I spent a few hours at the SF Street Food Festival, which is not just any collection of food carts but a fundraiser for La Cocina and showcase for its members (“The mission of La Cocina is to cultivate low income food entrepreneurs as they formalize and grow their businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance and access to market opportunities.”)
This year I tried to eat at “La Cocina member” booths I hadn’t heard of and mostly skip the known-good usual suspects… and dish after dish was delicious. The nine things I put in my mouth are below (I got the “small plate” option at every booth to keep going as long as I could…):
From the top left: rose/basil/coconut water, a good chorizo / bacon / pepper taco from El Huarache Loco, an unassuming from the outside but deliciously moist beef and onion piroshki from Anda Piroshki, the Papdi Chaat from Rasoi (a small Indian street food snack– a few sauces and chutneys on crisp wafers, and my favorite of the day), amazing nopales from El Pipila, a mediocre thai iced tea, some pretty good sweet potato dumplings from Azalina’s Malaysian, a fresh summer vegetable tagine from Radio Africa Kitchen, and one of the best pork tamales I’ve had in a long time from Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas.