Showing posts with label street food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label street food. Show all posts

Preview of 2012 SF Street Food Festival

July 28, 2012 food trucks , incubator kitchen 2 Comments

One can't help but be impressed by La Cocina and its participants. Many were gathered last Thursday for a preview press event for the SF Street Food Festival coming up on August 18th. Along with tasty nibbles, there were participants with stories and ambitions for a successful future in food.

I first learned of La Cocina, an incubator kitchen, in 2010. (Please read my 2010 post on La Cocina and its operations.) A fast recap, La Cocina is an organization and commercial kitchen that assists immigrant and low income women to start food based businesses. They provide training in marketing, packaging, licenses and permits, and much more. The program has two tracts: prepared foods (catering, restaurants, mobile food vending) and packaged foods for retail sale. 

There are phases that each participant goes through. First is a thorough application process after which the successful candidate enters the pre-incubation period. During pre-incubation they learn about marketing, fine tuning their concept, financing, and more. The next phase is incubation where they actually start the business after getting assistance with permitting and investors. Finally they graduate after their business has achieved a secure, sustainable point and the business can now survive on its own. 

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Homemade Chicarron (Pork Rinds)

July 05, 2012 chicharron , chicharrones 1 Comments
I was on a mission. I needed to get a pig's ear,  jowls, and some pork butt for the sisig I wanted to make. (Post on that in a few days.) Off I went to Good: Street Food  and Design on Sunday because Danny Johnson, the butcher from Taylor's Market, was going to be butchering a hog and selling the pork. Unfortunately he did not bring the head (although he did have the jowls). Without an ear, I considered alternatives. When he got to skinning the carcass I called out my request, "Can I have the skin?" He was nice enough to give it to me for free.

At home I cut the skin into three so that I could use one section for the sisig. Then it occurred to me I could try my hand making deep fried pork rinds, or chicharron. With a search of various recipes online, I mostly followed the method used by Momofukufor2.com.

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Response to KCRA Food Truck Safety Story

May 04, 2012 food safety , food truck ordinaces 5 Comments

On Wednesday KCRA Channel 3 aired a story regarding food truck safety with the emphasis on how many fail health inspections. In typical TV news fashion, all of the teasers were making it sound scandalous, dangerous, and scary.  And more typical still, it only showed the issues they wanted to emphasize without giving all sides of a three dimensional picture.  So below are some points I would like to make.

1. This story does not distinguish between old style "roach coach" catering trucks and the new gourmet trucks. All of the shots focused on gourmet trucks and there were none of catering trucks. What I want to know is what was the ratio of failures between old school catering trucks versus gourmet? I suspect that, should you break them down into further distinctions, the catering trucks are where the higher percentage of violations occurred. (While I agree with Stitches n Dishes that ALL trucks should be passing inspections, I'm still curious to see if there is a difference in violation occurrences between the two types. And I still take issue with the KCRA's only showing gourmet trucks.)

2. The story fails to mention that whenever there are special events, such as SactoMoFo or Concert in the Park, that the trucks get inspected again. So even though they might officially get inspected only twice a year, in reality they could be inspected six or more times a year depending on how many special events they participate in. 

2b. They get inspected for every county they operate in. In the case of Krushburger, Drewski's, and others, they have permits from not only Sacramento County, but also Placer, and Yolo counties. So they are getting inspected by those health officials as well. In that regard, they're getting inspected way more than restaurants are.

3. The story fails to distinguish the levels of failure in health inspections, whether they be trucks or restaurants. Here in Sacramento a restaurant can get their placard in Green/Pass (everything is good to go), Yellow/Conditional Pass (minor violations that must be fixed within 24-72 hours and then reinspected), and Red/Closure (fail!). When you read a health inspection, which everyone can do via the county website, you can see the level of violations.  

It is important to note that a business can get a Yellow/Conditional Pass notice and continue to sell. They are not forced to close down completely while they fix things. To my knowledge, trucks have always gotten yellow notices. Now I went in to do some random inquiries on the database myself. I won't name restaurants, but the first one I pulled up (in Old Sac) got a Yellow, a Green, a Yellow, and a Green in the span of one week in February. 

