Food truck fever
Published 6:30 am Sunday, August 9, 2026
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Yukonomist Keith Halliday
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Food trucks gather on Steele Street between Front and Second for the annual Street Eats Festival in August 2019. (Julien Gignac/Yukon News)
Ah, the good old days
Do you remember the concession at Jim Light Arena on Fourth Avenue?
They had hot dogs and all three condiments: Red, Yellow and Green
I remember always hoping they had the exotic taste of Grape Fanta in stock
Your parents could get a nice Styrofoam cup of Maxwell House coffee, with that classic four-hours-in-the-urn taste. You could take as many sugar cubes as you wanted. Then, after using the tip of the spoon to scrape the dried milk off the little holes in the can, you could add a dollop of evap
This must have seemed like fat living to my grandparents, who grew up before we had a covered arena with heated dressing rooms
But a thought struck me as I strolled in the sun around the Fireweed Summer Market last week: where was Jim Light Arena’s Korean barbecue stall? I don’t remember handmade Chinese noodles or wood-fired pizza either
Was this something they only brought out after my bedtime?
Last week’s Fireweed Market had a festive vibe. It was a fine Yukon summer day
I counted 19 bustling food trucks or stalls, and 13 establishments for snacks; one was already sold out
Eager customers chatted in line-ups, while early birds who snagged a picnic table dined in the warm northern sun
I soaked in the variety of food choices. For me and my peewee hockey team mates at Jim Light, there was only one kind of hot dog. We didn’t even know smokies existed
But now I could choose between fish and chips, burgers, a range of Filipino dishes, Indian cuisine, and a dozen other choices
I was tempted by Foodninja’s Spam Musubi, that delightfully unexpected fusion of Japanese, Hawaiian and Alaska Highway cuisine. But I ended up going for Azhong’s chicken scallion with noodles, which I highly recommend
I also ran into friends scurrying to stock up on food to take home, from Arctic char fillets to jams to sourdough loaves. Another couple debated the merits of croissants versus pains au chocolat
A visitor from Outside told me she was loving her fish and chips. She and her son tried the haddock and the halibut. She described it as “crispy on the outside” and “succulent” on the inside, “perfectly cooked” with good coleslaw on the side
She was a born-and-raised resident of Toronto, a large transfer-payment-generating conurbation in southeastern Canada. Asked how she compared the food truck scene in Whitehorse and her hometown, she told me that “I can’t think of one good food truck in Toronto.”
A quick check of the statistics does suggest that Toronto is sadly lagging on the food truck front. Just those 19 food trucks last Thursday work out to 0.49 food trucks per thousand people in Whitehorse. According to the Roaming Hunger food truck finder website, Toronto has a mere one eighth as many food trucks per thousand residents as we do
On the positive side for all those people whose taxes fund our northern lifestyle, they do have at least one Spam Musubi truck. They can find it at the Toronto fairgrounds, which they refer to locally as the “Canadian National Exhibition.”
Food truck aficionados tell me that Portland, Oregon has one of the hottest rubber-tire kitchen hot spots on the continent. Roaming Hunger says they have about 320 food trucks, which works out to 0.14 food trucks per thousand people
The city’s informal motto is “Keep Portland Weird,” and the dynamism of the food trucks there proves the point. The Potato Champion truck, for example, serves “PBJ Fries.” These have french fries with “house-made satay sauce and smoky chipotle raspberry jam.” You put green onions and peanuts on top
Food truck statistics are a bit unfair to Portland, which is also home to large numbers of food carts. Plus, both Roaming Hunger and my informal survey probably undercount food trucks. We’ll have to ask the Yukon Statistics Bureau to generate some rigorously comparable rolling restaurant data
Despite the crowds at the Fireweed Market, it struck me that one statistic would come in very low. Call it the food truck participation rate
Whitehorse is now reported to have 38,600 residents, and they definitely weren’t all enjoying a food-truck dinner
We only have eight Fireweed Markets left before the snow flies. And I predict you may not be lounging in your shorts and sandals at the picnic tables at the September 24 market
So I encourage you to head to Shipyard Park for dinner next Thursday. It will be delicious
Plus, it’s a great way to support our fellow Yukoners who have put all that sweat equity into their trucks and their cuisine. Food trucks can be a tough business. Some good days at Fireweed can make all the difference
Remember that if we don’t support our local culinary entrepreneurs, we might end up like Juneau. Roaming Hunger says that Alaska’s capital has just two food trucks, and no Spam Musubi at all
—Keith Halliday is a Yukon economist and a winner of the Canadian Community Newspaper Award for Outstanding Columnist. The audiobook version of his most recent book Moonshadows, a Yukon-noir thriller, has just been released
