Hiller and Coupons and Soup, Oh My! July 16, 2012

Surprisingly enough, I’m writing another post less than a week after my last one. It helps that it’s summer, and it helps even more that one of the truck gatherings I went to this week I didn’t even know was a gathering until I got there! Man, I love it when that happens.

We’ll start, however, with last week’s event at Hiller Aviation. This weekly event happens every Wednesday and is put on by The Mobile Gourmet. I have known about Hiller for a few months, and during the school year I was constantly looking at the truck list and lamenting the fact that I was working and couldn’t drive up to San Carlos to taste some of the trucks that don’t always make their way down to the south bay. I knew when school was out I had to check it out at least once, and I’m glad I did. What I found was a very organized event. The museum’s sign even welcomed the trucks!

The Hiller Aviation Museum sign

There were many people scoping out the trucks along with me.

The spread at Hiller Aviation on July 11th

Another touch I appreciated was that they had tables set up for people who wanted to enjoy their food there. I always appreciate a gathering that comes with seating.

The crowd enjoying their meal at the tables

After enjoying the scenery, I zeroed in on the trucks and made my choices. I decided to go with Senor Sisig first since I had only seen them twice before and hadn’t tried everything on their menu for vegetarians yet. This time I went with their sisig nachos with tofu on top. I had never had tofu on nachos before, and I don’t know why more people don’t offer it as an option. It was delicious!

Sisig nachos with tofu from Senor Sisig

I also got a tofu taco from Nom Nom since I rarely see them as well, but I didn’t take a photo since I’ve posted one here before.

Finally, I got a chance to check out The Butterscotch Girl. Since Butterscotch on the Go stopped hitting the streets, there had been a lacking in butterscotch at food truck events, and I was excited to try this new take on butterscotch pudding.

The Butterscotch Girl truck

I ordered two of the flavors, one of the regular butterscotch pudding and one of the orange cardamom butterscotch pudding, and took them to go so I could share them with Kyle later. I liked how both were served in a container that told the ingredients, leaving nothing a mystery.

The Butterscotch Gril’s informative container

Later, when we enjoyed our pudding, we found them to be quite similar, except the orange cardamom had a hint of orange flavoring to it, naturally. Kyle preferred the orange cardamom, and I preferred the plain butterscotch, but we agreed that they were both quite tasty.

Butterscotch pudding from The Butterscotch Girl

On Friday, I headed out to Mountain View to find SF soupmobile again. They had mentioned on facebook that they were at coupons.com with six other trucks at a public event, but I hadn’t seen any other trucks mention it. I figured as long as they were there, I was interested, so I drove out and was surprised to find not one, not six, but NINE trucks gathered at coupons.com!

The spread at coupons.com on Friday

Signs that were posted explained that it was a private gathering from 11-12:30 and public from 12:30-2. I was glad I had gotten a late start and arrived at 12:40 since SF Soupmobile hadn’t explained that in their post. I have a feeling the semi-private nature is what kept other trucks from advertising. I, however, felt like the luckiest person ever on Friday the 13th.

Despite all the options, I still had a craving for soup, so my first stop was SF Soupmobile where this time I got a small bowl of their organic tomato bisque. I should have waited awhile to devour it, but I couldn’t help myself and burned the top of my mouth and tongue in the process.

Organic tomato bisque soup from SF Soupmobile

As I wandered around the event checking out the other menus and weighing my options, I decided to glance at the menu at Road Dogs despite thinking they wouldn’t have anything for me.

The Road Dogs truck

Lo and behold, I spied fine print at the bottom of their menu that said “any dog can be served veggie for $1 more”! I immediately felt quite silly for never checking out their menu before and always assuming they didn’t have anything vegetarian. However, when I went up to order they told me they were out of veggie dogs that day. I wasn’t thwarted for long, though, because I had also seen some different tater tot options on their menu. I went with the cheesy jalapeno tater tots.

Cheesy jalapeno tater tots from Road Dogs

I was pleasantly surprised with how many tater tots came in the order. In fact, I started to run out of room in my tummy and had to take some of them home for later. Definitely worth the five dollars. I look forward to trying one of their veggie dogs when they have them!

My next stop was Truckin’ Sweet, which I had only been to once before and enjoyed. This time I went with their caramel brownie bash flavor, which consists of brownie pieces and caramel swirl in vanilla ice cream.

Caramel brownie bash ice cream from Truckin’ Sweet

I found it to be more vanilla than anything else, but maybe I just got a scoop without much else in it. I tasted some of the caramel, but didn’t get much brownie at all. I think next time I’ll go back to the Voo Doo Crunch I enjoyed so much last time.

My final stop was Oaxacan Kitchen to get some of their amazing churros to go. Again, I didn’t take a photo since I’ve posted them before. I can’t emphasize enough how great their churros are though!

Today, like a crazy person, I went to SF Soupmobile yet again! This time I mostly went because they were in Mountain View again, and Kyle hadn’t gotten to try them yet. Since he works too far from Mountain View to go there during his lunch break, I picked up lunch for both of us and met up with him closer to work. I was happy to try more from their truck too. They have a rather expansive menu, and many vegetarian options. This time I went with a salad instead of soup since all of their salads can be made vegetarian. I got their Asian chicken salad sans chicken.

