We Ate Real
Last weekend we went to the annual Eat Real Festival in Oakland. They had it for three days, we went two. And we still couldn’t stuff everything down. The idea is to show that real, good food can be affordable like fast food. The reality is no matter how small each portion was, we ended up walking slow.
Some things were delicious. Like the Korean BBQ tacos from Seoul On Wheels. Ebony loved the chicken, Mudpie swooned about the spicy pork, I adored the bulgogi, all served on a corn tortilla with some lipsmacking sauce for $3. Follow their tweets to know their locations.
Near Seoul On Wheels were Curry Up Now and a Whole Foods‘ truck. Mudpie just couldn’t resist a chicken tikka masala burrito ($5), then drank a whole bottle of water afterwards. I was enticed by the hiramasa (hamachi) ceviche and grilled figs from Whole Foods, $3 each, served in a cone with tortilla chips for dipping.
The ceviche is on the right. It had cubes of hiramasa fish marinated in lime juice, vegetable and spices. The texture utterly resembled boiled fatty pork, so refreshing in a sunny afternoon. This was also my first time having a whole fig. It’s sweet and gummy, pretty similar to prunes. The higo asados (grilled figs) were smothered in a balsamic reduction sauce, fresh goat cheese, and topped with almonds, said the menu (but they tasted more like peanuts).
Speaking of goats…
They had some walking around leisurely in a sandy pen and refusing to show their faces to my camera. There were mommies and babies, goat milking and goat-milk-ice-cream making on Saturday afternoon, just before we arrived. The goats spoke Spanish. 😀
There were also fuzzy headed white chickens, a big children attraction nearby. And Jack London‘s old cabin (looking real cozy), because hey, we’re at Jack London Square.
And boy was it sunny both days. But amidst the heat and smoke from humans and grilled meat did we find something refreshing. The Raw Daddy Foods‘ truck was facing away from the setting sun, and offering only, well, raw foods. In cones.
Pilgrim’s cream cone. $5. Maple cream filling, with carrots, cashe, extra virgin coconut oil, and candied pecans, which ended up tasting like pumpkin pie! Not my favorite flavor, but it was good.
It’s worth noting that the festival was full of tacos (and other Mexican foods). There must have been at least ten trucks with the crunchy half moons. But this one has the most catchy name:
I actually had my eyes on the looking for this truck since I saw the list online. And I actually hate am troubled by the cheesy-advertising-trend-following usage of the word “Kung Fu” in anything, like Kung Fu Panda (hate have an aversion to the movie too, just from watching the trailer). Think “Vampire Burrito” and you may see my point? Anyhow, the tacos from Kung Fu Tacos looked shiningly attractive.
It was either Chinese-style chicken or pork, I can’t remember, on two tiny corn tortillas for $4. The taste was well worth the price, though. Besides, the line was quite short, much more so than Kara’s Cupcake two trucks over, however longer than Ebbett’s Good To Go, who should win Best Decoration with flower pots on bright blue:
We opted for vegan banh mi ($4) with tofu, Thai basil pesto, and pickled carrots. It was nowhere near banh mi, as they spelled it “bahn mi” anyway. Nice try.
BUT, it was still pretty acceptable. Tummy filling at the least. I wish I could say the same about Le Truc‘s one-bite-sized hoppy cheesecake, delivered fresh and fast from a big cheddar school bus:
Look good, eh? Taste like hop. Now maybe it’s good if you’re into beer, but none of us liked it. It’s not the sweet luscious cheesecake we expected. It was stinging bitter at first, then if you haven’t expectorated it already, thick and salty like old cheese on the tongue. The shiny brown sauce was even worse. Consider $4 flipped into the trash.
On the other hand, what was good was excellent. Like the fried plantains ($3) from Soleil’s African Kitchen.
No need for words. The line was fifty persons long under the blazing sun, and kept on growing. But I would do it all again for these salty sweet little beasts. My only complaint: they don’t have a restaurant that I can frequent!
To conclude the day, what’s better than some ice cream?
Nieves Cinco de Mayo let you sample their colorful snows before committing to the scoops. Guava was unexpectedly similar to strawberry, both in hue and in taste (unlike the green apple guava Vietnamese school kids munch with chili pepper salt). I opted for the rose petal flavor, which was more exuberantly rosy than Ici’s cardamom-rose version. It’s the pleasant awakening of every taste buds for merely 3 bucks.
Things we didn’t do at Eat Real Festival this year:
Eat paella;
Eat ice cream from a classic colored ice cream cart;
Learn how to grow mushroom and buy fresh fruits;
Get better pictures of the butchery contest – the guy on the right was superfast with his pink carcass;
And learn the name of the kitchen that made Scotch eggs – $4 a hard-boiled egg coated in meat and batter, deep fried. Overpriced, but yummy.
There’s always next year.
