Feed Your Food Cart Fetish

Designer Jennifer Siegal, whose grandfather sold hot dogs in Coney Island, followed in his footsteps, funding her graduate degree from sales from her very own cart. Little surprise then that Siegal went on to found her own firm, the Office of Mobile Design and edited the book, Mobile: The Art of Portable Architecture. This fall, she taught a seminar exploring what she calls "the deployable free-range cuisine truck culture" at USC. Her crafty students, after a semester immersed in everything from the Wienermobile to Bucky Fuller's Ideas for Today, came up with the following "fast" food delivery solutions for the 21st century.

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Below, Scott Baik's Teppenyaki Truck turns the art of food preparation into a communal event to be enjoyed while waiting, lounging or watching sports.

The Garden Lab envisioned by Susie Loewenstein visits urban LA neighborhoods teaching and implementing skills in composting, planting, and hand-tooled construction techniques to encourage community participation.

The flexible skin of Vikki Chan's Mozzarella Mobile expands and slides open to provide space for tasting and sampling 3 varieties of mozzarella whether to sit and stay or take away.

Marcus Cheng's self-sufficient Mobile Water Truck spreads its wings to collect, filter and store rain water in exterior bladders and delivers it to people in times of crisis and need.

Jee-Ae Kim's Sushi Pod allows for private intimate dining while hovering over the urban sidewalks and admiring the sushi preparation inside the truck below.

And the Dunkin' Donuts Truck designed by Lynn Kim provides LA commuters with fresh donut and coffee delivery directly to their vehicle while waiting in traffic, all without leaving the comfort of one's vehicle.