Asian salad from SF Soupmobile

It was as good as I hoped it would be, and I especially enjoyed the edamame and crispy wontons. There might have been too much dressing for some, but I love dressing so it didn’t bother me.

Kyle went for the organic southwestern corn chowder and a half egg salad sandwich. I had a bite of the chowder, and it was yummy. He said the same was true of the sandwich, and I have to believe he meant it because he ate it so quickly I didn’t get a photo of it before it was gone. Luckily I snagged one of the soup though!

Organic corn chowder from SF Soupmobile

I probably won’t write before then, so I’m happy to announce that next week Kyle and I are going to Los Angeles to visit my sister, and I’m hoping to hit up some LA food trucks while we’re there. I can’t wait to mix it up with new trucks!

Nostalgia Overload July 11, 2012

As those of you who follow me on twitter might know, this blog’s first anniversary passed last week. I accidentally missed it. Food Truck Nerd reminded me on Monday that it was coming up, so I looked up what day it was in the archives. I thought it was the 5th, but I apparently missed the fact that I had so many posts in July of 2011 that there was more than one page of them! The first post was actually written on the 3rd, and I didn’t realize that until the 5th, naturally. Ugh. By the time I realized that, I was so disappointed in myself I couldn’t bring myself to write for awhile, but now I’ve sucked it up and am back. This was mostly a result of another nostalgic moment for me yesterday, the last Edgewood Eats indefinitely. Before I write about that, though, let’s catch up on some of the truckin’ I’ve done in the couple weeks since my last post.

I caught up with Baba Kabob for the second time during one of their lunch runs. I had been craving the veggie kabobs I had the last time I tried their truck. This time they were serving them over rice I hadn’t had yet, and it was the perfect combination.

Veggie kabobs over rice from Baba Kabob

I also sought out Sugar Tree for a second taste on a lunch run. This time I even got to meet the owners and chat with them! I was sure to grab two new treats. I had to have more of the organic cotton candy, but this time I got a new flavor. I also picked up some cookies and cream popcorn, which one of the owners said had been referred to as “crack” before. I wouldn’t say that description is too far off; when I ate it I easily ate it all in one sitting.

Watermelon organic cotton candy from Sugar Tree

Cookies and cream popcorn from Sugar Tree

On the Fourth of July, Kyle and I headed to the Rose, White, and Blue parade, but we bypassed the Moveable Feast lineup to high-tail it to a new truck we hadn’t tried before, Grilled Cheese Bandits. When we found them we were greeted by a young lady handing out paper menus, which I thought was a nice touch to get the word out and prevent the usual crowding around the menu at a truck.

The front of the Grilled Cheese Bandits menu

We looked at the options, made our choices, and went up to the truck to place our orders.

The Grilled Cheese Bandits truck

Kyle decided on the Dillinger, which consisted of jack cheese and garlic on texas toast. I tried a bite, and it was a nice spin on a classic grilled cheese.

The dillinger from Grilled Cheese Bandits

I went with the Giuliano which was similar to a caprese style grilled cheese. It was smaller, but had much more flavor. I also liked how they served their sandwiches in baskets that you could then return to them after you finished; much better for the environment!

The giuliano from Grilled Cheese Bandits

My final food truck visit before I get into Edgewood Eats took place at yet another lunch run. (Do you see a pattern here?) I was in Palo Alto for a doctor appointment and happened to see on my phone that Manna was going to be at Sequoia hospital in Redwood City. I had only tried them once before and thought the roll I got was so awesome I couldn’t wait to have it again. They don’t really travel down to the south bay, so I didn’t mind going out of my way to try them again. I usually try to get something new when I go to a truck for the second time, but I couldn’t not get the best veg sushi I’d had again! I also got a Japanese soft drink to enjoy while I waited for my meal.

Ramune from Manna

They included a lollipop with the packaging for the sushi, and I thought that was a nice touch that I could enjoy on the drive home

The Manna takeout container with a lollipop

And finally, the wonderful sushi. Mmmmmm. I try not to post the same food twice on here, but I just can’t describe how great this roll is.

Veggie roll from Manna

And with that we can finally move on to yesterday’s Edgewood Eats. Like many, I am sad to see this event coming to an end. They are looking for a new location but haven’t found one yet. Edgewood was the first food truck gathering I attended in the bay area, and I’ve been going since February of 2011. I have discovered many, many new trucks there and will always associate the event with my earliest food truck memories. As I approached the shopping center for the last time before it is broken down, I saw that someone had spray painted a greeting along the wall.

A final greeting

Now, as those who follow Food Truck Nerd might know, he considers it a “Pacman” when you eat at five or more trucks at one food truck gathering. I have never attempted a Pacman, although I have inadvertently completed many Ms. Pacmans (four trucks) without trying. I didn’t exactly plan to complete a Pacman at the final Edgewood, but as I bought food and realized I was buying small portions, I also realized that a Pacman was completely within my grasp. It helped that I wasn’t rushing and was chatting with Dan Hugo throughout my time there. Unfortunately, since I didn’t realize I was achieving a Pacman until halfway through it, I didn’t take photos of all of my items. Dan will have to serve as my witness. I usually only photograph the food I haven’t had before, and some of the food I got was food I’ve tried many times!