Maintain up the excellent work mate. This website publish shows how well you recognize and know this subject.
1Have you tried twitterfeed on your blog, i think it would be cool.**~..
2You lost me, friend. I mean, I imagine I recieve what youre saying. I recognize what you’re saying, but the truth is just appear to have forgotten that might be some other folks in the world who view this concern for which it happens to be and may perhaps not believe you. You might be turning away alot of folks that might have been lovers of one’s website.
3Good work, are you looking for real estate in Lake Mary, FL? Learn where the deals are, get short sale lists and find houses for sale in Longwood.
4The planet probably are hidden in addition to exotic smaller gardens might be maintained, and rainforest that is certainly certainly profligate with wide variety of facilities resembling golf game workshops, athletic courts and as a consequence swimming pools. Hotels Discounts
5My spouse and I stumbled over here from a different website and thought I may as well check things out. I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to looking into your web page for a second time.
6Real clean internet site, thanks for this post.
7I have been surfing online more than 3 hours as of late, yet I by no means discovered any fascinating article like yours. It is lovely price sufficient for me. In my view, if all site owners and bloggers made good content material as you did, the net can be a lot more helpful than ever before.
8Regards for this post, I am a big big fan of this web site would like to keep updated.
9Hello there, I found your blog via Google whilst searching for a comparable topic, your site came up, it seems good. I have bookmarked it in my google bookmarks.
10Sweet internet site, super design and style, real clean and apply friendly.
11I have read a few good stuff here. Definitely value bookmarking for revisiting. I wonder how much attempt you set to create this sort of great informative site.
12Hey! I know this is kinda off topic but I was wondering if you knew where I could locate a captcha plugin for my comment form? I’m using the same blog platform as yours and I’m having problems finding one? Thanks a lot!
13Thank you for sharing superb informations. Your website is very cool. I am impressed by the details that you have on this web site. It reveals how nicely you understand this subject. Bookmarked this website page, will come back for more articles. You, my friend, ROCK! I found just the information I already searched all over the place and simply could not come across. What an ideal site.
14I as well believe therefore, perfectly indited post! .
15I was very pleased to find this web-site.I wanted to thanks for your time for this wonderful read!! I definitely enjoying every little bit of it and I have you bookmarked to check out new stuff you blog post.
16Good write-up, I am regular visitor of one’s blog, maintain up the excellent operate, and It’s going to be a regular visitor for a long time.
17That is the fitting blog for anyone who desires to find out about this topic. You realize so much its nearly hard to argue with you (not that I actually would want…HaHa). You positively put a new spin on a subject thats been written about for years. Nice stuff, just nice!
18My brother suggested I may like this website. He used to be totally right. This publish actually made my day. You cann’t consider just how so much time I had spent for this information! Thank you!
19Very interesting points you have remarked, thankyou for posting.
20What i do not understood is actually how you’re now not really much more smartly-appreciated than you might be right now. You are so intelligent. You already know thus significantly relating to this matter, made me personally consider it from a lot of numerous angles. Its like women and men don’t seem to be fascinated until it is one thing to accomplish with Girl gaga! Your individual stuffs great. At all times maintain it up!
21Hello my family member! I wish to say that this article is amazing, nice written and come with almost all important infos. I’d like to see more posts like this.
22I as well think thence, perfectly written post! .
23Real great information can be found on site. “Time discovers truth.” by Lucius Annaeus Seneca.
24Very interesting details you have noted, regards for posting.
25My brother suggested I might like this website. He was entirely right. This post truly made my day. You cann’t imagine simply how much time I had spent for this info! Thanks!
26Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and wanted to say that I have truly enjoyed browsing your weblog posts. After all I will be subscribing for your rss feed and I am hoping you write again soon!
27Greetings I am so excited I found your web site, I really found you by mistake, while I was researching on Yahoo for something else, Anyhow I am here now and would just like to say kudos for a tremendous post and a all round enjoyable blog (I also love the theme/design), I don’t have time to go through it all at the minute but I have saved it and also included your RSS feeds, so when I have time I will be back to read a lot more, Please do keep up the superb job.
28I’m impressed, I have to say. Really rarely do I encounter a blog that’s each educative and entertaining, and let me tell you, you could have hit the nail on the head. Your idea is outstanding; the problem is something that not sufficient persons are talking intelligently about. I am very glad that I stumbled across this in my search for one thing regarding this.
29What i don’t understood is actually how you’re not really much more well-liked than you may be right now. You’re very intelligent. You realize thus significantly relating to this subject, made me personally consider it from so many varied angles. Its like men and women aren’t fascinated unless it’s one thing to accomplish with Lady gaga! Your own stuffs nice. Always maintain it up!
30My brother suggested I might like this website. He was entirely right. This post actually made my day. You cann’t imagine just how much time I had spent for this information! Thanks!
31Real good info can be found on web blog.
32