Sneak Peek of LA Street Food Fest, June 29 2013

LA Street Food Fest is returning to the Rose Bowl on June 29. While I recently did a recap of last year's Food Fest, I previewed some of this year's vendors and there are some new ones you should be excited about!

1. Dante's Fried Chicken: Sock-It-To-Me fried chicken with coconut honey black sesame biscuit

Despite being white meat this was an awesome piece of fried chicken! 

2. Donut Snob.
Donut Snob has no retail store and you can usually only get them by pre-order, so the Food Fest is the perfect time to try these amazing donuts! No, really, they are some of the best in LA.

3. D'elish Sandwich Shop by Tiara Cafe: pastrami smoked short rib on fresh baked potato roll with slaw and jalapeno pickles

4. El Coraloense had all kinds of ceviche tostada during the preview. I tried the crab ceviche 

5. Local distillery Greenbar will be showcasing their new poppy liqueur, but if you shy away from alcohol, La Guelaguetza's horchata is always a good bet!

Some of the old favorites will make a return, but I'm excited about many of the new ones. These are just but a tiny portion of the vendors that will be there, so be sure to get your tickets soon at http://lastreetfoodfest.com 

All inclusive general admission tickets are $50 and VIP early admission is $75 with access to the Luxe Lounge (one time they had special cocktails and free massage!)

June 29: LA Street Food Fest Summer Tasting Event

The 4th Annual LA Street Food Fest is back on June 29 at the Rose Bowl! As usual, your ticket will be all inclusive. Inclusive of what? Well, all of these awesome things:

1. Food from 100 food vendors ...
Since the vendors from Baja were so popular 2 years ago, they brought even more last year! La Guerrerense, kraken tacos from Kokopelli, tacos de Camaron enchilado from El Mazateno are but a few.

Simpang Asia had these mini versions of nasi bungkus, how adorable!

The higher end LA restaurants could also be found here. Some of the highlights were the fried pig's feet from Chef Neal Fraser, cannolis from Sotto

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Go Thee To Baja! Baja Culinary Fest Oct 11-14

October 11-14 is the 2nd annual Baja California Culinary Fest! Thanks to the generosity of Chef Javier Plascencia, I was able to attend the 1st annual festival last year and with more experience, this year's is promising to be even better. There are many different events over the four days, from special dinners, a gastro tour of Tijuana, a visit to the Ramonetti cheese cellar, a festival in Rosarita, and many more.

It all culminates in a festival at the Galerias Hipodromo. Last year's festival had some of the best restaurants in Tijuana, and this year will probably have even more. Instead of paying an all inclusive ticket, last year attendees buy tickets for each item purchased.
From a whole leg carved on-site by Cheripan, Tijuana's premier Argentinean restaurant.

There was a great chocolate clam cocktail from Catavina (it's a type of Mexican clam, there's no chocolate in it!)

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LA Loves Alex's Lemonade Returns Sept 29

There are plenty of food charity events in LA, but LA Loves Alex's Lemonade is still one of the best out there with famous chefs arriving from all over the US to raise funds to fight childhood cancer.

The chefs and restaurants that participate in this event do not skimp, as evidenced by the raw bar with oysters, uni, and crab at last year's event

Michael Cimarusti from Providence was previewing his new casual restaurant, Connie and Ted's, with the best clam chowder I've ever had. I'm still waiting for this place to open so I can have this again!

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Looking Back at Food Noir, My Fave 2011 The Taste Event at OrpheumTheatre

The Taste events, put on by LA Times, take place over labor day weekend. Last year's was pretty spectacular with them taking over Rodeo Drive and other locations. My favorite, though, was Food Noir which took place at downtown's Orpheum Theatre and the street in front.

It was my first time visiting the beautiful Orpheum Theatre, and I fell in love:

They played short old films and cartoons. Think Tweety, Bugs Bunny, and more! We were able to just come and go at the theatre, resting from all the eating and drinking.

