San Francisco Street Food Festival 2013 (Slideshow)featured

Have you digested everything from the Night Market yet? Well don’t slow down now. There are too many plates and too little stomach space for that at the San Francisco Street Food Festival. Award-winning restaurants and budding entrepreneurs alike brought their tastiest bites to the street, and the people approved.

Judging from the line of eager customers that snaked down the street, the people particularly approved of Nombe’s Ramen Burger. That’s right. We saw the mythical Ramen Burger in the flesh and got the deets for you. The “bun” is made of ramen noodles that have been mixed with ground nori and pan-fried crispy, and the burger is a 50/50 mix of pork belly and Wagyu beef. Flavor combos for the day were a bacon-cheddar-soy sauce number and the staff favorite, a shiitake-blue cheese-miso sauce option. A shio-koji pickle, tomato, caramelized onions, and mizuna dressed in wasabi vinaigrette topped it all off.

Ramen Burger (Nombe Izakaya)

Chefs Thomas McNaughton and Ryan Pollnow from Central Kitchen brought one of the tastiest bites (and sips for that matter) of the day with their Bunny Manh Mi and Lemongrass Carrot Juice — cute, right?

Executive Chef Thomas McNaughton & Chef de Cuisine Ryan Pollnow (Central Kitchen)

The Bunny Banh Mi was layered with rabbit mortadella, pork and rabbit terrine, seared pork belly, and a sumptuous chicken liver pate. To wash it all down was a thoroughly refreshing, vibrant, sweet and tangy Thai tea-inspired carrot juice mixed with OJ, ginger and lemongrass simple syrup, yogurt whey, and a bit of heavy cream floated on top. Just delightful.

Bunny Banh Mi with rabbit mortadella, pork & rabbit terrine, seared pork belly, and chicken liver pate (Central Kitchen)

Stuart Brioza, Nicole Krasinski, and the State Bird Provisions Team

That’s a wrap! This food baby needs a nap.

San Francisco Street Food Festival
August 16 – 17, 2013
San Francisco, CA

This post was published on KQED’s Bay Area Bites on August 18, 2013.