There’s always an exciting new dish to discover at our Off the Grid events. Each week, we highlight one of our favorites and share them on our weekly newsletter. Make sure to sign up here so you don’t miss out.
3 Brothers Kitchen
At 3 Brothers Kitchen, Vietnamese flavors provide a unique twist to dishes like french fries and tacos. One of their most popular dishes is bo’rria — an amalgamation of bo, the Vietnamese word for beef, and birria, a Mexican braised meat dish. The meat is flavored with warm spices used in Vietnamese braises. Try the bo’rria in taco or quesadilla form. Our favorite dish on the menu is their pork belly loaded fries. It riffs on the idea of bacon loaded fries but swaps the cured pork belly for caramelized pork belly. The pork is sweet, tender and rich. They do a great job getting the french fries crispy which provides textural contrast with the sticky pork. The fries are also sprinkled with fresh herbs and a savory sauce to round out the flavors. Go for the large order of fries and share with the table.
Amelia’s Mexipino Cuisine
As the name suggests, Amelia’s Mexipino Cuisine fuses Mexican and Filipino dishes. Don’t miss out on their fusion horchatas made with pandan or ube. Their pancit, a noodle dish from the Philippines, is tossed with aromatic al pastor. Another hybrid dish are their burritos stuffed with sisig. You can also order a plate that includes both tacos and noodles. Ask for their orange salsa that provides a subtle burst of heat. Their birria is tender while managing to retain its juiciness. The consome is amongst the best you’ll find in the Bay Area. Their birria torta stacked with cheese, onion, cilantro, and salsa is perfect for soaking up the consome. If you prefer, enjoy their birria in soup form by ordering a pho birria or pho ramen.
Barya Kitchen
Barya Kitchen is a Filipino food truck owned and operated by Rod Reyes and Selina Wong. Their menu features fusions of Filipino and Mexican cuisine. A couple fan favorites are their crispy lumpia stuffed with beef birria and jack cheese and pork sisig street tacos. At Gordon Bierch’s Hawaiian-themed event, they served a Hawaiian plate lunch with unique creations. Their bacon and shrimp katsu had a crisp panko shell with a juicy, tender filling. Their peach and mango katsu sauce brightened the rich flavors and added a fruity backbone. Another item on the plates was oxtail and pork belly delicately steamed in taro leaves until meltingly tender. You don’t want to miss their ube black sesame horchata.
Ceviche & Co
Ceviche & Co is run by the Moncayo family who immigrated from Ecuador. Their namesake, ceviche, is made by marinating seafood in lime juice to denature the proteins and infuse the dish with a bright flavor. While the dish originated in Peru, it’s prominent in Ecuadorian cuisine.
Their ceviche of the day is loaded with pineapple, diced tomato, pickled red onions, and latin corn nuts. There’s a handful of acidic ingredients layered upon each other without any of them stealing the spotlight. The corn nuts, which look like unpopped popcorn kernels, provide bursts of crunch to add variety to the dish’s textures. They’re served with tortilla chips and orange segments; so, you can load up a chip and add a spritz of juice for each bite. It’s the perfect dish for a hot summer day. A customer favorite is their chile verde empanadas filled with corn, beans, onions, red peppers, and poblano peppers, and a blend of five cheeses. Don’t sleep on their fried plantains topped with cotija, pineapples, and chipotle sauce.
Chick N’ Bros
When Chick N’ Bros started in 2020, they were going up against the spicy chicken sandwich boom in fast food restaurants. Yet, they managed to create a unique take on the dish that’s loved across the Bay Area. You can try their crispy, hand-battered chicken with a variety of toppings and heat levels. For the full Chick N’ Bros experience, order the fully-loaded “Nashville Fire” with your choice of heat between cayenne, ghost pepper, Trinidad scorpion, or Carolina reaper. It’s topped with their “bro sauce” — an orange adobo aioli that adds a touch of fruitiness. It’s also drizzled with their white sweet and tangy “chick sauce” that balances the richness of the sandwich. Finally, it’s stacked with pickles, purple cabbage, paprika, chili oil, and honey. They also offer the “Chick Norris” that pairs their fried chicken with nothing more than pickles and barbecue sauce. Don’t miss out on their mango habanero sauce.
Cocina Danzon
Cocina Danzon features cuisine from across Latin America such as favorites like arepas, cachapas, and mojo sauce. The name danzón refers to the official musical genre and dance of Cuba that is also popular in Mexico and Puerto Rico. La Havana, their stir fried Cuban-style rice dish, is stacked with black beans, plantains, ginger, green onion, and five-spice fried chicken. They also serve a Venezuelan sweet corn pancake called a cachapa which they stuff with melted cheese. Don’t miss out on their mofongo, a dish with Puerto Rican and Dominican roots, that consists of smashed green plantains, garlic butter, and chicharron. Their menu features a variety of arepas, the most popular being the pork belly arepa. They serve it sandwich-style stacked with black beans, tomato, cilantro and avocado. Mojo sauce comes in a variety of styles, but they usually contain olive oil, spices, garlic, and some form of acidity. The mojo provides acidity and savoriness to several of the dishes, but it pairs exceptionally well with the fatty pork belly. Maintaining the quality of such a large and diverse menu is a tricky task, but Cocina Danzon pulls it off expertly.
Mozzeria
Mozzeria is a deaf-owned pizzeria based in Washington, D.C. that strives to create career opportunities for deaf individuals. Aside from D.C., the only other place you can find their pizza is right here in the Bay Area. They don’t have a physical location here, but you can find their food truck at Off the Grid events. They’ve even been highlighted on Netflix’s Somebody Feed Phil. Their Neapolitan-style pizzas are made with a tender, flavorful dough that’s kissed with char marks from their wood-fired oven. For smoke it night, Mozzeria cooked up a special menu item infused with smokiness. Their barbecue-inspired pizza was topped with pork, jalapeños, pickled onions, and a sweet and savory barbecue sauce. Mozzeria expertly balanced the sweetness of the sauce with the acidity of the onions. The char provided by the high temperature oven accentuated the smoky vibes of the dish. Keep an eye out for more of their unique creations.
Shrimp’in Ain’t Easy
Shrimp’n Ain’t Easy is a food truck owned by Gian Lopez that specializes in a shrimp and chorizo combination. He’s a former teacher on the Eastside of San Jose and DJ. Shrimp and chorizo is a better take on the traditional steak and shrimp surf and turf. The subtle flavor and snappy texture of the shrimp perfectly contrast the crispy, heavily-spiced chorizo. At Shrimp’n Ain’t Easy, you can try the pairing in various forms. For first timers, go for the vampiro — a crispy tortilla with a layer of grilled cheese, cotija, cilantro, and pickled red onions. The mixture is also great in burrito form loaded with black beans, rice, avocado, and pico de gallo. They also sell a smoked baked potato — The Big Papa — stacked with shrimp, chorizo, green onions, and crema. Regardless of what you order, make sure to try the pineapple chipotle salsa.