I started my Pacman journey with a menu item at Little Green Cyclo I hadn’t tried before, tofu spring rolls. I had seen them serve duck spring rolls many times, but this was the first tofu ones. I jumped at this opportunity since spring rolls are one of my weaknesses. They were out of the peanut sauce that comes with them, but I got a soy sauce instead that complemented the spring rolls nicely.

Tofu spring rolls from Little Green Cyclo

My next stop was House of Siam on Wheels for my usual favorite, the tofu taco. Sadly, no photo was taken.

The third truck I visited was Conklin’s Catering, a truck I had only seen once before and hadn’t been too impressed with in terms of vegetarian options. This time I ordered some of their roti, which usually comes with a dipping sauce that has meat in it. Dan suggested I get a soy vegetable sauce that comes with one of the other menu items with it instead. I then waited about 20 minutes to a half hour for a little bit of bread. Dan ordered his meal after me and got it and ate it in the time it took them to bring my order up. I was rather disappointed.

Roti from Conklin’s Catering

The roti itself wasn’t bad, but the “vegetable” sauce had exactly one slice of a vegetable in it. While we waited, I heard one other vegetarian and one vegan ask about meat free options and get turned away by the truck’s staff. I try to be understanding of trucks without vegetarian options, but it really looked like they were losing business because of it, and it wouldn’t be difficult for them to just remove the beef from some of their menu items and make them vegetarian. As much as I hate to write negative reviews of trucks, I think it’s safe to say I won’t be returning to this one anytime soon.

The fourth truck of my Pacman was a much better experience. I ordered an avocado roll from We Sushi, and they let me know ahead of time that it would be 15-20 minutes. I was grateful for that knowledge because it allowed me time to go to another truck and pick up dinner for Kyle. (Don’t worry, I’m not counting that in my Pacman since I didn’t eat it!) When I came back, my food was ready when it hadn’t even been fifteen minutes yet. Unfortunately, I also didn’t take a photo of this item since I’ve had it before.

The final leg of my Pacman took place at Scoops where I tried a flavor I hadn’t had before, the raspbernet chip.

Raspbernet chip ice cream from Scoops

It was a refreshing end to my Pacman on such a hot day. By this time, Edgewood was the most crowded I’d ever seen it. Dan said they should have their last Edgewood every week with that kind of turnout.

The crowd at Edgewood Eats, July 10th

Today I ventured to Hiller Aviation to check out the trucks there for the first time, but I will save that for another post. I will leave you with a not-exactly-food-truck-related reminder that today is 7/11 which means it’s free Slurpee day! Don’t forget to get your free Slurpee. If you live in San Jose, I recommend the 7-11 on First and Gish. I’ve also had luck with the one on 11th and San Carlos in years past, but the one at 6th and St. James has told me they don’t participate in free Slurpee day before… pshaw!

Moving Right Along… June 27, 2012

This weekend I moved, and while that has presented a lot of change into my life, and a lot less time on my hands, I have managed to visit a few trucks in the last week, including two new ones.

On Tuesday afternoon of last week, I scouted out a new truck on its lunch run, Say Cheez. Kyle and I met there for lunch and were excited to try out the latest grilled cheese truck in the area.

The Say Cheez truck

They had a few different vegetarian options. Kyle went for the veggie melt. I didn’t get to try it because it had eggplant in it, but he said it was tasty.

Veggie melt from Say Cheez

I went with the jalapeno popper, wanting a little spice. It had so much cheese in it that it required two lactaids, but it was worth it. It tasted just like jalapeno popper appetizers without the jalapenos being too overwhelming.

Jalapeno popper from Say Cheez

For dessert, Kyle got the bread pudding. I had one bite and enjoyed it but was too full for something so sweet. Kyle is a huge bread pudding fan and can be rather snobby about if it’s done right. I’m happy to say Say Cheez’s bread pudding made the cut!

Bread pudding from Say Cheez

On Thursday, I saw that 333 was going to be at eBay, and they were serving Indian food that week. I was interested to see what their new Indian specials would be, so I headed down for lunch. When I got there, I was surprised to see Spice Hut Gourmet in the same location. I hadn’t actually seen their truck in person since Kyle had just picked some up on the way home from work once, so I snapped a photo of it.

The Spice Hut Gourmet truck

I still wanted to get my meal from 333, but I thought I’d try a little something from Spice Hut too. I went with the veggie crisp, not quite knowing what to expect. It ended up being similar to a samosa, but longer, with more vegetables, and not as filling. It was just perfect for a snack before the rest of my meal.

Veggie crisp from Spice Hut Gourmet

At 333, I went with the paneer tikka bento box. It included rice and some veggies in a yummy sauce. Like most Indian food, it was very filling, and I was able to save some of it for part of my next meal. I’m happy to say it was just as yummy cold a few hours later.

