Street Food Festival in the City

From one food festival to another, this summer has been all about eating in the city. I love summer in the city!  The SF Street Food Festival is held in the Mission District and is organized by La Cocina, a non-profit incubator kitchen. They closed off four city blocks and a school ground so that over 70 food truck vendors can sell food.

The food sells from $3 to $8 depending on the serving. As always, we couldn't try all of the food that day. In fact, we've only tried around seven or eight vendors all in all because the lines were long.  


This street food festival is the perfect event to try more than one food truck. This is like food vendor haven because these food trucks don't have a permanent place.  They are all over the map so to try their food you have to subscribe to their Twitter or follow them via their Facebook page to know their current whereabouts.

Here are the top savory food plus one sweet dish that I sampled.

Vendor: Flour+Water
Dish: Fried Padron Peppers and Corn
Chef/Owner: David White & Thomas McNaughton
Find them at: 2401 Harrison St.
Website: flourandwater.com
Comment: This is my favorite. Subtle flavors of corn, fried peppers and lime juice were wonderful. The spicy hot flavor was subtle too. The yellow and dark green colors were nice on the eyes.

Vendor: Nom Nom Truck
Dish: Honey Grilled Pork Sandwich
Chef/Owner: Jennifer Green & Lisa Chien
Origin: Vietnam
Find them at: nomnomtruck.com
Twitter: @nomnomtruck
Comment: I like the blend of spices and sweetness of honey and the pork and the bagguete bread came with all the tasty juices stuck on it.

Vendor: The Creme Brulee Cart
Dish: Honey Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee
Chef/Owner: Curtis Kimball
Find them at: Mission @ 22nd St.
Twitter: @cremebruleecart
Comment: Very good crème brulees considering it is sold from a cart. Their lines went the fastest because of their excellent ordering-pickup system plus their efficient chefs taking turns prepping and torching each crème brulee.

This is worth mentioning because it is unique, bordering on the bizarre.

Vendor: Don Bugito
Dish: Sweet Toffee Crisped Mealworm Ice cream
Chef/Owner: Monica Martinez
Find them at:
Twitter:
Comment: I did try the mealworm first before buying the ice cream.  They are seriously crunchy with hints of grilled shrimp shell. Eat them while they're dry. Otherwise, they'll lose the crunchy bite and the texture will turn back to sort of wormlike. I also asked if the icecream contained worm essence and the answer was No.

I noticed there were plenty of vendors selling ceviches but the lines to their booths were super long. So next year I plan to fall in line and wait and I am just going to try all the cevecherias.


~rl