Sometimes having no dinner plans at all is the best strategy for enjoying a great meal.  The anticipation of the unknown and the endless possibilities of international cuisines should have you thinking about dinner before you’ve even finished lunch.

Tonight, just like every Monday night going forth, Off the Grid food trucks will roll into Belmont providing eight distinct gourmet options from 5-9 p.m.  Bundle up and bring cast.

Check out the video above from last week’s inaugural market.

What’s been your favorite truck so far?

http://belmont-ca.patch.com/articles/what-food-truck-will-you-try-tonight#video-13550584

Oaxacan Kitchen, one of two Mountain View-based food trucks, will participate this Saturday in a San Francisco Beer Week event—in San Jose.

The mobile restaurant and several others will come at the behest of Moveable Feast, a food truck event organizer, the the fourth annual Meet the Brewers craft beer festival presented by Mountain View-based Tied House‘s site brewery Hermitage Brewery.

Ron Kent, owner of Oaxacan Kitchen, explains that the Mexican’s food truck has a lot of corn-based meals and moles. The French-trained chef came upon Oaxacan food after he fell in love and married Zaida, a oaxaqueña.

“When I first went to Oaxaca, I just fell in love with the food,” Kent told Mountain View Patch out in the parking lot of the Aol building in Palo Alto, where he had tweeted they would be. Patch is owned by Aol. “The food is amazing, the place is amazing and the people are amazing.”

http://mountainview.patch.com/articles/mountain-view-food-and-beer-this-saturday-at-meet-the-brewers#video-13383173

Nico Osorio of Gold Rush Eatery cooks burgers inside their truck at the Moveable Feast held in San Jose on Friday, Jan. 4. The Gold Rush eatery has tried to reproduce the Linda’s Drive-In cheeseburger that was once served in Mountain View. Photo by James Tensuan

Like many local residents, the Zankich family never forgot the Parisian burger served at Mountain View’s Linda’s Drive-In decades ago, with its special sauce and sourdough bun. When it came time to open their own eatery, what to serve was a no-brainer.

“For years and years and years, my mom would make the sauce up when we would make burgers,” Kris Zankich recalled. “We’d have barbecues and people would be like, ‘You guys got to open a restaurant.’”

In August that idea became reality when the Gold Rush Eatery food truck was born with Linda’s Parisian burger as its signature dish. “With the up front costs of doing a restaurant, basically we came to the conclusion that the way to do this is with a truck,” Zankich said.

Long since demolished, Linda’s Drive-In was a Mountain View institution from the 1960s to the 1980s. Located on El Camino Real and Escuela Avenue, it was a favorite hangout for students of Mountain View High School when the campus was still located downtown on Castro Street.

Customers waAit to order food from the Gold Rush Eatery truck during the Moveable Feast in San Jose on Friday, Jan. 4. The Gold Rush eatery has tried to reproduce the Linda’s Drive-In cheeseburger that was once served in Mountain View. Photo by James Tensuan

For fans of the Linda’s burger, Twitter and Facebook announce the truck’s location. On most days during lunchtime it is parked at a corporate office somewhere in Silicon Valley, often in Mountain View or Palo Alto.

Zankich was 12 years old when Linda’s was around but he says remembers the burger’s taste well. It had two beef patties, American cheese, a French roll bun (from the Parisian bakery) and “special sauce” made from ketchup, mustard, dried onions, celery seed and pepper. Tater Tots were served on the side.

“It all kind of melts together if you have the right roll,” Zankich said. “We played around with it for a while” and ended up using a bakery in San Francisco.

Kris Zankich of Gold Rush Eater takes an order at the Moveable Feast in San Jose on Friday, Jan. 4. The Gold Rush eatery has tried to reproduce the Linda’s Drive-In cheeseburger that was once served in Mountain View. Photo by James Tensuan

The sauce was a mystery to many fans for years, though purported recipes can now be found online. Zankich says the family learned it from a former employee of Linda’s.

“Linda’s used to do two small little patties,” Zankich said. “I think a juicier burger is better. We use a half-pound of fresh Angus beef” for one big patty. That also means half the room is needed on the stove, an important consideration in a food truck where space is limited.

With a theme inspired by the 49ers, the Parisian burger has been renamed the “Gold Rush burger” on the truck’s menu, which also includes pulled-pork and teriyaki tri-tip sandwiches, Tater Tots, onion rings, and root beer floats. For those trying to avoid beef, a veggie patty can be substituted in the Gold Rush burger.

The truck can serve 250 people in one lunch, Zankich said, as much as a restaurant can. Upside-down buckets with the 49ers logo are used as tables and chairs.

With Gold Rush Eatery around there are now at least three ways to enjoy this classic Mountain View burger. The Zankich family joins two other local restaurants in attempting to recreate the Parisian burger, Armadillo Willy’s in Los Altos and Pezzella’s Villa Napoli in Sunnyvale. Both began serving their own versions of the Parisian burger a few years ago.

Info:
Gold Rush Eatery posts its food truck locations on Twitter as @Goldrusheatery and may be found on Facebook at facebook.com/goldrush.eatery.

Mountain View may look at tightening its laws for food trucks and updating the city’s ordinance in the face of the “cultural phenomenon” of mobile food, City Attorney Jannie Quinn said.

The Mountain View City Council is scheduled to hold a study session tonight to discuss the city’s code enforcement division. In a staff report, Quinn mentions the food trucks as an “emerging issue” that the city needs to address.

Quinn said the city’s code enforcement officers told her they’ve been getting some complaints that the trucks aren’t mobile at all.

“They’re not moving. People are renting space to them and they’re permanently installing what are supposed to mobile canteens on the property,” Quinn told The Daily News.

Quinn said Tuesday’s discussion is “really preliminary.” She said she did not know of any specific trucks or properties currently causing problems, and did not know who was making the complaints.

The city’s ordinance defines a “mobile canteen” as a “any vehicle or other mobile unit on private property … selling food or offering food for sale.” Food truck operators must pay the city an annual business fee of $100, and comply with county health regulations.

Quinn said that as city staff evaluates the ordinance, they will be looking at provisions such as a requirement that requires food trucks to submit a proposed route and schedule to the county health department

“I don’t know, one, whether they do that, and two, whether it’s appropriate for the county to be looking at their itinerary as opposed to the city,” Quinn said.

In addition, the city’s ordinance specifies food trucks cannot park on public roads, must clean up trash from customers, and must have the business’ name and address posted on each side of the vehicle.

Email Diana Samuels at dsamuels@dailynewsgroup.com.