As I walked up the stairs to Kitchen on Fire’s spacious Berkeley loft, an inviting aroma of toasting cumin laid out an olfactory welcome mat. Chefs Olivier Said and MikeC., co-owners and culinary over-achievers, have a book coming out and a second location opening behind Berkeley Bowl West (both in November). They keep their kitchen fires burning in daily classes ranging from globetrotting one-nighters to a 12-week series. Fun seems to be an essential ingredient in every recipe as the two irreverent pros blend nutrition tips, science facts and knife skills in their engaging, hands-on sessions.

The class I attended was entitled Moroccan Vegetarian Delights for Couples (though not all attendees came in couples and most were not vegetarians). The menu included couscous, sweet tomato salad and a pungent green leaf and herb jam that disappeared as soon as it was spooned into the serving bowl. After an introductory lecture and demo, students converged on various stations to chop and sauté elements of the 6-course meal we would enjoy together at evening’s end. Chef “Olive,” a wiry French charmer, scampered around the homey coral kitchen in a blur of motion, lending a hand with seeding tomatoes, modeling how to slice rather than slaughter the greens, and sprinkling nutritional tidbits along the way.

International evenings include menus from: Korea, Spain, France, Italy, Vietnam and more, some featuring guest instructors. (Upcoming: November 8 - North Indian, November 11 - Greek, December 3 - Thai Vegetarian).

The folks I've met at ethnic cooking classes come to recreate meals from their travels, enlarge their cooking repertoire or just spend a pleasurable couple of hours that culminate in digging into exotic dishes. If you are similarly inclined, here are 9 more places around the Bay to feed your passion:

Photo courtesy of Brundo

Brundo -- Ethiopian

Oakland’s Café Colucci is a consistent award winner for its authentic Ethiopian cuisine. Brundo, Café Colucci’s sister store, organizes traditional balemoyas (chefs) to share classic Ethiopian delights (both fiery and sublime) in three-hour Saturday classes that include a main dish and several salads. Meals may feature messer wot or kik alicha, (vegetarian stews with red lentils or yellow split peas), begue wot (spiced lamb stew) or doro wot (chicken stewed in red pepper paste). Brundo supplies the organic herbs, seeds, grains and spice mixtures (such as berbere, the essential red chili pepper blend), all imported from Ethiopia.

In early 2012, Brundo’s Ethiopian cooking classes move to a West Oakland warehouse, allowing for an expanded class size and schedule, including injera-making—those flat, spongy disks with a pleasantly sour-ish flavor that serve as plate, utensil, and sauce-mopping bread.

Photo courtesy of Culture Kitchen

Culture Kitchen

Ever wish you had an Indian auntie to teach you her chicken tikka masala? Or a Thai grandmother to tell tales about taking odiferous durian fruit on the bus while showing you how to whip up a tasty Thai lunch in a wok? That’s exactly the idea behind Culture Kitchen, a recently launched enterprise that realizes the rich potential in immigrant women who have been cooking authentic family meals from their native cuisines for years. Pair these self-taught cooks with eager students in various Peninsula and San Francisco locations for a warm, informal gathering that offers more than just new recipes. Small classes encourage an intimate experience—like being at someone’s home—and provide cultural understanding through shared stories.

Cuisines represented include Columbian, French, Mexican, Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Peruvian, Ukrainian and Iraqi. (November 9 – Taiwanese)

Tante Marie’s

This venerable San Francisco cooking school offers two-hour Wednesday afternoon demos or daylong weekend participatory classes on ethnic themes, such as regional cooking of Italy, Mexican chili peppers, a tour of the Mediterranean and Southeast Asian street-food. Respected author and teacher Joyce Jue leads several Chinese and Southeast Asian sessions.

Azalina teaching Malaysian cooking at La Cocina. Photo courtesy of La Cocina

La Cocina

San Francisco’s celebrated and inspiring “food-business incubator” offers technical support and commercial kitchen space for low-income immigrant women to grow their businesses as food entrepreneurs. The light-filled Mission kitchen space is also home to a smorgasbord of classes, such as Russian piroshkis and borscht, Ethiopian and Nigerian foods and Malaysian cooking. On December 14, the popular tamales class will return, featuring three of La Cocina’s graduates guiding students in the traditional, labor-intensive process of filling the masa and wrapping with corn husks before steaming.

Chat Mingkwan of Unusual Touch -- Thai, Vietnamese

Born in Bangkok, this well-traveled author of a slew of cookbooks on regional Thai and Vietnamese cuisine teaches cooking classes all over the Bay Area (including Piedmont Adult School, Kitchen on Fire, Sausalito’s In the Kitchen) or at your private party.

