Off the Grid

Braced against San Francisco's famous summer chill, J and I headed to Off the Grid yesterday at Fort Mason. This rotating gathering of food trucks reminded me of the clusters of food trucks I often saw when visiting Portland. Everything from burritos to mixed drinks was being served last night, and judging from last night's hoards this food fair's only going to gain in popularity. 

I started with a Malaysian lacy crepe topped with chicken curry. My gosh, the folks at this food stall did not dumb the spiciness down for non-Malaysian palates! The doughy, slightly chewy crepes helped take the edge off the heat, and overall I really enjoyed this new dish. 

 

From the same stand, J started with a beef and potato curry puff in tamarind sauce. This was nice, but one of the less exciting selections of our evening. 

But the most delicious thing from this food stall was the banana fritters! They were served to me too hot to eat, which is how I like my food. The fritter itself was made of a banana-y, soft, fluffy dough, and each fritter had a nugget of soft gooey banana in the center. As a banana bread lover, I really found this dessert hitting the spot. 

Our friend had a selection of three buns from Chairman Bao's bun truck: mango duck, pork belly, and shredded pork. I was off my A game and already feeling full from all I'd eaten, but they were very pretty. 

Our other friend J had an Onigilly from The Samurai Snack folks, who I thought came up with a very clever new name for a very old Japanese treat. I encourage you to click on the link to the Onigilly site because their food is really beautiful!

And last but most certainly not least, we stopped the stand for the now famous San Francisco Creme Brulee Cart. The line was long and my toes were cold by the end of the ordeal, but the creme brulee was delicious! The creme brulee is premade and packed in coolers, but each one is topped with sugar and torched when a customer places an order. The result is a nice crackly burnt sugar top, followed by a layer of warm creme brulee, and finally a layer of cole creme brulee at the bottom. I don't know that I'd stand thirty  minutes in line for this again, but I can see why it's one of the Mission's most popular traveling food carts. 

Not about food: what is up with this seagull? Is it normal for them to take on pink feathers like this? The only explanation I can think of is that a change in diet caused the pink feathers, the way it does in flamingos. Too many crustaceans, perhaps?