Catch Us (and These 5 Great Foods!) at This Weekend’s San Francisco Street Food Festival

This weekend, more than 50,000 people are expected to descend upon San Francisco’s waterfront for the seventh annual San Francisco Street Food Festival, a block part of sorts with music, drinks, and of course, plenty of street food from over 100 different restaurants, trucks, caterers, and other food businesses. It’s a fundraiser organized by Noise Pop and  La Cocina, a nonprofit incubator that helps women from low-income backgrounds to build their own restaurant businesses. The free event will also feature 20 different La Cocina members and graduates.

Bini Kitchen’s Turkey Momos. Photo Credit: Eddie Hernandez

We’ll be on hand this weekend, and you won’t want to miss the Williams-Sonoma booth, where we’ll be passing out a sandwich featuring Tyler Florence’s famous fried chicken. Stop by and say hi! And while you’re there, look out for these five can’t-miss food items.

1. Ceviche from Los Cilantros. Dilsa Lugo’s thoughtfully prepares food with simple flavors using the best ingredients possible — a mission that really comes through when you taste items like her ceviche clásico.
2. Momos from Bini’s Kitchen. Nepalese food vendor Bini’s Kitchen is famous for its momos, a kind of Nepalese dumpling that’s steamed and filled with spiced ground meat or vegetables. The dumplings are served with achar, and addictive spicy tomato-cilantro sauce.
3. Steamed buns from Chairman Bao. The Chairman’s made a name for itself serving an adaptation of gua bao, a Taiwanese snack of meat or vegetables sandwiched between steamed buns. The Chairman’s twist on the dish includes pork belly with pickled daikon or crispy miso-cured tofu with baby choy sum.
4. Arepas from MaitéCatering. Bogotá-born Constanza Ortiz makes incredible arepas (maize flatbreads) that are soft on the inside, and perfectly crispy on the outside.
5. Grits from Sugarfoot. When Stephanie Fields moved from North Carolina to San Francisco, she was dismayed by the lack Southern-style grits available, so she started making them and feeding people herself. Order a bowl of the creamy yet light cheese grits, and you’ll see why her spin Southern food has taken off.