Only a week after stuffing ourselves at College Area Taste, we were back for more at Taste of Hillcrest! This year’s Taste of Hillcrest was on April 19th 2014 between noon and 4. Dennis and I came out with Oh-So Yummy’s Cathy and Dave, who also joined us last year for Hillcrest’s Taste N Tinis. It seems the Hillcrest events just happen to occur around our birthdays so we’ve been gifted tickets twice! A happy foodie thanks to Cathy!
We already had printed tickets so we started closest to where we parked, at Brazen BBQ. They were promoting a new item to their menu which I think was sweet and spicy tri tip? It was tender but we thought it needed a tad bit more seasoning or maybe a stronger rub flavor. Typical tasting beans were paired with this sample.
Next was the indian buffet at Bombay. I always remember this as the place where you self-serve and possibly eat too much! Everything was fresh because we were first in line! I am always a fan of saag. Cathy commented that the tofu wasn’t that great but the rest of the sauces were. The lychee mousse dessert was sweet and fluffy.
I got lucky and won a pair of tickets to College Area Taste from the SD food blog This Tasty Life. We also bumped into Mary herself (and Jake) at the ticket pickup and joined their posse for a few hours! Awesome!
For a while I thought this was Taste of College Area, similar to the other San Diego annual taste of x events, but it's actually called College Area Taste! Sneaky! Anyway, it is a food sampling trek and was held on Sunday April 13, 2014 between 11-3pm near San Diego State University (SDSU). Tickets are normally $25 pre-sale and $30 the day of. Will-call was located outside of the College Area BID Office (4704 College Ave) and was very quick. About half of the locations were right around the corner from the pickup location.
If you're a foodie like us and prefer mixed drinks over beer, then Hillcrest's Taste N' Tinis is for you! Pick up a ticket, walk, eat, drink, then take the free trolley to hit the other side of Hillcrest for the rest of the participating locations.
Inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel bar area, they were serving El Jimador, which actually did well in the competition in previous years. It's funny that once you learn about something, all of a sudden it's everywhere! I've been noticing this brand in the stores ever since last year...
The Spirits of Mexico Festival is in its 10th year of production with this being the 3rd year of participation for San Diego. We attended the Tequila Trail 2012 last year and had a blast!
To start, we picked up our tickets at will-call, which was located off San Diego Avenue and Twiggs Street. Just look for the big pop-up tents and workers, then pick up your will-call tickets or purchase them on the spot. Then you can take a look at the printed map and visit any of the locations in any order you please! On the back of the map was a list of restaurants and tequilas and we were pleased to see more than half of the tequilas were new to us! How exciting!
Welcome to Tequila Trail 2012, the kickoff of a week-long celebration of the "Spirits of Mexico" as well as a fundraiser for the Old Town Chamber of Commerce. Apparently, no other town in the US serves as much Tequila as San Diego! Doesn't that make you proud to be a San Diegan?
For our listening pleasure we heard familiar Mexican melodies from these talented ladies. Notice that spikey plant on the right? You'll see that later too!
Our first visit to Taste of Hillcrest! We got there about 15 minutes before the start of the event but took a little more time than expected to find parking.
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.
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!
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!
