Street Food Market Comes to the San Diego Public Market

Did you absolutely love Taste of the Market? Did you (for shame!) miss it? Well, no matter, here's another opportunity to be wowed by our new Public Market and wowed by San Diego's and Baja's best chefs, who are turning to the streets for culinary inspiration.

Yes, come to Street Food Market on Sunday, March 24th, from 6 to 8 p.m. at the San Diego Public Market in Barrio Logan. Chefs Andrew Spurgin and Melissa Mayer are teaming up again to create a playful, energetic culinary fiesta featuring authentic street food, craft beers and cocktails, and all that makes up street market theater. We're talking chickens, goats, bicyclists, car clubs, street dancers, musicians, Lucha Libre, street art, chess, and much more--all under one crazy roof.

Chefs Andrew Spurgin, Chad White, and Melissa Mayer. Photo by Maribel Mareno

So, who's joining the party? The list keeps growing but let's start with:

Javier Plascencia - Misión 19 | Erizo Baja Fish House & Market | Romesco
Miguel Angel Guerrero – El Taller | La Querencia
Mirta Rodriguez – Mariscos Ruben
Sabina Bandera Gonzáles - La Guerrerense
Kevin Ho and Juan Miron - MIHO’s Stand and Deliver
Jason Knibb – NINE–TEN
Diego Hernandez – El Corazón
Hanis Cavin - Carnitas’ Snack Shack
Chad White - Plancha Baja Med
Jeff Jackson & Jennifer Costa – A. R. Valentien
Jack Fisher – Cucina Urbana | Jack Fisher Confections
Ricardo Heredia - Alchemy
Hector Casanova - Casanova Fish Tacos
Craig Jimenez - KAEN Noodles
Flor Franco - Indulge
Noriyoshi Teruya – Sora
Donald Coffman – Culinary Concepts
Dawn Parks - Wild Thyme
Matt Gordon – Urban Solace | Sea & Smoke
Antonio Friscia – Gaijin Noodle & Sake House
Shihomi Borillo – Azuki Sushi
Lisa Altman – Viva Pops
Ryan Studebaker – The Hopping Pig
James Rauh – The West Bean
Katie Grebow – Café Chloe | Oliver & Rose
Nathan Coulon -- True Food Kitchen

Photo by Andrew Spurgin

Between them, we'll be enjoying tacos, TJ dogs, churros and barbacoa, Salvadoran pupusas, Vietnames pho, Japanese udon and yakitori, French crepes, and food on a stick from every corner of the globe. Plus, craft beer, regional wines from California to the Guadalupe Valley, aguas frescas, and custom cocktails enhanced with ingredients from our local farms.

All this, of course, is to support our Public Market. While many of the guests will be enjoying the evening as a reward for donating to the market's Kickstarter campaign last year, there are a number of tickets available to the public, with the proceeds supporting development of the Market Kitchen--a micro-business incubator and community culinary education center at the Public Market--and the Front Burner Fund.

Early bird general admission tickets are $55 dollars. There are also $85 limited VIP tickets that offer early access, along with the all-inclusive food and alcohol also offered to general admission ticket holders. Purchase tickets now at Brown Paper Tickets.

The San Diego Public Market is located at 1735 National Ave.

Print Page

Taste of the Market: A Sampling of the Future for the Public Market

I don't usually like to write up an event after it's happened. Really, what's the point since you can't attend after the fact? But last weekend's Taste of the Market at the San Diego Public Market in Barrio Logan is the first of a number of community events coming up so if you live in San Diego and are rooting for the future of a public market here, you need to see what you may have missed so you won't make that mistake again.

On Sunday afternoon, more than 230 people ate and drank their way through the two warehouse halls that on Wednesdays and Sundays are the farmers market. But on this late afternoon, the warehouses were transformed into whimsical spaces filled with imaginative eateries created by restaurants and chefs who had been paired with local farmers and purveyors. Andrew Spurgin and Melissa Mayer, who co-chaired and coordinated Taste of the Market, each had their own little hot spots. Spurgin's Broussard's Po' Boy cafe was straight out of New Orleans and featured, what else, a fried oyster po' boy.

Mayer, on the other hand, went south of the border with a vibrant blue cantina, serving a smoked chicken torta.

