With summer in full gear, WUSF is highlighting interesting food trucks in the Tampa Bay region.
And one is a taco truck with a niche — everything they sell is 100% plant-based.
It's called The Meatless Mexican.
Paul Zampieri and his girlfriend Jodie Kurrle opened it last year. He said he's been a vegetarian for most of his life and a vegan for the last eight years. So, that's limited what he can eat at most Mexican restaurants.
Because of that, he decided to build and sell his own menu.
"Authentic Mexican carne asada, birria, el pastor, and we've taken that instead of infusing it in meat, we infuse it with soy curls, seitan and we also use a hibiscus flour as our proteins," Zampieri said.
But this unique take has naturally created a bit of hesitation from some potential customers.
"You say something vegan to the average person, they're like, 'Get away, oh my God,' but if you tell them plant-based, they're open to it because they look at it is it healthier choice. It's helping the environment," Zampieri said.
That's because eating meat does objectively hurt the environment with the amount of land and water resources it uses and the way it generates greenhouse gases. And that's coming from a carnivore — just laying down the facts.
But the pair hopes this food truck not only feeds people, but also educates and makes a positive environmental impact by not serving meat.
"If just half of Florida gave it up one day a week, we would — the impact is huge. So we're trying to promote that," Kurrle said.
But a lot of that education doesn't land if it doesn't taste good. My colleague Warren Buchholz and I went out to give these tacos the good old one-two chop combo. We first tried the carne asada. It was soy-based, gardenia asada — which means not carne. But we went ahead and gave it a shot. It tasted like a lighter, airy version of a heavy taco.
We tried others as well, and they were all really good, but while we were open-minded to it, Zampieri said that's not the case for everyone. Some have been vehemently against it.
"I don't argue with them. I just tell them, 'Have a nice day. You want to try it?' I tell them, 'Here, try it.' And then when they said, 'No, I don't want to try it.' And I say, 'What are you afraid you might like it,' " he explained.
Kurrle said those situations don't happen often, but she finds it funny when it does.
"Usually they're kind of babbling as they walk away, so we miss most of it," she said, laughing.
But overall, the two say the community feedback has been really positive. They're finding a lot of success at plant sales, yoga sessions and events about the earth — they're even setting up at a dispensary sometime soon.
"I figured, hey, plant-based medicine, plant-based food go hand in hand, and I know when you have that plant-based medicine, you get the munchies, and we had some great munchies," Zampieri said.
If you want to try out some meatless tacos and figure out where the food truck will be, you can find The Meatless Mexican on Instagram, Facebook, and its website.
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