GrubGirl.

Who: Curry Up Now, a mobile lunch and dinner truck (I’ve nicknamed it Curry Cart for short) serving hungry customers in San Mateo, Burlingame, and Redwood Shores.

What: They serve local and organic meals (in compostable containers), that are a mashup of Indian street food and Mexican taco truck fare. That means you get legit Indian dishes often wrapped up in corn or flour tortillas for a lunchtime fix, or a traditional boxed lunch with a side or rice, veggies, and the entree. Lunch and dinner options are available, though I think they are open either one meal or the other (not a lunch and dinner on the same day).

I was thumbing through a free magazine that my friend picked up while grocery shopping at Mollie Stone’s. After picking through all the ads, I noticed a Kheer recipe. Kheer is a South Asian dessert (I think there’s some New Year’s significance to it). You can find it at a few sit-down Indian restaurants, on their dessert menu. It’s a very sweet rice dessert, usually served chilled. The ingredients below are quite affordable…and if you make this you’ll get an idea of how much you’re overpaying, the next time you want to order this at the restaurant!

Cafe Colma (inside the Lucky Chances Casino)
1700 Hillside Blvd
Colma, CA 94014 // (650) 758-2237

With a huge new cemetery under construction across the street, and hidden inside a casino in South San Francisco, Cafe Colma is quite an uplifting experience. Okay, I was being sarcastic, but my friend and I decided to check this out for lunch one Saturday. Why? Because I’d never been to a Filipino restaurant before, and I’d heard from some Meetup folks that this was a dive worth exploring. Plus how often can you claim to have eaten in a casino…minutes from San Francisco?

Mehfil Indian Cuisine
600 Folsom Street
(between 2nd St & Hawthorne St)
San Francisco, CA 94107
(415) 974-5510

Yes yes, something is afoot. Grubgirl has been spending a lot of time South of Market, near 2nd street. Why? We’ll go into that later. The main point though is that these new regions have left my stomach anxiously looking for grub bargains for breakfast and lunch.

Fortunately, Mehfil is here. Also know by some locals as “Curry in a Hurry,” this place runs a brisk takeout business with North Indian specials that range from $5 – $7. Yes, folks. The $5 includes one of four options, at least one of which is a meat. There’s a bigger Tandoori special for $7 where you get something other than Basmati rice and the entree.