The city of Los Angeles submitted a proposal on Tuesday in which they would take up to 10,000 Syrian refugees on the stipulation that when they move here, they are required to create food trucks.
The demand for food trucks continues to increase all over Los Angeles, but the ideas and innovations that were once new and exciting have become old and predictable. Korean burritos and $12 grilled cheese sandwiches barely cause a stir anymore.
As has been the case over decades, many immigrants best way to make it in a foreign country with a foreign language has to been to start a restaurant bringing their local cuisine with them.
Most Angelenos have some familiarity with dim sum in Chinatown, ramen in Little Tokyo, BBQ in Korea Town, and have probably driven through Little Ethiopia on Fairfax promising to one day eat there.
But in a Pew poll conducted only .025 percent of the Los Angeles County population had ever tried Syrian cuisine.
And trying something new that nobody else has tried is one of the staple values of Los Angeles.
An influx of Syrian refugees and their cuisine would spark a food revolution not only for a new food people can brag about having tried but also the fusion possibilities with other ethnic food.
A lakhma kebab infused kimichi roll. Or a sushi Fattah. Or a $18 grilled cheese shawarma sandwich.
“It’s a win, win,” said mayor Garcetti. “They get political refuge from a country in a decade-long, violent civil war, and we get better food trucks.”