A recent Vietnamese street food class I attended began with a demonstration of several uses for lemon grass, tips on choosing the best fish sauce, and a bit of historical explanation about why fresh herbs (including mint, cilantro, basil) are such an essential part of Vietnamese cuisine. After preparing all the ingredients, students rotated among four stations to assemble our own fresh bowls of chicken soup, plates of beef noodle salad, spring rolls and rice crepes, just like a street food vendor. Mingkwan also offers classes in dim sum, decorative fruit and vegetable carving, sushi and kaiseki, and leads culinary tours of Thailand.

Spain at Home

Seafood paella has always been my favorite edible treasure hunt. Each forkful uncovers a prize of mussels, shrimp, clams or vegetables amidst a bed of saffron-scented rice. With the help of a Spanish chef and a gang of friends equally smitten with this glorious dish, we turned my kitchen into a classroom and created our own feast. Chef Raquel Hermosilla, made her culinary house call wearing chef whites, rolling in a cart laden with all the ingredients we would need to make, as she put it, “Spain’s gift to the world.” First, she set a festive tone, passing out Flamenco-inspired red and black polka-dotted aprons. Then she got serious and erected the crucial piece of equipment in the middle of my kitchen: a paellera, the wide shallow pan with its own ringed-gas burner that ensures the essential socarrat or crusty rice shell at the bottom of the pan.

Hermosilla, who grew up in Madrid, efficiently doled out tasks, and while my friends and I sliced red peppers, de-veined shrimp and squeezed out squid’s innards, she shared the history of her national dish along with her mother’s cooking tips. Finally, she guided us in fashioning a massive mosaic of shellfish and red peppers, with lemon wedges artfully perched on the pan’s rim.

While Hermosilla’s home base is the South Bay, she is willing to travel. Her business, Spain at Home, now in its tenth year, also includes catering for small to large groups. Seafood paella is her most requested offering, but other paella variations and a score of tapas are also available.

Photo courtesy of Linda Tay Esposito

Flavor Explosions -- cuisines of the Pacific Rim

Linda Tay Esposito grew up in Malaysia and treasures her native cuisine with its use of fresh herbs, such as galangal, fresh turmeric and lemon grass. She even incorporates the kaffir lime leaves from a potted plant growing on her San Francisco balcony. This self-taught cook leads classes all over the Bay Area, offering an extensive choice of menus, which either focus on a specific dish interpreted into several Pacific Rim culinary accents (Pan-Asian Noodle Bar) or an in-depth exploration of a single cuisine (East Coast of Malaysia).

Esposito teaches regularly at The Cooking School at Cavallo Point in Sausalito as well as privately in Bay Area home kitchens and weaves in a discussion of spices, regional vegetables and cooking traditions. No matter what the focus of the lesson in her private classes—from dim sum to Malaysian desserts—she supplies everything needed (traveling woks, steamer baskets and professional knives).

Photo courtesy of Nalini Mehta

Route to India –– Ayurvedic Vegetarian Indian cooking

To Nalini Mehta, cooking is a spiritual journey that nurtures the mind, body and soul and a crucial element in the Ayurvedic tradition of creating balance. Mehta works as a cooking teacher and caterer and leads culinary tours to India.

In her San Francisco classes, she shares her wisdom as well as her recipes in an evening of mindful cooking and eating in accord with Ayurvedic principles. Her classes, single or 4-class series, focus on seasonings and techniques, always incorporating a palette of colorful spices.

One of Mehta’s most popular classes centers on dosas (fermented South Indian rice-flour and lentil crepes with savory fillings). Students make the batter and the filling (perhaps with potato, onions, cilantro and spices) and practice forming the dosa disks on a hot griddle. Other regional Indian cooking classes feature an entire menu with dal, pilaf, soup, vegetable and dessert.

The Cooking School at Cavallo Point

For the ultimate indulgence, combine an Italian or Asian cooking class with a relaxing stay at Sausalito’s Cavallo Point Lodge. The 3-year old luxury hotel, at the former Fort Baker military site, features spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge and offers a choice of historic or modern rooms. Several cooking classes are held each week on a range of topics and while most attendees drive up for the day, a room discount is available for cooking students.

Classes are held in an airy, light-filled kitchen, with hardwood floors and retro glass cabinets. Italian cooking is taught by Viola Buitoni (yes, that Buitoni—whose family has been in the food business for generations). The former caterer and Italian food expert was born in Umbria and shares her culinary heritage, aiming to highlight authenticity, translated for the local market. In “Bitter is Better,” on November 17, Buitoni will explore the preparation of traditional greens and make handmade orecchiette.

