San Francisco Street Food Festival 2015

The 2017 Street Food Festival, which will be held at The Power Station, 420 23rd Street, after being on hiatus last year.

2015's Street Food Festival, in a new venue at Pier 70, was so big that we couldn't sample the whole thing, especially since Mel is nesting so it was only the two of us. But we made a valiant effort and ate as much as we could. Eventually we found our friends Candi and Joe and we added a few more notches to our restaurant belt with her help.

Pier 70 seemed so far away, but getting there was super easy. Angela biked, and J.K. took MUNI. There was free shuttle service, but she would have had to take MUNI to get to the shuttle, so she took the bus to Market Street and transferred to the T, which stops at 3rd and 20th. A plus is that Angela got in to scope it out before the crowd since she biked. The bike parking was inside the venue, so rather than make the bikers leave again to wait in line, they graciously let us wander around until the festival opened. 

Pork Belly on a bed of mac and cheeeeez

Always J. K.'s favorite, the rice noodle rolls from Rice Paper Scissors

Bahn mi for free? Yes please and thank you to Williams Sonoma.

Banana cotton candy from SuparSpun? Please and thank you!

This is only a very small sampling of the large amount of tasting J. K., Angela, Candi and Joe consumed in their wanderings about the festival.

This new venue (Pier 70) is an interesting change from other years. It wasn't difficult to get there, but it is now a bit of a destination instead of being dropped in middle of the Mission. We guess this means only the really hungry people are going to show up, plus the die hards who know what a great deal it is when you buy the La Cocina Passport. Plus most of the money helps the La Cocina charity! Who can resist helping cooks share their wares with the world? Not us.

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. :)

SFSFF Part 3

After our libations from the bar and a little rest at the picnic table there, we moseyed over to Hella Vegan Eats for our Doughnut Burger. Here's a bit more info about this fun catering team. "In August 2011, HVE was invited to join La Cocina SF's incubator program, a ground breaking platform for low-income food entrepreneurs to manifest their passions into self-sufficient businesses with the help of volunteers, donated resources, and the encouragement of La Cocina staff. They are now working to promote their business and earn the capitol needed to become mobile food vendors. They will be catering from La Cocina's green kitchen in San Francisco, offering a large menu of innovative vegan delights." Yes, Hella Vegan Eats is one of the many businesses grown out of the La Cocina program. Their doughnut was a sweet treat as always.

You can now catch the Hella Vegan Eats Food Truck (Yup, they're mobile now!) at Delores Park. Get the update on their whereabouts...vegan food for all!

A bit disheveled from being cut in half...

Working hard to get that vegan food out to the eaters!

La Victoria Bakery Corp was another booth that has been on our mind since the last SFSFF! We ate their  Tres Leches Goats Milk Blueberry Parfait late in the day last year and it was a refreshing mouth full of cake and berries with sweet creamy goats milk. Additionally, Mel and Joel got a Goats/Milk Custard Cornet. (Angela knows these as Creme Horns.) For this post, Angela read up a bit on their website and found they offer a lot of awesome community interaction, such as children's baking classes. They are located in the Mission so J.K. and Angela will stop in there next time we wander those neighborhood blocks!

So nice they ate it Twice! A pic of #2.

Blueberry Parfait

J.K. loves a bit of local color. Across the street from the La Victoria booth was a

Local Author, trying to sell his book. He, too, seemed to be doing about as much business as the Maytag repairman. If you love the Giants, we can probably figure out his address for ya. 

Local Author, Author!

Here is a resto that's been on the "let's eat there" list for a while. Quite a while, actually. Radio Africa Kitchen officially transitioned from a pop-up to brick and mortar store over a year ago. However, it's a bit far from our stomping grounds (Bayview) so we just haven't made it over there. All the better for us to try their Grilled Flank Steak Big Bite at the 2013 festival. We'll make it down south eventually and then you can read about our Radio Africa adventure....

Flank Steak bowl

Popsicles are always on the menu at Nopalito! J.K. and Angela were becoming the last holdouts from our group, but we knew it was time to stick it out and start on desserts. Our parfait had filled us up a bit, but popsicles just melt around the edges–right? So we walked back down the blocks of booths, keeping an eye out for something we just couldn't live without and kept cool with our iced pops. Nopalito has two locations in the city, the original in NOPA plus their new Inner Sunset outpost. So get your fix while 'summer' is on here in the city!

Need a Popsicle? Just head to the resto!

Dark Chocolate on the left and Strawberry on the right.

No one can say it better than La Cocina. "D'Maize  is a family owned Salvadorean catering business serving up some of the best pupusas in the bay @lacocinasf represent!" (via Twitter) D'Maize Catering will bring their home cooked food to you! Recently they catered for Zynga, and their chef is so excited to get you hooked on Salvadorian food that they recently offered Free samples to people who email them on Facebook. That is service with a smile!

