Food trucks in Menlo Park provide alternative eating experience

Every Monday at Willows Market, trucks serve variety of cuisines

Lily Zhang, Senior Staff Writer

April 25, 2014

The food truck trend has grown in the past few years and currently inspires a weekly community event in Menlo Park.

Can’t decide what to eat? Food trucks at the Willows Market serves a variety of diverse foods, ranging from Indian Street Food to Korean-Japanese fusion and even to Belgian waffles served with fried chicken.

Now occuring at the site next to Willows Market in Menlo Park, Food Truck Night consists of five different food trucks every Monday night usually from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. A sampling of food trucks include Sanguchon Peruvian Food Truck (Peruvian sandwiches), Hiyaaa (Vietnamese fusion sandwiches), The Chairman (Asian street food), KoJa Kitchen (Korean and Japanese cuisine), The Rib Whip (Southern style BBQ), The Waffle Roost (Belgian waffles and buttermilk fried chicken), CurryUpNow (Indian street food) and many more. Available food trucks rotate each week.

One of the food trucks, KoJa Kitchen, offers a delicious blend of Korean and Japanese cuisine, in the form of a variety of inexpensive fusion burgers ($5.50) that use hand-made toasted rice cake patties as buns. The burgers include different fillings of Korean BBQ beef or chicken and even offers vegetarian patties as well.

Other choices on Koja’s menu include Kamikaze Fries ($6): criss-cut fries with Korean BBQ beef, kimchi, green onions, topped with Japanese sweet mayo and a signature sauce.

In addition to the food trucks, the butterscotch pudding from the Butterscotch On-the-Go vendor ($4) is a favorite among customers. Located just a little to the left from the entrance of the Willows Market, the vendor serves a mouth-watering butterscotch pudding topped with almond toffee and whipped cream.

Many Palo Alto High School students go to Food Truck Night to try the many different styles of foods.

What started as a one-time meal for senior Megan Rohrer transformed into a tradition.

“Food trucks are great because every week, there are different options, so there’s always something new to try,” Rohrer said. “Some of the foods are really unique, such as KoJa Kitchen, which is Korean and Japanese food, and it’s definitely a new favorite. Everything I’ve ordered has been delicious and it’s a great environment to hang out in.”

Another weekly customer and senior at Paly, Aashli Budhiraja, emphasizes Food Truck Night’s delicious food and lively community environment.

“The only thing I look forward to on Mondays is going to the food trucks and getting the delicious butterscotch for dessert,” Budhiraja said.