FESTIVE FOOD & DRINK

Taste Your Way Around The World at Menlo Park’s Gourmet Extravaganza

Sip your favorite beverage in a beautiful, collector-item wine or beer glass adorned with the stylish festival logo. Festivalgoers will find spacious seating areas with umbrella tables and chairs located throughout the festival.

Menlo Park’s charming, tree-lined Santa Cruz Avenue will give way to a bazaar of global cuisine the weekend of July 17-18, when the Connoisseurs’ Marketplace festival returns for its 24th year. The culinary offerings will span the globe from the Middle East and Mediterranean to Asia and Hawaii to Central America and the American Deep South.

Early arrivals may want to skip breakfast at home and start the day’s feasting with B Food International’s spanakopita, the Greek spinach and feta cheese pastry with the delicate filo dough crust. And why not return for a lunch of aromatic lamb gyro, piled into a pita with sautéed onions and refreshing cucumber-yogurt tzatziki? They also feature hand-made garbanzo falafels tucked into a pita and accented with sesame tahini sauce.

Grilled meats are the specialty at California Gourmet, where tender chicken and pork are skewered on kebobs, and sandwiches and rice bowls are filled with Japanese-style teriyaki chicken. The flavors of the Far East are also featured at Sonoma Teriyaki, where chicken is marinated in garlic, ginger and soy sauce and served simply on a stick or with chow mein noodles or steamed rice.

For meat lovers who crave no-nonsense German-style bratwurst, Lockeford Meat and Sausage offers a smoky blend of pork and beef, infused with garlic and stuffed into a hoagie with onions and sauerkraut. Regional hot dog aficionados will appreciate the distinctions made at Vinnie’s Dogs, where New York–style hot dogs come simply with mustard, ketchup and relish, while their Chicago-style counterparts are loaded with a “salad” of relish, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, sport peppers and Dijon mustard on a sesame-seed bun. Vegetarians will be happy digging into their plump tofu dogs and creamy potato salad.

World-Famous Grilled Cheese Creations takes the classic kids’ favorite to new heights. Their gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches come in such awe-inspiring combos as a mac ‘n’ cheese melt with pulled pork; a pizza melt with optional pepperoni; a harvest melt with grilled zucchini, bell peppers, eggplant and gruyere cheese; and a dessert option with sautéed apples, brie, candied walnuts and cinnamon. They also put together sumptuous little slider sandwiches with favorites like ham ‘n’ cheese and mini-cheeseburgers, as well as fancy combos such as BBQ pulled pork with pineapples, plus a sweet option with roasted bananas, Nutella and marshmallows. Topping off their menu are irresistible tater tots tossed with sautéed garlic and parmesan.

The Hawaiian food aficionados at Kauai Abreu Ohana give the aloha treatment to their Kalua pork, slow-cooking it with Hawaiian salt for seven hours. Their traditional dishes also include paper-thin slices of teriyaki beef and smoke-barbecued chicken.

Main Street Food celebrates El Salvador’s famous comfort food—pupusas—making them by hand with rounds of corn masa dough filled with cheese and green onions, and serving them with spicy cole slaw and tomato salsa. They also cook up tasty fish tacos, fish and chips and garlic fries.

True to their name, the folks at The Tamale Factory expertly blend the perfect combination of Mexican spices into their pork and chicken tamales. Their beef and chicken asada tacos are also delicately seasoned for a balance of authentic flavor and heat.

The family behind New Orleans Catering left Louisiana more than 20 years ago to bring the flamboyant flavors of The Big Easy out West. Their chicken and andouille sausage jambalaya sings with the flavors of their homemade spice blend. The seafood gumbo is packed with crab and cod, along with the traditional base of tomato and okra. And the rich taste of crawfish in the étouffée is heightened from long cooking in seafood stock with plenty of garlic and herbs.

Southern-style seafood is also a staple of the menu at Aroma Concessions, including succulent barbecued oysters, decadent crab cakes, and crispy fried calamari. You can also sink your teeth into their smoked turkey leg and tri-tip or portobello mushroom sandwiches.

Sweet Delights serves up a taste of the South as well, with their prawn and crab stack—a tower of two crab cakes and sautéed prawns served on garlic crostini. They also make turkey, salmon and veggie burgers, plus street fair classics like hand-dipped corn dogs, deep-fried zucchini and artichokes and funnel cakes.

Do your carbo loading at Ear-Good Corn, where you’ll find fresh-roasted corn, sweet potato fries and baked potatoes. Suitcase Ron will be back with his irresistible sweet-salty kettle corn, which you’ll surely want to wash down with some of Barrett’s hand-shaken lemonade.

To top off the long, warm day, wander over to Kurlander Soft Serve, where you’ll find refreshing favorites like chocolate, strawberry and butter pecan, as well as the more offbeat piña colada, creamsicle and, if you dare, cotton-candy-flavored blue goo. For a nondairy, fat-free dessert alternative, try one of Rocco’s silky smooth Italian ices. He uses a classic east-coast recipe for everything from lemon and cherry to blue raspberry and mango.