6 Trucks @MVBLfeast

So in spite of my trying (and succeeding, thankyouVERYmuch) to diet, I am still quite the foodie at heart.  So much so that I've finally given up one of my last resolves and created a Twitter account to follow San Jose's growing food truck scene.

I am so totally not one to embrace social media... if there were such a thing as antisocial media, then I'd be all over it.  I'd create a "(bleep)YouTube" account in no time, spend hours updating my InYourFacebook page, be posting daily on GetOutOfMySpace, and be an editor on Jerkipedia.  But sadly, there isn't (wait -- is there?  If there's an antisocial media subculture out there, let me know about it.  Don't be so standoffish about sharing it.)  My sole contribution to social media is this blog, and as I've said on more than one occasion this is more for me than anyone else; I'm fairly certain that I'm the most regular reader to be sure.

Anyway, I have since backed off slightly from my technoloner ways and created a Twitter account, so we can follow and try out the food truck scene. There are a lot of trucks that have Twitter accounts, letting followers know where they'll be (a necessary thing if you want regular customers and have a nomadic eatery), but the one we were most interested in is Moveable Feast, organizers of multi-truck gatherings on weekends and other special events.  They used to organize gatherings in San Pedro Square downtown, but they were having problems with the crowds and traffic, and long lines gathering in an area that wasn't designed for large crowds milling around.

And when I see on their Twitter feed they they were organizing some trucks at Garden City for lunch, well, we just have to give it a try.  There were six trucks involved -- one of which we'd already tried earlier in the week -- so we figure we'll have a multiethnic fast food bonanza for our midday meal.

We find a decent parking spot (which is in and of itself remarkable, since it's in the Garden City / Harry's Hofbrau parking lot, which is always crowded; and there's a mini flea market going on at the same location as Moveable Feast) and make our way to where the trucks are parked in a semicircle around a plethora of folding chairs and a couple of awnings.  Lucie and I split our forces to try and maximize our foraging -- the lines are a bit long and the crowd is densely packed -- so I head to the Wow Truck while Lucie heads to An the Go.  I'm still in line waiting to order when Lucie comes back with her ticket in hand, so I jump out of line and head over to MoGo BBQ instead, since there's no line there.  Within a few minutes, our orders are both ready and we find a place to sit and eat.

An the Go is a truck created by the An family... they have a couple of restaurants in San Francisco, and decided to take their crowd-favorite garlic noodles out into the mobile food scene.  Lucie gets their garlic noodles and pork skewer; the noodles are indeed delicious -- I promise myself I'm going to experiment to see if I can make them at home -- and the teriyaki pork skewer is good, but it sort of fades into the background when compared to the noodles.  They're a little too carby for me and my diet, however, so I don't have as much as I'd like to.

MoGo BBQ is Korean BBQ, with more than a little bit of fusion.  I order a spicy pork taco, a chicken taco, and some Hawaiian influenced short rib sliders... the spicy pork taco is Lucie's favorite dish of the day, and the short rib sliders are messy but very tasty.  The sliders come with shredded cheese and I'm unable to pick most of it off so Lucie is only able to have one of the 3 that come in the order; I enjoy the other two -- the cubed short rib meat has a lot of sweet charred flavor and is mixed with Spam pieces (and we all know how good Spam is!) and slaw, all stuffed into Hawaiian sweet bread.  It's a great combination of flavors, with just a hint of spicy goodness from the sauce they provide.

We enjoy the dishes, then we take turns getting more food while the other one remains and protects our seating arrangement.  Lucie hits Soulnese -- we'd had their food earlier in the week when we hunted down their truck after work -- and I decide to try out Sanguchon.

Soulnese bills themselves as Chinese soul food; we limit ourselves today to their Soul Stix and Mac & Rolls since we'd already tried out their other food previously.  The Soul Stix -- our favorite item on their menu -- are grilled prawns wrapped around slices of hot link sausage, with a garlicky aioli sauce drizzled on top; the mac & rolls are macaroni & cheese egg rolls, with all of the deliciously cheesy greasy fatty goodness that that implies, accompanied by a ginger ranch dipping sauce.  Their other items are also worth a try... garlic fries topped with fried pork strips, lemongrass aromatic fried chicken, and Mongolian tri tip are all fantastic, and while I haven't had it yet just the name of their "Jive Porky" plate (pork chop, ham, and bacon with fried rice) guarantees I'll be hitting this place at least one more time to give it a taste test.

Sanguchon is the mobile version of a triad of restaurants, all serving Peruvian food.  I get an order of fried plantains for Lucie, and some sweet potato fries and a sandwich to share.  The sandwich bread is made specially for Sanguchon, and is delicious -- dense, crispy and able to withstand a dental onslaught while keeping structural integrity, which is important: I pretty much mow through most of the sandwich before I remember I'm supposed to save some for Lucie to try out.  The item I picked is pan con chicharron (pork loin with sweet potato fries, red onion, and a garlic aioli), but everything on the menu sounds fantastic.  This is by far my favorite new food of the day, and I immediately add them to my Twitter account's Food Truck list for future meals.

While I'm waiting for the Sanguchon order to come up, I swing by the adjacent MoGo BBQ truck again and pick up some more tacos (one each of the chicken, spicy pork, and short rib -- I pass on the tofu this time around) for later.

Unfortunately, the Wow truck isn't sampled today, as the lines were too long every time we went out foraging; but the Filipino dishes all sound really good so we remember it for next time.  I was looking forward to the silog experience (grilled meat over garlic rice, with fried egg on top) and to their Shanghai lumpia, too.

Likewise, the Project Cupcake truck isn't sampled either -- they're out of stock by the time we're ready for dessert.  They offer fully customized cupcakes to order (you choose cupcake, frosting[s], topping[s], and dusting)  but apparently didn't make enough for the day.  This was apparently their first time at Moveable Feast -- I believe that normally the dessert portion is covered by Treatbot, the ice cream karaoke truck that we also tried earlier in the week when they paired with Soulnese (well, *I* tried them since it's ice cream; the Mexican chocolate ice cream in the waffle cup was great, and the pineapple-coconut ice cream reminded me of Hawaii, only with the danger being brain freeze instead of head trauma from falling coconuts) so it's entirely possible they weren't prepared for the crowds.  Maybe we'll get to try them again next time we come to Moveable Feast, or if I see they're going to be nearby the next time I go on Twitter.

As with most street food, everything was a bit greasy; but as with *good* street food, the flavors more than made up for that and everything else.  An excess of deep fryer grease, long waits, challenging seating conditions, relatively expensive food for somewhat small portion sizes... doesn't matter a whit.  Food good?  Yep.  Really darn good food?  Yuppers.

Going to go again?  You betcha.

(Still losing weight?  Surprisingly, yes; even with culinary adventuring.  Since mid-June, I've dropped over 55 pounds.  w00t.)

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