Other ethnic cooking classes at Cavallo Point include Mexican Sauces from Scratch and The Asian Melting Pot series. On November 26, Linda Tay Esposito will showcase a menu of Spicy Sichuanese specialties.

A sea of humanity at the San Francisco Street Food Festival.
All Photos: Wendy Goodfriend

This writer can report that the weather was beautiful and balmy, the crowds came out in force and the cooks -- heck, let's give 'em credit where credit is due and call 'em chefs -- worked their asses off to turn out mobile food for the masses in the Mission last Saturday at the third annual San Francisco Street Food Festival.

More than 70 trucks, carts and purveyors served up street eats with a smile at the event organized by the nonprofit neighborhood fixture La Cocina. Booze stations for those over 21 (separated from the main attractions by ugly chain-link fencing) also saw steady traffic at the fundraising event that spanned a strip of Folsom Street between 22nd and 26th Streets, which was closed to cars for the eight-hour-long festivities.

The 21+ crowd kicking back spirits separate from the rest of the festival goers.

But you could have predicted all that, right? What's impressive about La Cocina, the little incubator kitchen that could, is that in six short years the program, sponsored by Wells Fargo and others, has worked with more than 60 budding food businesses, most started by low-income immigrant women of color. Around 30 have gone through the group's incubator program, 10 have graduated and sell their products in markets, stores and online, and coming this fall one will open its very own brick-and-mortar joint. Not too shabby, hey?

The Chaac Mool crew making tortillas for the day.

And that folks is what this street food celebration is really all about, as far as La Cocina executive director Caleb Zigas is concerned. "For many of the people we work with, serving street food is the only avenue afforded them to make a living," said Zigas, who led a pre-event press tour of vendors on Saturday. "It's a gateway to running a brick-and-mortar business."

Francis Lam listens up during Caleb Zigas' media tour at the festival.

Food writer Francis Lam agreed. Lam is in town from New York to talk mobile food matters at the National Street Food Conference, which ends today at Fort Mason Center. He attended Saturday's festivities to get his fill of SF curbside chow like everyone else. (The man is seriously in love with local fruit too. He showed up at the media walk-through clutching a baggie holding two perfect plums. Breakfast.)

For consumers, street eats can signal an exotic outing, an edible adventure, or a search for authentic food, noted Lam, an editor at Gilt Taste, who has covered the mobile food phenomenon in previous gigs with Salon and Gourmet. But for the vendors, selling street food may not be something they've dreamed of doing all their life, it may be the only work they can do to survive, he said.

Part of the appeal of street food, Lam added, is that it's really home cooking --not fancy-pants restaurant cuisine or food served up as entertainment -- taken out of the intimacy of the home setting into the public sphere, where consumers can interact directly with the people who make it (not to mention folks in line to order.)

Azalina's Curry Bomb Buns proved popular at the street food festival.

Case in point: Fifth generation street eats seller Azalina Eusope. From Penang, Malaysia, Eusope knew mobile food was a tough way to make money and longed to be a lawyer but couldn't afford to go to law school. The legal profession's loss is the culinary world's gain: Eusope won a scholarship to attend cooking school at Raffles Hotel in Singapore, before finding her way to San Francisco, where her spicy street eats and sweet end notes earn rave reviews.

Cookbook author and Saveur contributor Andrea Nguyen summed up street eats in 5 Cs at Sunday's conference panel on writing about street food. Think cuisine, culture, craftsmanship, community and conversation -- to which I would add cash (for vendors) and cheap (for consumers). An aside: People will turn out in the thousands to nosh on curbside chow for under 8 dollars. But when asked to plunk down 50 bucks to hear experts weigh in on the subject on a Sunday afternoon there were far fewer takers.

An under-the-social-media-radar street food vendor.

There was talk at the conference too (suspect more today on this matter) about the growing tension between old-time roving food vendors, often immigrants with no access to social media networks, being displaced by the D.I.Y., Twitter-savvy, younger generation of food hawkers, who enter into the nomadic food world with business plans, financial backing and role models.

The Twitterific crowd include purveyors like the Three Twins Ice Cream guys.

As for the festival itself: For those grumbling about the presence of brick-and-mortar businesses like Out the Door, Flour + Water, Commonwealth, Osha, and Beretta, Zigas was quick to note that all came from modest, start-up backgrounds and were included in the mix because they represent success stories newcomers can aspire to, whether it's Charlie Phan's family-run restaurant empire, which includes Out the Door, or the sisters who started the growing Osha chain.

Osha Thai Restaurant crew ready to serve the masses on Saturday.

