Latin Food Fest 2014 - recap

It was a HOT weekend but luckily this year's Latin Food Festival (LFF) was within reach of the ocean breezes and a gorgeous view! Embarcadero Marina Park North provided a great spot for LFF, which was held on September 13 between 11-3pm. We purchased our second ticket and invited readers and friends to join us!

After picking up wristbands at the entrance, we headed into the event. The main area had two rows of tents, one with food vendors and the other with drink vendors. Since we hadn't eaten any breakfast, we decided to start with food first! Drinking on an empty stomach is *risky* business!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Smoked Fusion Catering

Our first stop was the Smoke Fusion Catering booth. What's a Latin festival without some tacos, right? These carnitas tacos were only the beginning of that trend...

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Handlebar Hot Sauce varieties Latin Food Festival 2014 - Handlebar Hot Sauce

Next door was the Handlebar Hot Sauce company showcasing four of their bottled flavors: Smokin' Chipotle, Jalapeno Lime, Orange Habanero and Trinidad Mango Madness! They also sampled Colorado Turkey Chili which I can only assume was made using at least one of those sauces!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Adrian's Cartel Kitchen

Adrian's Cartel Kitchen, a group of chefs formed through Chef Adrian Cruz (right), came to share one of their creations with us!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Adrian's Cartel Kitchen

Their team served beef tartar with cilantro lime greens over beets. What gorgeous colors for plating the meat!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - The Blind Burro

The Blind Burro had chicken tinga braised in chipotle tomatoes, topped with pickled red onion, avocado, queso fresco, and micro cilantro over a fried tortilla.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - El Pansa Tacos Latin Food Festival 2014 - El Pansa Tacos

El Pansa Tacos had el pastor from a spindle topped with tomatillo verde or chicken tinga with a touch of chili.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - El Pansa Tacos Aguas Frescas

One thing that wasn't provided at the festival was WATER (unless you were VIP) but luckily El Pansa Tacos offered refreshing agua fresca! This lemonade-like drink hit the spot!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Stella Artois beer and cider glasses

We also circled back near the entrance to the Stella Artois tent for their free souvenir glasses. They participate often in events (like Fit Foodies 5k, etc) but this time they had cider to sample, not just beer! Their cider was quite nice, a light apple taste without that typical sugary-ness. I would buy that!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Puesto Tacos

Puesto had quite a line an hour into the event but was so worth it! This was a stuffed chicken that was a little bit cheesy yet really succulent. The green sauce added a little cilantro lime taste. Definitely one of my favorite samples here!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Mole Oaxaca the Taste of Mexico

Ever wonder about mole dishes? Mole Oaxaca - The Taste of Mexico provided mole paste samples with a tortilla chip. It's a sweet and savory sauce on its own. To the left left was a different kind of chocolate, described by Dennis as tasting like "big red gum in a powdery form!" Next to it was polvorones, a rich crumbly dusty cookie that's a delicious and popular treat all over mexico. These were like sweet shortbread cookies to me.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Achiote Mexican Restaurant Latin Food Festival 2014 - Achiote Mexican Restaurant

There were a lot of samples from Achiote Mexican Restaurant. The big chicken chimichenga sample had a little kick in the sauce. The tuna roll mixed it up with a sweeter tuna filling inside celery.  There was also a sweet beef roll and salmon tostada, as well as habernero, green chile, and mild sauces for dipping.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Panca Peruvian

A less typical cuisine came from Panca Peruvian. This was their chicken with ahjid(?) pepper over rice. I initially thought it had a similar taste to curry but Dennis hit the nail on the head when he mentioned chicken pot pie... with a kick! Yummy.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Alfonso's of La Jolla

Alfonso's of La Jolla sampled vegetarian ceviche and a chicken taco. I thought the ceviche was quite nice even without meat!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Tequila Bar and Grill

One of the most popular samples we tasted was from Tequila Bar & Grill. Their smoked albacore ceviche was raved about. They also had prickly pear margarita as a tasty side shot.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Texcoco Traditional Mexican Lamb Barbecue

