Lou Bustamante

Our monthly review explores the city's food trucks gatherings, one at a time, breaking down each one with statistics, descriptions of the scene, and vital info to help you plan a trip there.

Location: 428 11th (near Division)
Schedule: Monday-Thursday, lunch: 11 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner: 5 p.m.-9 p.m.; Fridays, lunch: 11 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner: 5 p.m.-10 p.m.; Saturdays, 11a.m.-10p.m.; Sundays, 10a.m.-5p.m.
Market Info Website: SoMa StrEat Food Park
Approximate Number of Trucks: 6-13 at a time from a list of over 70 different trucks
Parking/Public Transit: Muni, street parking
Restrooms: Full-sized semi-permanent trailer
Music: Down tempo modern mix
Booze: Beer and wine
Seating: Outdoor picnic tables and covered and heated seating, along with a converted bus
Best for: Lunch, early dinner/happy hour, dinner before hitting Folsom street bars
Other notes: Because of its set-up, you will find trucks here you often won't find out on the streets.

A little over a year into SoMa StrEat Food Park's life as the RV park equivalent for food trucks, the little permanent seven-days-a-week rally has steadily refined the offerings. While we love the pop up ambience and bare bones simplicity of the kinds of gatherings that happen in random parking lots, StrEat Food Park's amenities make it feel a little different, somehow more restaurant or a food court. Not that this makes the street food any less legitimate or delicious.

See Also:- SOMA StrEat Food Park: The Ultimate Restaurant Mash-Up
- Off the Grid's Picnic at the Presidio: Like a Day in Dolores, But Better Food, Drinks, and Grass
- Food Truck Bite of the Week: Line-Caught with Fish Tacos from Cholita Linda

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Lou Bustamante

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks.

The Truck: Cholita Linda
The Cuisine: Mexican mixed with Peruvian with a dash of Cuban
Specialty Items: Tacos and aguas frescas
Worth the Wait in Line? At peak time, a total 20 minutes from the end of the line to food in hand.

A long line at a mobile food vendor, as dreaded as it may be, has an irresistible appeal. There is a sense (sometimes misguided) that the lengthy line is an endorsement for the deliciousness of food being served, a populist seal of approval. I often make a concerted and contrarian effort to hit the shortest line, but sometimes curiosity gets the better of me and I file in like a baby duckling.

While things don't always work out--I often kill more time than hunger--sometimes the crowds know what they're there for. On a recent sunny day, the snaking line at Cholita Linda and the large number of taco plates leaving the pick-up window proved too much to resist.

See also: Food Truck Bite of the Week: Floating on a Peanut Butter Cream Puff at Pacific Puffs
Food Truck Bite of the Week: Finding Home with Laksa at Azalina's Malaysian
Off the Grid's Picnic at the Presidio: Like a Day in Dolores, But Better Food, Drinks, and Grass

More »

Pete Kane

The Cubano at Babaloo

Food trucks can be a slippery lot. Sometimes, they go missing and their Twitter feeds fall silent. Unless DHS stalks them with drones, we may never find them again once we lose them -- or even know what happened, for sure.

So we are happy to announce that after a mysterious sabbatical of some duration which may have involved major mechanical woes, Babaloo is back. The Cuban food truck where most of the items are I Love Lucy references is once again bringing sliders, sandwiches and cilantro-heavy slaw up and down the Peninsula.

See also: Food Truck Bite of the Week: Finding Home with Laksa at Azalina's Malaysian
Off the Grid's Picnic at the Presidio: Like a Day in Dolores, But Better Food, Drinks, and Grass

More »

Lou Bustamante

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks.

The Truck: Pacific Puffs
The Cuisine: Cream puffs in seasonal and classic flavors
Specialty Items: Mini and regular sized cream puffs
Worth the Wait in Line? At peak lunch time, a total 4 minutes from the end of the line to food in hand.

Before I started logging a serious number of hours and calories exploring food trucks, a friend of mine asked what my favorite food truck was. "Oh, the cupcake truck," I replied, smiling and closing my eyes with the memory of it. Annoyed, he asked me again, implying I provided an invalid answer, and that the cupcake truck somehow didn't qualify as a food truck.

It made me think of the discussion you often hear in the music scene about DJs and their validity as musicians. Just like DJs sequence their rhythms ahead of time, dessert trucks make their wares in a kitchen before loading them on the truck. Perhaps if we referred to both as conductors (one with sweets, the other with beats) we could stop arguing, start dancing and enjoying truck dispensed sweet treats again, preferably at the same time.

See also: Pacific Puffs Expands From Union Street Storefront to Puff Truck
Food Truck Bite of the Week: Finding Home with Laksa at Azalina's Malaysian
Off the Grid's Picnic at the Presidio: Like a Day in Dolores, But Better Food, Drinks, and Grass

More »

Off the Grid

Off the Grid's landmark event at Fort Mason earlier this year.

