Tacos are undoubtedly the food most synonymous with food trucks. But maybe a dim sum truck on every corner is also a worthy aspiration.

Eating is believing at Memphis Dim Sum 101, the food truck Denny Law launched two years ago, serving a variety of snackable Chinese dishes: Steamed and pan-fried dumplings, potstickers, steamed buns, spring rolls and more. 

These days, you can find Law’s blue truck out multiple nights a week, often at breweries. Wednesday nights at Grind City Brewing, north of Downtown, is a good weekly bet, but the truck’s also been found this summer at a host of other breweries, such as Crosstown, High Cotton, Meddlesome and Memphis Made.

“My dim sum is good for the breweries, because it’s a snack food,” says Law, who moved to Memphis as a teen, about 20 years ago. Law conceived the truck as a hospitality management student at Southwest Tennessee Community College, encouraged by a professor to give the idea a go.

Coronavirus is wreaking havoc on restaurants again

“In the Mid-South, we don’t have a lot of traditional Asian food, and I wanted to bring it to every neighborhood, for every brewery. That was my idea,” Law, who was well prepared for it, says.

Law had worked the front of the house at Asian Palace on Summer Avenue for years, but also drew culinary inspiration from years of eating food prepared in the family kitchen.

“I saw a lot and learned a lot (at Asian Palace), but on my food truck the ideas for all of the dim sum items come from my parents,” says Law. “My dad is the main chef.”

Law’s father, Zhi Luo, is a chef at New Asia restaurant in Germantown.

“All the food comes from my and my dad’s hands,” says Law. “Most of my food truck schedule is at night time, after 4 p.m. So I will make everything during the day, using fresh meat, fresh vegetables. Everything is made fresh every day. And we cook when it’s ordered.”

On two recent visits, we found the tempura calamari a little too salty and the steamed pork buns a little too cake-y. But these are minor quibbles in a menu full of hits. 

The freshness in both ingredients and preparation was apparent in the crisp, hot vegetable spring rolls. 

Law says the large, pan-fried shrimp and chive dumplings are her most popular item, and it’s easy to see why. 

We also enjoyed the delicate pork-based Shanghai soup dumplings and Har Gow shrimp dumplings, both steamed.

Cheers for Beers: Sure, it’s a restaurant, but Boscos is also a brewery

For crunch, I don’t know of many things more satisfying than the truck’s deep fried shrimp balls, spiced ground shrimp encased in and buried beneath a nest of crisp spring roll strips. 

Most items come in groups or four or six, and you can mix and match either steamed or fried items into six-pack bundles. 

In addition to these and other types of dumplings, balls and potstickers, the truck also serves noodle soups, fried tofu and more. 

This week, you can find the Mem Dim Sum truck at Grind City Brewing on Wednesday (4-8 p.m.), at Yorkshire Liquor Store on Thursday (4-8 p.m.), at Crosstown Brewing on Friday (4-8 p.m.), at Ghost River Brewing on Saturday (3-8 p.m.), and back at Grind City again on Sunday (noon-8 p.m.). You can find them on Instagram at memdimsum101.

BBQ Tacos? The Mexico in Memphis truck debuted last month, and when I caught up with it for the first time this week, during the lunch hour at Semmes Murphey Clinic in East Memphis, it was only their fourth day out. 

In Memphis, we can turn anything into barbecue: Nachos, spaghetti, pizza, salads, baked potatoes. You got it, we’ll put some smoked pork and sauce on it. Why not tacos? 

It seems inevitable, and that’s the theme here, with “BBQ TACOS” proclaimed atop the truck and an enticing promise of combining “Memphis smoked meats” with “fresh Mexican flavors.”

As a partisan of the basic Mexican street taco, I tend to be skeptical of more adorned variations, but this is a fusion that is kept simple and makes sense, with the flavorful smoked pork highlighted, not overwhelmed, by its toppings.. 

I got the wood-smoked Mexico in Memphis pork tacos, the lead menu item, on this first visit. You can get them “Memphis style” with a mango-habanero BBQ sauce and bright cilantro-lime slow or “Mexican style,” with chipotle crema, pico, lime and cilantro. Both are tasty, but the “Memphis-style” were maybe a little more distinctive. 

Elsewhere on the menu are smoked beef tacos, shrimp tacos and other pork preparations, along with burritos, quesadillas and their own spin that ubiquitous Memphis fave, BBQ nachos. 

You can find them on Instagram at mexicoinmemphis.

Back to Court: After being dormant throughout the pandemic, Food Truck Thursdays at Court Square returned two weeks ago. 

The weekly food truck conclave at the Downtown park had been on hold awaiting a return of more office workers, and while that’s slowed down more than as expected as COVID has surged again, the plan is to continue. 

The number of trucks the first two weeks has been lower than during the pre-COVID era, with seven to nine trucks each week, but turnout has been good, with an estimate of 400 patrons for the first week back and 560 last week, per the Downtown Memphis Commission. 

And, to return to the intersection of barbecue and Mexican street food, I made it out to Court Square on the first day back, where I got reacquainted with a Memphis food truck sure shot: El Mero’s brisket quesadilla, a delicious gut bomb laced and lightened by a zippy chimichurri sauce.

Food Truck Thursday is 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Court Square Park.