The downside of the day: Can this reporter state for the record that she doesn't believe in standing in long queues in hot sun waiting to sample global grub on the go, no matter how transformative and tasty these morsels may be? She may well be in the minority on that matter, given the snaking lines for sweet potato waffles at Pinx. Impressive lines formed for arepas, a kind of corn pancake, from The Arepa Lady, a former Colombian judge named Maria Piedad Cano who is something of a street eats legend in New York. Ditto at many, many other food booths.

The Arepa Lady - Maria Piedad Cano of New York City - one of six visiting vendors on the day.

Still, this writer would much rather roll up to a truck's regular spot or stumble upon a cart somewhere new and find something satisfying to eat without having to queue like some half-starved Soviet in a bread line. Just saying.

A long line, too, to secure pre-ordered passports: What's with that? In the Internet age folks should be able to show up with tix in hand, not wait on the day, surely. But I'd been warned and warned readers too about the need to queue for food and folks who attended the previous two festivals (deemed a bit messy even by Zigas) agreed that things ran more smoothly last Saturday. Still, the area got so congested by mid-afternoon (crowd estimates around the 50,000 mark for the day's event) that organizers are toying with a Mission Bay location for future events, SFoodie reports today.

The crowds kept coming all day long. Did we mention the throng?

On occasions like these I'm grateful that media get a chance to sample early and first; methinks the same courtesy might be offered to neighborhood residents within a block or two of the event. Friends who live in spitting distance have never actually eaten at the festival; they've gotten too impatient and hungry to hang around.

The same was true around lunchtime on Saturday when a ravenous gang decided to ditch the moveable feast fare in favor of a regular restaurant on Valencia Street where good grub could be had without a wait. On the way some of us, saturated with salt early in the day and feeling thirsty, snagged agua frescas from savvy store owners and the unTwitterific street food vendors who set up modest tables or stands to catch the overflow crowd.

Talk about entrepreneurial spirit.

Somehow I think Zigas and the rest of the La Cocina crew would approve.

Related Stories:
• 2011 San Francisco Street Food Festival Slideshow
• At San Francisco Street Food Conference, Attendees Talk Food Trucks (KQED's News Fix)

SF Street Food Festival masses feasting at Cesar Chavez Elementary School.

The 3rd annual San Francisco Street Food Festival, hosted by La Cocina took place on Saturday August 20 in the Mission District.

La Cocina is a non-profit incubator kitchen that provides affordable commercial kitchen space and industry-specific technical assistance to low-income and immigrant entrepreneurs who are launching, growing and formalizing food businesses.

The proceeds from the festival help support La Cocina's efforts as well as generate revenue for the vendors.

Due to the continuing street food trend, an increase in local food truck vendors, and the lessons learned from previous years, this third season proved to be bigger and better than ever. And although it was quite crowded the increased space, additional vendors and added accommodations seemed to be able to handle the masses. Of course, people still had to wait in line but there seemed to be more strategic planning that went into creating dedicated eating areas once food was acquired. There was also an array of entertainment to consume as well: bands, dancers, DJs. And non-edible items to purchase: shawls, I Cart Street Food garb and Mexican wrestler masks. Kid-friendly spaces were taken into account along with chain-link fenced areas to contain the 21+ drinkers. SF Bicycle Coalition was on top of bike parking and La Cocina enlisted a massive crew of volunteers to help make the festival a success.

Here are some moments captured over the course of the day:

Related Stories and Photos:
• San Francisco Street Food Festival and Conference Day One
• At San Francisco Street Food Conference, Attendees Talk Food Trucks (KQED's News Fix)
• SF Street Food Fest 2011 (Slideshow by David A. Herron)

SF Street Food Festival Passport. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

Carnivores, omnivores, and pescatarians will find plenty of food truck fare this Saturday at the third annual San Francisco Street Food Festival, which boasts some 70 trucks, carts, and purveyors peddling hand-held grub.

But does the event cater to a vegetarian crowd? Are there enough veggie options to make waiting in line worthwhile? Can a veg head find some variety among the vendors turning out finger food?

In short: Yes, yes, and yes, though plant-based eaters may have to work a little harder than the meat-eating set to find food at the event sponsored by the nonprofit incubator kitchen La Cocina.

No worries, Bay Area Bites is here to help. Regardless of how you define your diet, a few tips to make the wildly popular food festival a successful edible experience: Come early. Tote water. Bring friends (to both have company in line -- the time will pass more quickly -- and to divide and conquer so you can divvy up food to share once you've all been served.) Carry small bills (cash only) or purchase a "passport" in advance (details below).

And, need we remind locals: Wear comfy footwear and don layers to deal with whatever weather the day may bring. As for the crowd phobic and the impatient: You've been warned.

