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

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)

More Food Porn April 12, 2012

If you follow me on twitter then you know that this week I have had the opportunity to eat at more trucks than usual due to the fact that I’m on SPRING BREAK! In fact, I’ve been to at least one truck on every day of my Spring Break except for Sunday. (That seems to be a common day off for trucks.) I was hoping this would also mean more blogging, but it’s already Thursday, and this is my first blog of the week. Ugh. I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll be able to post another before the week is over with the few new trucks I’ve tried this week, but this post will be a classic food porn post consisting of trucks I’ve been to before.

First, the truck that was originally Small Time Cooks has gotten an upgrade including a new wrap and new name. They’re now called 333 (or Triple Dash Three).

The 333 truck and menu

I’ve tried them a couple times since the upgrade, and both times I’ve gotten their tacos. Most recently, I saw them at Milpitas Street Eats last night and ordered a paneer tikka taco. They also gave me a mushroom tofu taco on the house and came out of the truck and hand delivered it to me. Such service!

Paneer tikka and mushroom tofu tacos from 333

I’m not sure if I’ve written about Seoul on Wheels before, but I’m a big fan of their BBQ rice plate with tofu. I haven’t asked if the kimchi has shellfish in it, and sometimes I like to just remain in the dark about that kinda stuff

BBQ tofu rice plate from Seoul on Wheels

And now for some new dishes from a few trucks who need no introduction because I’ve written about them before…

Orange chocolate cake from Butterscotch on the Go

Chocolate peanut butter tart from Butterscotch on the Go

Vegetarian taco from Tacos de Los Altos

Paneer sexy fries from Curry Up Now

Caprese sandwich from Eat on Monday

Mini red velvet cupcake from Fairycakes

Aloo tikki chaat from Tandoori Chicken USA Mobile

Chocolate dipped peanut butter cookie from Mini Yums

Mint chip ice cream from Twisted Chill

At a recent Willow Glen Moveable Feast I experimented with making my first mashup. I’ve tried a few mashups that friends have made before, but this was the first one I made! I started with pandan waffles from O’Mi Ninja.

Pandan waffle from O'Mi Ninja

Then I added the waffle to Mexican chocolate ice cream from Treatbot. The result was a sweet and scrumptious mashup!

The Treatbot and O'Mi Ninja mashup

Yesterday I got to see Truckin’ Sweet in person for the first time despite trying their ice cream before.

The Truckin' Sweet truck

I tried their Voodoo Crunch flavor, which includes oreo cookies and malt balls. It was delicious and much enjoyed despite the cold weather.

Voodoo crunch ice cream from Truckin' Sweet

Today I headed to Whisk on Wheels for lunch at their usual Thursday lunch spot at Lockheed Martin. When I’m not on Spring Break, my boyfriend always goes there on Thursdays and meets up with other food truck enthusiasts, and I’m always so jealous because Whisk rarely makes it down here any other time. This time Kyle wasn’t able to make it, but I was! I ordered the pesto pasta and was soon told they had run out of pasta I opted for the spinach and ricotta empanada instead, and they also gave me a free bowl of their cream of tomato soup.

Cream of tomato soup from Whisk on Wheels

I especially enjoyed the croutons that came with it. One of these days I’ll get my hands on that pesto pasta! One thing that I saw at the Whisk truck that I haven’t seen at any other truck was a bowl of mints. I thought that was a nice touch. Many restaurants have mints that are free for the taking as you exit, so why not trucks too?

Bowl of mints at the Whisk on Wheels truck

Finally, I’d like to write about a couple of occasions where Kyle came with me and brought his camera. I bet you thought his goal to take photos for my blog had been a one time thing, huh? Well, he’s remembered on a couple more occasions now First, he brought it with us when we went to a Moveable Feast at a new location. A week ago Saturday a few trucks came out to the History Park in San Jose for a Spring Garden Festival. We were excited to see trucks at a new location and liked the line up, so we went not knowing what to expect. What we saw was a different crowd than most; instead of the usual food truck lovers, the event was mostly gardening lovers, and there were tons and tons of plants for sale! It was also raining, but that doesn’t usually stop me.

Our first stop was Eat on Monday. Since the event had started at 9am, they were selling a few breakfast items we hadn’t tried before. We went for the egg crepe roll and absolutely loved it.

They also gave us a free dish, that had a name I unfortunately forget. It wasn’t on the menu for the day, but it was also very yummy.

Our next stop was the B2 coffee booth where we each got a drink to warm us up. Kyle took this opportunity to take a silly photo of me drinking my mocha.

