A weekly event hosted in North Berkeley, Off the Grid blocks off a triangle of space and has 8-10 trucks come park for about three hours while locals sample some interesting cuisine. We started at Koja Kitchen, a Korean/Japanese fusion truck and after the line (30 minutes) ordered up some Kamikaze Fries and a Koja Chicken Pineapple Burger. Questions as to the level of spiciness were met with good natured replies that "no, it's not spicy."
LIES KOJA KITCHEN! LIES LIES LIES!
$13 later I sat down to eat my food and noted that both items were generously doused with Siracha. As much as I would like to level up on my man-meter of spiciness, I could not eat more than three bites before I had to go get some water. So I watched Kris eat food for two and thought about the idea behind the Koja burger. It looked and seemed delicious, as instead of having buns it had rice patties that were solid enough to hold in your hands.
Oh well, strike one for the food trucks. Next we headed to Cupkates, a polka-dotted mini truck filled to the brim with fresh cupcakes. I got a tiramisu and a lemon meringue pie cupcake and commenced with the first. All the sadness of Koja was forgotten as I bit into the heavenly mingling of sweet, espresso-y, mascarpone madness.
We hung around a little longer and Jim got a tasting sampler of ArKi's fried chicken and beignets. I had a bite, but was unmoved in their favor. So Kris and I walked back to BART and shuttled on home (of course we had to stop in at Corso to feed me real food, but that's another story for another day.)
All in all, my feelings for food trucks are 50/50. While I enjoy the socialization aspect of the gathering, I can't say that the food or prices were all that competitive with the bajillion restaurant options I have at my disposal in Berkeley. Minus the cupcakes, those guys were delicious, and I will be back next week for more.
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