product, taxes and regulations come into play. 

shtgunal3

Awesome mobile kitchen! Is there a kegerator on board?

SmokeyPitt

I love the wagon- very cool! 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Village Idiot said:

Doc_Eggerton said:

Very cool.  This reminds me of something I wanted to comment on.  My favorite Egg dealer used to do demo cooks and sell the food.  The Government showed up and shut them down unless they give the food away for free.

Seems food for fee requires an all powerful bureaucrat to protect us from ourselves, but free food is miraculously safe.

Anytime you sell food, you are essentially a restaurant, and you must have a license from the Health Department and probably from the State.  That's not a bad thing, IMHO.

We used to have a TV reporter (Marvin Zindler of Best Little Whorehouse in Texas fame) that used to follow the health department around on their inspections and video it.  You would not believe the filth, dead rats, roaches everywhere, employees not washing hands after going to the bathroom,  in some of the licensed establishments. The Health Department has the authority to shut them down until they get their acts together.  I am not opposed at all to health inspections and licensing.

I'm not against them in any way. I'm all for cracking the whip on nasty places. It's just those places with the rats and roaches and poor hygiene rarely get closed down. An egg dealer selling pulled pork sandwiches on saturday is probably cleaner than 70-80% of the restaurants out there. If for no other reason, they just don't do the volume of food to trash a place like a commercial restaurant does.The fact is, he's still serving the food with their blessing so they aren't THAT worried about public health. I mean if it were a health concern they would not allow it right? They just want their cut. 

I totally get it though. Just 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Village Idiot

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I'm not against them in any way. I'm all for cracking the whip on nasty places. It's just those places with the rats and roaches and poor hygiene rarely get closed down. An egg dealer selling pulled pork sandwiches on saturday is probably cleaner than 70-80% of the restaurants out there. If for no other reason, they just don't do the volume of food to trash a place like a commercial restaurant does.The fact is, he's still serving the food with their blessing so they aren't THAT worried about public health. I mean if it were a health concern they would not allow it right? They just want their cut. 

I totally get it though. Just 

The problem is though, you can't just pick an choose.  Sure, the Egg dealer is probably clean, but you could put him in the same category as the Roach Coach operator that has his mobile taco stand.  Do you really want the government to elect who does and who does not need a permit?  I think not.

The Cen-Tex Smoker

Village Idiot said:

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

I'm not against them in any way. I'm all for cracking the whip on nasty places. It's just those places with the rats and roaches and poor hygiene rarely get closed down. An egg dealer selling pulled pork sandwiches on saturday is probably cleaner than 70-80% of the restaurants out there. If for no other reason, they just don't do the volume of food to trash a place like a commercial restaurant does.The fact is, he's still serving the food with their blessing so they aren't THAT worried about public health. I mean if it were a health concern they would not allow it right? They just want their cut. 

I totally get it though. Just 

The problem is though, you can't just pick an choose.  Sure, the Egg dealer is probably clean, but you could put him in the same category as the Roach Coach operator that has his mobile taco stand.  Do you really want the government to elect who does and who does not need a permit?  I think not.

Not sure I follow. they elect that now, no? And i'm totally cool with it. I'm all about food safety. Just saying they don't see this as a safety issue or they would shut it down. But you can't willy-nilly just let dudes sell food whenever they want. I get that and agree with it.

MikeElliott

I actually sell BBQ Sauce (Mike Elliott's BBQ & Grilling Sauce) so I constructed my EggWagon to do demos at the stores that carry my product. I also do Farmer and Flea Markets where I sell my sauce. The health dept. does not allow me to sell my food so I give it away as samples to sell my sauce. It is quite odd I think that the health dept. allows you to give food away but not sell it. Regardless of laws I keep my Eggwagon spotless and have a 3 compartment sink (homemade, actually jugs) where I have soapy water, sanitizer and rinse. I also keep bleach water handy for wiping things down as I cook. I'm very conscious about contamination and keep my meats separated and so forth. Thanks for your comments. Mike Elliott

chris123stock

Super awsome. Cool ride.

Cowdogs

The Cen-Tex Smoker said:

Not sure I follow. they elect that now, no? And i'm totally cool with it. I'm all about food safety. Just saying they don't see this as a safety issue or they would shut it down. But you can't willy-nilly just let dudes sell food whenever they want. I get that and agree with it.

I don't think it is that "they don't see it as a safety issue".  I think the foundation for Health Department inspections comes from the government's right to regulate commerce.  Once you remove the commerce, what's left is the equivalent of a neighborhood backyard BBQ.  Fortunately the government has no role to play in the backyard BBQs.

SmokeyPitt

The thread sort of took a health inspection turn .  I'm also curious about @Nolaegghead's question below.  Do you have to do anything to prep the eggs for travel?  

nolaegghead said:

@MikeElliot Nice setup - BBQ party on wheels. 

I keep seeing this question pop up now and then and you're probably the right person to ask.  What do you do to secure the eggs for transportation?  Pull out the fire box and ring?  Tie the lid down?  Any broken eggs or egg parts from past transportation?

caliking

@MikeElliot: that is indeed a sweet egg-mobile. Thanks for the pics.

For what its worth, I would much rather eat at a mobile setup like yours, or a taco truck (and I often do) because I can generally see how my food is being prepped. Most taco trucks in Houston (excluding the fad food trucks which are currently a la mode) are usually parked at regular locations daily. If there were any sanitation health issues, customers would know exactly where to find them. I don't care much for ambience, so my money is better spent on smaller mom and pop operations than brick and mortar restos with bigger overhead costs.