Paneer tikka bento from 333

On Friday, I ventured to Moveable Feast Willow Glen for the first time in a few weeks. It was nice to be back and on such a lovely day!

Moveable Feast Willow Glen, June 22nd

I decided to have something I hadn’t had in awhile, a burrito from Tacos de Los Altos. I think I posted a photo of one of their burritos here last summer, but they have since added a lot more choices. I got mine with a wheat tortilla and black beans, to be on the healthier side. Delicious!

Veggie burrito from Tacos de Los Altos

I got my dessert to go so I could share some with Kyle, so I decided to buy two Fairycakes. I ate the tuxedo and brought the peanut butter cup home to Kyle.

Peanut butter cup and tuxedo cupcakes from Fairycakes

On Sunday morning, the day after our move, Kyle and I found ourselves in our new house with empty cupboards. We quickly realized we had to go out for breakfast, and called the two closest Bill’s Cafes to see what their wait times were. The Bascom one was shorter by five minutes, so we headed in that direction. On the way, we spotted a food truck in the parking lot of Antonella’s on the corner of Park and Naglee. Kyle spotted that it was called Waffle Amore, and that was enough for us to pull over immediately and change our breakfast plans.

The Waffle Amore truck

I asked a few questions and found out that they plan to be at this location every Sunday morning and will be hitting the streets more thoroughly as well in the near future. Their menu consists of two types of waffles, the liege and the brussels, and a bunch of toppings. Each waffle comes with one topping free, and any additional toppings are a dollar. The one topping we hadn’t heard of was the Speculoos spread, and they were happy to give us a sample to try. It tasted sort of like a sweet graham cracker spread. We placed our order and sat down in their adorable personalized chairs that were set up.

Waffle Amore seats

After a short wait, we got our food, and I must say, both waffles were absolutely delicious. I can’t wait to try more from these guys. I got the liege waffle with nutella on top, and Kyle got the brussels with the aforementioned Speculoos spread.

Liege waffle with nutella from Waffle Amore

Brussels waffle with Speculoo spread from Waffle Amore

On a non-truck related note, yesterday I celebrated my one year anniversary of being a vegetarian. Here’s to many, many more! And I will leave you with a quotation from the book that turned me into a vegetarian (as I have been doing all over the internet lately).

“Just how destructive does a culinary preference have to be before we decide to eat something else? If contributing to the suffering of billions of animals that live miserable lives and (quite often) die in horrific ways isn’t motivating, what would be? If being the number one contributor to the most serious threat facing the planet (global warming) isn’t enough, what is? And if you are tempted to put off these questions of conscience, to say not now, then when?” ~Jonathan Safran Foer, Eating Animals

This Week in Food Trucks June 18, 2012

I’ve gotta say, it’s nice to be writing a mere week after my last post. This means I get to write a little more thoroughly about each truck and all of my food truck experiences.

Last week I went to Edgewood Eats on Tuesday. There was a new truck I hadn’t heard of there. Sunrise Deli seems to be a brick and mortar restaurant that became a truck. When I saw falafel on their menu, I was in. It had been far too long since I’d had falafel from a food truck!

The Sunrise Deli Truck

As you can see, their doors were down when I arrived about twenty minutes after Edgewood started. I was willing to wait to try a new truck though. It didn’t take much waiting either, and before I knew it I had ordered my avocado falafel wrap.

Avocado falafel wrap from Sunrise Deli

I have to admit, I pretty much inhaled it. I couldn’t help it; falafel is so yummy, especially when paired with avocado. I don’t know how I never had falafel until I became a vegetarian. I feel like I have 27 years of falafel eating to catch up on.

The avocado falafel wrap after meeting my wrath

I also stopped by Scoops and grabbed a scoop of their birfday cake flavor. The gentleman taking my order made sure I pronounced the name the “right” way before serving me. He also took a photo of me and put it in the “happy customers” folder on their facebook page here. I ate a bit before I got a really good photo of all the colors of confetti in this ice cream.

Birfday cake ice cream from Scoops

On Friday, Kyle and I decided to go to a Word on the StreEatz event at Piedmont Hills High School for dinner. While there I got to try a new truck I’ve heard lots about but hadn’t run into yet, Takoz Mod Mex.

The Takoz truck

I ordered a vegetarian “el tako”. I was impressed with all the toppings which consisted of more than just the regular toppings you see on a traditional taco. It was very yummy.

A vegetarian taco from Takoz

My next stop was the Dough Truck. I had been wanting to try their tater tots ever since listening to Food Truck Nerd’s podcast about them. After verifying that the “special sauce” was vegetarian, I ordered the Animal, which is basically tater tots served animal style like at In-and-Out: melted cheese, special sauce, and onions on top.

The Animal from Dough Truck

From there, we drove to Club Auto Sport where a new candy truck, Sugar Tree Sweets and Treats was serving at an event. If you know me, you know that I love candy. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to try a new truck that includes candy. When we got there, we quickly discovered that this was a HUGE event. It took forever to find parking, and we felt like we were crashing someone’s party. Eventually, though, we found our destination.

