Event - Moveable Feast in Garden City

When Duc and I went up to San Jose to snag a little time of relaxation, we had a very vague plan of everything that we would be doing. We just knew that there were some restaurants we really wanted to check out. While hanging out with some friends of mine, I got the suggestion from one of them to check out the Moveable Feast. I looked up their website and saw that a meet-up was happening very soon and that this ongoing event/group features 100+ trucks on their roll call. How could we miss that?


When we visited the Garden City stop on a Sunday (they have multiple "feasts" set up per week with a rotating food truck roster), there were five trucks available - House of Siam on Wheels, Bigg Shrimp'n, KoJa Kitchen, Treatbot, Gold Rush Eatery. We tried three of them. Yeah, craziness. There was music playing and lines just about at every truck.


If you're curious yourself about Moveable Feast and plan on being in that area (or already do live in that area), here's their schedule as of the last time I check in April 2013:

• Monday Dinner // 5PM - 8PM SOUTHSIDE
• Tuesday Lunch // 11:30AM - 2PM PALO ALTO SQUARE
• Friday Dinner // 5PM - 9PM WILLOW GLEN
• Sunday Lunch // 11AM - 2PM GARDEN CITY

Without a doubt, Duc and I tried as many of the trucks as we figured our stomachs could. My favorite of them all was Treatbot for its unique and tasty ice creams. At $3 for a single scoop and $5 for a double, it is arguably a tad on the pricey side but you get what you pay for. We tried out three flavors in two trips because I came back for a second scoop of the lavender. Yes, yes, yes. The Lavender with Salted Caramel was fan-fricking-tastic. It had a light lavender tint to it, and the floral flavor was not subtle at all. For lavender lovers, this one's for you. The innate sweetness to the flower was enhanced by the salty caramel swirls all around inside of it. Tasty! We also had a scoop of the Red Bean whose red bean flavor was not as prominent as we had wanted. We wondered if its base was vanilla since the red bean was faint. To make it up, a scoop of the Horchata with its very cinnamon and ricey (in a good way) profile was had. The texture of the ice cream scoops themselves were nicely creamy and smooth.


For the KoJa truck, the line was the longest. Curious and because people in general are drawn to long lines (it must be good right?), we wanted some from this truck. I ended up ordering the Korean BBQ Short Rib (Kalbi) ($6.25 - with sesame vinaigrette lettuce, drizzled with signature red sauce and between two toasted garlic rice buns) and Kamikaze Fries ($5.75 - crisscut fries with Korean BBQ beef, sauteed onions, kimchi, and green onions drizzled in signature red sauce and Japanese mayo). The buns on all of the sliders were like glorified rice with the meat fillings because they were toasted rice "buns." I'd say they were quite innovative in style and added a good toasted rice taste. The meat was tasty and juicy which led to the dish being hard to eat neatly. Their fries, unfortunately, were too salty! They were perfectly crispy but became hard to enjoy under too much saltiness and overall, too much of everything. I guess there's a reason why they're called kamikaze though...


Lastly but not least, our Gold Rush truck excavation produced Tater Tots ($3) and Onion Rings ($3). I got sucked in when I saw that they had tater tots on the menu; I was glad to have been because they were very good, having the perfect crunch and amount of potato. For the onion rings, there was great bite-through where the onion never slipped out of its batter ring. Oddly the sauce that came with both wasn't really ketchup but something that tasted just like a thickened tomato cocktail sauce. It wasn't bad but it was a bit surprising. We also managed to gulp down their Root Beer on tap.

Moveable Feast saw quite a crowd and with their trucks parked in a circle street-side, it was easy for people to pull into the big parking lot with ample space and get some grub. All the seating was on overturned large paint buckets, an awesome way for the event organizers to pack up quickly when the day was done. With live music and a lively group of people, I'd say that it was probably really fun too to stick around in the communal eating area. As for us, well, we just slinked away to take pictures of the food without looking too food addicted (har har) and enjoyed ourselves under the shade of a tree. I'm curious about all of the other trucks on their roster now!

Photography by Duc Duong.