Afterward we walked around for a little while, and I even took the opportunity to buy something for my grandma for her 89th birthday! My family was planning on fixing up the patio of her apartment and making a garden out of it, and when I saw a hummingbird feeder at one of the booths I thought that would be a fun gift for her. She likes to watch the squirrels that run around her retirement home from her apartment, so I thought she’d like watching hummingbirds even more.

Hummingbird feeder (photo taken with my phone, not Kyle's camera)

I just love how my food truck obsession sometimes brings me to places and things I otherwise would not access!

Kyle also brought his camera along to the Moveable Feast this weekend at Garden City. We both ate at No Way Jose. Kyle got a veggie burrito.

I got a veggie taco salad. They first made it with meat in it, and when I sent it back I could tell they made an all new one for me instead of just picking out the meat like some restaurants do because the toppings I had thrown on were missing. That’s good vegetarian customer service!

As always, I recommend checking out Kyle’s flickr photostream for more photos. He got some good meta photos of Food Truck Nerd taking photos of his food that day.

New Food From Old Favorites February 8, 2012

I’ve decided to take a break from my countdown to 100 trucks. I have visited my 98th and 99th trucks since my last post, but the 100th still looms in the future. Rather than spend one post writing about only two trucks, I’d like to play some catch up. I try to have themes in my posts, and as a result some of my visits to trucks fall through the cracks if they don’t fit a theme. I have a lot of photos of trucks on my phone, and they deserve some recognition! Many of the trucks I’ve written about I eat at on a regular basis, and I’m constantly trying new menu items from the trucks that offer multiple vegetarian options. This will be a photo-heavy post without a ton of words. Enjoy the food porn!

Apple walnut cake from Butterscotch on the Go

Paneer kathi roll from Curry Up Now

Fried pickles from Grill Stars

Mushrooms on a roll from Hiyaaa!

Rice box with tofu from Little Green Cyclo

Tofu tacos from Eat on Monday

Eat on Monday will make any of their meat tacos vegetarian by substituting the meat with tofu, so you have your choice of styles! They do the same with their burgers and veggie burgers, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try them yet. Kyle says they’re super tasty, so I look forward to trying them sometime soon!

Sweet potato fries from Sanguchon

Chocolate cupcake with caramel frosting, sprinkles, and cinnamon from Project Cupcake

Veggie gyoza roll and cucumber avocado roll from We Sushi

We Sushi recently updated their menu, and they added these two veg rolls to it and lowered the price of the veggie burrito I wrote about previously. I especially enjoyed the gyoza roll. I love gyoza, and it was my first time having it inside a sushi roll.

Sugar cookie and pecan cookie from Mini Yums

Tofu burrito from Mogo

MIlkshake cheesecake from Mogo

This isn’t the best photo because of the plastic wrap, but Mogo’s cheesecake is probably my favorite dessert from a non-dessert truck. They don’t always carry it, but I highly recommend grabbing a slice when they do have some!

Last night’s Edgewood Eats marked my one year anniversary of attending the event. It was cold and gloomy, and the turnout wasn’t as great as usual, but I still managed to fill my belly with yummy food, and there was a new truck that wasn’t a food truck; it was an art truck!

The Palo Alto Art Center truck

Quite a crowd of children ended up developing around the tables, and they all seemed to be enjoying making cupcakes out of clay. Definitely a fun idea for food truck events where there are a lot of families.

Once again, my boyfriend Kyle and I made a cameo on the latest Food Truck Nerd podcast. We had a round table discussion about food trucks in general, and I went into a lot of detail about what sorts of vegetarian options I like to see on food trucks. Food Truck Nerd’s podcast is now up on iTunes as well, so you can download it from the iTunes store and even subscribe!

Finally, Kyle has decided to start photographing our food truck experiences as often as possible (or as often as he remembers his camera). I guess he was getting sick of my less-than-stellar camera phone photos He started his quest when we went to Moveable Feast on Saturday, and he snapped quite a few good shots. You can find a photo of me receiving my ice cream from Treatbot as well as many more photos in this album. Once I figure out how to take his photos from flickr and put them on my blog, you can expect even better photography on Veggie Truckin’.

I hope this post tides you over until the big 100 hits!

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!

Last Week’s Highlights November 22, 2011

The weekend before last, my boyfriend and I ventured to the farmer’s market in Campbell with two goals in mind: 1) to buy veggies for a Tofurky feast the boyfriend was planning to cook, and 2) to try the food at the Oaxacan Kitchen booth. The Oaxacan Kitchen truck wasn’t there, but they did have a booth serving the same food the truck does. I ordered an empanada, which was unlike other empanadas I’ve had before.