The Sugar Tree trailer

This is one of the rare trucks where you actually get to walk inside. What’s more, the inside of the truck is decorated, complete with checkered floor. I’m a sucker for checkered floor. Get it, sucker? oh boy…

Shelves of candy, and checkered floor!

Another photo of the inside, including Kyle checking out the goods

It took some deliberating, but I eventually decided on a small bin of organic blueberry cotton candy, a red velvet cake pop, and a packet of fun dip (an old favorite from my childhood).

Organic blueberry cotton candy from Sugar Tree

The cotton candy had just the right amount of flavor without being too sugary sweet. It definitely tasted healthier than the kind you get at the carnival.

Red velvet cake pop from Sugar Tree

The cake pop was incredible. I don’t know how else to describe it, just utterly delicious.

Inside the cake pop

This morning, I woke up and had a mediocre half-breakfast of stale cereal. I quickly realized I need to do some grocery shopping and would need to go to a food truck for lunch before then. When I checked roaming hunger, I saw a food truck I hadn’t heard of before in Mountain View, another one that seems to be a brick and mortar gone mobile, SF Soupmobile.

The SF Soupmobile truck

They had a lot of vegetarian options, and all of them sounded delicious after my poor excuse for a breakfast. I decided to try a couple at once and went for a small bowl of the split pea soup and a half hummus wrap. After I ordered my food it was ready almost immediately. The soup seemed too hot to eat right away, so I decided to just high-tail it home. Luckily, I live close enough for the soup to still be warm when I got there.

Hummus wrap from SF Soupmobile

The hummus wrap was the perfect blend of flavors. I though the kalamata olives were an especially good touch.

I consider myself a bit of a split pea soup snob because I grew up going to Andersen’s on family vacations, and I think nothing measures up as a result. This split pea made the cut though. They also included a bit of a sourdough roll for dipping purposes, but I didn’t get a photo of it. Most importantly, after I finished the soup I let my cat lick the bowl.

I think he enjoyed it.

I’m not even sure he focused on breathing while eating the soup.

SF Soupmobile: KITTY APPROVED!

School’s Out for Summer! June 10, 2012

You read me right. I’m done teaching for the school year, so I’m hoping that means lots more blogging in the near future. Granted, I’m moving in two weeks and still plenty busy because of that, but not working full time tends to be a big difference in terms of time on my hands. I’m also still looking for summer work if you know of a truck that’s hiring!

On with the food, though! I’ve only visited a few new trucks since my last post, and I’ve also sampled some new food from trucks I already visited. I’ll start with the new ones and then hit you with a wave of photos from trucks I’ve written about before.

The first new truck I tried was at a recent Word on the StreEatz. It’s called Mustache Mike’s, and it serves Italian ice.

The Mustache Mike’s truck

I had never had Italian ice before. I expected it to be somewhat like shave ice, or maybe I hoped it would be since I’ve been craving a shave ice truck in the bay area ever since I went to one in LA last summer. The consistency was more like a cross between ice cream and shave ice, very similar to sorbet.

Juicy rancher from Mustache Mike’s

I chose one of their mixtures of three flavors, the Juicy Rancher. It included lemon, watermelon, and green apple flavored Italian ice. They had two choices for price based on what container you received your ice in; you could pay two dollars extra for an MLB themed container, shaped like the baseball cap of your favorite team. Being a big A’s fan, I already have plenty of the same hats from going to games and getting frozen treats at them, so I opted for the simple plastic cup. I enjoyed the Italian ice, especially since it didn’t require me to take lactaid. I haven’t seen the truck since, so I hope they start popping up in more locations!

The next new truck I visited happened in San Francisco before an A’s/Giants game a few weekends ago. Kyle had noticed a truck was supposed to be parked just a few blocks from the ballpark, so we headed into the city early to hit up Le Truc. Le truc is not actually a truck at all but rather a bus!

Le Truc

(Note the enthusiastic cook inside cheesing for the camera.) Le Truc was serving vegetarian Thai tacos, but they unfortunately had eggplant in them that couldn’t be removed. Once again, I despise my dreaded eggplant allergy. Kyle got the tacos though, and I got a salad.

Tacos and salad from Le Truc

The food was delicious, but perhaps the coolest thing about Le Truc was the fact that patrons are invited to eat inside the bus. They have tables set up and music playing so that you get the full dining experience.

Seats and tables inside Le Truc

Our food right next to the driver’s seat

Another new truck I tried, just this week, was El Taco de Oro. I haven’t been able to find a website for them, being one of the more authentic local taco trucks. They were at the new Moveable Feast location at Five Wounds on Tuesday.

El Taco de Oro truck

I just grabbed one vegetarian taco from this truck because I had my eyes set on a bigger menu item at a different truck. At $1.50, it was one of the cheapest tacos I’ve had a truck, and well worth the price. They piled it high with fresh ingredients.

Vegetarian taco from El Taco de Oro

My final new truck for this post was one I tried on Wednesday when Kyle stopped by Milpitas Street Eats on his way home from work. He picked up some food at Spice Hut Gourmet as well as at 333.

