Up until coming to college, I’d hardly had any experience with food trucks.

Where I come from — Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands — there aren’t any food trucks at all. I vaguely remember having a shaved ice truck that opened up for business during the summer, but I never went there so I don’t count it as one. Sure, I’d been to food trucks off island and on various travels, but I’d still only been to a hand full of food trucks in total.

When I moved to Seattle, being able to go to more food trucks was actually one of the things that I was excited for. It’s fresh food coming from a pretty cool, unique environment and it’s hardly ever extremely expensive. If I can manage to have $10 at a food truck, that’s a mighty fine meal compared to other restaurants and what I can get there for $10.

Once I finally arrived on campus and starting going to class, I learned a game-changing new fact about my campus: there were food trucks.

In the biggest square on campus, Red Square, there are three food trucks that are completely operational five days a week. Even better, my dining account card can be used at them.

There’s a tasty Hawaiian/Korean island-style place, Motosurf; a classic American, baseball-type food truck, Red Square BBQ & Hot Dawgs; and then there’s Síganos, an actual taco truck that serves food from south of the border.

Personally, the only one that I really ever go to is Motosurf. Between the Kalua pig sliders or the regular BBQ pig meal with rice and macaroni salad, I can always leave the square satisfied if I go to Motosurf.

It’s nice having fresh food that’s a little more exotic than normal placed around campus for my consumption. It’s really handy.

Well, it’s really only handy when I can manage to get some food.

Most days, whenever I walk through Red Square, there’s a line consisting of at least 50 people waiting to get food from Motosurf. Clearly, they share my same taste for food truck in the square. I only end up going to eat at the food trucks once or twice a week because the lines are just too long to wait in and I’m a busy person with shit to accomplish.

Overall, food trucks are awesome. The food I can get from there is fresher, usually comes with a good attitude, and varies so much across the board that I should never be bored with my food selection.

In the case of the ones on campus, they’re pretty damn cool too. The biggest problem is the ginormous lines and I guess it’d be nice if the individual food trucks changed up their menu slightly every once in a while.

You know, variety is the spice of life.

The Rating: 71/100

Pro: Food truck cuisine is way better than a packed PB & J sandwich and certainly more of an experience anywhere I go.

Con: Lines can seem to last forever and there’s only so much food that can fit inside the back of a truck.