The Giants aren't exactly slouches when it comes to stadium food, but if you're looking for something a little different, food truck gathering Off the Grid is returning to AT&T Park tomorrow, May 7, starting at 5 p.m. Now in its second year, Off the Cove is a stadium-adjacent gathering of 13 mobile food vendors and a beer garden that benefits culinary incubator La Cocina.

See also: Original Joe's Brings Its Vaunted Burger To Ballpark
Off the Grid's Picnic at the Presidio: Like a Day in Dolores, But Better Food, Drinks, and Grass

More »

Lou Bustamante

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks.

The Truck: Azalina's Malaysian
The Cuisine: Mamak stall cuisine, a blend of Indian, Malay, and Chinese cuisine
Specialty Items: Fritters, curries, buns
Worth the Wait in Line? At peak dinner time, a total 10 minutes from the end of the line to food in hand.

We may consider our ability to articulate ideas and communicate through language the dividing line between ourselves and our primate ancestors, but to discount the value of our more primitive parts of our brain is foolish. No memory is more powerful than one triggered by scent or taste. Home may be a long way away, but visiting it is as simple as cooking and enjoying a meal.

See also: Azalina Eusope Stirs, and Stirs, Her First Batch of Kaya
Azalina's Penang Curry Bomb
Food Truck Bite of the Week: Porchetta Nachos at The Whole Beast

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Lou Bustamante

Our monthly review explores the city's varied food trucks gatherings, one at a time, breaking down each one with statistics, descriptions of the scene, and vital info to help you plan a trip there.

Location: Presidio Parade Grounds, near Main Post and Walt Disney Museum
Schedule: Every Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. through October 27th
Market Info Website: Off the Grid: Picnic at the Presidio
Approximate Number of Trucks/Vendors: 18 mobile food kitchens, 8 farmers market stalls, plus 6 retail food and outdoor goods merchants
Parking/Public Transit: Yes; Muni
Restrooms: Rows of porta-potties
Music: DJ playing a nice mix of music with enough energy to get you to dance, but mellow enough to allow you to nap
Booze: Bloody Marys, Mimosas, beer, wine, cocktails
Seating: Grass; bring a blanket
Best for: Groups and families
Other notes: Dogs are allowed; bring sunscreen and some friends.

For the first in a new monthly series that reviews not the food trucks but the locations they occupy, it was hard to ignore the warm weather this weekend and a visit to the first of the Picnic at the Presidio series. Certainly Sunday's amazing weather helped the market and our feelings about it, but even with less sun and a few more layers, the picnic would be equally enjoyable.

See also:Food Trucking Events: Cloth Napkins and Blankets
Food Truck Bite of the Week: Porchetta Nachos at The Whole Beast
Food Truck Bite of the Week: Hoofing Burgers at Fins on the Hoof

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J. Schell

Grab a blanket, grub, and sun at Off the Grid: Presidio Picnic

Civility isn't something you associate with food truck events, but are you really looking for "wholesome" among the carts? Part of the fun is the mass of humanity, the snaking lines, the comparing of food tips with strangers, and the discovery we have more room in our stomachs than we previously thought. Food trucking is the culinary equivalent of music festivals: you do it for the communal social experience as much as for the performances.

Showcasing a more refined side to the trucks are two events: Off the Grid Presidio Picnic (with full drink menu!) and Fiveten Burgers making a pop-up appearance (get a taste of what the future brick and mortar location may bring) at Trace.

See also: Food Truck Bite of the Week: Hoofing Burgers at Fins on the Hoof
Food Truck Bite of the Week: Porchetta Nachos at The Whole Beast
Food Truck Bite of the Week: Fiveten Deep in Burgers

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Lou Bustamante

Our weekly bite explores the city's food trucks, one at a time, highlighting our favorite mobile dishes and snacks.

The Truck: The Whole Beast
The Cuisine: Whole animal cuisine
Specialty Items: Sandwiches, smoked meats and veggies
Worth the Wait in Line? At peak dinner time, a total 13 minutes from the end of the line to food in hand.

The way we eat is largely defined by our culture and upbringing, but globally there is one thing we can all agree on: The smell of food cooked over a wood fire or smoke will trigger a reaction from the primitive and logical parts of our brain that politely says, "Fuck yes!"

Watching John Fink and his team at The Whole Beast pull a large, dark, bronzed stump of porchetta out of the large Southern Pride smoker oven at last week's Fort Mason edition of Off the Grid, the smell had my brain in overdrive like broker on the stock exchange shouting, "Buy! Buy! Buy!" at the pork belly market.

See also: Food Truck Bite of the Week: Porchetta Sandwich at Roli Roti
The Best Things We're Eating and Drinking at Outside Lands: Day 2
Dish Duel: The Great Porchetta Smackdown

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Tamara Palmer

Duck larb sandwich by Side Pony.

If you haven't yet been to the new season of Off The Grid's Fort Mason Fridays, there are plenty of intriguing new food and drink options that await you there. One of our new favorites is Side Pony, which specializes in remixing non-bunned dishes into sandwich form.

See Also:
-Sign of Spring: Off The Grid Returns to Fort Mason

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