Vegetable curry rice bowl from Spice Hut Gourmet

This rice bowl combo came with naan and chole. We found the “spice” part of the truck’s name to be quite accurate. The curry was very spicy and full of flavor. It also included tasty paneer.

As far as 333 is concerned, Kyle delivered the news that they’ve decided to focus on one of their three cuisines each week, and this week the focus was on Mexican food. He picked up a vegetarian quesadilla after accidentally ordering one with steak in it. The vegetarian option wasn’t on the menu, but the 333 guys were kind enough to cook one up after Kyle realized his mistake.

Vegetarian quesadilla from 333

An inside view of the quesadilla

It was easily one of the best quesadillas I’ve tasted, and the green sauce that came with it complemented the flavors especially well.

Now on to other new foods I’ve tried from some of my favorite trucks!

I had been to Mona’s Fruits once before last summer at a Moveable Feast. I only saw the truck one other time, at the taco festival with way too huge of a line to wait in, before I saw them on Tuesday at Moveable Feast Five Wounds.

Mona’s Fruits truck

I ordered one of their small fruit bowls, which is still quite large! When you ask for the fruit bowl “spicy” they add chili flakes that add some pep to the fruit. I have to admit I like the spicy and sweet combination more with some fruits than others, but it definitely feels nice to eat something sweet and healthy from a truck when that isn’t always the case.

Small fruit bowl from Mona’s Fruits

And while we’re on the topic of Moveable Feast Five Wounds, here’s a photo I took of the spread:

Moveable Feast Five Wounds on June 5th

At the same Word on the StreEatz where I saw Mustache Mike’s I also tried Kaati Fresh again, and I’m happy to say that this time I had a much better experience. It helps that they didn’t have a line at all when I went up to them, and they decided to start taking money when you order like most trucks. When I asked for a veggie roll, the gentleman taking my order let me choose between the potato and paneer options and let me sample each one to make my decision. I had wanted to avoid lactaid, but the paneer option tasted too good to pass up.

Paneer roll from Kaati Fresh

I also appreciated that it came with a small salad, and the two only cost $6. Definitely a good amount of food for the price!

A couple weeks ago, Kyle and I walked down to St. James park for a special event called A Day in the Park. We were excited to have trucks walking distance from where I live again (we miss when Moveable Feast was at San Pedro Square). There was a DJ playing some great remixes of oldies and 80s music.

After getting some of our usual favorites at trucks we frequent, we grabbed dessert at Scoops. I went for a flavor I hadn’t tried before, their salted caramel on a cone. Then I decided to take a Foodtrucknerd-esque photo that captured both the food and the truck with its “I am San Jose” sign on it.

Salted Caramel ice cream cone from Scoops

At Friday night’s Moveable Feast Willow Glen, I saw the Market Express truck that carries fresh produce for the first time. I didn’t get a chance to browse it much, but I did take a photo!

Market Express truck

I will close this post with a few photos of menu items I haven’t posted before from trucks I have posted about before. I might not post comments about them, but I guarantee all of this food was delicious.

Cream of asparagus soup from Whisk on Wheels

Tofu bi bim bap plate from BBQ Kalbi

S’more brownie from Mini Yums

Sugar cookie from Mini Yums

New Trucks and More New Trucks May 17, 2012

Hey look, I’m actually writing before school’s out! It’s shocking, but it’s not without reason. I took today off from work because I have an ear infection. I will be returning tomorrow, pain and all, but I got lots of grading done during the day, so I’m allowing myself this time to blog. Yay!

I have so much to write about! I’m limiting myself to new trucks, and yet I still emailed myself way more photos than I usually do for a post. This might will be a long one.

I somehow failed to write about Pollo Fritto when I visited them a couple months ago at an Edgewood Eats. Maybe it was subconsciously on purpose because of their lack of vegetarian options, but I was able to eat something from them, and I found their owner to be quite friendly.

The Pollo Fritto truck

You can see him handing out samples of his cookies to the crowd in that photo. In fact, the chocolate chip cookie is the menu item I ordered. I talked with him about the possibility of vegetarian options, and he said he could put some of the cole slaw on bread, but it wouldn’t be as good. I decided on the cookie because Food Truck Nerd‘s son, C-Money, had recommended it to me. And if anyone knows good chocolate chip cookies, it’s an almost-thirteen-year-old, right? It was still warm with melted chocolate and definitely met my expectations.

Chocolate chip cookie from Pollo Fritto

Now let’s fast forward to the weekend of April 28th. Some of the food truck mafia trucks were at Washington High School in Fremont honoring the troops, and I took it as an opportunity to try a couple of the trucks I hadn’t been to yet. My first stop was Pizza Pimps.

The Pizza Pimps truck

This long-awaited truck includes a few vegetarian options, and that day they were serving two of them. One was a four cheese pizza called fourplay, and the other was called the epic. As a lactose intolerant person, I tend to prefer more toppings over more cheeses, so I went for a slice of the epic and topped it with some of their “pimp shake”.

