Where Street Food is Food Truck Food

     Friday morning early, I charged up the hills outside our apartment to the Park called Mon Repos. Famous in Lausanne as the place where the philosopher Voltaire stayed when he visited, its also home to one of the city's pools. As my summer swimming hole by Lac Leman will close in a month or so, I wanted to investigate this indoor pool.
     Uphill I can do with the hips. Downhill, with the knees, is the killer.
     I checked out the pool. It's just 25 meters.
     Wandering across the street, I chanced upon Les Loges De Gout, which is the brain-child of Julien Lerouxel. He is a chef who conducts cooking classes and trains chefs. The operation reminded me of Joi Chevalier in Austin and her Cook's Nook, so I stopped to chat.
     Turned out that all were frantically preparing for Neuchatel's three day Street Food Festival. Julien was putting together the sign for their offering:

This seemed like too delicious an opportunity to miss; after all Neuchatel has been named Switzerland's City of Taste for 2017.

     So bright and early Saturday morning we hopped a train to Neuchatel, about an hour north of Lausanne. The Festival was held in the plaza opposite the yachting basin.

     It was about 11:15, and things were just getting underway. We made a bee-line for MIAM BAO, and sampled.

Delicious!

Interesting to see the contents of the mise-en-place. What I took to be tamarind, turned out to be fig chutney. Perfection in the vegetarian bao, with the fresh goat's cheese. Fusion, but a perfect match to Switzerland's dairy products.

     Fortified, we made a tour. By now, the plaza was filling up: couples with children in strollers or on push bikes, dogs, teenagers. There must have been two dozen food trucks, arranged in three rows. Tents provided shade for tables and chairs in between the rows. 

     Many of the food trucks were converted Airstream trailers.  

     

   The converted ski-lift gondola stood out, as did its hand-pies:

          The most unusual offering was salmon, smoked on the spot:

The health department in San Francisco will never know.

     As for variety: Japanese, offering Hiroshima style chicken; Korean, offering chicken lollipops; Thai-Chinese, which is a common combination for brick and mortar restaurants here; Indian; Middle Eastern; Peruvian, offering ceviche; Two Mexican, offering tacos and churros; Vietnamese, offering what appeared to be banh mi:

Fusion Sandwich: Swiss beef on its bed of salad, with a revisited Nuoc-Mam sauce, coriander, mints and peanuts. And note the swiss potatoes to make the belgian fries.

And, of course, four trucks selling hamburgers. 

     You are probably wondering who was doing the cooking? Suffice it to say some chefs were persons of color and non-Europeans. The eaters were locals. And the food was good.