Foodie Foodness - SF Street Food post-fest report
This past Saturday was SF Street Food Fest. We went early and I'm mostly glad we did. It mean that we got to try a LOT of different foods without insane crowds and lines. We did do some divide and conquer work and some eating while in line for the next thing. I keep wishing there was more places to just kind of hang out, like at Eat Real. I felt like because we buzzed through short lines and ate so much so quickly, we were sort of missing out on the festiveness, even though we got lots of super yummy foods. I felt like a I got full and broke too quickly, I mean we were only there for like 2 hours!
My plan for eat real is to take it much slower. Fortunately they have other events going on, demos and competitions to give you something to do between lines and eating. :) Also, I think this might help: http://dishcrawl.com/eatreal/
But back to SF StreetFood. We met up with Ethan at BART and walked over. Stopping for a quick madeline that some new cafe was selling in front of their shop. Mostly to tide us over in case we hit a wall of lines when we got there.
We started off from the 24th & Folsom entrance and the first booth was Estrellita's, which B&I fell in love with last year. So we started with pupusas. B & E got in line and I went to the next counter for some paneer chili. While I was gone B ordered 2 pupusas! I didn't need a whole pupusa.. I wanted to be able to eat at a lot of different vendors! Of course I ate it, though. I LOVE pupusas and Estrellita's makes them just the way I like with a wonderful curtido too.
The paneer chili was also yummy and I was glad I didn't take the offered extra green chilis for on top! It was just a nice level of spicy without worrying me about my poor stomach. This was Kasa, which I'd not heard of, but at just after 11, the line was short and I thought I'd multi-task while the boys waited for pupusas. I'm glad I tried it though, because now I'll definitely have to check out one of their restaurant locations.
Next up Ethan wanted Aziza, so we got in the line. It was a bit long, but the little meatballs on the skewer he got were really worth an even longer wait. While we were there, Brian went down a bit farther to Zella's Soulful Kitchen which we had also really enjoyed last year and picked up a pulled chicken sandwich and a couple of sweet tea's with mint. We'd brought water bottles, but the beverages were sometimes difficult to pass up. :)
I was also eyeing the big beautiful ears of corn roasting at multiple places, but I was saving that until later on, since I'd be eating it by myself and I was still feeling like sharing was better.
Feeling like we'd been scoring a lot of food really quickly, we decided to wander through more of the fest a bit to take a breather, so we skipped Slanted Door and a couple other places that have brick&mortar locations we can visit some other time.
We got to the cartspotting booths and I couldn't pass up chicken adobo from Adobo Hobo. It's so rare to find non-pork adobo and I am a big fan since we tried it last year at Eat Real. I left the boys in this longish line and wandered off to get us a nibble while we waited. I picked up a spinach and cheese piroshki at Anda Piroshki they do these baked piroshki and it was very good.
I drooled a little bit at the 4505 meats booth as we walked past, but since my mouth was full of adobo, I wasn't going to lobby to stop there. Especially since we can find them at the ferry building farmer's market and they'll be at Eat Real this weekend, too.
We were also getting a little full and wanted to see what other vendors were around, so we meandered past most of the next block. We did stop at the bi-rite creamery cart for ice cream sandwiches. E got the balsamic strawberry in between sugar cookies and B & I grabbed a malted chocolate in between chocolate chip cookies. They were both wonderful.
We rounded the block, eating ice cream and chatting happily. I was glad to be in a place with no line and no vendors for a moment. We got to the park and turned on Treat.
I was considering Liba Falafel and Kung Fu tacos, but we were getting pretty full and B pointed at that they will both be at Eat Real, so we kept going. But Brian couldn't pass up some mini cupcakes at La Luna cupcakes and Ethan grabbed a little chocolate confection from Claire's Squares.
Both looked good, but I was on the look-out for the creme brulee cart. I saw they were doing mexican chocolate creme brulee and it was super delicious! I almost scarfed down the whole thing before remembering to share.
By this time the lines were getting serious. We stopped at Endless Summer to get a funnel cake for B as he's never had one before. Crazy, I know. This was a particularly good rendition with a thick whipped cream on top with a smattering of fresh delicious strawberries in addition to the usual dusting of powdered sugar.
While wandering around eating this, we met up with Debbie and her sister. We stood in the intersection and chatted a bit about what everyone had tried so far, etc. We started walking to give them a chance to try more foods and decided to get in the super long Hapa SF line. I got a green tea soba dish that was really nice (and non-porky) and Ethan got the roasted pork ramen. I got to try a little of his and it was very nice, though I think I prefer a thicker noodle to ramen.
