The Countdown Continues January 26, 2012

Since my last post, I tallied up all the food trucks I’ve been to and figured out the grand total. It was at 92, and I decided to start counting down to 100 trucks from there. I’m happy to say I’ve since tried five more trucks, bringing me to 97. What will the final three new trucks be to bring me to 100? I do not know, but here are some details about the five trucks I visited since my last post.

Number 93 was a truck I’ve been following on twitter for awhile, but I missed their grand opening on new years day. The Blast Off! Truck was scheduled to be outside a pub in Campbell on Friday the 13th. Despite coming down with a cold, I was determined to reach 93, so my boyfriend and I drove down.

The Blast Off! Truck

Their only vegetarian options were their mac and cheese asteroids and their peach cobbler. I got an asteroid, and Kyle got an order of the cobbler. The asteroid was tasty and reminded me of Soulnese’s mac ‘n’ rolls, except smaller and 50 cents more expensive.

a mac and cheese asteroid from the Blast Off! truck

inside the asteroid

Kyle enjoyed his peach cobbler, and I had a bite and liked it as well, especially the vanilla bean ice cream on top. Again, the size was somewhat small for the price though. At five dollars, we expected the dessert to be bigger than the palm of a hand.

Peach cobbler from Blast Off!

Overall, I won’t be seeking out Blast Off! again, but I might pick up a bite if they’re at a food truck gathering, especially if they add more vegetarian options and increase their portions.

Truck number 94 was one my boyfriend visited at Milpitas Street Eats and brought back to his place for dinner. Grillaz Gone Wild is a new truck on the scene that I was excited to try. Kyle picked up a bell pepper, avocado, onion, and cheese sandwich.

Sandwich from Grillaz Gone Wild

Sadly, the sandwich left much to be desired. I expected much more flavor with all the different veggies and peppers, but it was lacking. I completely forgot avocado was on it until I researched to write this post because I barely tasted it. The bread was also mediocre and had become completely soggy in the short drive home. The fries that came with the sandwich weren’t bad, but they weren’t anything special.

On Saturday, Kyle and I ventured to not one, not two, but three different food truck events. The third one was the Project Cupcake kick off party, and I’ll write about that in a future post. For now I’m focusing on new trucks, after all Our first stop was the Evergreen Valley High School fundraiser, where about 13 trucks were parked ready to serve, rain or shine, and they experienced both.

Evergreen Valley High School fundraiser, January 21st

My 95th truck was one that has been around for awhile, Speedy Panini. I had seen them at other events but hadn’t tried them because their vegetarian sandwich included eggplant, which I’m allergic to. I had somehow missed the fact that they had a caprese sandwich as well (or maybe it was recently added to the menu?)

The Speedy Panini Truck

Caprese sandwich from Speedy Panini

I enjoyed my sandwich, especially the bread. While consuming it, a sudden downpour interrupted my meal. Everyone collectively groaned and hurried underneath an overhang.

The sudden shift to a wet event

I had already spied my 96th truck, a new truck that serves coffee and other hot drinks called Jo’ on the Go. Since the weather had made a turn for the worst, I craved something to warm me up even more. When there seemed to be a slight break in the storm, I made my way to their truck.

Jo' on the Go

Unfortunately, while I waited for my pumpkin latte to be made, the rain picked up again, and I got completely drenched making my way back to the overhang. The latte offered the perfect amount of warmth though, and I was happy to have what could possibly be my last pumpkin flavored treat of the season.

From there, we made our way to Moveable Feast. A truck from San Francisco was making its Moveable Feast debut, so my 97th truck quickly became Koja Kitchen.

The Koja Kitchen truck

Kyle and I split their vegan option, teriyaki zen. It consisted of a patty made from mushroom, soy, and other veggies with pineapple on a bun made out of rice. It was insanely yummy, especially with the addition of Sriracha. Kyle’s not usually a huge teriyaki fan, and he even enjoyed it.

