SactoMoFo 7 Wrap-up

I had such a great time at SactoMoFo 7 over the weekend, where several mobile food trucks offered delicious vegan options. I couldn't possibly try them all, but I visited a few of them and took food containers with me so I could bring the leftovers home.


As far as I'm concerned, the star of the show was Hella Vegan Eats, an all-vegan food truck from the Bay Area. That was my first stop of the day, and I was happy to see a long line of people eagerly waiting to try it out.

I ordered the Southern Fried "Chicken" Sandwich, which consisted of a crispy fried "chicken" patty on a house-made knot roll, topped with apple, fennel, and jalapeño slaw and dressed with a pickled mustard seed aioli. It was so good!

It seemed like a shame to have access to an all-vegan food truck and only get one thing to eat, so I went back later and ordered the Fried "Chicken" & Waffle Mini Bite. It was just as fabulous as its description on the menu board: crispy fried "chicken," fluffy waffle, sage-lavender butter, and Maker's Mark Bourbon-infused maple syrup. Wow...

I also got one of their Crack Cookies to take home. What's in a Crack Cookie, you ask? Caramel potato chips, chocolate chips, and Anchor Steam Porter, among other things. Wish I'd taken home more than one!

Another food truck with great vegan options was Curry Up Now, also from the Bay Area, serving Indian street food. I ordered the Hella Vegan Burrito (do you get the feeling that "Hella Vegan" is a popular phrase in the Bay Area?), and it was excellent. The picture below doesn't do justice to this great burrito, stuffed with samosa, chana masala, rice, tofu, and chutney.

My next stop was Dusty Buns, a food truck from Fresno that serves organic sandwiches on fresh hand-made buns. I got their Vegan Joe, which featured roasted squash, mushrooms, and onions topped with almond vegan pesto on one of their delicious toasted buns.

Unable to eat another bite after all that, I went looking for snack and dessert items to take home. I picked up a bag of original kettle corn from Costa's Finest Kettle Corn, and an incredible assortment of DavePops.

I'm already looking forward to SactoMoFo 8!

Vegan Options at SactoMoFo 7

Mobile food trucks from Sacramento and other Northern California cities will gather under the freeway at Sixth and W on Saturday, April 26th, for SactoMoFo 7. Personally, I can't wait! I love having the opportunity to check out the vegan options offered at many of these food trucks. This year's lineup even includes an all-vegan food truck from the Bay Area, Hella Vegan Eats. I think there will be so many exciting vegan options at this year's festival that I'm planning to bring some empty containers with me so I can take food home with me.


I contacted the food truck operators participating in SactoMoFo 7 to find out if they were planning to offer any vegan menu items. Here's what I found out.


Dusty Buns: Ask for the Vegan Joe, which consists of seasonal roasted vegetables on a fresh toasted bun with almond vegan pesto. The Bistro Fries are also vegan, but you may want to ask for the vegan pesto as a dipping sauce, since the one that normally comes with the fries contains honey.


Hella Vegan Eats: According to the SactoMoFo 7 Healthy Choices page, this completely vegan food truck will be offering Southern Fried "Chicken" Sandwich, "Chicken" & Waffles, and Smoked Tempeh Salad.


The Chairman: The Chairman's vegan bun is not advertised but is always available on their food truck. It consists of their regular steamed bun with house-pickled carrots, cucumbers and daikon radish, along with bok choy and house-made tofu sauce.


Addy's Paella: There will be one or two pans of vegan paella with fresh vegetables, depending on demand.

Annie's Sno Biz: According to the operator, the shave ice, syrups, and slushies contain no animal products or ingredients. However, the optional cream topping, which is offered at an additional charge, is made with dry milk.


Ciao Chow: The operator told the organizers of SactoMoFo 7 that their Ciao Chow mein and their rice noodle salad are both vegan. Also, they can make their plum sauce and ginger-braised tofu vegan upon request by omitting the ciaochow sauce.


Costa's Kettle Corn: The original kettle corn is vegan, but beyond that, you'll have to ask. They have several different flavors that are made by adding a powdered flavor mix to the kettle corn, and the ones I inquired about contained powdered milk and/or whey. The ingredients in the original kettle corn are simply corn, corn oil, salt, and sugar. They'll also be serving fresh-squeezed lemonade.

Dave Pops: Dave will be selling both LukePops (all vegan) and DavePops. The only flavor of DavePops that is not vegan is the Vanilla Chocolate Toffee Chip.


Fuzion Eatz: The falafel wrap, grilled eggplant wrap, and Vadovan (a wrap made with zucchini, bell peppers, and onions grilled with a French India spice blend) are all vegan or can easily be made vegan by leaving out the feta cheese and the sauce that includes dairy products. Be sure to let them know you're vegan so they can make the appropriate changes to whatever you order. The naan used for the wraps is vegan. These fillings can be served over basmati rice or Romaine lettuce, rather than being served in a wrap. Fuzion Eatz also has a hummus dip that is served with naan.