Okay, now that we have the logistical details covered, read on to discover a dozen street food vendors dishing up meat-free eats on Saturday. Several brick-and-mortar joints including Out the Door, Flour + Water, Commonwealth, Osha, and Beretta will have veg-centric options in the mix too. Here's to a finger licking fest.

SAVORY PICKS:

1. Azalina's Malaysian: Azalina Eusope, a La Cocina participant, will have peanut sauce tacos for vegetarians, with signature spices from her homeland. Heads up: Devotees of the former fine dining pastry chef's popular banana chai fritters will have to get those on another day. @Azalinamalaysia

Curry Up Now Truck at Off the Grid. Photo by Wendy Goodfriend

2. Curry Up Now: Indian street eats from Rana Saluja-Kapoor, Amir Hosseini and crew. Think paneer tikka masala burritos (Indian cheese and chickpeas) and samosas, the popular Indian pastries, filled with spiced potatoes and peas. @CurryUpNow

3. Kasa Indian Eatery: Two veg-centric choices from this truck run by former lawyer Anamika Khanna and self-described geek Tim Volkema. Gobi aloo rolls, house-made roti filled with braised cauliflower and potatoes, spiced with cumin and turmeric, and spread with cilantro and tomato chutneys. Spice fiends should be sure to ask for the truck's signature crazy hot sauce. Also samosas, see above. @KasaIndian

Gail Lillian in front of Liba Falafel truck. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

4. Liba Falafel: Gail Lillian and team's falafel are hearty and hit the spot. Load up on condiments like spiced carrot ribbons, orange-and-olive relish, and tomato, cucumber salad with mint. Don't forget the sweet potato fries with cilantro, garlic and lime. @LIBAfalafel Or maybe save that pita to serve with Love & Hummus Co.: Try the slow-roasted organic lemon and thyme hummus made by Donna Sky, who is in La Cocina's incubator line up. @LoveAndHummus

5. Maite Catering: Big hit at the media preview event: The Colombian aborrajado made by Constana Ortiz, also a participant in the La Cocina program. These fried plaintain are filled with guava paste and provolone cheese and hit the spot.

Constana Ortiz - Maite Catering at SF Street Food Fest Media Preview. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

6. Onigilly: Vegans may well make a bee line for Onigilly's rice balls known as hijiki onigilly, made with brown rice and hijiki (Japanese black seaweed) with shredded carrots cooked with house-made sweet soy sauce wrapped with seaweed by chefs Kan Hasegawa and Koji Kanematsu, also in the mix at La Cocina. @Onigilly

SWEET NOTES:

1. Creme Brulee Cart: Take your pick between Vanilla Bean or "The Yes Please" (Nutella creme brulee with balsamic strawberries inside). Or share them both. Or not. @cremebruleecart

The Creme Brulee Cart at Off the Grid. Photo: Wendy Goodfriend

2. Delicioso Creperie: Gabriella Guerrero who hails from Mexico City turns out dulche de leche crepes for the sweet tooths among us. A La Cocina member.

3. Endless Summer Sweets: Funnel cake fans don't have to travel to the East Bay (where ESS regularly serves up her sweet treats at the Berkeley Flea Market) let alone the the East Coast to sample one of the summer fair standbys, handcrafted by Antoinette Sanchez, a La Cocina alum. Salty kettle corn too. @ESSweets

4. Kika's Treats: Chocolate-covered caramelized cookies, tropical shortbreads and honey cakes from Brazilian baker Cristina Besher, a graduate of La Cocina's program, whose goodies can be found at Whole Foods, Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market and other retail stores. @kikastreats

5. La Luna Cupcakes: Elvia Buendia runs La Luna Cupcakes, and is a member of La Cocina's incubator program. Last year, Buendia made 1,000 mini cupcakes and sold out within a couple of hours, she told the San Francisco Chronicle. This year, she plans to triple her stock of mini and full-size cupcakes, and introduce chocolate and red velvet "cake pops." @LunaCupcakes

6. Sabores Del Sur La Cocina participant and Chilean chef Guisell Osorio's alfajores—delicate round butter cookies filled with creamy dulce de leche caramel and dusted with powdered sugar have loyal fans at the Alemany Farmers' Market and Whole Foods stores. Find out what the fuss is about for yourself.

Do you have a favorite vegetarian street eat not listed above that's likely to be in the mix this weekend? Share your chowhound choices below.