Veggie empanada from Oaxacan Kitchen Mobile

It was tasty but had more cheese than I anticipated, and since I only had one Lactaid on me I had to stop before I was finished.

The following weekend, we went to another Moveable Feast at Garden City. This time I came with a can of food in hand.

You might be wondering what would motivate me to bring canned food to a food truck gathering, but if you’re someone who follows local food trucks you probably already know that several of them are currently collecting canned food and giving people who bring a can a dollar off of their order. I knew one of those trucks was MoBowl, and I was craving an old favorite, their umami tofu.

Umami tofu from MoBowl

My next stop was Butterscotch on the Go, which I feel like I haven’t been eating nearly enough now that Edgewood Eats is only once a month. I was happy to see them in San Jose, the first time I had, and was also happy to try another new item on their menu, the nutella and milk chocolate panna.

Nutella and milk chocolate panna from Butterscotch on the Go

This new treat tasted similar to their chocolate pudding and had the same crispy topping (which I love!), but the Nutella added an extra hint of hazelnut that I enjoyed. When the owner saw me waiting for my food, she was also kind enough to give me a free piece of their poundcake.

Poundcake from Butterscotch on the Go

I had to take most of the poundcake to go because I had gotten full on everything else, but it was as delicious as was to be expected.

This week I’m off work because the school district where I work doesn’t have school. I’m enjoying this opportunity to check out some food trucks in the afternoon on their lunch runs, something I don’t get to do often with my schedule. Today I visited two and hope to visit another two tomorrow, so you can look forward to a post about those adventures soon. Additionally, I hope to write a post about the veggie part of Veggie Truckin’ in honor of the upcoming holiday that glorifies eating meat. I haven’t touched too much on my vegetarianism here aside from writing about how easy or not easy it is to choose dishes at food trucks because of it, and I think my first Thanksgiving as a vegetarian is as good a time as any to go into a little bit of depth about why I’ve made this choice.

A New Era of Veggie Truckin’ November 15, 2011

If you follow Veggie Truckin’ on twitter, you probably already know that some changes have happened around here. First, I registered the domain veggietruckin.com, so that url automatically forwards you to my blog. Secondly, I created a fan page on facebook for the blog. There’s a cute little widget on the side menu for it, or you can just follow this link. On a personal note, I got an iPhone 4S, and what that means for the blog is my photos will be much clearer. Granted, it’s still a camera phone, but at least it knows how to focus. No more out of focus photos just because there’s some foil in the background, yay! Finally, I was interviewed on the latest Food Truck Nerd podcast with my boyfriend. Check it out! This time I think I managed to laugh a little less, but only by a little

This post isn’t just to tell you what’s new though. I have a couple new trucks to write about too! Last week, for the first time, I ate food from a truck I hadn’t visited in person. My boyfriend saw that Twister Truck would be parked near where he lives, so he picked some up for us on his way home from work. It was a little weird not getting the full food truck experience, but the yummy food made up for it.

Twister burrito cone from Twister Truck

The photo of the twister burrito cone on the website intrigued me, so that’s what I ordered. I was still a little confused as to how to eat it, but it got easier once I decided to just use a fork. I also tore pieces of tortilla off the cone and used them to scoop up the insides. I thought a side of tortilla chips might help, but then the extra food might be too much because the burrito cone itself was the perfect amount for a meal. I also got a side of churro fries but wasn’t able to finish them all.

Churro fries from Twister truck

My boyfriend didn’t receive the chocolate or cajeta sauce mentioned on the Twister website with them, so they lacked a little bit in flavor. Additionally, all the grease collected at the bottom of the cup making the bottoms of the fries especially gross to a not-so-yummy degree. With a little less oil and a little more dipping sauce, I think these could really hit the spot.

On Saturday, we ventured to the Moveable Feast at the Garden City location. I miss the old ones at San Pedro Square that I could walk to from where I live, but I don’t mind driving a little bit for my food truck fix. I decided to try a truck I had been to before but only for some cookies, Sanguchon.

The Sanguchon truck

My boyfriend had been raving about their vegetable curry wrap which he had gotten at one of their lunch time stops. Never having had Peruvian curry before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was pleasantly surprised.

Vegetales al Curry wrap from Sanguchon

What I found was an amazing amount of flavor that filled me up for hours. Every bite included a new vegetable I hadn’t tried before. I found myself taking a new photo every few minutes because I’d look down and see more and more colors. It was an amazingly photogenic as well as delicious wrap!