Our meatful pupusa! Yum-o.

This Frankaroni on a stick from 4505 Meats was one of the best things we tasted. Mac 'n' cheese and bacon, fried on a stick! It was supposedly a small bite, but the four of us didn't even manage to finish it while walking to our friends car. They took it to go which was pretty simple since it already had a stick.

A state fair type treat made into street food!

J. K. and Angela are getting filled up to our eyeballs, but we've still got a bit more walking to do and a lot more tickets to use up! Fortunately there's always something going on at the festival besides food. Well, the people watching is really what you do while eating your next street food treat. There are vendors with games and dancers to entertain, just take your pick of what to watch/do while you wait for the next chance to nab that one treat you've waited for all day.

Aztec Dancers  Did A Long Set

See Them In Action!

SFSFF Part 2

Tea Time took a look at the list of vendors for the San Francisco Street Food Festival 2013 and knew there were specific places we wanted to try, old favorites we were destined to visit. However, there were plenty of passport tickets to go around and whenever someplace had an enticing menu item we would stop to spy. If it was something we couldn't do without then someone would stand in line while the rest o' the gang looked around a bit more and/or waited at a stand-up table for the food to appear. (Don't worry, we took turns standing in the lines!)

So we knew up front that the fresh Marin Miyagi Oysters on the half shell from Basa Seafood were on the list. What we didn't bargain for was this delicious  Spicy Salmon Poke. Once we saw it, we had to have it! The spice was just right and the seaweed salad filled our greens spot. The chips were extraneous to us, but we saw many people using them instead of a fork, scooping up the salmon and eating the chip too.  Tea Time knows better than to fill up on store bought carbs though. There's real eating to be done here! For instance, we each had a delightful (free!) california roll as we waited for our bounty from the Basa booth. It was the perfect appetizer.

'Oh Oysters, come and walk with us!'

Awesome Salmon Poke! One of our favorite dishes of the day.

No 'r' in August, but that's okay!

Everyone got a free sushi sample

Tio Chilo's caught our eye with their Grilled Quail. This was another big bite dish so it came with a side of vinegar style coleslaw. (Members of the coleslaw club rejoice!) It's always nice to get a red cabbage slaw, since many people just use the green stuff. We didn't gawk into the kitchen, but presumed that the Quail must have been cooked using the 'Brick' method as it was charred and flat.

Quail and Coleslaw-a big bite

 












Oh, we love Bahn Mi! This festival gives us all sorts of goodies, one stop lunch to dinner shopping, you might say. Central Kitchen gave us this Bunny Bahn Mi which we thought might be vegetables...but lives up to its name serving us rabbit on a bun (HA!).  This Vietnamese sandwich featured slaw with bits of rabbit and even rabbit pate. The fillings were tasty, but the roll didn't have the crunch we require. We've tasted a myriad of different types of Bahn Mi out there in the wide SF resto world and we've learned to love a sammie with the crunchy crusted french roll. Perhaps it was the workings of SF weather though, sometimes the best bread can feel down when served out of doors! Also, we paired our bunny with some carrot, juice that is. J.K. needed some extra veggie servings and insisted we try their drink. Central Kitchen is full of good ideas!

Bunny Banh Mi

We had already tasted their excellent pizza at the resto, so we went with more burrata to take along to the adult beverage area. The mini pizza oven was awesome although not quite as beautiful as the one at Mozzeria the restaurant.

Here we are at the other end of the festival, ready to kick back and relax at the bar with Rye on the Road (and burrata from Mozzeria). There was a choice of three drinks similar to what was served at their bar on the night of Bite Me.  J.K. (of course) chose the tequila and lime juice version. Angela tried the VX Swizzle (Appleton VX rum, lemon, black tea syrup and bitters) which had her coming back for seconds. Another awesome thing about the bar? All proceeds, including tips, were donated back to La Cocina.

T&L for J.K.

(Half eaten) burrata with chips from Mozzeria

Some of our drink carnage*

We also snorked down Tequila Jelly Shots from the Sweets Collection. These are the big brother sizes compared to the samples at the Bite Me preview night. Those pretty flowers had some real tequila to give it a kick.

Did you see any famous foodies eating at the festival? We caught a glimpse of a Serious Eater on assignment in our fair city. He looks pretty happy with his job (and his Mozzeria slice)! Tea Time is pretty sure we ate more than lots of people, but let us know your favorite item from this day of flavorful debauchery. Look for our other posts on the SFSFF 2013!

We spotted Hambone, and, sure enough, Kenji was at the other end of the leash.

*photos at bar courtesy of fellow StrEater Constance