FESTIVAL DETAILS:

San Francisco Street Food Festival
Saturday August 20, 11 a.m. - 7 p.m.
Folsom Street between 22nd and 26th streets
Admission free; food costs $3-$8 cash only or buy $25-$150 "passports" in advance.
Twitter: @streetfoodsf
Facebook: San Francisco Street Food Festival

Photo credit: Barry Zigas

Caleb Zigas is the Acting Executive Director of La Cocina and lives nearby on a block that he says "used to be called the Mission. Now it's Noe Valley." He organizes the programming for the business incubator, and is often called upon for media interviews. Among Zigas' favorite foods are chicken soup, steamed pork buns, molletes (a bread roll popular in both Mexico and the Andalusia region of Spain) and nearly anything with miso. Zigas has been working in the food industry since a starter job at his all time favorite spot, Ruppert's Restaurant in his native town of Washington DC. He is fully fluent in Spanish, which was strengthened by a brief "nightmare" vegan macrobiotic cooking job in Costa Rica. Other culinary stints have included weekend work as a butcher, as well as waiting tables and managing the front of the house. Zigas answered questions about his favorite eating spots from Bay Area Bites via email and phone interview.

The thirty-year old Zigas likes Zuni, but "only after 9 PM. I like to go with a good friend, or a couple, and start with a half-bottle of white wine and some oysters. Next, go with a full bottle of red and either a burger or the chicken. It's quintessential San Francisco. Right in the middle of the city, big glass windows looking on sincere urban space, a beautiful open kitchen, and a couple of real steals on the wine list. And the food's always just what it's supposed to be."

Also on the list is Yuet Lee: "It's in different hands now, but they're still holding it down. I've been going there since I moved here and worked for Isa Restaurant and Luke (Sung) would take us there for staff meals. It's open late, and the food is always great. And the North Beach scene adds some sincere color. I don't miss the salt and pepper shrimp (eat the heads) and the calamari is some of the best in town. Otherwise, I always let the staff order, they know it much better than I do."

For Mexican/Salvadoran dishes, Zigas heads to El Zocalo, on Mission Street. "It's 2 blocks from my house, which helps, but they're an institution. Burn-your-mouth fresh pupusas for those kind of nights, bowls of caldo de pollo or res for when it's cold and foggy. And cold beer too. I like the post-Rocapulco crowd and the old-school service. I always get the plantains too, just because it's awesome that Salvadoran plantains come with cream and beans too." As a back-up, or alternative, El Gran Taco Loco up the street "is probably my favorite taqueria; open until 2, brightly lit with some real Mexican dishes hidden in the menu and great carnitas."

For shopping options, Zigas confesses that: "I'm going to cheat, but do it honestly to start.” (Several La Cocina vendors sell products there.) He likes to go to Alemany Market, because "it's the most sincere Farmers' Market I've ever been to. A great mix of organic and non-organic, of all kinds of farmers and then people making a living selling food. I love the Italian farmers in the back where you can get cardoon when it's in season, the oysters and Dungeness crab vendors and the produce is just so varied. It feels like what we all talk about farmers’ markets feeling like; a community space, a real space, and a space where people make a living. The folks selling the Afghani dips are the best salespeople in the city. Though it's probably worth revealing that the following are all La Cocina program participants, it's also easy to say that we pushed to get into Alemany because we believe in it, and not the other way around. El Huarache Loco does some of the best Mexican in town, and she's always got handmade mole. Sabores del Sur's alfajores are ridiculous with coffee to start and if you can make Estrellita's Snacks smile, you can probably consider it an awesome day. I like Good Foods Barbecue too, so don't miss it there."

La Palma on 24th Street is another culinary find on Zigas list. He says, "It's the real deal. It's in San Francisco. They're making masa. What more can you want out of a place? Legitimately delicious tortillas, fast service and now they've got seating outside? Done." Another store with ethnic treasures of a different vein is Semirami's Imports on Mission St. "The hookah display in the window is what got me there the first time, but it was the olives, the spices and the service that has me coming back. The man knows everything about food, he's kind and the olives are off the hook. Best place in the city for pine nuts too."

Going to Dennis Leary's Sentinel is a family affair for Zigas. "My grandpa, after 30 years in SF, has decided two things: 1) if people walked like they walked in NY, everything here would be better. 2) Boudin's has the best lunch deal in town. The only way I can get him to change his mind is if I buy him lunch at Sentinel. Every time he tells Dennis about the deal at Boudin's and every time Dennis smiles. It's awesome. I love what he can do out of such a small space, It's inspirational."