There was also a new truck at the event, Project Cupcake.

The Project Cupcake Truck

Aside from a clever name and truck design to go with it, this cupcake truck has a different concept than most. They allow their customers to build their own cupcakes, starting by choosing a cake, then choosing a frosting, and then you can put whatever toppings you want on top (similar to a frozen yogurt place). Another cute component is the fact that when you visit them you’re greeted by staff in lab coats.

A Project Cupcake employee dressed in a lab coat outside the truck

When I got to the truck, they only had six cupcakes left, so I didn’t get to choose my cupcake as specifically as most. I got the mocha flavored cake with cream cheese frosting. Then I visited their toppings bar and took full advantage of it.

The Project Cupcake toppings bar

I loaded on some butterfinger bits, oreo pieces, and sprinkled a little cinnamon on top. The result was a super tasty cupcake. I can’t wait to try them again when I can choose my cake and frosting more specifically too!

My Project Cupcake creation

Those are all the new trucks for this time. Don’t forget to like Veggie Truckin’ on facebook!

Pumpkin Treasures October 25, 2011

I have come to Veggie Truckin’ to write about two topics tonight: my food truck experience at Treasure Island Music Festival and my love for pumpkin flavored food sold at food trucks.

The weekend before last was the Treasure Island Music Festival. I ended up going on a whim with my boyfriend to the Saturday show, and this unfortunately meant missing my usual Moveable Feast tradition on Saturdays. On the plus side, there were food trucks at the festival, and most of them were San Francisco based trucks I had never even heard of! My boyfriend and I shared food from two different trucks. Our first stop was Fogcutter, a truck that, according to my research, was previously called both Brunch Box and Bandit Truck.

The Fogcutter truck

Despite the many name changes, Fogcutter’s food met my standards. I can’t find the item I had on their menu, but it was a sandwich with cheese and broccoli inside, and it was unlike anything I had tasted before. Sadly, the photo I took didn’t come out great in the sunny Treasure Island lighting.

Sandwich from Fogcutter

Meanwhile, my boyfriend grabbed his lunch at Eat Curbside.

The Eat Curbside truck

He opted for their grilled cheese sandwich with brie and caramelized onions. I had a bite, and it was tasty as well. However, the best part by far was the fries that came with it. Please excuse another less-than-stellar photo thanks to the sunlight. (Side note: I have ordered a new iPhone 4S, so hopefully my photos will also be getting an upgrade soon!)

Grilled cheese with fries from Eat Curbside

And now…. my love for pumpkin.

Like many people, I look forward to fall for a couple of reasons. One is the sound of leaves crunching under my feet when I walk. The second is pumpkin flavored food. I can’t get enough of it. If pumpkin stuff was sold year round, I would eat it year round. I just had some pumpkin cream cheese while drinking pumpkin ale. I’m obsessed. This obsession overlaps well with my food truck obsession because many trucks choose to add special seasonal pumpkin flavored food to their menus. And then I rejoice.

The first pumpkin flavored treat I had from a truck happened at the final San Mateo Moveable Feast earlier this month. Pacific Puffs was serving a special pumpkin puff that was filled with pumpkin flavored cream. The gentleman who sold it to me warned me that the cream would explode all over me when I bit into it, but I was still surprised when that’s exactly what it did. The flavor more than made up for the mess though.

Pumpkin puff from Pacific Puffs

Another special pumpkin menu item that I’ve had more than once now is the That’s Sweet! Dessert Truck‘s pumpkin spice cupcake.

Pumpkin spice cupcake from That's Sweet!

There’s something about the mixture of pumpkin and cream cheese that can’t be beat. It is also worth noting that the gentleman who runs That’s Sweet! recently told me that they discovered a problem with their ovens, and now that it’s fixed their cupcakes (which I loved before) are better than ever.

The final pumpkin experience I had was at the debut of Feast at the Flea, a new event where food trucks meet at the San Jose flea market parking lot.

Feast at the Flea, October 21st

After enjoying a dinner from O Mi Ninja, I headed over to Treatbot for an old favorite from last year. I had been waiting for the return of their pumpkin flavored ice cream, and this was the first event I went to where it was served (although they had been serving it all week). I chose to get my pumpkin ice cream in a waffle bowl with their apple pie ice cream. It was like Thanksgiving dessert a month early.

Pumpkin and apple pie ice cream from Treatbot

Although these three pumpkin flavored treats were great, I’m on the hunt for more. Do you know of any trucks in the south bay serving special pumpkin flavored options this fall? Please let me know so I can hunt them down!