Quick Bites: Dinner on a train, food truck news and other food on the move.

Kim’s Kitchen (758-5387) does a mean chocolate cookie with brown sugar and vanilla, available at runners hub Treadmill in Carmel (two/$3).

Last week, finding two of those cookies in my cubby proved an epic way to start a production day.

Her team was here filing a fictitious business name, which means they'll expand to do more special events and catering with their cookies and cakes.

Speaking of Treadmill and cookies, Treadmill mascot/house chef Justin Cogley of Aubergine fame told me as part of a piece called "Eat and Run: Chef Justin Cogley has gone gaga for endurance racing"—which also mentions how he crafts nutritious recipes to share with his runner family—“I still eat a ton of cookies.”

Now I understand why a little better.

More food nibbles appear here.

• Some things merit affection implicitly. Like puppies. And hot sauce. And bacon, even if it kills you. And Salinas Valley produce. And trains. Most of the above items, puppies excluded (though one can hope), come into play with an atypical fundraiser this weekend. The backdrop is historic train railcars as Dinner Party on the Train chugs around 5-9pm Nov. 14 at Monterey & Salinas Valley Railroad Museum in Salinas. Premium reserve River Road wines featuring Odonata in the lead and Dan Beck Band’s jazz-blues fusion benefit the museum ($35 in advance is a bargain, 594-1799). The strolling menu goes long on tri-tip, cheese-infused mash potatoes, bacon-wrapped asparagus, Salinas Valley salads, roasted beets and more.

• Rich Pèpe, Jack Galante and Stefani Chaney's Carmel-by-the-Glass returns Dec. 11, www.carmelbytheglass.com. More soon.

• The monthly Food Truck Bonanza parks at the Moose Lodge off Highway 68 in Del Rey Oaks the afternoon of Friday, Nov. 20 will recur the last Saturday of each month.

• New tasting room in Carmel Valley is immediately one of the area’s largest, and most historic. More on the blog.

• Come 1pm Saturday, Nov. 14, Monterey County home brewers share their creations in the backyard beer garden at Trailside Cafe in Carmel Valley (298-7453). The Redwood Coast Brewers Association also meets and life music brightens the affair.

• The county capital of Latino-style fruit ice cream bars, or paletas, is in Gonzales, with 40 homemade flavors like cucumber-lime and mango, in a water sanitation store called Pacheco Water. More on the surprising discovery with the Monday blog.

• New fall menu, and official coming out party of Chef Jeremiah Tydeman, is now hitting plates at Alvarado Street Brewing (655-2337), with items like sweet-and-sour cauliflower, pumpkin-curry soup, chicken pot pie, romanesco-Angus beef steak frites and truffle crayfish mac ’n’ cheese.

• The Wharf Marketplace pairs with Ventana Estate Vineyard to host a benefit for victims of the Cachagua Fire 5-7pm Friday, Nov. 14
 with The Hilltop Bluegrass Band, Ventana wines and gourmet hors d’oeuvres, win-win raffle ($25, www.ventanawines.com, 229-7163).


• Venus Spirits Santa Cruz Distillery, where gin, agave, whiskey make for a luxurious six sample tasting ($15), is worth a mission across the bay. PS: We need a Monterey-Santa Cruz ferry.