Not only that, Food Noir also had some of the best cocktail bars participating (even more so than The Taste's Cocktail event!)

The Varnish was carving their ice block on site, Cana Rum Bar with their Tiki-style booth, 320 Main, just to name a few.

Plenty of great food as well, like Rivera's famous corn flan with black quinoa

Terroni (correction, according to Darin Dines this was from Drago Centro) mixing pasta in their parmesan wheel:

This year's The Taste will take place on September 1-3 with 5 events and plenty of seminars (last year I went to a pinot noir tasting and rapping session). This time all the events will be at the Paramount Picture Studios, which is fun as well.

The 4-Day LA Food and Wine Festival Returns Aug 9-12, Recap of 2011 Lexus Grand Tasting

The LA Food and Wine Festival is a four-day extravaganza with various lunches and dinners around town featuring celebrity chefs, with two days of a grand tasting event on Saturday and Sunday. This year's events include an Italian fiesta with Giada, an Asian Night Market with Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern, a champagne and caviar night, and dinners with Graham Elliott, Ming Tsai, the Voltaggio brothers, Michael Chiarello, etc.The full event listing can be seen here, and you can buy tickets for each event separately.

Oh, let's not forget the most important part. These events benefit St. Vincent's Meals on Wheels. They provide about 3000 meals a day for seniors!

Last year, thanks to Lexus, I was lucky enough to attend a lunch featuring the Iron Chef Masaharu Morimoto at WP24, and one of the Lexus Grand Tasting Event. While most of the food festivals in LA features LA's best chefs and restaurants, the Lexus Grand Tasting Event brings some from out of town, so we get to try food from some of the best in the country. This year's out-of-town list includes Gale Gand from Tru (Chicago), Francois Payard, and Stephan Pyles.

Here are some photos from last year's Lexus Grand Tasting:

Duroc Pork Tenderloin, corn pudding, gremolata or bacon and corn, blackberry cipollini by Bradley Ogden's root 246.

The Lexus lounge is definitely worth a visit, offering some of the more luxurious items like foie gras (well, I guess not this year...), lobster, and truffles.

Foie gras lollipops, almonds, cocoa nibs, banana cotton candy

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LA Street Food Fest Summer Tasting, Back on July 21

The LA Street Food Fest returns to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Saturday, July 21. The full vendor lineup hasn't been released yet, but usually the vendors from previous years would come back, so check out last year's highlights to know what to expect!

The term "Street Food Fest" has been defined pretty loosely, since now it's not just food carts/stalls/trucks, but also various restaurants and dessert shops participating.

And it's not just LA, the Food Fest also brought some of the best from Baja, including the uni tostada from La Guerrerense in Ensenada. They may just be making a repeat appearance this year. This little seafood cart has been featured many TV shows recently, so if you haven't had the time to drive down to Baja, try it locally at the food fest!

One of the best chefs in Baja, Javier Plascencia is also coming back this year. Last year he brought a lot of goodies, including these grilled oysters topped with sea asparagus. I don't know why the line wasn't longer at this booth, but hey, better for me.

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East LA Meets Napa Returns July 20! A Preview, and Last Year's Recap

East LA Meets Napa is a unique event in Los Angeles. This event showcases some of the best Mexican restaurants in the city, along with some of the best wines either owned or operated by Hispanics in Napa Valley. The proceeds go to benefit AltaMed, which provides free health services to those in need, and support for single teenage mothers in East LA. What was at first a small event has grown to one of the biggest and most anticipated event of the year, and there's now less than 300 tickets left for this year's event!

They held a press preview at John Sedlar's Playa Restaurant and featured food and wine from a few of the event participants.
Chef Rocio Camacho of Rocio's Moles de los Dioses served a Chapulines and avocado taco

This taco was my favorite of the day. If you can get past your reservations about eating grasshoppers, this is a simple but amazing taco.
Empanadas tres soles: huitlacoche, flor de calabaza (squash blossoms), y potosina

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