San Francisco Street Food Festival

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly - August 21, 2010

Food trucks seem to be gaining more than just a following. It's interesting to see how social networking coupled with Twitter and blogs have really helped the food truck culture grow - you can find out exactly where the trucks are real time when you follow their tweets, and your friends' Facebook posting may help you decide where to get your lunch for the day.

The San Francisco Street Food Festival is organized by La Cocina, an organization that helps low-income food entrepreneurs grow their businesses by offering some of the resources that they normally might not have access to such as marketing advice. The SF Food Fest was held from 11am to 7pm today, and crowds of people gathered to try some great street food.

The Good - I love how the Bay Area food scene is so vibrant and rich. There were sweets from Creme Brulee Cart, La Luna Cupcakes, Sweet Revolution, and more. Tons of people lined up for good eats and access to the beer gardens.

I arrived early in the afternoon and the area was already bustling. I had parked about a mile away and enjoyed seeing some of the great looking products held in the hand of people walking by. As I turned the corner onto Folsom, I could hear the music and general murmuring from the crowds. My first stop was at Zella's Soulful Kitchen. Although I had never heard of Zella's, I really like pulled pork and their menu offered a BBQ pulled chicken sandwich. Not to mention that their line only reached the sidewalk and didn't snake around too much. People walking away from the stand seemed to be happy, so why not? Eight dollars and about ten minutes later, I had a sandwich in hand. Sweet BBQ pulled chicken is placed on a hamburger bun and topped with a cabbage slaw. The flavors complemented each other well, but I was sad that the bun wasn't toasted, or if it was at some point, you couldn't tell anymore as it had gotten very soggy. While the portion was satisfying, you can't help but wonder if you would pay $8 for the same thing outside the festival. Other offerings available from Zella's included grilled corn on the cob (it seemed like that was available at multiple stands) and sweet tea with mint.

There was so many choices - if there were shorter lines, it would have been possible to try more - like the lumpia from the Lumpia Cart. Even the guy on a bike selling 'Weird Fish Tacos' had a line that was starting to pile up.

I did manage to come across one short line - that was at Onigilly. I had no idea what I was standing in line for at the time - it was really a case of 'stand in line before more people get into it.' I was pleasantly surprised with the onigiri. Flavors available included miso tuna, seaweed, plum, and eggplant. I tried the miso tuna and seaweed onigiri. At $3 a piece, they were reasonably priced, had great flavor, and I loved how the rice wasn't dense, but had been packed together just right (so hard to find good packing of rice when you get sushi sometimes).

The next stop was the Curry Up Now truck. This was one of the longer lines, but people were talking about how good the tikka masala burrito tasted. Samosas, paneer tikka masala burritos, chicken tikka masala burritos, and mango lassis were being offered here. I was debating whether or not to go for a samosa, but I wanted to save room for the creme brulee cart just around the corner. After a 20 minute wait, I got my yummy burrito and it was worth the wait. By now, I stopped looking for a table and just went into the creme brulee line to eat the burrito. So much flavor, chunks of chicken breast, curry rice, and vegetables made this a great burrito, but also some large pieces of not quite cooked through garlic were present too. It was almost perfect - almost. I also appreciated that they were one of the most organized trucks - handing out receipts with each order.

The Bad - At the creme brulee cart which I had passed several times now, the line was somewhat reasonable, so I felt confident that although they had run out of vanilla creme brulee, that I would still get some of the Mexican chocolate creme brulees. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. Three people before me were also denied. We were told that the wait would be an hour since the creme brulee they had just brought in was still frozen. Are you kidding me? How do you run out of the most popular flavor in the first two hours and then run out of the rest about two hours later? There was a huge line behind me, and I never got to try the creme brulee. Sadness.

The Ugly - The festival is still so new that they seem to have a lot of opportunities to make it better. The cost for food is a bit on the high side, which is likely due to the costs for closing the streets and logistics behind the whole event. However, the prices seems to be counter to the whole atmosphere of eating at a food truck. For example, when I looked up the Onigilly website at home, I learned that individual onigiri are typically sold for $1.75. At $3, it feels like such a steep markup. Black tea boba was also going for $3 when you know you can get it for $2.50 in multiple flavors at a regular brick and mortar location. The garbage cans were starting to get overloaded even when we first arrived, so more volunteers were needed. The lines were expanding, probably creating a safety hazard. I felt like we needed to get those dividers that you find at the airport or amusement park to help us figure out which line belonged to which vendor. Despite more than two hours there, I only managed to try three vendors' food. Oh creme brulee cart, will we ever meet again? Maybe someday, somewhere....