Sabor Latino Food, Beer, and Wine Festival 2017 - recap

The annual San Diego Latino Film Festival is hugely popular and recently introduced a foodie festival as part of the week's events. This year marked the second annual Sabor Latino food, beer and wine festival. Similar to Latin Food Fest, there were plenty of fabulous chefs, local and across the Mexican border, sharing their heartfelt creations and spreading their fondness for food. The full ticket also included unlimited beer and wine tastings from the participating vendors.

I've never attended any festivals in Mission Valley so ended up parking farther than anticipated (near the trolley station) of Fashion Valley Mall. Tents were actually set up between two parking structures just south of the AMC theater and food court area.

My plus one and I had general admission tickets which let us in at 2pm (VIP enters at 1pm). We were lucky enough to stop by for some paella from Paella Villa de Cervantes before they ran out! The portions were plentiful which may have contributed the short supply.

I love how this shot of Chef Daniella from Cocina Secret turned out. With their tent's background, it was almost as if we were in some resort being personally served by the chef!

Here's a closeup of her shrimp and quinoa ceviche with mango coconut cream plus a touch of curry. Yes it was tasty. Another fun little bite was from Chef Bianca and I was enamoured by the whipped meringue portion.

Chefs from Mestiza and Sierra Vita Casa Vinicola

More fun bite sized samples

Fricasse de pechuga de pollo con arroz de azafran. Now saying that is a mouthful! The flavors were brilliant and meat oh so tender but just a tad bit salty!

Chef Felipe Raul from Vinedos Malagon (Valle de Guadalupe Mexico). After pairing these pictures, I noticed Chef Stevan was in the food prep picture as well!

Here is Chef Stevan's pork belly creation!

Another favorite was the corn and uni chowder from Chef Ruffo of Oryx Capital. We also had some fish wrapped in banana leaves from Chef Sandra.

Here are the guys from Oryx Capital (with some nametags to help)

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Yellow fin tuna aguachile from Cocina Silvestre. Smoked fish taco with chile morita from Olivia

After seeing several people carrying around these cups of fruit/veggies, we found the source but unfortunately it was for VIP only. *sigh* It looked so refreshing.

Mexitreat provides for all your dulces (sweets) needs. Delicious Macaroons de Chocolate from Harrah's Resort were found near the ticket booth of the entrance. Thank goodness this one wasn't VIP only!

Daniela Copenhaver from Daniela's kitchen @danielaskitchensd is also competing on the Food Network's Spring break Championships.

Wine tasting and more!

Novo Brazil Beer

Border X Brewery beer and hat (display only). Lagunitas Little Sumpin'.

Suja juice to cool off (much appreciated on this hot day).

Artwork for sale. Love how cute the skeletons are in this See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil trilogy.

Tents for shade on a hot day!

Foodie + props = fun

Disclaimer: We were provided tickets for this event. We were not otherwise compensated and all opinions stated are our own.