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Outside Lands Day Three

August 17, 2014Leave a comment

Day 3 of Outside Lands can be summed up in two words: trucks and lands. We ate from so many food trucks and frequented Wine Lands, Beer Lands, Cheese Lands, and Choco Lands the entire day.

There were so many food trucks to choose from, but we narrowed it down to Bacon Bacon, Del Popolo, Senor Sisig, The Rib Whip, and The Fabulous Frickle Brothers.

Last year, Those Fabulous Frickle Brothers paired up with their festival neighbor, Bacon Bacon, to add their Fabulous Fried Pickles to Bacon Bacon’s Bacon Burger. It was a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, their location didn’t allow that to happen this year, but it inspired me to try something besides their amazing pickles. We went the dessert route and tried their Fabulous Fried Apples with a Vanilla Coconut sauce on top. The breading created a nice sweet and savory mashup with cinnamon and sugar sweet apples. I’m not a huge fan of coconut, but they added the perfect amount to the vanilla sauce on top.

The Rib Whip was serving Pulled Pork BBQ Bowls and while there was a bit too much lettuce for my liking, the meat was cooked perfectly.

The California Sisig Burrito, from Senor Sisig, has to be one of the best California burritos I have ever had. The french fries were crispy, not soggy, and the sour cream wasn’t overwhelming. They use pork shoulder as their main meat, and I must say that it is absolutely decadent. This award-winning truck has also been featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.

Del Popolo had the longest line at Outside Lands for the duration of the festival. I mean, how can you not when you’re serving whole wood-fired Margherita Pizzas? The crust was cooked to a dark brown crisp with generous chunks of mozzarella to balance out the sauce. Their setup is pretty cool too; go to their website and take a look at more pictures of their truck, you’ll be glad you did.

I have a soft spot for all things bacon, so I was definitely looking forward to what the Bacon Bacon truck had to offer. Their BBQ Pork Sandwich and Chocolate Covered Bacon definitely fulfilled my porky cravings.

Now, onto the lands. Choco Lands was one of my favorite lands because I have a pretty big sweet tooth. In addition to Humphrey Slocombe’s special edition flavor, Kara’s Cupcakes, Sharona’s Chocolate Shop, and more were serving up delicious chocolate treats! Cheese Lands consisted of platters full of assorted cheeses and charcuterie from Long Meadow Ranch. Bacon Land was serving up $10 bacon flights.

Wine Lands is an expansive tent full of different wineries and packed to the brim with people. I have had most of the options at previous tastings or events, so it was nice to see some familiar names including, Ghost Pines, Hess Collection, J.Lohr, Menage A Trois, and Roth Estate. The tent also featured Summer of Riesling which included a full crash course on different styles of Riesling and fun temporary tattoos.

Beer Lands was more of an open area, in comparison to Wine Lands. Featuring over 30 different breweries, Beer Lands had something for everyone. Similar to Wine Lands, I have had many of these beers before, so I already knew what I was getting myself into. Overall, I think the lineup was a good one with selections from Ace Cider, Drake’s Brewing, Firestone Walker Brewing Co., Golden Road Brewing, Lost Coast Brewery, Magnolia Brewing Company, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., and Stone Brewing Co..

Another addition to this year’s festival was the Gastro Magic stage. Each day, the stage featured different acclaimed chefs and gourmet restaurants, and paired them with a comedian or DJ to create a unique multi-sensory culinary experience. There were too many shows to see, so refer to the Gastro Magic page for a more specific description of each show.

As for the last day of music, we enjoyed Paolo Nutini, Jenny Lewis, Spoon, Ben Howard, The Flaming Lips, Ray LaMontagne, and The Killers. The Killers put on the best show of the day and the best show of the festival. I have never been a huge fan of theirs, but seeing them live definitely changed my mind.

Outside Lands Day Two

August 16, 2014August 17, 20143 Comments

Day two of Outside Lands was probably my favorite day. Why, you ask? It was my birthday! We got there early, stayed late and enjoyed all of my favorites (including Humphrey Slocombe).

First, we started off with one of my favorites from last year, Homeroom‘s Gilroy Garlic Mac and Cheese. Mac and cheese is one of my favorite food groups and Homeroom’s is the best! I still haven’t been to their Oakland location that serves favorites like Dungeness Crab Mac and Sriracha Mac, but I hope to visit the next time I am in the Bay Area. The Gilroy Garlic Mac and Cheese that they serve at Outside Lands is simple, garlic-filled and delicious! I could have eaten this, and only this, for three days straight.

Next stop was Il Cane Rosso‘s Fried Egg Sandwich. I am a sucker for a good breakfast sandwich and they have a great one! It doesn’t help that they are located in the Ferry Building, one of my favorite places to hang out on a Sunday in the city. I am there all the time, which means I am eating these breakfast sandwiches all the time. The fresh Acme bread with onion butter covering the yolky egg and generous slabs of bacon is heavenly.

