Two weeks ago, the Cinequest festival was wrapping up in downtown San Jose, and many food trucks were invited to participate in the closing day celebrations. I don’t know how they did it, but somehow a few trucks from San Francisco that never venture down to the south bay made the trip for this occasion, and all of the south bay food truck followers rejoiced at the new variety.
Trucks lining First Street on the last day of Cinequest, March 11th.
Our first stop was El Tonayense, a truck I had seen listed on Roaming Hunger plenty of times but have never run into while in the city.
El Tonayense truck
I wanted to have room to try all the trucks I wasn’t used to seeing, so I just ordered a vegetarian taco, and it was a great start to my meal.
Vegetarian taco from El Tonayense
Our next stop was Onigilly. I had tried this truck once before in the city, but Kyle hadn’t. We got two onigillies: a hijiki for Kyle and an ume for me.
Hijiki and and ume from Onigilly
The ume started off like other tastes I’ve tried, but once I got to the salted plum portion there was an explosion of salty goodness. Definitely unlike anything I’ve tasted before!
Next came The Southern Sandwich Co. truck, which I had only tried the potato wedges from before. This time Kyle went all out and got a hickory smoked portobello sandwich, pepper jack mac, and Carolina cole slaw.
Hickory smoked portobello sandwich and pepper jack mac from Southern Sandwich Co.
Carolina cole slaw from Southern Sandwich Co.
Not being a huge mushroom fan, I didn’t try the sandwich. I did have plenty of the two sides, though, and they were both delicious. The slaw had a spicy bite to it that I especially enjoyed.
To complete our meal, we stopped by The Ben and Jerry’s Truck, which I didn’t know existed before this event.
The Ben and Jerry's Truck
Although I’m plenty familiar with what Ben and Jerry’s has to offer, I stuck with my determined goal of hitting up every truck possible. I got a scoop of one of my favorites, Americone Dream. (Gotta love anything Stephen Colbert related!)
Americone dream from Ben and Jerry's
Overall, it was a welcomed change to the usual trucks we’re used to seeing in the south bay. Don’t get me wrong, I love the south bay trucks, but it’s always nice to try something new!
I have also had the pleasure of trying three other new trucks to the area recently. First, Fairycakes has started making appearances at Moveable Feasts.
The Fairycakes truck
The first time they showed up at Moveable Feast, their line was huge. Dan Hugo waited in it and got a bunch of cupcakes to share for his efforts. I took a photo of the box after it had emptied half-way in crappy nighttime lighting. Although the photo doesn’t do it justice, the red velvet cupcake I had from them was delicious.
Cupcakes from Fairycakes
The next new truck I tried was one Kyle picked up food from on his way home at a Milpitas Street Eats. Truckin’ Sweet serves just ice cream now, but they will soon be serving other sweets as well. Kyle grabbed their mystery flavor, which apparently was a mystery even to the people who run the truck.
There were many different layers of different ice creams, some with chunks of nuts or berries in them. Somehow they all converged to make a yummy treat. I’m looking forward to seeing more from this truck.
Finally, a new truck was serving up at yesterday’s Moveable Feast named Chutney Mary’s.
The Chutney Mary's truck
They had two vegetarian options, and we ordered both not knowing what they were. First came the bhel papri chaat, which was a sort of Indian take on nachos.
I assumed the yellow topping was cheese, given the nachos comparison. I soon realized they were little noodle crisps and felt silly for taking lactaid. The dish consisted of many different flavors that went well together and were especially complemented by the many different chutney sauces the truck had to choose from. Kyle added a couple to our plate. The second vegetarian dish was the puchkas. These little hollowed out crispy bites wer served with a filling that had to be spooned in and then an additional watery sauce that should be added just before popping the whole thing in your mouth.
Puchkas from Chutney Mary's
We tried our best to get an action shot of how the dish is prepared. The gentlemen running the truck were very helpful with explaining the process to us, and the results were tasty as well. We got so into eating them we quickly lost track of how many we had eaten to figure out if we each had an equal portion.
