Gourmet street food may sound like an oxymoron, but a new mobile business is redefining the conventional outlook on food served from a truck. Mom’s Delicious Dishes, a nascent Raleigh food truck, has quickly developed a large following, especially among the students, faculty and professionals on Centennial Campus. Ardath Church and Thao Beck, the “moms” behind Mom’s Delicious Dishes, come to Centennial Campus twice a week. The three-month-old business strives to deviate from the generic hot dog and funnel cake expectation associated with street food. ` “We want to serve hearty food that reminds the customer of comfort food,” Church said. “For instance, instead of a traditional hamburger that you can find anywhere, we serve a meatloaf sandwich.” The menu is a compilation of various comfort dishes executed with a gourmet twist. “We have macaroni and cheese, but I also add some nutmeg to give it a unique twist,” Beck, the mastermind behind the cooking, said. Additionally, Mom’s Delicious Dishes tries to use local vegetables and organic products whenever possible. Church said she goes to the farmers market daily. Freshness at Mom’s Delicious Dishes is not a hackneyed mantra but rather one of the goals of the business. “Local ingredients typically taste better and are healthier,” Beck said. Furthermore, Church and Beck still manage to keep prices affordable. A sandwich, drink and a side go for $7. “We have to manage between getting the best ingredients and the price, so we find a balance,” Beck said. “But we don’t want gouging! I’m very cost conscious, so I see what we can save in paper products and things like that so [we] don’t cheap out on the food.” The Centennial Campus stop has so far been the business’ busiest location. “We sell out every time we come,” Beck said. Even before the fall semester started, Church said Mom’s Delicious Dishes thrived at its location at 930 Main Campus Dr., near Venture II Building. “First of all, we believe that the students here are exactly our target audience,” Church said. “The other part of it is that Red Hat is so close nearby. We have an audience here that we can’t discover anywhere else in Raleigh.” Finding an audience proves to be one of the most crucial factors to the success of the mobile food business, according to Church. “In Durham there is a great truck called Only Burger, and they pretty much have all of Duke behind them,” Church said. “We want to be able to make that connection here at State.” Moreover, Mom’s Delicious Dishes is interested in coming to main campus. “We would love to be here at State for another day,” Church said. If the process works out, Church and Thao said they will come to the Brickyard on Mondays. Despite being isolated from main campus, Mom’s Delicious Dishes still attracts students that don’t study on Centennial Campus. Kyle Jones, a sophomore in nutrition, has made the trip to Centennial Campus twice. “I was pretty excited to see some of the menu items that are not very typical of street food cuisine. You can tell how they have their own little flair on normal dishes,” Jones said. “The service is great and the ladies are very lively and mom-like. My favorite is the avocado BLT.” Mom’s Delicious Dishes is not exclusive to the N.C. State demographic. Throughout the week, the truck goes to RTP, Cary Crossroads Office Park and various spots in Durham. On weekends, the women plan around community events. “We play the weekends by ear, but there is still a lot of planning involved,” Beck said. Mom’s Delicious Dishes participated in SPARKcon in downtown Raleigh last weekend and got so much business they said they ran out of side dishes within a few hours. Adam Kim, a junior in civil engineering, was downtown during SPARKcon and tried Mom’s Delicious Dishes for the first time. “The Asian barbeque chicken sandwich is really good. It was interesting, because I’ve never bought real food — besides snow cones and stuff — from a food truck,” Kim said. Church and Beck said they have put a lot of effort into trying to alleviate common suspicions about street food. “There is the term ‘roach coach,'” Beck said. “A lot of people have impressions that food trucks are dirty.” Wake County has set strong regulations to avoid the negativity associated with “roach coaches.” Church said the food truck is certified with the county and is associated with commissary. Restaurants are the most common commissaries in the food truck business and Mom’s Delicious Dishes works with Jibarra Mexican Restaurant. The main intention of the regulations is to assure that food trucks have a preparation area that is safe, sanitary and accountable. Despite being relatively new to the business, Church and Beck are confident they can continue to satisfy their customers. “We just want to serve really good food that makes people happy,” Church said. “I think everyone grew up — no matter what culture — with these types of flavors,” Beck said. Beck said her cooking style comes from a mix of various culinary influences. Beck is Vietnamese American, and this is occasionally expressed in her food. The truck’s Asian barbeque chicken sandwich is a spinoff of the famous French Vietnamese sandwich, Bánh mì. “I just cook what feels and tastes right,” Beck said.