Teriyaki zen from Koja Kitchen

Where will I get my 98th, 99th, and 100th meals from new food trucks? I don’t have an answer yet. I can’t think of any south bay trucks I haven’t tried that serve vegetarian options. This weekend I’ll be venturing into the city for a couple sketch fest shows, so I’m hoping I stumble upon some trucks I’ve never tried while I’m there. Stay tuned!

Three New (to me) Trucks! January 10, 2012

In the last week I’ve been to three food trucks I hadn’t been to before! The first was introduced to me when Moveable Feast posted on facebook about a vegan taco truck that always stays in the same location on Julian and 26th in San Jose. Of course, I immediately had to check this out. The next day I went there to pick up dinner for the boyfriend and me. The truck is positioned in the parking lot of a liquor store, and it even has some tables and chairs set up.

The tables set up outside Gorditas Universales

I was greeted by an informative young woman who gave me a lot of the details about the truck. Goditas Universales doesn’t have a website, facebook, or twitter yet, but they’re working on a website. All of their “meat” is meat-free (soy protein, I’m assuming), although it’s all listed on the menu as the meat it is imitating.

The Gorditas Universales menu

The burrito sizes are “regular” and “super” which, as the girl who works there said, basically means “huge” and “humongous”. They’re at the same location all the time, and they’re there Wednesdays through Sundays from 6pm until roughly midnight, although they’ll stay open later if there’s a line. Everything on the menu is vegetarian. I regret not asking her if it’s all vegan as well. There was definitely sour cream in my meal, but I don’t know if it had dairy in it or not. They have a Supreme Master sticker on the truck, which usually means vegan. I will be sure to ask when I return, which I am definitely bound to do!

I got two “regular” burritos, one chipotle chicken flavored and one fajitas flavored. My boyfriend and I shared them, switching back and forth regularly, and they were both amazingly delicious. As vegetarians, we were both so used to eating burritos with just the fillings or some tofu at the most that it was great to have them with a little something more in them. Unfortunately, only my photo from the chipotle chicken burrito came out well. (I guess the foil can still be a problem with my new phone.)

Chipotle chicken burrito from Gorditas Universales

I have a story that is also worth noting. When I finished eating, I got up to throw my trash away, and my cat hopped up on the couch because I had left some crumbs, one of which being a big chunk of fake meat. My cat scarfed it down and even licked the couch to get the last remnants of it, completely oblivious to the fact that it wasn’t real meat. He was licking his chops for awhile afterward too. In summation, Gorditas Universales is so good it fooled my carnivorous cat into thinking he was eating meat!

The second food truck I went to was actually a food cart, and I happened upon it accidentally. (I love it when that happens!) On Sunday, my mom and I ventured into the city to see Shen Yun at the Opera House. The grandmother of one of my students from last school year had bought us tickets, so we made a day of it. When we came out of the Civic Center BART station, we were greeted by the Heart of the City Farmers Market. This immediately made me wonder if any food trucks would be around, and I whipped out my phone and used one of my many food truck apps to figure out that Onigilly was there. Before long, I hunted the cart down.

The Onigilly cart

Since I had already eaten lunch, I just wanted a quick bite of something small. I had some choices since there was more than one vegetarian option on the menu.

The Onigilly menu

I settled on the hijiki, and I was happy with my decision. It was similar to sushi, of course. I also added extra soy sauce and sriracha

Hijiki rice ball from Onigilly

My third and final food truck was just visited today! I first heard about ChowBow from Food Truck Nerd a few weeks ago. After viewing their menu and all the veg options on their website, I was determined to check them out. Food Truck Nerd said they were at the same location ever day on Freedom Circle in Santa Clara, but I think they might skip Fridays. I tried on two different Fridays, and they weren’t there. However, the third time was the charm. Today I subbed a half day, so I was able to do some daytime truckin’. I headed to Freedom Circle, and lo and behold, there ChowBow was!

The ChowBow truck

One of the (many) unique things about ChowBow is that their food is served buffet style, so you actually get to step into the truck to grab the food you want. Then it is weighed on a scale and priced by the pound. I have to admit, being my first time stepping foot on a food truck, I was kinda geeking out over being inside one. Your first stop when you step in is a pile of to go containers located right next to the driver’s seat.

