If the guest list for your next summer soirée is as sizeable as your patio is tiny, take a page from ROAMING DRAGON, a Vancouver food truck specializing in pan-Asian cuisine: The two-year-old operation, which occupies the corner of Burrard and Robson streets and is owned by Jason Apple and Jory Simin, passes enough food through the window of its cramped kitchen on wheels to feed 500 people in a single service.
According to Apple, whose menu includes such hand-held eat-while-mingling items as pork-belly sliders, deep-fried rice balls and the refreshing chop salad featured here, his food-truck tricks can be a boon to time-pressed hosts: Specifically, "ready all of the mise en place ahead of time, but do the finishing touches – grilling, searing, plating – in front of guests," an approach that is as performative as it is practical.
After all, says Apple, the art of satisfying a hungry throng "is about so much more than just food."