Taquizas La Paloma becomes my favorite food truck.

Don’t get me wrong. I loved the soy-cured salmon in cauliflower mousse – one of the most surprising and surprisingly appetizing tastes at the seventh annual Pebble Beach Food & Wine – as much as the next food geek freak.

But as I grazed on elk tacos, cold-smoked marshmallow ice cream, pig’s head chilaquiles and prawn-horseradish panna cotta, I could sense something building in me.

It was fed by the fact you can’t throw calamari around a kitchen (or the PBFW grand tasting tent) these days without hitting a chef talking about “street food-inspired” flavors or “food-truck” style plates. For every duck-three-ways dish at the grand tastings (nice one Cal Stamenov), there was a duck tamale to cover your hands in grease. Cooking for Solutions (coming May 16-18) and LosAngeles Food & Wine are among the major epicure endeavors incorporating big, street-themed parties. Even actual food trucks are run by increasingly high pedigree chefs going mobile to appeal to hipster horniness for food with tires.

I knew what I had to do: I needed to recalibrate my street-food equilibrium. Not on acres of carpet beneath soaring ceilings. On actual asphalt in the Salinas sun. With tacos that don’t fuse anything but greasy, drippy and delicious. By chefs who cook them because that’s what they know well and it’s all they really care to cook. It’s the original – and still champion – street food.

Fortunately I had a tip I’d been meaning to act on, from Marina-based travel writer and Weekly contributor Stuart Thornton. He extracted it from a guy who – after working more than 35 years in Salinas produce – is a type of taco whisperer. He says he lives for carnitas. I imagine he dreams in cabeza and lengua and agua fresca – and only truly understands complex ideas when he pictures them dropped on small corn tortillas layered with chopped onion, cilantro and homemade salsas. And that man, Kevin Kenoyer, delivered.

The Taquizas La Paloma (484-3456) truck parks down in an industrial and concrete-coated corner of Salinas near a collection of giant tractor tires, in front of a closed plumbing business. The address is 352 Griffin St.; the best landmark to navigate by is the JM Electric store next door. Kenoyer estimates he picks up several dozen tacos for his office two or three times a week.

The promising indicators, beyond the setting, accumulate quickly: Lime juice hangs from the truck in a spray bottle. A coffee spigot system sits reconfigured as a ghetto-glorious sink to clean away ample drips. A TV monitor embedded in the side of the truck plays only cheesy Spanish-language music videos, exclusively romantic duets if our visit is any indication. Three or four unmatching stools offer a modicum of seating/table space, but that’s about it. Jarritos and sodas await in a bed of ice beneath a rack of chicharrones, next to a box gathering coins for a local girls’ basketball team. Raul Garcia pokes his head from the window, a completely welcoming and friendly host. He trades off on the cooking with his sister, Marilu Garcia, who worked for a decade and a half at local La Plaza Bakery.

The vampira ($2.50) immediately sucks us in: We order the house’s own Sinaloa-style tostada creation with chorizo and carnitas, which go over a base layer of melted mozzarella on a golden-fried tortilla and under a complement of chopped herbs, onion and spicy salsa. Like all the goodies, the salsa is a standout because its tomatillos, garlic and chiles never touch a preservative or emerge from a can. On-the-side pickled radishes and roasted jalapeños make each super affordable dish a combo plate. In a word: riquísimo.

“A lot of people come to eat the vampires,” Garcia says.

We also came to eat killer carne asada tacos ($1.25 each) done with just-right crispy edges and dreamy spit-roasted-seasoned-pork al pastor tacos ($1.25). Seaside’s Mi Tierra suddenly is no longer my favorite place for al pastor.

We’re between rush hours that come at lunch and open until midnight Saturdays, though I hope it’s always this quiet when I come. (They’re closed Monday and Tuesday, open 11am-10pm otherwise, until 11pm or later Friday and Saturday. Call if you’re going late, as they often sell out.) Garcia takes the lull as a chance to try first-timers on a couple more things. He whips out fresh fish-and-shrimp tacos ($1.50 each) so soft, spicy and nicely sauced – with a touch of guacamole on the bottom and a spicy red chile treatment on top – the only thing that can make them any more memorable is two squirts of lime from the spray bottle.

I didn’t expect fish tacos from a truck to be that good and fresh. They had me speechless – and not just as I stuffed my face. Just as incredible: We’ve completely overeaten, and the bill – for two – is something like $11.

“Me siento bien cuando la gente disfruta mis tacos,” Garcia says. “I like to make them. And a lot of people say I make a good taco. That’s cool for me.”

And a much-needed original for me.

~ QUICKBITES ~

• Seaside has a new blue-collar food spot in Off the Hook (383-4121) inside Food Corner Market at Noche Buena and San Pablo: messy SOS breakfasts ($3.99), chili-and-cheese burgers ($5.75, $5.95), tuna melts ($5.99), big stuffed baked potatoes ($5), deli sandwiches named after the likes of Ruthy, Jerry Smith, Special Mom Thelma and Ms. Bernice ($5 each), and rib and fish plates every Friday ($10 with two sides).

• Increasingly popular “parklets” are parking spaces converted to mini sanctuaries for trees, grass and tables. Happy Girl Kitchen (373-4475) on Central in P.G. had its own mini-park approved by City Council, and now they’re putting together a raucous video to raise Kickstarter cash to plush it out. Peek plans on the blog.

• John Cox of Sierra Mar (667-2800) is now prepping giant keyhole limpet – and it might beat abalone. More on the blog.

• Happy birthday: Corral Market & Deli (676-3806) has a live DJ, wine tasting, food vendors, barbecue smoking away and more 11am-4pm Saturday, April 19, to toast a year in business (see p. 34).

• More birthdays: Crema on Lighthouse in P.G. (324-0347) has a new dinner menu and 4-6pm Thursday-Sunday happy hour to celebrate turning 2 yesterday. Olive oil-wine tasting hubTrio Carmel(250-7714) – exclusive home to superb small-plot local wineries Pelerin, Mesa Del Sol and Ian Brand & Family – toasts its #2 with a fat party ($35-$45) 6-8pm Friday, April 25, with the best from Brand and Chef Brandon Miller. RSVP.

• When I attempted to dispel rumors of Nob Hill’s demise and New Leaf’s rise in Pacific Grove – I repeat: New Leaf isn’t coming – I made a booboo: I made it unclear that Nob Hill is still very much there and, as one employee writes in, “a very fabulous place to work with kind and caring employees and customers.”

• Point Pinos Grill (648-5774) at P.G. muni golf course flows its pairing dinner series on with Ozaka Blues Brewery and four indulgent courses like three-cheese Monte Cristo Saturday, April 26 ($60).

• April 24’s Taste It Thursday ($12 for sips and snacks) 4:30-6:30pm at Wharf Marketplace features Heller Estate.

• Socrates: “Wisdom begins in wonder.”