Showing posts with label food festivals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food festivals. Show all posts

Saturday, December 3, 2011

SacMoFo: The Mini Burger Truck

The last time Sacramento held a mobile food festival, I completely underestimated the popularity and demand of the people. I wasn't the only one to walk away empty-handed after hours of standing in line, but I determined not to let it happen again when the trucks converged today for another "SacMoFo".

My husband and I arrived early having already studied the list of vendors and decided that darn it, we were going for the mini-burgers again! We weren't the only ones.
While my husband waited in line, I snagged us some "hors d'ouevres" - BBQ sliders from Big John's truck, with pulled pork and tri tip. They were really tasty and at $5, didn't break the bank.

The whole experience at SacMoFo was fun and boisterous. The festival was held under the freeway. Now, I must mention that this is a very poor place to find yourself if you have any paranoid tendencies. Personally, I had to keep my eyes from looking up to avoid envisioning the freeway collapsing on oblivious festival goers. But lively music and holiday donation tables kept spirits up during long waits, and more than a few people were dancing while they waited.

When at last our order came up, we split 3 mini-burgers and an order of sweet potato tots. The sweet potato tots were out of this world, served with perfectly complimentary a honey ancho sauce. We couldn't even finish them all, so there weren't even any Napoleon Dynamite moments. ("Gimme some of your tots!" "No, get your own!")


We each enjoyed the Cowbell burgers (of which we ordered 2). They came with provolone, bacon, onion strings, and house BBQ sauce. We like a saucier burger and wish there had been more BBQ sauce, but this was a fine burger.

Our favorite, however, was surely the Ninja, a burger with supernatural flavors that blew our minds. This burger consisted of Korean short ribs, topped with pea shoots, sriracha aioli, and "Asian slaw". This flavor combination melded like magic in our mouths - this is one must-try for all Sacramento folk! If you like Korean tacos, try this Korean burger for a real treat.

When we left, the lines were starting to wind around to eternity, especially for the trucks that came up from San Francisco, like Bacon Bacon and Chairman Bao. I'm not sure if those folks at the end ever got the food they wanted, but I hope this isn't our last chance to have a festival like this. All of the trucks looked great and I hope to try them all eventually. And yes, I will be early every time from now on! It worked like a charm.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Food Festivals I'd Like to Try

I love going to food festivals. Last summer, I attended the Peach Fest in Marysville and enjoyed the adorable main street of town, buying fresh peaches, and feasting on delicious peach pie.

Here are some of the yearly Northern California festivals that I think sound especially cool or interesting:

July: Marysville Peach Fest (Marysville, California)
"Enjoy food, entertainment, arts and crafts with the forty thousand plus other people who regularly visit the annual Marysville Peach Festival in Historic Downtown Marysville!"

July: Gilroy Garlic Festival (Gilroy, California)
"10 tons of beef … 4 tons of pasta … 4 tons of calamari … 2 tons of scampi …plus 2 tons of fresh Christopher Ranch garlic. " Intriguing. They say garlic is wonderful for the health... but I think the long ride home to Sacramento might be a little smelly!

August: Tomato Festival & BBQ Championship (Fairfield, California)
"Draws over 45,000 people; Tomato Festival Cooking Contest; entertainment, arts & crafts. " There's nothing like a fresh, ripe tomato! And I love me some good BBQ!

October: Lambtown, USA Festival (Dixon, California)
"National Lamb Ribs Eating Contest, Lamb Barbecue Cook-off, Fiber Fair, Sheepdog Trials, Shearing Competition, Mutton Bustin', Fiber and Open Sheep Shows. " This one sounds the most unique. I didn't know there WAS a Lamb Ribs Eating Contest! Sounds entertaining, in a slightly barbaric sort of way.