Bay Area weather is a funny thing. Instead of four seasons, we get intermittent periods of sunshine, fog, and rain. Unlike the rest of the country, we experience cold summers and hot autumns. When I first moved here, the most unexpected “season” was the wet winter. From October to April, it rains A LOT. For the first time in my life, I invested in rain gear.
Anyway, I bring this up because it just started raining last week and it made me instantly nostalgic of the gloriously warm weather we had between late August through the beginning of October. On one of those beautiful days, I went to the Eat Real Festival in downtown Oakland. I had a lot of fun last year, so I decided to return. This time, we had a strategy. SB, JL, and I got there right before noon to avoid the crazy long lines. After we got our fill, we met up with SBJ & friends to enjoy the warm weather, music, and people watching.
SB was definitely the eating champ amongst us; she sampled over 13 dishes in all. Here’s her list:
“Garlic noodles, Korean taco, kung fu taco, mac & cheese, Mexican popsicle, goat ice cream sandwich, Curry Up Now burrito, spinach ganishe (sp?), lumpia, adobe chicken, cupcakes, bear claw, bbq chicken sandwich.”
I had a Kung Fu taco, Homeroom mac and cheese, Simply Garlic garlic noodles, Soul Cocina Indian street food, blackberry gelato, and a nice sampling of beers (Drakes 1500 Pale Ale, Magnolia Kölsch, Black Diamond Saison, Iron Springs Amber). The Kung Fu taco was my favorite.
We also witnessed a pig butchering contest between Butcher Dave and Butcher Dan. It was an amazing spectacle. These two expert butchers each started with half a pig and in the course of 15-20 minutes, produced cuts ideal for barbecue, roasts, and curing, with minimal waste.
Anyway, enough talk. Here are the photos — enjoy!
poor scientist. will blog 4 food. 
October 25, 2010 at 6:03 pm
I really like the pictures of the butchering contest… Dave and John should take those guys on their hunt!