New Trucks and More New Trucks

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!