The pile of to go containers that greet you on the ChowBow truck

Next, you make your way in to see a classic buffet spread across the interior of the truck.

The spread inside ChowBow

If you walk a couple more feet and look on the other side of the truck, you see the sign that pretty much made my day.

Yesssssss!

Upon seeing the sign I immediately started dishing up just about every vegetarian option the truck carried (although I did skip the one with paneer in it since I didn’t want to take Lactaid).

The vegetarian options on ChowBow

After piling food on my plate, I went to have it weighed, and to my surprise my heaping plate only cost $6.50! And the best part? All proceeds go to charity. You can’t beat that!

Everything on my plate was tasty, and some of it was also spicy (although I couldn’t tell you which dishes were since I mixed everything together). I will definitely be back the next time I’m in the mood for some daytime truckin’ when it’s not a Friday!

With these three trucks, my food trucks foursquare list has reached 100! Don’t forget to follow if you’re a foursquare user and you want to see which trucks and truck gatherings I’ve been to. I haven’t tallied up just how many trucks I’ve been to now, but it’s definitely nearing 100 since I probably only have about 10-15 gatherings in that list. I’ll have to figure this out soon so I can celebrate my 100th truck!

Edgewood Eats in the Winter January 5, 2012

Now that colder weather has hit the bay area, some food truck gatherings have decided to take place less often. One of those gatherings is Edgewood Eats in Palo Alto. Instead of being every week, it is now held once a month on Tuesdays. On the plus side, this usually means more trucks come out each time. The strange part is that it is practically dark when Edgewood Eats takes place! This feels weird for those of us who frequented the event every week during the summer.

Edgewood Eats on December 6th

On December 6th, I went to the coldest Edgewood Eats I could remember. I warmed up quick with a tofu banh mi sandwich from Little Green Cyclo, an old favorite.

Tofu banh mi from Little Green Cyclo

I then followed it with another warm favorite, some Mac ‘N Rolls from Soulnese.

Mac 'N Rolls from Soulnese

I finished the night with some Butterscotch on the Go but somehow failed to take photos of it. Fear not, I have more Butterscotch to deliver with my second Edgewood Eats summary!

Sunset over Edgewood Eats on January 3rd

The nighttime line up at Edgewood Eats on January 3rd

My first stop at the most recent Edgewood Eats was An the Go.

The An the Go truck

It had been awhile since I had their garlic noodles with vegetable stir fry. I thought maybe after overeating during the holidays I could handle the filling dish all in one sitting. Sadly, I was wrong. I ended up having to finish some for lunch the next day, but luckily the noodles are great as leftovers as well.

Garlic noodles with vegetable stir fry from An the Go

I also noticed that they lowered their prices a tad by making it a combo if you get the noodles with something else. With the two prices added together, it used to add up to $10, but with the combo it’s only $9. Yay for lowered prices!

Since I stopped myself early once I realized I couldn’t eat all the noodles, I had room for another favorite, a small tofu taco from BBQ Kalbi.

Spicy tofu taco from BBQ Kalbi

My final stop was, of course, Butterscotch on the Go again. They had a couple new menu items and my favorite butterscotch brownie, so I had to buy three desserts (I mean, I had no choice, right?) Two of them I shared with the boyfriend the next day.

Gingerbread and butterscotch with apples from Butterscotch on the Go

The first new treat was the gingerbread with butterscotch and apples. I ate most of this while driving home and had a little bit the next day after finishing my garlic noodles for lunch. It kept very well for the next day!

The second new item (to me, at least) was the chocolate brownie. This also kept until the next day, although it was a little hard to cut through over twenty-four hours later. It reminded me of fudge and was super rich and yummy. I decided not to take a photo of the butterscotch brownie since my readers are probably sick of hearing me rave about how great those are. Seriously, I don’t think I could ever get sick of them!

Hopefully now that the winter solstice has taken place, we’ll see some more sunlight at next month’s Edgewood Eats. Is anyone else already looking forward to warmer weather for food trucking purposes?