Though food trucks and street food in general have been a foodinista trend going back almost a decade now, you kinda know it's jumped the shark when they're reviewing food trucks on Check, Please!
Don't get me wrong. Everyone's favorite wine-fueled citizen-review roundtable, hosted by the bubbly Leslie Sbrocco, is my favorite too. And the best is when someone in the group inevitably there's always one picks their go-to neighborhood spot in deepest Pleasanton or whatever, and the other two city-dwellers at the table get all snobby about it and hurt the Pleasanton person's feelings. (Sidebar: You know that Barack Obama was on the Chicago version of this show once, right?) Basically, it's always a culture clash situation, and they seem to purposely cast it that way, and there's no better opportunity to watch a cross-section of Bay Area personalities make passive aggressive remarks about each others' taste.
For the 9th season of Check, Please! Bay Area, they've actually featured two food trucks so far. Back in April, for the season premiere, one of the citizen reviewers picked the Bacon Bacon truck, and there were only a few snotty remarks about it.
Now, in this week's episode, a young student and aspiring filmmaker chooses the very popular Senor Sisig truck, and though everyone finds it delicious, the other two citizen reviewers (one a housewife, one a buttoned up trust officer who works downtown) are a little put off by the, uh, truck aspect. Doug the trust officer would like a place to sit down at the very least.
And, naturally, the suburban person here (Doug the trust officer), picks his favorite neighborhood spot in the Oakland Hills, the 20-year-old Italian Colors, and it's the type of place that still serves molten chocolate cake. The others point out that the service was weird, the creme brulee was cold, and the pizza needed salt.
Needless to say, the exchanges are delightful, especially if you enjoy the films of Christopher Guest, and humor of the uncomfortable sort.
And this is the shade that gets thrown about that unsalted pizza.
Previously: 'Check, Please! Bay Area' Returns