His favorite 3rd date night spot is Noe Valley's La Ciccia. "It's probably not a first-date spot, maybe more like 3rd. But it's got that right mix of nice, but not overdoing it, you can stay forever, or just share a quick meal. I'm a sharer on a date, so I like to move through all of the courses. Probably the octopus to start, unless there's something else ridiculously delicious looking on the menu, and moving on from there. I'm a notorious over-orderer, but I always seem to make it through. I let them (Lorena or the servers, not my date) pick the wine for me, and they always do an awesome job of it. And I can walk home. That's important on a good date. :)" For a first date spot, Zigas likes to try out Katana-Ya Ramen, because, "You have to love the Ramen."

Mitchell's is where Zigas goes for an ice cream fix. He says, "I only feel guilty because of how much/ how often I go there. And even then it's more of a gym-related guilt than my normal Jewish-mother induced guilt. I just can't believe what an awesome mix of San Francisco that place is. Taking a number and standing outside on a cold foggy night goes against everything East Coast in me, but I do it at least once a week. I'm into the Chocolate Caramel Crackle. If you can put it in a waffle cone and chocolate dip it, well, do. Otherwise, have the ice cream sandwich." A runner-up guilty pleasure for Zigas is the bacon-wrapped hot dogs, found throughout the Mission. "But only do I feel guilty when I order two at once." He also loves Henry's Hunan on Church Street because, "It's always good."

I Cart Street Food

Street food fanatics descended upon the Mission on Saturday for the San Francisco Street Food Festival 2009, a day-long block party presented by La Cocina.

SF Street Food Festival: If you grill it, they will come.

With free admission and food/drink costing no more than $8, well over 5,000 eaters of all ages came out to celebrate SF’s vibrant street food community.

The Hungry Masses

The sheer numbers that turned out was a tad overwhelming, but it was also heart-warming to see what good eaters we have here in SF. Lines snaked up and down the block, but surprisingly, the crowd seemed to be generally good-humored and calm (unlike the foaming-at-the-mouth angries at the Great American Food Fest a few months back).

Patience was handsomely rewarded, and street food, glorious street food, was consumed.

Elotes (Grilled Corn) from Los Cilantros

Anticuchos Chilenos (Marinated New York Strip and Beef Heart with Peppers & Onions) and Mushroom/Spinach Empanada from Sabores Del Sur

House-made Hot Dogs with Guinness Mustard and Chili Ketchup from Absinthe

Lavendar Crème Brulee from the Crème Brulee Cart

I braved the Aziza line and although their Squid Salad with maras pepper, preserved lemon, cabbage, mint and cilantro ($3) was sold out by the time I got to order, I was nicely satiated by the huge Moroccan "Taco" ($8) Chef Mourad Lahlou was serving up. The beverage pairing of iced Sweet Mint Tea hit the spot and cooled off the heat from the taco's harissa.

Moroccan "Taco": Flatbread with Summer Squash, Harissa, and Yogurt Sauce from Aziza

For dessert, I followed the scent of sugar and fried dough to Endless Summer Sweets’ Funnel Cake with sweet strawberries and cream. If there was any question on whether the line was worth it, my doubts vanished as I saw satisfied customers milling about with showers of powdered sugar on their arms and traces of whipped cream on their faces.

Funnel Cake with Strawberries and Cream from Endless Summer Sweets

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Gnom gnom

Curb-side Dining

The beauty of the street food fest was the greater vision of the event. For those who are unfamiliar with La Cocina, it is a phenomenal non-profit organization that acts as a food business incubator for low-income and immigrant entrepreneurs looking to start their own food business. The SF Street Food Festival brought people together, across the spectrum of class and culture, to celebrate in the everyday food that we all eat and love.

SF Street Food Festival 2009

Leading up to the festival was an amazingly fun and well-orchestrated Scavenger Hunt that had 224 teams roaming the city in search of delicious street eats, and generally assaulting San Francisco’s finest street vendors with their wit and creativity.

Really, it was no joke. Teams like Fatty Boomblatty and Trans-Fatso’s rapped to the Crème Brulee Cart Man…

Miso Horny did a funky chicken dance (in public) for the Roli Roti folks…

And I wasn't above setting up an all out photo shoot at Bloodhound in the name of movie poster perfection with team Lick My Spoon.

Oh, San Francisco. You are so special.

Team "Soup Sluts"

Here is a photo slideshow from the San Francisco Street Food Festival 2009 that took place Saturday Aug 22, 2009 in the Mission District. The event was a benefit for the non-profit La Cocina.

photos by Wendy Goodfriend

Recap of the Event: SF Street Food Fanatics Unite
Lick My Spoon recaps the Street Food Scavenger Hunt
Listen to KQED's Forum program on Street Food and find out about pavement cuisine resources and events.

