Food Truck Fashion

The food truck craze has hit Marin and it's a big hit. We used to have to go to San Franciso or to Oakland to find foodie trucks (as opposed to roach coaches, which can be found everywhre), but now these mobile purveyors of fashionable food delights have come to us. We live just across the bridge from Marin county, where Off The Grid has set up at Larkspur Landing a big tent with tables, a long line of black folding chairs, and six or seven food trucks offering everything from barbecued ribs to Indian cuisine.


We were headed over for a swim afternoon at Jack and Janie's condo complex pool, so we offered to stop at the food trucks and pick up lunch. The scene was one that captured a modern Californian food trend in microcosm - a line of well-made, carefully sourced, and delicious but essentially convenient fast food vendors. Brilliant sunshine. Customers in casual clothes and liberal tattoos. My Beloved on his cell phone, relaying an order from our friends to the cooks in the truck.


This day, we chose the taco truck - The Taco Guys - and it was a fine choice. We sampled five of their tacos - fish, shrimp, beef, kahlua pork, and chicken - and all had tasty combinations of ingredients. The chicken taco was the only really spicy one, leaving a hum of heat on my lips afterwards. The hands-down favorite was the shrimp taco, filled with sweet, tender little shrimps with veggies that enhanced rather than competed. My Beloved's beef taco was hearty and filled with big chunks of meat, something he likes very much. Jack reports that the fish taco was fresh and well cooked. The kahlua pork was embellished with mildly pickled mango strips that added a nice crunch and a little tang.


We ate our tacos on Janie and Jack's shady, flowery deck then alternated between the swimming pool, the hot tub and the deck chairs where we gathered some of those dangerous UV rays. As the summer advances, I hope there are more days of food truck lunches and leisurely swims in our future. It's a fashion I can get behind.