Dec. 13, 2024

A food truck that’s getting started headed into winter hopes to draw diners with its made-from-scratch menu of “fluffy” tacos, triple-cooked fries and soups.

Friends Tanner Simpson and Suz Hoff, who worked together in Sioux Falls restaurants for several years, have started Put It in Your Mouth.

“It is a slower season,” Simpson acknowledged, “but we hope to find places with good traffic and business for lunch.”

They spent the past few months with the help of family and friends turning a fire rescue vehicle into their food truck with two fryers and an oven with a stovetop, and since it was ready to go, they decided to get it on the road now.

Recent locations have included downtown along 10th Street and the parking lots at Lowe’s and The Home Depot, and they served the crowd that gathered for Colman’s second annual Looney Lights Parade.

“Everything is fresh to order,” Simpson said.

That doesn’t mean the food will take a long time to make. With their experience in the industry, they’ve created a system to get fresh food out fast, averaging two minutes for an order, he said.

The fluffy tacos feature handmade tortillas that are lightly fried to order. They’re filled with shredded chicken, beef or pork that have been slow-roasted in the truck’s ovens, queso and fresh veggies.

Street tacos feature the same meat choices and shredded cheese instead of queso. They’re dipped in consomme for a “big punch of flavor” and finished on the grill so they “get a nice crispy outside,” Simpson said.

Simpson said he likes to study the science behind making food, and that attention to quality and flavor is found in the street fries. The potatoes are boiled and then fried twice. The technique “makes the inside nice and fluffy while crispy on the outside,” Simpson said. It also helps the fries stay crispy for “a great long time.”

“It’s a time-consuming way to do it … but the end product is definitely worth it.”

Simpson makes the seasoning for the fries, which come with a side of queso or smothered with meat, queso, pico de gallo, lettuce, taco sauce and sour cream.

Hoff created the recipes for the two soups, Cheesy Chicken Tortilla and Street Corn, which features  grilled corn to give it a smoky flavor.

When warmer weather returns, Put It in Your Mouth likely will be out six days a week, the friends said. They’ll consider bookings for festivals in the area and providing catering on a case-by-case basis.

Find locations on Facebook or Street Food Finder.