The list of restaurants and chefs just goes on and on. Plus, there were vendors you'd usually see at the farmers market--Suzie's Farm, Nicolau Farm (chèvre), Cardamom Bakery, Jennywenny Cakes, Viva Pops, and SuperNatural Sandwiches among them. Below is a snapshot of a perfect culinary festival:

Dave Rudie, Tommy Gomes, and Ken Gardon of Catalina Offshore Products

Ken and his octopus salad

Chef Chad White of La Plancha Baja Med

Chad White's Apple brulee, fermeneted Julian Hard Cider vincotto, Gilbert Qunitos Farm kale, lardo, Smit Orchards apples, sesame nori gremolata

Chef Craig Jimenez of Roseville Cozinha and colleagues. He made a luscious goat cheese ravioli (sourced from Nicolau Farms)

Snake Oil Cocktail's Michael Esposito, Andrew Spurgin, and Public Market co-founder Dale Steele

Jenny Williams of Jenny Wenny Cakes

Joanne Squires-Sherif of Cardamom Bakery & Cafe

Katie Grebow of Cafe Chloe

Gina Frieze of Venissimo topping off a slice of Bread & Cie baguette loaded with Gina's house-made ricotta 

Salumi, cheese, and bread: a collaboration that is the goal for Pete Balistreri, Venissimo, and Bread & Cie at the Public Market

Pete Balistreri of Tender Greens and P Balistreri Salumi

Alchemy's Ricardo Heredia and his pig from Da-Le Ranch

The Blind Burro's Sara Polczynski making these beautiful veggie tacos below

Tony Nguyen and SuperNatural Sandwiches' variation on their Harpy sandwich

George's at the Cove's Trey Foshee and (below) his  slow-roasted Maciel carrot salad 

The Red Door and The Wellington's Trish Watlington and Chef Miguel Valdez with their seared local yellowtail over pumpkin uni bisque

Hurray for Viva Pops!

As I said, this was just the first of the big market events the Public Market will be holding, according to market maestra, Catt White.

The next Taste of the Market will take place on March 24th, and, says, White, "will be a celebration of our ethnic diversity, with chefs showing off Japanese, Filipino, and Chinese specialties, German sausage, tastes from Tijuana, and more, teamed with local farmers for ingredients, of course."

Between now and then they'll be hosting a movie night with local chefs' takes on snack food. As White says, "Think popcorn, hot dogs, and Junior Mints kicked way up." The tentative date is March 8.

All this, of course, is hand-in-hand in anticipation of the market going full time in spring or summer, with permanent stalls and artisan cheese making, salumi curing, a tortilleria, coffee roasting, and baking on premises. Indeed, the proceeds from ticket sales at Taste of the Market are going toward the development of the Market Kitchen, a commissary kitchen for vendors and micro-businesses that will also feature community education classes on cooking and nutrition.

So, really, pencil in the next dates on your calendar. This was just the first of many special public events at our Public Market. You'll want to be there.



Print Page

Tajin: This is Not a Candy

Every once in awhile a product that's been around for who knows how long basically smacks me upside the head to pay attention to it.

Most recently, that product is Tajin "classico seasoning." I first noticed it a summer or two ago at the Hillcrest Farmers Market. Once tomatoes are in season, Valdivia Farms, which sells marvelous heirloom tomatoes, chops a bunch up, mixes the pieces with olive oil and a little seasoning and puts the mixture on platters with toothpicks to sample. Customers gobble them up and wonder why they taste so delicious. Well, sure, the tomatoes are great but they're also using the Tajin -- and they sell 5 oz. plastic shaker bottles of it along with the tomatoes. Did I buy one? No, because I suspected their  price was quite a bit more than I'd have to pay at the market. Sure enough, a visit to Northgate Gonzalez turned up the Tajin for less than two bucks. I'm in bliss.

So, what is Tajin seasoning? Very simple. A powder blend of chiles, salt, and dehydrated lime juice. It's the lime juice you really taste when it hits your tongue. It's all about the salty tang. And, as they carefully print on the cap, this is not a candy.

Tajin seasoning can be used for all sorts of dishes. Here's a little salad of chopped tomatoes and garlic scapes. Like Valdivia Farms, I tossed them with olive oil and Tajin. It was delicious on a slice of sour dough bread and I used the bread, of course, to sop up the Tajin-flavored tomato juices.

 

I've also used it as part of a marinade for roasting and grilling chicken. At the recent Collaboration Kitchen at Catalina Offshore Products, chef Melissa Mayer offered a delicious recipe of Hamachi Crudo with Watermelon Carpaccio, Tangerine, and Hazelnut Oil Emulsion with Cilantro Flowers. Tucked into the recipe to season the yellowtail was about a teaspoon of Tajin.

And, at the 4th of July party I attended, chef Andrew Spurgin whipped up the most delicious Michelada beer cocktail. The mixture of Tecate beer, lime juice, and clamato juice was perfection, but what sent it truly over the top was the rimming along the top of the cup with Tajin seasoning.

Try it out and let me know what you do with it.


Print Page