What are Yellow violations? Things like the refrigerator not staying at the proper temperature. Fix the thermostat so it chills properly. Or not having the proper separation of hand washing versus dish washing. One thing that restaurants will have that I doubt very much you will ever see in a truck report: pests. Because trucks are cleaned out and stored every night in a licensed commissary, they are not going to be breeding grounds for roaches and rats. I'll pay $20 to anyone who supplies me an inspection notice for any Sacramento gourmet level truck that has signs of pests.


I know that we gourmet truck fans know the truth and won't let KCRA's or any other news story scare us away. Most people have the brains to know that TV stations just want ratings and they will tease and slant a news story to get you to tune in. Where it does a disservice is to those who aren't familiar with gourmet trucks. 


Restaurants and trucks fail inspections, usually only at a Yellow level. If gourmet trucks have higher citation rates it is more likely because they are actually being inspected more frequently, not less, than restaurants.


Don't forget my other site: sacfoodtrucks.net

Added note: I didn't put it up above because I don't think it should be seen as a reason or excuse, but most of the trucks in Sacramento are used (exception is Krushburger's new truck and the upcoming new Drewski's truck). Old trucks mean a lot of breakdowns, both truck and kitchen. Drew alone has had to replace the transmission and engine of the truck and has ongoing issues with his fryer. But restaurants can have old equipment and breakdowns too and so another reason why I didn't include this point above.
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Fuzion Eatz Hits the Streetz

January 15, 2012 food trucks , fuzion eatz 0 Comments

Over the last couple of months we got some new food trucks on the streets of Sacramento. One of them is Fuzion Eatz, which started out in the county last July and hit the City of Sacramento streets around Christmas.

Business partners Jeremy Lopez and Nathan Sawyer see the truck as the road to one or more brick and mortar restaurants. Like many truck owners nationwide, they use the trucks to build brand recognition and customer loyalty before getting into an actual physical location. Sawyer and Lopez decided that they wanted to go with a fusion idea where they could mix flavors and foods together. 

It was at SactoMoFo3 that I first tried their food. The truck serves a selection of gyros and a couple of burgers on their standard menu.

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La Cocina & SF Street Food Festival - Part 1

August 14, 2011 festival , food trucks 1 Comments


Saturday, August 18, 2012 from 11 AM – 7 PM

Folsom Street between 22nd & 26th, San Francisco

Free admission. Cash for food. Proceeds benefit La Cocina.

Original Post: 8/20/10

Today I was privileged enough to get a media pass to the SF Street Food Festival put on by La Cocina thanks to Foodbuzz. This was the second year of a festival that is obviously going to be an annual event in San Francisco. There is so much information to share that I feel I need to split this into a two-parter. Today I will tell you about La Cocina and tomorrow I will share some of the festival.

La Cocina calls itself an “incubator kitchen”. The term “incubator”, as it is used in business, was a new one for me. Incubator organizations assist entrepreneurs with starting their businesses. They “nurture the development of entrepreneurial companies, helping them survive and grow during the start-up period, when they are most vulnerable.” Most incubator organizations help economically vulnerable communities, low income families, and other people who struggle to start a business. 

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Portland Food Carts

July 19, 2010 food trucks , portland 3 Comments

Readers of this blog know that I have a real interest in the gourmet food truck trend and the lack of them in Sacramento due to City ordinances. Well this weekend I was up in Portland hoping to find some of their over 400+ food truck/vendors and try them out.


Unfortunately, it seems that most of them only operate Monday thru Friday in the downtown area. I found plenty, but almost all of them were closed.


That topmost picture shows one block that had 22 of these vendors!!!



There were some vendors that were open along the river and by the Saturday Market. I opted for two. This one is where I got a pork and cheese pupusa.


Here she is making my pupusa and below is my plate. Delicious and only $5. It's the size of a dessert plate.



I also got a chicken sambusa from this cart and it was $2.



What I did notice was that most of the vendors were parked in parking lots. So they must be paying a small lease for the space from the lot owner versus being on the actual city street.


Anyway, if you haven't already, please write to the City Councilpeople. We are missing out on a lot of great food possibilities and the biggest food trend in the country. And please read my article - Sacramento Needs to Embrace Street Food.

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