Between navigating through traffic, fighting for parking spots, and hurdling over foodies and photographers – getting a bite to eat in the sprawl of LA can be a little troublesome. Routinely asking yourself: “What’s good around here?” The answer is: “Everything.” The LA Street Food Fest returns for a fourth year at The Rose Bowl (Pasadena ,California), hosting over 100 vendors to feed your incredibly needy palate. As with each year, LA Street Food Fest presents us with a variety of culture through it’s food vendors.
This year’s theme was “Taste of Mexico” highlighting LA’s best tacos, taquitos, ceviche, and all your taqueria favorites. Casa Oaxaca brings LA a taste of Oaxaca with squash blossom quesadillas topped by spicy jalapeno & huitlacoche mole sauce. Ceviche Project wowed us with their sushi grade Tuna Ceviche with smoked nori, micro greens, and mango chutney. Javier Plascencia/ Erizo showcased the Tijuana Surf & Turf – a mixture of octopus and tripe coupled with cilantro and pickled radish stuffed into a crispy hard shell. Loteria Grill challenged the crowd and invited us to try some “unconventional” meats with their Birria taco, piled high with beef tongue, tendon, and tripe, chopped onions, cilantro, radish and a chile puya salsa as well as a second taco, Los Tres Cochinitos (The Three Little Pigs) again, piled high with bacon, carnitas, and chicharron with a salsa Morita.
Our stomachs now protruding with “The Taste of Mexico,” we waddle to the other side of the map where find more food still, waiting to be consumed. Our first stop, Luckdish Curry, where we sample the Chicken Curry with garbanzo beans over basmati rice. Fred 62 brought us the taste of America in a fried ball with their Smoked Pork Belly Mac N’ Cheese ball to be specific. Mama Musubi showcased musubis, a popular Hawaiian dish, with Mama’s Musubi’s Miso Chicken & Mama’s Special Musubi. Dog Haus Dogs brought us “The Reuben Dog” pastrami sausage with a Gruyere cheese sauce, haus slaw, Russian dressing, all overflowing in a grilled King’s Hawaiian bun.
Time for dessert. The Ice Cream Social was a perfect treat to cool us from the summer heat. ICDC brought the big guns with their smoked vanilla buttermilk glazed doughnuts. Currywurst created an impromptu dessert as their supplies were running low, Nutella Grilled Cheese, need I say more? A Nutella French toast, banana, and powder sugar to top. Lastly, Manhattan Beach Creamery unleashed its Cream’wiches made with fresh baked cookies and filled with ice cream.
Guest Writer: Samir Qureshi; Photos by Nina Semaun.