Epic slice from Pizza Pimps

I would have preferred a few more of the epic toppings on an epic piece (I can’t even remember what they all were, and they aren’t all visible in the photo), but it was still tasty. I especially enjoyed the pimp shake. (Now that’s a sentence I don’t type often.)

Next to Pizza Pimps was another new truck to me, Conklin’s Catering. I had checked out their menu beforehand, and because they have a varied cuisine it was hard to tell if there were many vegetarian options. When I asked, they said the only one they had that day was their dessert, but they do make a rice dish that’s vegetarian. They just didn’t have it that day. I ordered the pisang panggang for dessert.

Conklin’s Catering truck

Pisang panggang from Conklin’s Catering

This dish was basically banana with chocolate sauce and shredded cheese on top. I was suspicious of such a combination, but I didn’t mind it. Kyle tried it later and didn’t like it at all. I don’t think I’d get it again, but it wasn’t bad. I hope to try their rice vegetarian option in the future though.

May 4th was the first San Mateo Moveable Feast since last summer. This had proven to be one of my favorite events, and I had a foursqure mayorship to maintain, so I made sure to show up. It helped that there were a few trucks from San Francisco attending that don’t usually come down to San Jose. My first stop was a sushi truck called Manna. Their truck was decorated in Japanese lamps and lights.

The Manna truck

The way their truck works is you get to make your own sushi rolls based on the many different options they have. However, they have a special roll that they make for vegetarians called the Sansai Vege.

Sansai vege from Manna

Now, if you know me you know that I LOVE sushi. Giving it up was one of the hardest parts of becoming a vegetarian for me. I still go to sushi joints and get their vegetarian options, and some of them are really good, but I’ll admit it isn’t the same. However, this roll is hands down the best vegetarian sushi roll I’ve ever had. I didn’t even know what some of the ingredients were. And baby corn on sushi? genius. It was so, so delicious. Please, Manna, make your way into my life more often!

My next stop was Cheese Gone Wild, a truck I got to try again this week at Edgewood Eats.

The Cheese Gone Wild truck

They have a cute themed menu that contains references to landmarks in San Francisco.

I was pretty full after my sushi feast, so I just got their cream of tomato basil soup. It was the perfect complement to the windy, cold weather, and it came with a couple slices of french bread for dipping.

When I tried them this week I got an actual sandwich, the Exploratorium melt (without eggplant because I’m allergic). It came with chips and was also delicious, even with one of its main ingredients removed.

Exploratorium melt from Cheese Gone Wild

For dessert, I headed to another new truck to me, SF Delights.

The SF Delights truck

It was a tough decision, but I got the apple crisp to go so I could share it with Kyle later. It looked like it had ice cream on top, but the gentleman serving me said it wasn’t ice cream, so it wouldn’t melt. When I finally shared it with Kyle we devoured it rather quickly. I managed to snap a quick photo before it was completely gone though.

Apple crisp from SF Delights

The next day a new truck was at Moveable Feast Garden City, The Dough Truck.

The Dough Truck

They serve sandwiches with donuts instead of bread on the outside. All of their savory sandwiches include meat, but the dessert ones do not. They also have tater tots topped with various ingredients. We went with the dessert option called Bananas in Pajamas, mostly because I loved the name (ah, British children’s shows). It included bananas, chocolate, and peanut butter inside a glazed donut.

Bananas in Pajamas from the Dough Truck

I was a little worried it would be too much peanut butter for me because I usually don’t like peanut butter unless it’s with chocolate. Luckily, it was the perfect amount with the perfect amount of chocolate.

This weekend Kyle and I ventured down to Monterey for their first street food festival. I used to live in Monterey (for a year), and I hadn’t been back in awhile. I took it as an opportunity to enjoy food trucks elsewhere and visit my old home. We didn’t arrive until a little after 4, so some of the trucks had run out of food.

The truck spread at the Monterey Street Food Festival

Luckily, the one I had never been to before, Voodoo Van still had a tofu sandwich.

The Voodoo Van

Tofu sandwich from Voodoo Van

I got out my bamboo fork immediately to tackle it, but Kyle took the “No forks. No Knives. No Mercy.” slogan seriously and attempted to pick it up and eat it. He was less successful at first, but once we had eaten some tofu out we were both able to pick it up pretty easily. It required many napkins, but it was worth it.

Our next stop was a booth I haven’t been able to find any info about online. It had a sign that read “BFF Cart”. I should have asked what BFF stood for, but I didn’t. Theyobvious answer is best friends forever. A quick google search suggests it could be Bay Functional Fitness. For all I know, it could be neither of those. Edit: I have been informed by Stitches and Dishes that the flowers on their sign are actually o’s and they are the Boffo Cart. Mystery solved!

Regardless of the name, we ordered an asparagus calzone, and it was yummy. Kyle said it could have used some sauce in addition to the cheese and asparagus, and I agree, but it was still quite good. More trucks need to include asparagus in their ingredients.