After that some of the folks were headed to the beer/wine garden, so B and I made our goodbyes and headed home. We were soo full and didn't want to be tempted to spend our dwindling cash on booze. I never did get that corn on the cob, but I expect I will be able to get some soon. :)
I'm really looking forward to next weekend. Give me a call if you want to try to meet up at Eat Real.
My plan for eat real is to take it much slower. Fortunately they have other events going on, demos and competitions to give you something to do between lines and eating. :) Also, I think this might help: http://dishcrawl.com/eatreal/
But back to SF StreetFood. We met up with Ethan at BART and walked over. Stopping for a quick madeline that some new cafe was selling in front of their shop. Mostly to tide us over in case we hit a wall of lines when we got there.
We started off from the 24th & Folsom entrance and the first booth was Estrellita's, which B&I fell in love with last year. So we started with pupusas. B & E got in line and I went to the next counter for some paneer chili. While I was gone B ordered 2 pupusas! I didn't need a whole pupusa.. I wanted to be able to eat at a lot of different vendors! Of course I ate it, though. I LOVE pupusas and Estrellita's makes them just the way I like with a wonderful curtido too.
The paneer chili was also yummy and I was glad I didn't take the offered extra green chilis for on top! It was just a nice level of spicy without worrying me about my poor stomach. This was Kasa, which I'd not heard of, but at just after 11, the line was short and I thought I'd multi-task while the boys waited for pupusas. I'm glad I tried it though, because now I'll definitely have to check out one of their restaurant locations.
Next up Ethan wanted Aziza, so we got in the line. It was a bit long, but the little meatballs on the skewer he got were really worth an even longer wait. While we were there, Brian went down a bit farther to Zella's Soulful Kitchen which we had also really enjoyed last year and picked up a pulled chicken sandwich and a couple of sweet tea's with mint. We'd brought water bottles, but the beverages were sometimes difficult to pass up. :)
I was also eyeing the big beautiful ears of corn roasting at multiple places, but I was saving that until later on, since I'd be eating it by myself and I was still feeling like sharing was better.
Feeling like we'd been scoring a lot of food really quickly, we decided to wander through more of the fest a bit to take a breather, so we skipped Slanted Door and a couple other places that have brick&mortar locations we can visit some other time.
We got to the cartspotting booths and I couldn't pass up chicken adobo from Adobo Hobo. It's so rare to find non-pork adobo and I am a big fan since we tried it last year at Eat Real. I left the boys in this longish line and wandered off to get us a nibble while we waited. I picked up a spinach and cheese piroshki at Anda Piroshki they do these baked piroshki and it was very good.
I drooled a little bit at the 4505 meats booth as we walked past, but since my mouth was full of adobo, I wasn't going to lobby to stop there. Especially since we can find them at the ferry building farmer's market and they'll be at Eat Real this weekend, too.
We were also getting a little full and wanted to see what other vendors were around, so we meandered past most of the next block. We did stop at the bi-rite creamery cart for ice cream sandwiches. E got the balsamic strawberry in between sugar cookies and B & I grabbed a malted chocolate in between chocolate chip cookies. They were both wonderful.
We rounded the block, eating ice cream and chatting happily. I was glad to be in a place with no line and no vendors for a moment. We got to the park and turned on Treat.
I was considering Liba Falafel and Kung Fu tacos, but we were getting pretty full and B pointed at that they will both be at Eat Real, so we kept going. But Brian couldn't pass up some mini cupcakes at La Luna cupcakes and Ethan grabbed a little chocolate confection from Claire's Squares.
Both looked good, but I was on the look-out for the creme brulee cart. I saw they were doing mexican chocolate creme brulee and it was super delicious! I almost scarfed down the whole thing before remembering to share.
By this time the lines were getting serious. We stopped at Endless Summer to get a funnel cake for B as he's never had one before. Crazy, I know. This was a particularly good rendition with a thick whipped cream on top with a smattering of fresh delicious strawberries in addition to the usual dusting of powdered sugar.
While wandering around eating this, we met up with Debbie and her sister. We stood in the intersection and chatted a bit about what everyone had tried so far, etc. We started walking to give them a chance to try more foods and decided to get in the super long Hapa SF line. I got a green tea soba dish that was really nice (and non-porky) and Ethan got the roasted pork ramen. I got to try a little of his and it was very nice, though I think I prefer a thicker noodle to ramen.
After that some of the folks were headed to the beer/wine garden, so B and I made our goodbyes and headed home. We were soo full and didn't want to be tempted to spend our dwindling cash on booze. I never did get that corn on the cob, but I expect I will be able to get some soon. :)
I'm really looking forward to next weekend. Give me a call if you want to try to meet up at Eat Real.