Dennis really enjoyed the familiar flavored meat above, which turned out to be succulent lamb! Texcoco Traditional Mexican Lamb BBQ paired it with some optional sauces for adding heat!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Venga Venga

Venga Venga was sampling a new addition to their menu - mahi mahi ceviche - to be introduced the following week at their restaurant. For some reason the fish was on the firmer side.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Cafe Secret

I've heard of Cafe Secret before and found out it was a Peruvian restaurant here. They were sampling Choritos a La Chalaca - New Zealand cooked mussles with chalaca salsa (must go look this up NOW). Chalaca means "rocoto chili, choclo, and camchita"!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Casa De Bandini Latin Food Festival 2014 - Casa De Bandini

Casa de Bandini is from north county and they had two samples. The first was spinach sauted with mushroom garlic under chicken(?) but it was a bit salty overall. The other dish was chipotle chicken with an interesting flavor but the chicken itself was a little drier.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Allure Restaurant Latin Food Festival 2014 - Allure Restaurant

Still going on food? Yes! Allure Restaurant had mediterranean kale salad with salad feta cheese olives, cucumbers. The best sample though was their carrot cake, nicely spiced and moist. Perfectly sized to pop into your mouth!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Jarritos

By this time we were THIRSTY! Jarritos was one of the non-alcoholic drinks available at the festival.

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Jarritos

I grabbed fruit punch from one of the free-for-all bins and was surprisingly pleased with this flavor. Dennis tried the green apple but it was too sweet!

Latin Food Festival 2014 - Joia all natural soda or sparkling

Another alternative non-alcoholic drink was Joia. They offered four different flavors and at the end of the festival, they were closing up and let us take four bottles home... each! Yea, so we made out like bandits at this festival!

But that's not the end of this adventure... the rest of the food, tequila samples and a cocojack will continue in part 2...

Disclaimer: We got a complimentary ticket to the event but paid for our second. The opinions are strictly our own.

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Comments

J.S. @ Sun Diego Eats's picture
Submitted by J.S. @ Sun Dieg... (not verified) on Mon, 09/29/2014 - 8:39am

Ooh I had beef tartare for the first time this year at Juniper & Ivy! They have a carne asada beef tartare crostini that is pretty amazing.

And I love the chicken taco from Puesto, I normally completely ignore chicken in any restaurant but I tried theirs because it was our waiter's favorite and I liked it better than any of their other tacos!

Lastly, WOW that is a lot of food and there is still a part 2?!

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Mon, 09/29/2014 - 12:46pm

beef tartare is still a little new to me but i definitely enjoyed the puesto samples and some of the ceviches! this event was unlimited samples too so you could get more of your favorites! there were 100 vendors and we didn't even make it to all of them!

Mary's picture
Submitted by Mary (not verified) on Tue, 10/07/2014 - 10:46am

Heehee, I like the logo for the Handlebar Hot Sauce! I'd buy some of that for Jake.

The beef tartar looks like it has foam on it! The colors really pop there.

The Puesto taco sounds awesome... stuffed chicken! Yum!

Polvorones are also popular in the Philippines, you can also get them at the Asian markets (I have never had the Mexican version, I don't know if they taste the same, but they are also crumbly).

It looks like it was mostly a taco-fest but good to see some non-taco samples here and there. You guys tried a lot! :)

lynn's picture
Submitted by lynn on Wed, 10/08/2014 - 3:19pm

I wanna go for $2 taco night at Puesto! Let's make that our girls night out haha! There really were lots of tacos but also a number of ceviche! I don't think there was any mole but we got our fix at the Taste of Old Town, that post coming soon!

Mary's picture
Submitted by Mary (not verified) on Wed, 10/08/2014 - 7:33pm

Oh we should do that! I kinda dropped the ball on the other thing, too much going on in October! I do still want to visit the student kitchen though.

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