Food stirs up powerful emotions. It's not so much the "what" as it is the "how" that sometimes seems to be the problem. Accessibility, artisanal, affordability, authenticity, sustainability, these are some of the buzz words of the day and each one of them are loaded. One organization making an impact person by person and bite by bite, and seemingly free from any controversy, is La Cocina.

La Cocina is an "incubator kitchen," but really, it's so much more. La Cocina serves low-income entrepreneurs launching, formalizing or expanding their food businesses by providing affordable commercial kitchen space and industry-specific assistance in order to bring their businesses quickly to a point of self-sufficiency. These businesses are often very impressive ones, making wonderful food by hand. Some of my personal favorites are the Mexican snacks or antojitos and agua frescas at El Huarache Loco that I find at the Alemany Farmer's Market, Clairessquares flapjacks that I devour every time I go to the Kabuki Sundance Theater and CMB Sweets addictive apricot jam (I like it even better than some of the more well-known cult brands). I am also crazy about Los Pastores, the Mexican restaurant that serves what has to be the best mole in town.

The organization also sponsors fund-raising classes open to the public. There have been cocktail classes, cooking classes and on September 24th there will be a class on on The Magic of Mole Uncovered, taught by the cook and owner of Los Pastores, Irma Calderon. On September 12th, you can get a first hand look and taste, at La Cocina.

What: A Taste of La Cocina Taste, drink and shop at San Francisco's incubator kitchen.

Where: 2948 Folsom St, San Francisco

When: 6 - 8 pm, September 12th, 2008

How: $5 entrance fee, pay at the door

One sip is all it took to hook me. Intent on feeding my caramel fixation one recent morning, I stopped by the La Cocina stall at the Ferry Plaza farmers' market for some alfajores. As I made my purchase, culinary director Jason Rose handed me a miniature paper cup filled with steaming Morning Glory Chai.

Cue the (food) porn soundtrack: boom-chicka-bow-wow chicka-bow-wow. The chai was spicy with a soupçon of exotic sweetness, and almost unbearably creamy. It was, hands down, the best chai I've ever tasted. I had to learn more.

Chai means tea in several languages, including Turkish and Russian, but it also refers to the intoxicating blend of warm milk, black tea, and aromatic Indian spices that has become a familiar drink on coffee shop menus. Most chais incorporate cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, freshly grated nutmeg, and pepper into the mix; Morning Glory adds all of those, as well as less common seasonings like vanilla bean, coriander, and orange peel. But what really sets Morning Glory apart is the inclusion of Chinese herbs, which give new meaning to the term "pick me up."

According to Laura Smailes, a certified clinical herbalist and the San Francisco manufacturer of Morning Glory Chai, there is astragulus to build the immune system and galangal to increase circulation. Gotu kola is good for the brain and, in conjunction with ginkgo, adds oxygen to the blood. Foti is added for longevity. "The Chinese say it will keep your hair black," she explains.

The Morning Glory Chai recipe dates back 12 years, when Seattle-based herbalist Jessica Vidica-Neisus brewed the first cup. "She chose herbs that were safe for anyone to use. There are no contraindications in these small doses. It's a way to get medicine into a tasty beverage." Put simply: "It increases circulation, brain function, and digestion."

Laura and Jessica met while Laura was apprenticing at an herbal apothecary and working at the Chai House in Seattle. When she moved to San Francisco to study ayurvedic medicine, she was looking for a way to support herself.

"I realized there was no good chai in San Francisco," Laura says. "I started the chai business to put myself through school." Two and a half years later, her chai is served at places like Farley's, Ritual Coffee Roasters, and Bi-Rite Creamery, where it is incorporated into a hot drinking chocolate.

Laura makes each batch by hand. She starts by filling a 30-gallon pot with filtered water. Once it's boiling, she simmers the herbs and spices for 45 minutes, then removes them and adds fair-trade black tea and ginkgo. Finally she adds honey, vanilla, and organic maple syrup to sweeten the chai. (A decaf version is brewed without tea.)

Laura's use of natural sweeteners means the chai is safe drinking for people with blood sugar problems such as hypoglycemia. It's also dairy-free, which gives people a choice of how to drink it. "It's traditionally drunk with steamed milk in India," Laura says. But some people prefer it straight up.

And the name? It is named for a flower known to induce an alternate state of consciousness. As Laura says, "It's the tea of dreams."

To brew at home: Combine equal parts chai and milk. Drink cold, or steam and serve hot. Once open, refrigerate and consume within three weeks. Refrigerate decaf chai immediately, whether open or not.

Available at Brickhouse Café & Bar, Farley's, MotoJava, Ritual Coffee Roasters. Also available in half-gallon jugs ($11) at Ferry Plaza & Alemany farmers' markets.