Mountain View Festival Celebrates Summer With Stellar Street Food
From down-home grilled tri-tip to delicate Greek octopus, the fabulous food is always one of the big draws at the Mountain View Art & Wine Festival. At this year’s 41st Annual festival, September 8-9 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., downtown Castro Street will become a bustling gourmet mecca with two dozen vendors bringing together classic global street food.
There’s no point in eating breakfast before the festival if you can arrive first thing and tuck into a traditional French crêpe from Lemoine Crêperie. You can go savory with any combination of cheese, spinach, bacon or ham. Or if your breakfasts need a little fruit, go for the strawberries, peaches, cherries or applesauce. Turning it into dessert with whipped cream, vanilla pudding or Nutella is also an option.
While the French love their crêpes, the Greeks are all about pita, which accompanies every item on the traditional Greek menu from Ultimate Souvlaki. Bobby Gekas, a member of Slow Food International, prepares recipes inspired by his grandmother in the old country, using organic, locally sourced ingredients. His souvlakis (miniature kebabs) are made with lamb, chicken, swordfish or baby octopus. Bobby’s classic meatball from the island of Cyprus, called sheftalia, is a blend of lamb, pork, red onions, parsley and spices. And, like any good Greek host, he offers handmade dolmas and baklava.
Traveling further east to Armenia, the options include grilled lamb and beef kabobs cooked up by the Armenian Trex Fraternity. The succulent meat comes inside a soft lavash flatbread with onions, tomatoes and parsley. Another long-standing local group, the Kiwanis Club, celebrates a Polish favorite with their popular smoked pork and chicken sausages, teamed up with corn on the cob. And one more old-time association, Sunnyvale Elks Lodge #2128, goes for all-American classics with hamburgers, chips, shave ice and root beer floats.
For an American interpretation of old-world sausage, there’s the Dakota smoked bratwurst from Lockeford Meat & Sausage. These sausage sages from just outside Stockton say their blend of turkey, pork and beef smoked over hickory wood comes from the classic recipe used by the Russian-German community of North Dakota. Pedemonte & Company serves up a variety of sausages from Schwartz of San Francisco: the ever-popular traditional Polish, mild German-style bratwurst (pork and veal), hot links, and all-beef organic hot dogs. They also offer Aidell’s chicken-apple sausages, as well as French fries with fresh garlic and—their “secret ingredient”—cilantro.
Meat is also the main attraction at Big Ed’s Buzzard BBQ. The grilled tri-tip gets its distinctive flavor from a not-too-spicy dry rub and comes with a dollop of barbecue sauce on a soft steak roll. Partial to smoked meats? There’s the Texas-style dry-rubbed beef brisket, smoked 14 hours over white oak and served on a soft roll with light barbecue sauce. Or check out the hand-pulled pork, smoked for 12 hours and piled into a potato roll with barbecue sauce and cole slaw.
The beef at Aloha Joe’s gets the tropical treatment in a sandwich with shredded beef, black beans, a juicy pineapple-mango sauce, chopped cabbage and tangy aioli, all held together in a soft Hawaiian flatbread.
For chicken lovers, California BBQ layers flavorful teriyaki chicken atop rice or stir-fried noodles, and they grill chicken and pork kabobs to order. Skewered chicken and pork are also on the menu at Thai Stick, but with the traditional flavor of Thai barbecue. They also offer the chicken with rice or in a wrap.
Chicken gets an Italian-American twist at Earthly Delights, where the garlic chicken sandwich comes with sautéed red peppers and onions. They also make a mean slow-cooked barbecued pork sandwich and addictive Parmesan garlic fries.
For no-nonsense poultry lovers, Willow Street will serve its signature smoked turkey legs. And seafood-eating (almost) vegetarians will be in heaven with their crisp-fried calamari, zucchini and artichokes.
There will be two pizza purveyors to satisfy both camps of pizza aficionados. Amici’s will deliver thin-crust slices to satisfy those with a special place in their hearts for New York. And for fans of thick-crust Chicago pie there’s Johnnie & Luigi Too, where brownies will be available to round out the meal.
The Tamale Factory has mastered the art of making the perfect tamal. They stuff corn masa with seasoned pork or chicken, or with cheese and jalapeños, then wrap it snugly in a corn husk and gently steam the tamal till warmed through. Perfecto. Their tacos are equally authentic, filled with either carne asada or grilled chicken. Rice and beans—naturalmente—are offered on the side.
Sweet fresh corn will be roasting over an open flame at both Ear Good Corn Roast and Moon River Corn Company. Nachos will also be an option at Moon River, with enough toppings to make a meal—sour cream, guacamole, tomatoes and jalapeños. Corn that’s been popped, salted and sweetened is the name of the game at of Old Tyme Kettle Korn, where the smell alone is enough to sell you on the stuff.
The days of late summer call for desserts that can cool you down, and Frozen Fantasies will have an enticing selection of frozen chocolate-dipped fruit kabobs, ice cream bars, fruit smoothies. Baskin Robbins will be another cooling-off option, with ice cream in vanilla, chocolate, mint chocolate chip, cookies and cream and rainbow sherbet flavors, as well as root beer floats. And for the ultimate refresher there’s always fresh-squeezed, hand-shaken Barrett’s Lemonade. |
