In 1974, Raul Martinez was credited with opening the country's first taco truck. Selling food out of a converted ice-cream truck that he had parked outside of a bar in East Los Angeles, he eventually turned his business into King Taco, a restaurant chain with 22 locations across Southern California.
Since then, food trucks — like the Hollywood Walk of Fame and water crises — have become a feature of Southern California. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which oversees food trucks, told NPR that the city currently has 5,568 food trucks and carts.
