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!

The Fogcutter is delighted to announce

ALLEYCAT
A poetry night in Dalston

April 7th, from 7.30

At Bardens Boudoir, 44 Stoke Newington Road, Dalston
suggested donation £5 to Refuge

with streetscrapping, fog-cutting, steam-piped poets

Roddy Lumsden, Sophia Blackwell, Inua Ellams and Sarah Howe

For more on this new night step aboard the HMS Fogcutter  http://thefogcutter.wordpress.com/

We ordered the artichokes to start, which come with ricotta whip, an olive tapenade and slices of baguette. It was splendid. Being one to combine everything on one piece of bread, like a true person from the States, the mixture of olive tapenade (I think they were Kalamata olives), ricotta whip and artichoke on one piece of baguette, would have been a perfect meal for me any day. To drink, I chose the fogcutter, a stiff cocktail with brandy, gin, dark rum, orgeat (sweetened almond liqueur), sherry, orange juice, lemon juice, demerrera (unrefined, granulated brown sugar).  The drink was everything you want on a hot night, refreshing, stiff and a bit sweet, but not overpowering.

Moving on to the main course, Bill went with the village burger. The famous village burger that everyone’s been chatting and writing about. I’m happy to report that, yes, it lives up to the hype. He ordered it with chevre and marinated mushrooms. The burger is thick and juicy and the buttered bun melts in your mouth. It was burger perfection. I ordered the lobster roll, it’s a New England thing, apparently; Butter poached lobster with lemon-old bay aioli and applewood smoked bacon, served open-faced. The lobster was perfect and the aioli was delicious. It was a big portion but I wasn’t stuffed afterward.

Michael, the host was a bit rude, but that’s fine, he can keep pretending he’s working in NYC or LA and I’ll keep going back to Village Whiskey for great spirits and good food that’s approachable yet refined.

Local tip: The beer list has some good picks from the “large format” section including Sly Fox Saison and Allagash Curieux.

half the ingredients

Wow, did they pack a punch! I think, by far, the favorite was the Singapore Sling. (Since it had about 15 different ingredients, it had better be!) Luckily, we had all afternoon to lounge by or in the pool to let it wear off.