Tips for Dining, Eating, and Food Shopping in the SF Bay Area (including Berkeley, Oakland, Napa, Sonoma, Marin, and San Jose)
Start New ThreadI know street food is all the Rage these days, and rightfully so. Has anyone put together a Farmers Market list of food vendors that rock? I know there is the Clay Oven is pretty darn good, and RawDaddy's on Cal Ave in Palo Alto, and Los Altos is amazing, Scream is great as well.
Any more out there?
By godlike4u
on Aug 26, 2009 09:18 AM
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Primavera's pork tamales at at SF Ferry Plaza on Saturdays (as seen on TV). Unfortunately they don't sell them (or any hot food) at the Berkeley market or so far as I've found anywhere else.
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Primavera serves up hot tamales at the farmers market in Sonoma.
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Including the pork?
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I don't know. I've not had a Primavera pork tamale at the Sonoma market, but I've only been there a handful of times so not much experience to go on.
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I like their usual vegetarian tamales (available in grocery stores) fine, but the pork are great.
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Yep love the pork and I also like the chicken mole in a banana leaf - they don't often have them though...
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i've been to a fair amount of farmers markets in the bay area, but only recently have done a survey of food vendors (was only comparing prices/quality of produce vendors).
In the Jack London Square market, there is Cholita Linda, who makes a pretty good fish taco (they visit the Alameda farmers market on Saturdays and the Concord market on Thursday), the Meat Casbah, who specialize in Mediterranean style dishes, a Turkish stand, a sausage stand, and a wood fire pizza place. I've tried cholita linda and would recommend it. The Casbah place isnt so bad (I tried their gyro, which was pretty good for the price [$5] ) but they got the least attention outside of the sausage stand. I only tried an egg roll type appetizer (only $1) from the Turkish place, which was fairly popular (most people got a wrap, which i will try next time around). The wood fire pizza place got a lot of customers around lunch time. They use ingredients from the produce vendors at the market and cook the pizza in a wood fire contraption. The sausage stand appears to be a place to avoid (few customers, and those who did try it out said to me it wasnt very good). The market had five bakery stands, feel good bakery, dot's, great harvest, beckman's, and a european style bakery.
The Hayward farmers market has Soleil's Kitchen, which makes african cuisine. When I was there, most people got the banana beignets, which were apparently very tasty. I tried their jerk chicken dish, which included rice and plantains. Was pretty good, but i was slightly miffed when the people ahead of me got a boatload more meat than i did when they ordered the same dish. They also serve regular grilled chicken and tilapia dishes. Other vendors include the flying falafel, Tamales Mexicanos, Al's BBQ, a filipino stand, and I believe a Thai stand. I didnt try any of these places, but heard that the tamales at Tamales Mexicanos and the garlic noodles at the thai place were good.
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Last time I was at Jack London they also had a Tibetan stand, momos, etc.
To add the obvious, Roli Roti is at several markets (Civic Center, Ferry Plaza Thursday, Grand Lake, etc.). All-Star tamales at Civic Center are pretty good. There's also a Belgian waffle truck at Civic Center.
The Tuesday Ferry Plaza market has Prather Ranch -- anyone tried the vegan booth there?
Grand Lake has a good-sized selection of prepared foods, but I haven't personally tried any of them.
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Yes, I've tried the vegan booth. It's fair, not great. One of those you're eating it bcuz it's good for you rather then it's great tasting. If you want great vegan food, try RawDaddy's booth at either the Palo Alto or Los Altos markets. Radically different. They serve everything in a flaxseed cone. Amazingly fresh.
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It's not really a farmers market, but a lot of those vendors set up in the Metreon's food court, more than I've seen at any single market.
The portable-wood-oven pizza at the Marin Civic Center market is good.
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Island Earth Farmers Market
101 4th Street, San Francisco, CA
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At the SF Stonestown Farmers Market (Sunday's 9-1pm) I discovered a wonderful handheld meat pie vendor. New Zealand style with Indian influences. The butter chicken is wonderful! Basically chicken tikka masala in a perfectly flaky pie crust. The lamb has wonderful spices and a rich moist texture.
Info here: http://www.thepiepress.com/
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Those look amazing. Great website.
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Those pies look fantastic, as do these cones from RawDaddy's.
http://rawdaddyfoods.com/
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Alemany Farmers market:
El Huarache Loco: DF style street food (huaraches, tlacoyos, gorditas etc)
Sabores del Sur: Chilean empanadas and alfajores
there's also a very good pupusa stand
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To echo:
the alfajores at Savores del Sur at the Alamany market are spectacular (underscored).
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