The deviled ham Scotch egg from
Il Cane Rosso was our favorite bite of the day.
Saturday marked the fourth annual San Francisco Street Food Festival, and it was as busy and caloric as ever. Lines snaked in many directions from booths all along Folsom Street, and the festival spread out across eight city blocks and then some, with beer-and-booze gardens on either end. (A frequently overheard phrase: “Whatever has the shortest line. I’m hungry.”) On Saturday afternoon we were particularly psyched to eat some greasy food, given the after-effects of a Friday night involving too much rosé and bourbon, and several fried items in particular helped alleviate the nasty bodily state we found ourselves in. Behold our slideshow of the sunny scene, and some food highlights from the fest.
Earlier: What You Missed at the S.F. Street Food Festival [2011]
Thankfully, after a blustery and frigid Friday night which greeted the festival pre-game event (the first ever Night Market at the Alemany Farmer’s Market), Saturday’s weather was warm and sunny and fog-free.
We started out with some of
Hawker Fare’s delicious Siamese peanuts, tossed with shrimp paste, chiles, fennel, and scallions.
Their larger bite was this yummy, sweet-and-salty and lightly greasy Issan sausage rice bowl, using a square pork sausage style from the Issan region of northern Thailand. With it, a salted preserved lemonade.
Here’s Hawker Fare’s grill man working on the Issan sausage station.
Next up: Moi Moi from
Chiefo’s Kitchen, a West African dish featuring black-eyed peas, crayfish, and corned beef.
We ran into Marcia Gagliardi (right) of Tablehopper fame, who was manning a table with her editorial assistant Dana Massey-Todd, and they were rolling out Gagliardi’s new line of t-shirts and hoodies using logos from vintage San Francisco menus. Among the featured, long-gone establishments were The Player’s Club (333 O’Farrell), and Cross Roads (1484 Market Street). The products should be available online shortly.
One of the Tablehopper hoodies features the logo from the famed Blue Fox, a swanky restaurant which lived at 659 Merchant Street for 51 years, from 1942 to 1993. Read about renowned owner
Mario Mondin, who died in 2000.
Ms. Tablehopper guided us to the best bite of the day which was the Deviled Ham Scotch Egg from Il Cane Rosso. It was a soft-boiled egg encased in deviled ham then panko-breaded and fried, and topped with house-made hot sauce. So good, and such perfect hangover food we almost cried.
We then moved on to the main bar area set up at a playground at Folsom and 20th. Clearly alcohol was allowed in the park that day.
And this Spicy Paloma with Espolon tequila, salt, and grapefruit did us just fine.
Winner of best vendor name: Banh Mi Love You Longtime.
Many a cell phone photo of food was taken. Here we have Euro Trash’s prawn baguette.
Coming off a huge week in which their restaurant was
named Bon App’s best new restaurant in the country, Stuart Brioza and Nichole Krasinski manned a busy booth for State Bird, serving up their signature hand-pulled garlic bread and World Peace Peanut Milk.
One last bite: The chicken mole croissant from 24th Street’s own
L’s Caffe.
… and some entertainment.