Gameday Grill: Garlic grilled asparagus and Puerto Rican Style Rice and Beans will be available for vegans.


Green Papaya: According to SactoMoFo 7's Healthy Choices page, Green Papaya's Thai style papaya salad is vegan.


Gyro King: The falafel is vegan.


Happy Cow: Strawberry and mango smoothies made with 100% fruit puree and a little added sugar will be available.


Papa Dale's: A vegan asparagus and mushroom risotto will be available.


Rich's Ice Cream: There will be a vegan sorbet, either lemon or strawberry.


Slightly Skewed: The operator said that while they normally offer several vegan options, the menu for this event had to be narrowed, so their only vegan option will be the blistered shishito peppers.


Smoothie Patrol: The vegan smoothies offered by Smoothie Patrol are the Razzle Dazzle (raspberry, blueberry, blackberry, strawberry, and orange), Mango Madness (mango, pineapple, peach, and orange), Peach Lizard (strawberry and peach), and Tropical Lemonade (strawberry, pineapple, and lemonade).

Swabbie's: According to SactoMoFo 7's Healthy Choices page, Swabbie's plans to offer Boca Burger tacos.


Curry Up Now: I tried to contact Curry Up Now by email, Facebook, and Twitter, but I didn't receive a response from them. I'm including them on this list, however, because it appears from their website that they offer a special vegan menu.


Otherwise, if a food truck is participating but is not on this list, it means they either don't have anything vegan, or they didn't respond to my request for information about their menu. Even without them, vegans will have plenty of choices at this year's festival.


SactoMoFo 7 will take place on Saturday, April 26th, from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. under the freeway at Sixth and W. Admission to the event is free, but parking is $5.00 unless you bring a canned good to donate to the Sacramento Food Bank. Valet bicycle parking will be provided free of charge by Sacramento Area Bicycle Advocates.

Star Ginger Food Truck

For this week's blog article, I had intended to highlight another one of the food trucks that will be participating in SactoMoFo 7 on April 26th. But when I went to the River Walk in West Sacramento at lunchtime last week and tried to order a vegan meal at the truck in question, I was told they were out of tofu. So there went that blog post.


I was starting to worry about what else I could blog about when I stumbled upon a food truck that, unfortunately, will not be at SactoMoFo 7. The Star Ginger food truck operates on the UC Davis campus, and since I was there for Saturday's Picnic Day, I stopped by for lunch. This food truck is part of Mai Pham's restaurant group, along with Star Ginger Asian Grill & Noodle Bar and Lemon Grass Restaurant. I'm a huge fan of Mai Pham's restaurants, where there are always several fabulous vegan options.


The food truck menu was limited to bánh mi sandwiches, so I ordered the vegan Tofu & Veggies Bánh Mi. Served on a fresh Vietnamese baguette, this delicious sandwich included pan-seared tofu, cucumbers, carrots, daikon, cilantro, mushrooms, and a little jalapeno. Just what I needed to fuel my walk through that huge campus!

The Star Ginger food truck is located near the Silo, around the middle of the campus, and you should definitely check it out the next time you're at UC Davis. It doesn't have much of an Internet presence, but you can find a little more information at http://roaminghunger.com/star-ginger or at http://www.starginger.com/newspress/star-ginger-asian-grill-launches-mobile-food-truck-at-uc-davis-campus.

Fuzion Eatz

Mark your calendar -- Sacramento's annual mobile food festival will be held on Saturday, April 26th. At last count, thirty different food trucks had signed on to participate in SactoMoFo 7. I'm contacting each participant to see who plans to have vegan options available, and I'll publish the list a few days before the event.


In the meantime, I caught up with one of the participating food trucks, Fuzion Eatz, on a downtown street corner last week. Fuzion Eatz always has something for vegans on their menu.

I ordered the falafel wrap, which consists of two chickpea patties, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, mint jalapeno chutney, and tamarind chutney wrapped in Fuzion Eatz' wonderful vegan naan. You'll need to ask them to omit the feta cheese and the dairy-based sauce.

At SactoMoFo 7, Fuzion Eatz will be offering two other wraps that can be made vegan: a grilled eggplant wrap and the Vadovan, a wrap made with zucchini, bell peppers, and onions grilled with a French Indian spice blend. Again, you'll need to let them know you're vegan so they can make the appropriate adjustments.


Any of these fillings can be served over basmati rice or Romaine lettuce instead of in a wrap. Fuzion Eatz also offers a hummus dip served with naan.


More information about Fuzion Eatz is available at http://www.fuzioneatz.com/. You can get updates about where to find the Fuzion Eatz food truck by following them on Facebook or Twitter.