San Francisco Street Food Festival

I hope you have blocked off a good chunk of the next few days to attend some of the fantastic events being put on by La Cocina, namely the San Francisco Street Food Festival. This tremendous event just gets better and better every year. This year there will be a Night Market at Alemany Farmer's Market taking place on Friday evening, plus the festival all day Saturday and on Sunday and Monday, the Food and Entrepreneurship Conference. I'll be volunteering at the festival all afternoon and will get there early so I don't miss a minute!

At a preview event I got to see some of the bright shiny faces of the vendors who will be at the festival this year and taste some of their dishes.

Here are some of my favorites:

Kika of Kika's Treats is serving her Brazilian cheese bread, which is like a chewy version of a gougere. Served warm they are gooey with a little crunch. 

Eji's Ethiopian served a spicy lentil misir wat that seriously woke up my tastebuds. I think she'll be serving something else at the Festival but I'm sure it will be good. 

The lomitas sandwiches from Sabores del Sur were absolutely delicious. Like the best pork sandwich ever with a hint of creamy avocado and spicy aji chiles.

Azalina of Azalina's is at it again with another crazy Malaysian curry bomb. Seriously, these things are the bomb. This time around she added fresh raspberries to shredded chicken on oniony flatbread. Don't miss it.

The girls from To Hyang served a very tasty version of spicy rice noodle cakes

If you haven't had Donna's Love & Hummus, you are in for a treat. Her organic hummus is subtly flavored but ridiculously creamy. Try the roasted lemon and thyme flavor, my favorite.

Constanza of Maite Catering served the best arepas I have ever eaten, hand's down. Crisp on the outside, tender and packed with luscious fillings.

The Main Event! The San Francisco Street Food Festival takes place this Saturday, August 18th, 11am to 7pm
 on Folsom St., between 20th St. & 26th St.
 Admission is free but to make the most of your time and money, purchase a passport before you go. Nothing is more than $8 and many small bites will cost less than $3. Bring extra cash because you'll want to buy a t shirt, right?

The Night Market is a special fundraiser for La Cocina an incubator that helps low-income food entrepreneurs to formalize and grow their businesses. At the event there will be food available from many La Cocina supported businesses, but also nibbles from Fifth Floor, Jaridinere, Locanda and Ken Ken Ramen. Get a sneak peek at the vendors and their dishes.

The conference is mostly sold out, but a few sessions are still available. I'll be on a panel speaking about food writing on Monday, please do say hello if you attend.

Baked Flour Tortilla Chips, Crisp and Flaky

Remember those chips in the background of this post?  We loved them so much, we thought we'd give them their very own shiny post.  These chips are all about simplicity.  Wedges of flour tortillas are coated in canola oil and sprinkled with salt, then tossed on a pan to get all crisped up in the oven.  That is all it takes to get some crispy, flaky baked chips.  It's a great, healthy alternative to fried tortilla chips, and we honestly think they taste better too, with the right tortillas.  You just don't get that flakiness with deep frying.  Oh, and a word to the wise... do not use gluten free spinach tortillas you find at Whole Foods just because they sound cool.  They do not taste good.  At all.  Just use Mission flour tortillas...

Ingredients
4 flour tortillas (I like using Mission brand tortillas)
1 tablespoon canola oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Instructions
Heat oven to 350.  Cut each tortilla into 8 wedges, like a pie.  Place in large bowl.  Drizzle with oil and salt.  Using tongs, coat each wedge with the oil and salt.  Place the wedges carefully on two baking sheets (you don't want them stacked on top of each other), and place them in the over for 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy.