Food Truck Confidential: Eat on Monday

I first saw the Eat on Monday truck at Moveable Feast’s Saturday night market. Though the only item on the menu was Taiwanese chicken fillet, I hadn’t seen that many customers in line since Black Friday. Was everyone seriously willing to wait for a chunk of bird meat?

Fast-forward to the AOL parking lot. I’m the only girl in a crowd of about thirty businessmen, eating their most popular sandwich. However, this was no ordinary sandwich. This was no KFC. This heaven-on-earth experience was UFC – the ultimate fried chicken club, named by one of its many fans on Twitter.

That amazing slice of buttermilk fried chicken breast was crispy on the outside yet impossibly tender inside. The rest of the sandwich, basically your standard BLT, upped the ante with thick cut maple syrup glazed bacon. Maybe the AOL businesswomen feared the calories or the $9 price tag, but the UFC is one large portion size of unforgettable deliciousness that is worth trying.

What makes Eat on Monday so unique is its diverse selection. They serve up everything from Chinese food (noodles, dumplings) to American (hamburgers, hot dogs) to even Mexican. Fusing two ethnic cuisines has proved successful, as the Asian taco menu is one of their most popular.

The truck’s surprising variety began with Robert and Carol Pei, who decided to put their pop-up restaurant on wheels in 2010. What started as a once-a-week (guess which day!) lunch vendor near Cafe Yulong in downtown Mountain View has become a popular business that somehow manages to serve hundreds with a crew of only 7 people.

Every member contributes to menu brainstorming – as Robert simply puts it, they just love to cook and experiment. I could only feel indebted to their collective culinary genius while eating the blue cheeseburger. Most people aren’t as passionate as I am about pungent cheeses, but I promise even those who hate the moldy stuff will love this burger.

The local grass-fed beef patty was cooked a juicy medium-rare, while the baby arugula leaves provided a sharp contrast to the smoky bacon strips. It sounds extraordinary already, but the main attraction of this burger was the melted blue cheese and maple syrup glaze. Somehow, sour cheese and sweet syrup complemented each other, making the experience uniquely savory. Also, props to the bread for never getting soggy.

My meal was filling, the service was quick and friendly, and I would rather spend $10 on a blue cheeseburger than on four In-N-Out burgers. Starting another week of work or school doesn’t have to be painful. Robert said, “People hate Mondays, so we try to make it better by serving good food.” Good food is an understatement.