Stringent laws in Valley cities have made it hard for food cart culture to flourish locally, but a new group that calls itself the Phoenix Street Food Coalition is working to change that. Yesterday, the group announced its involvement with a new weekly event coming to the Phoenix Public Market, a Mobile Food Court that will open for lunch every Friday starting October 1.

Elsewhere, there's plenty of inspiration. There's a huge cluster of food carts in downtown Portland, offering everything from meatball subs to sopapillas to Thai noodles. And in Los Angeles, locals follow their favorite vendors on Twitter to see which neighborhood they're parked in at the moment. The phenomenon even has its own Food Network series, The Great Food Truck Race.