We jumped on the food trend wagon and got in the long long line for Nombe‘s Ramen Burger. The small burger patty, tomato, lettuce, grilled onions, and cheese were covered in two seasoned ramen bunches in the shape of a bun. It was surprisingly different than the one I tried down here in Los Angeles from Keizo Shimamoto. The burger was just O-K, but the seasoned ramen bun was delicious!

I have seen Pica Pica on Diners Drive-ins and Dives and all of the food looked delicious. When I found out that they were going to be at Outside Lands, I was excited to try their famous Arepa. An Arepa is a grilled corn pocket filled with savory goodness. We chose the shredded chicken arepa served with yummy yuca fries. I see why Guy Fieri loved Pica Pica. I thought the corn exterior would be overwhelming in flavor, but it was the perfect covering to the chicken.

The afternoon called for a little indulgence. We ventured over to the Twin Peak stage and kept hearing about Woodhouse Fish Co. serving delicious lobster rolls and oysters, so we had to give them a try! The lobster roll was one of the best that I have ever had and definitely in my Top 3 favorite dishes at Outside Lands.

Instead of cake, I opted for Humphrey Slocombe‘s special edition flavor, Chocolate Gold Rush. Their handcrafted ice creams are very popular in San Francisco. They just opened a store front in the Ferry Building a couple of months ago, and there is always a line for their creative flavors. For Outside Lands, they combined dark chocolate ice cream with chocolate covered cone pieces. It was a chocolate paradise and the perfect dessert to celebrate my birthday!

We spent a majority of the evening in the VIP area waiting for Tom Petty to come on that night. The VIP courtyard was beautiful! I loved the decor and they had a small array of food choices, coffee, a Tito’s Vodka van, and flower crowns from Bloom That.

Let’s just say it was an awesome birthday! Now, onto the music of the day.
We walked in to Lands End right as The Kooks were coming on. They put on a great show! I only knew a few of their songs, but they drew a nice crowd for it being so early on in the day. After eating for a couple of hours, we made our way back to Lands End to wait for HAIM to come on. The trio of sisters have found a lot of success in the past year and they put on a rocking show for a large crowd. The John Butler Trio chose to play more of their folk-sounding songs, but the crowd was really into it. We watched Death Cab for Cutie from the VIP area and I was so glad to finally see them in person. We ended the night with Tom Petty. We had already seen him a couple of years back, but it was cool to see him again.

Outside Lands Day One

August 16, 2014August 17, 20142 Comments

Outside Lands is my favorite food, music, and art festival in my favorite city. This year, I was lucky enough to be invited to the 3-day festival in San Francisco to cover the gourmet food and beverages offered at the event! Even though I will be separating my posts by day, there is still a lot of grub to cover! Get ready for a #foodporn overload!

Right when we got to the festival, we started off with a bang! AQ was serving Highbrow Spaghetti Sloppy Joe’s complete with sliced pork and mozzarella. This was one of the more creative and standout dishes that we enjoyed. AQ put a fun twist on a classic comfort food…by combining it with another comfort food.

I am a huge fan of Tacolicious, so I was very excited to try their new sister restaurant, Chino. They were serving Lumpia filled with pork, beef, and carrots, and from what their website says, it is the Chef de Cuisine’s secret family recipe. We paired it with sriracha and sweet and sour sauce. The outside was perfectly crispy. I think it was a great representation of their Asian fusion style.

This was easily one of the best things I ate at Outside Lands. This was easily one of the best things I have eaten, ever. This 100% Ground Pork Belly Burger, from Big Chef Tom of Food Network Fame, was served with fried chili pepper aioli, tomatillo relish, and Cotija cheese. It is definitely going to be difficult to enjoy a normal ho-hum beef burger again.

This split pea soup is a favorite from last year. Split Pea Seduction is a hidden gem of a take-out window on 6th Street; their split pea with slow pork and vegetables is absolutely heavenly. When the wind picks up and the sun starts to dim down, this soup provides the perfect warmth and taste.

The definition of farm-fresh soul food is Farmerbrown’s Little Skillet. I have had fried chicken and waffles on more than one occasion, and this stood up to the best. The breading on the chicken wasn’t too heavy and not at all oily.

Freshroll Vietnamese Rolls and Bowls was serving delicious and fresh banh mi sandwiches. A good banh mi can change your life. It was served with aioli, pickled veggies, cilantro and jalapenos. Unfortunately, they were out of pork by the time we got around to their booth, but their chicken banh mi was still killer!

Attempting to justify the calories and a full day of carbs, I chose to close out the day with Brussels Sprouts from The American Grilled Cheese Kitchen. The crispy maple brussels sprouts were just the right amount of sweet and crispy.

Just in case you stuck around long enough to hear about the music…
EL-P and Killer Mike put on a great set earlier in the day. Killer Mike had equally killer dance moves. Grouplove had a lot of energy and did a fun cover of Beyonce’s Drunk in Love. Disclosure was our favorite of the day! They played instruments along with the tracks instead of just going up and pushing some buttons. They got the whole crowd going and everyone was dancing to every single track. For the headlining act, I wanted to watch Kanye West. Before you judge me, he didn’t go on a rant and he played a lot of classics.