Lunch With Beth at Onigilly Express

It was a nice day, and Beth needed to get back to work quickly after lunch, so we took a walk over to 4 Embarcadero Center,  picked up a quick lunch at Onigilly Express and ate at a table outside.

Tea Time Adventures has had a long love affair with Onigilly, from Street Food Festival Booth to their pop-ups and then on to their brick and mortar store on Kearney street. They always come through with delicious onigiri and yummy side dishes. Try them out and you'll love them too.

J.K. chose the Edamame Set with
salmon, hijiki and unagi rice balls

Beth's choice was the Miso Soup Set
with an Unagi rice ball

SFSFF Part 4

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.

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.

   

Kettlecorn, yum!

Funnel Cakes and

 

 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...

Takes up very little space!

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!

Caramel and Butterscotch Left, Chocolate,Right

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. :)

Brick and Mortar Onigilly

We've been enjoying Onigilly onigiri for several years, visiting their food cart and booths at various events from Off the Grid to the SF Street Food Festival. We really admire the way they've made their business become reality! The idea is straightforward and simple, yet we can see how it has evolved since we ate our first rice ball standing in line a couple years ago at the Street Food Festival waiting to try the dish next door, and now it's turned into a lovely cozy restaurant on Kearny street helping FiDi workers get something tasty and healthy for lunch. (open 11am-3pm)

The space is bright and inviting with a few small tables for eating in, and a bench for people waiting on to- go orders. Angela was a bit paranoid about the line when she rode up on her bike, but it turns out that once you are in the doorway, you're next to order. It makes total sense to put the register next to the door, which allows customers inside room to move around instead of fighting for elbow room with those waiting to order. Props on this floor plan! However, it also makes the line look long, even though our wait to order was short. Food delivery time was quick. You can definitely make lunch here happen in under an hour and not feel rushed.

They have a couple different order options now. Our group all got the "Onigillly" which is three rice balls with salad and some edamame on the side. A full meal. They have onigiri flights to choose from or you can create your own. Other patrons had the bowls which looked delicious; they arrive with salad or rice featuring the onigiri toppings of your choice.

Angela ordered her own set of 3 with a side of seaweed salad. Unagi, Chicken Teriyaki and Salmon graced her plate. The Unagi was savory and tender, the sauce is her favorite. Flavorful organic chicken is put to good use with Teriyaki and rice surrounded by the savory seaweed wrapper. Gently cooked Salmon and rice paired with homemade pickled ginger (ooo, Swap idea!) was a delightful taste sensation.The seaweed salad was the perfect complement to western leafy greens. The portions were generous (perhaps slightly more so than the food cart?).

JK got the Seafood Duper trio which featured the Unagi (broiled freshwater eel with sweet soy), Tempra [sic] Shrimp (honey soy dipped tempura fried shrimp) and Kani (Canadian Snow Crab meat mixed with lemon agave aioli) Onigiri. Unfortunately she didn't realize that this had aioli, which seriously detracted from the taste of the crab for her, as JK does not like mayonnaise. Next time she will order  two shrimp or two unagi or maybe something entirely different for her third onigiri. This plate also had salad with Miso Dressing, edamame and house pickled ginger.

Beth enjoyed these three Onigiri; Bacon (cooked bacon with garlic butter, sake and chili sauce), Hijiki Seaweed (soy braised seaweed strings with shredded carrots) and Miso Tuna Salad (cooked wild albacore mixed with miso aioli; the miso didn't help this one, even though Beth likes mayonnaise), along side her salad, ginger and edamame.

Right now Onigilly is still in it's "soft opening" phase and the three of us each received surveys as first time customers. When we return and bring the survey they will give $2 off our order. A good deal! Onigilly is choosing to show their roots with pride by displaying their story as art on the walls. The actual art is pretty interesting, too.

Do you enjoy rice? What's your favorite topping?  Would you take rice balls for lunch? Onigiri are quite easy to make at home, but it's nice to eat out and enjoy some professional cooking so try out Onigilly today or tomorrow. Considering their business smarts they should be around a long time.

UPDATE: Onigilly has posted the changes they chose to make after reading their customer surveys and taking the  comments into consideration. You can check out their new and improved menu online, or just stop by the store! I'm hungry just thinking about it. Yum!

UPDATE:  April 2013
Happy Hour Visit

Sake Sangria FTW!

Edamame with a delish garlic sauce!

Dead Soldiers

Octopus Takoyaki! Hot crispy outside with fishy bonito flakes sprinkled on top.

Who can resist clams in a bowl?

Golden Beet Salad. The pink stuff tasted amazing.

Unagi handroll, well, they call it a 'taco'. We call it real tasty.

The happy hour menu at Onigilly is seasonal, but if you're up to date by following twitter/facebook, they let you know what's new in the resto. The Sake Sangria is a treat and something you can make at home for sushi parties. Great inspiration to the home entertainer. Our favorite twist was the garlic edamame. If you want a happy hour snack, get them. The service was great too! Onigilly is here to stay. Yay!

Food Festival part 3

Here we are again. Still eating at the SFSFF 2012. Right now we're eating More Dessert! 

We weren't expecting much from Clairesquares' fried caramel pop, served with raspberry sauce, so we were pleasantly surprised by the warm and gooey inside. It went well with the raspberry, even though the raspberry sauce unfortunately didn't fix the Virgin Hibiscus Sangria (see Food Festival, part 2).

Then our mouths met with Hella Vegan Eats Pad Thai Spring Rolls with sauce, plus also a Green Curry Paleta. The green curry paleta was another big hit. None of us knew what a Paleta was, and even though we like green curry it was a no because our tummies were reaching capacity. Then Angela saw it was really a frozen popsicle and the Paleta was our new best friend! It got 3 smiles with a nice blend of sweet and savory so charming we didn't even mind the curry texture. The 'spring' rolls had pleasing crunch and the flavor profile of  a noodle-y plate of pad thai! We did have some questions if they qualified as 'spring' rolls since they were fried. Anyone know the definition?

Mozzeria's La Mia Oca Burrata: Hand pulled fresh mozzarella with creamy ricottta wrapped inside, garnished with cherry tomato, basil oil, balsamic vinegar and crispy crostini. We all voted that if there was enough room in our tummies later we would eat this again (and again). Angela is not usually a fan of boring old ricotta, but the pairing helped balance the 'no flavor' flavor of this cottage cheese competitor.

Onigilly: Spicy Shrimp, Teriyaki Chicken and Vegan Eggplant, washed down with Ginger Green Tea Lemonade. Onigiri are super easy to make at home! This Food Fest Onigilly had some scintillating  flavor options and the edamame were a marvelous bonus snack. The tea was palatable.

Also featured, our fork stash. Yes Stranger, you are welcome to share a fork. If you want our cooties!

La Victoria's Tres Leches Goat Milk Blueberry Parfait. We sauntered past this booth noting how appetizing their menu looked, but when we walked the strip a second time dessert was on the menu (again). Creamy, fruity, light and cool this would be a yummy treat any day. Since we had a Mission Summer Day of Sun to celebrate along with the smorgasbord of food at our fingertips this layered confection was a hit! We couldn't wait and took the first bite before our photographer was ready.

How can we have consumed any more food at the San Francisco Street Food Festival (version 2012)? Well, we did a lot of walking too!! Really. Urban hiking. Come back for the last toothsome morsels to be posted as part 4 in a couple of days.

 Have any of these pictures inspired you to try a new recipe or restaurant? Let us know what you think about this outrageous day of gluttony.