Asparagus calzone from BFF Cart

We finished the day at an old favorite, O’mi Ninja. We tried to order a new menu item that included ginger rice, and they told us there was chicken stock in it. Since they could tell how bummed we were when we ordered a banh mi instead, they gave us some vegetarian nacho fries on the house.

They were the perfect amount of spicy. I especially enjoyed how there was a mixture of both regular fries and sweet potato fries included. Yum!

The festival had a vote going on for which street food vender was the best. Each person got to choose two. I never heard who won… I’m not sure it was ever announced online. It certainly wasn’t on their facebook page. Perhaps it will forever remain a mystery!

The voting booth at the Monterey Street Food Festival

As we left we enjoyed the lovely entrance to the county fairgrounds.

Kyle even found a new friend…

Phew! That’s all for now. Check back soon to see me beg for work. No kidding. As a sub, I have nothing to do this summer, and I’d like to work for a food truck. Stay tuned!

The Taco Festival of (Non-Vegetarian) Innovation May 6, 2012

As you already know if you read my twitter account, the cold I came down with before my last post didn’t render me bedridden. This meant I was able to work the whole week after Spring Break, and in turn I didn’t have the down time I anticipated to write my post about the Taco Festival of Innovation. Add on top of that two weeks of STAR testing, and you have one very stressed out blogger without much time to blog. I remain determined, though. That is why I sit here on a Sunday night when I should be sleeping in preparation for a new work week writing the post that I promised three weeks ago.

Buckets leading up to the Taco Festival entrance

All of the photos in this post except this one were taken by my boyfriend Kyle and can be found with many more at his flickr set dedicated to the Taco Festival here. This photo, however, will make him cringe because it was instead taken with my phone and filtered with instagram. Kyle has been a huge instagram hater for as long as I’ve known him and complains every time I instagram a photo of anything. I like the angle of the photo I took more than his though, so it wins

We arrived at the Taco Festival about fifteen minutes after it started. We were greeted by a line of the Moveable Feast buckets we food truck regulars have learned to love. Our early arrival was planned for two reasons: 1) better parking opportunities (from what I hear this became an issue. we found street parking no problem), and 2) to see the first band playing, Tumbleweed Wanderers. I had seen Tumbleweed Wanderers at one of the San Mateo Moveable Feasts last summer and enjoyed their music. I had since been following them on facebook and was excited when I saw they would be playing another Moveable Feast event. Their set started later than planned, and we got to watch the sound check as well. Eventually, they started playing, and it was a great way to kick off the festival.

After their set was over, we decided it was time to scope out the menus of the trucks. Our friend Dan Hugo had already walked around a bit and tried some tacos while we were watching the band perform, and he warned us that he had seen few vegetarian options. Now, this wasn’t an issue I had anticipated before the event. I had seen the truck line up and knew many of the trucks involved usually carried vegetarian options. I hadn’t thought about the possibility that some of them might not include a vegetarian taco on their menu. It turns out that most of them did not. Those that did were simply providing the usual vegetarian menu choice and weren’t submitting them for the competition (with two exceptions).

After walking almost the entire circuit of trucks we finally found the one savory truck who invented a new vegetarian taco for the festival, Curry Up Now.

This menu brought us much happiness. Even Dan, a meat eater, ordered up one of the paneer tacos.

If you look closely, you can see the number we texted our vote to!

This is the taco in all its deliciousness. Luckily the one savory vegetarian taco was a good one!

We then ventured to Treatbot who, being an ice cream truck, is always inherently vegetarian. They had two tacos they were serving for the festival, both with crepes as the “shells”. We ordered one of each and devoured them rather quickly. The one with raspberry sorbet, pineapple, and mint leafs on it had an interesting contrast in flavor, but I definitely preferred the one with horchata ice cream, almond slices, and cinnamon.

By this time, we had realized we weren’t going to be filling up on new vegetarian tacos, so Kyle and I decided to get a vegetarian side instead at Whisk on Wheels instead.

We sat down and enjoyed our garlic fries while taking in the beautiful weather and the festival around us.

We also enjoyed one more dessert when Dan decided to splurge and buy us each a cupcake from Fairycakes. I chose a salted caramel cupcake, and although it wasn’t very taco-like it was tasty.

Overall, Kyle and I enjoyed ourselves at the Taco Festival. We managed to leave with full bellies but were disappointed that some of our favorite trucks we have come to rely on for good vegetarian options decided to only make new meat tacos. I have discussed the possibility of having categories at next year’s taco competition with Ryan, the owner of Moveable Feast, and he seems open to the idea of having a vegetarian one to encourage more trucks to branch out. You can hear more about my thoughts on the first Taco Festival of Innovation and ideas I have for next year on Food Truck Nerd podcast number 31.

As for my own trucking since this event, fear not, I have still been frequenting the food truck scene. In fact, I went to four new trucks just this weekend! I hope to write about them soon, but with the school year winding down I can’t make any promises about when I’ll have the time. Once summer hits, I’ll probably start posting up a storm again like last summer though. And with that I will leave you with a photo Kyle took of a poor taco we spotted on the ground at the festival. A casualty that did not have an opportunity to fulfill its purpose….

(And Dan’s unforgiving foot)