Samples

Taste of North Park 2011 continued from part 1...

Taste of North Park 2011 - Veg N Out veggie burger

Veg N' Out - This slider was different than the vegetarian patties you find at the grocery store, and the onions were cooked a slight bit raw.

Taste of North Park 2011 - Eddie's Philadelphia philly sandwich

Eddie's Philadelphia Steaks - We selected the beef with american cheese sample.  The meat was slightly underseasoned but the bread had a nice toasty feeling in our mouths.  I like when philly sandwiches aren't overly cheesy and greasy yet still have a decent taste.

I've heard so many good things about the food in North Park so when our schedule suddenly cleared up that day, we ventured to test out this theory.  Taste of North Park 2011 was held on Saturday Oct. 8 from 11am-4pm. Between the generous five hours and the proximity of most restaurants, we were able to sample all 46 locations!

Taste of North Park 2011 - U-31 capris saladTaste of North Park 2011 - U-31 fish taco

At the Gourmet Experience, visitors have their choice of live cooking demos, food competitions, and gourmet foods and products!  Besides the vendors, there were three different stages that showcased various chefs and their foods: the Gourmet in Action state, the Outdoor Grilling Stage, and the Kids Cook Activity Stage.  We attended on Sunday Oct. 9th 2011.

Ro Zinninger cupcake demo at The Gourmet Experience 2011

We had passes to the Gourmet Experience for Sunday Oct 9th. After looking at the schedule, our eyes were drawn toward one big thing: the Fish Taco TKO Competition!

This was the first year for the Fish Taco TKO Competition and the friendly Emcee, Josh Kopelman of Dining Out SD, introduced us to the 7 fierce competitors:

If you missed part 1, here is the link.

At this point, we were almost halfway through the restaurants for our Taste of Downtown San Diego 2011 journey. I'm not sure exactly when they removed the Little Italy restaurants but it makes the trip a lot easier to hit more restaurants in such a short amount of time!

Taste of Downtown 2011 - Lincoln Room chicken wing

We finally made it out to Taste of Downtown this year.  Many new restaurants have popped up since the last time we sampled in this area (2006, 2007p1/p2)! The event was originally set for Septemeber 8 but due to a huge blackout, it was moved to September 29. This year there were 49 restaurants on the list to visit between 5-9pm.

Taste of Downtown San Diego 2011 - ticket