J.K. and Angela found lots to do after the rest of our gang left the Street Food Festival. There were several 'game' booths calling our name.... J.K. went into the line for Mahatma Rice, while Angela stepped next door to check out King's Hawaiian, which were grouped together. They each had a wheel to spin in order to win prizes. As you can see, they didn't skimp on the giveaways. All our swag is grouped together at the end of this post. J.K. was quite excited about her hot dog buns from King's Hawaiian. Plus we both got a free "roll to go" as well.
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| The back of one spinning wheel where everyone wins! |
Endless Summer Sweets made funnel cakes and our favorite, kettle corn, on the spot. We only got one small bag this year (last year we got one of each size) because J.K. wanted to save her extra passport tickets for Chocolate! (She ended up getting her fix to go from Neo Cocoa, while Angela took a burrito from El Tonayense for lunch the next day. J.K. also scored a 'taco' to go from our fave Onigilly. Yum!) Endless Summer Sweets can be found at the Berkley Flea on the weekends, but if you're having a get together and need treats catered, they'll come to you! Just give them a ring.
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Kettlecorn, yum!
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Funnel Cakes and
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Smart USA was on the spot, tempting everyone with their free test drives. Of course Angela (and everyone else) wanted to drive the electric convertible(!) SmartCar. While she was driving it, J.K. chatted with the escort for the gas-powered version, who was about as busy as the Maytag repairman. A passerby was quite impressed with our parking spot...
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| Takes up very little space! |
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| Smartcar ready for its closeup |
Three Twins Ice Cream is on our list. Actually it's always on our list! Whenever we stumble across a resto or store serving this ice cream, we have to take a lick. We had really wanted a scoop when strolling by earlier in the day, but the line was always too discouraging. However, since Tea Time was feeling 'full' we knew that we should take advantage of the 'short' queue (6 people) and get our hands on the cold stuff. Angela got a prepackaged container of Sea Salted Caramel, but then we waited for the scoopers to dig out J.K.'s Chocolate. They must have just brought that container from the deep freeze, because the girls offered to top it off with a second flavor to give their aching arms a break. Angela picked Butterscotch. Sure, it was J.K.'s extra scoop, but all she wanted was chocolate, so hand it over!
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Biycle Banh Mi. We had already eaten the Bunny Banh Mi (from Central Kitchen), so we chose the Banh Cam dessert at this booth. Fried goodness bathed in ginger caramel sauce, accompanied by more Three Twins ice cream, vanilla bean speck this time, which highlighted the other flavors and didn't compete with them. As our last official dish eaten at the festival, this was a winner.
Swag! Highlights are hot dog rolls from King's Hawaiian, juice from Purity Organic, masks from You're Next, rice from Mahatma, and yet another bag, a really cool one from Macy's. This is another one J.K. will actually be using. It zips up to form its own pouch, and the straps are long enough to carry it as a shoulder bag while wearing a coat. The graphic is Macy's flagship store on 34th Street in New York City.
This food festival is a fundraiser of sorts for La Cocina. (If you'd like to give money less indirectly, it's welcome, or plan to attend the Night Market which is a concentrated fundraiser as opposed to a trickle down fundraiser.) We have enjoyed attending it for the past several years, and plan to participate again in the future! If you're interested in finding out more about the local businesses that La Cocina has helped get their start (and continues to support through their communal kitchen), please check them out! Also, just so you know we earned some of our calories...the Fitbit Zip J.K. won in the Walgreens sweepstakes let us know that J.K.* and Angela** walked about six miles together and burned at least 1900 calories! We probably ate more than than we used, but it was for a good cause! Right? We can't wait to do it again next year! Bring on 2014
*At the end of our time at the Festival, J.K. walked Angela all the way back to her bike at one end, and then walked all the way back to the other end to snag her chocolates from Neo Cocoa, before walking back to Mission Street to get the bus home.
**Angela also biked to La Cocina from her house about 8 miles round trip, plus walked the length of the festival several times during her volunteer stint in the Early morning. So There. :)
