Cherry Blossom Festival - Japantown
San Francisco, CA
Braving the weather and determined to eat myself silly, I made my way down to Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown this rainy morning. The wet weather drove me indoors into the Kintetsu Mall. I arrived around 9:45am - well before the food booths on Webster St. started up (11am) but May's Coffee Shop was feeding plenty of hungry customers at this relatively early hour. This small restaurant is stuffed inside the Kintetsu Mall, directly across from the Sanrio store. They serve what appears to be basic American food mixed with some Japanese and Hawaiian specials. The biggest draw to this shop for me would be the taiyaki, or red bean paste filled cakes shaped like a sea bream (tai). I have had both crispy and flabby cakes at this shop but I had good timing this time as a girl behind the counter was making fresh taiyaki. I promptly ordered 1 red bean filled taiyaki ($1.25) and 1 onigiri with umeboshi ($1). I hadn't had breakfast but didn't want to stuff myself before heading to support the non-profit groups at the food fair. ;)
The photo above is the aftermath of my first chomp. :) The crispy exterior yielded to a fluffy interior stuffed with a piping hot azuki bean paste. The taiyaki maker was extremely generous with the filling (woo hoo!) as each bite contained a good amount of bean paste, from "head" to "tail." May's Coffee Shop also have taiyaki with a chocolate or chocolate-banana filling as well, but I think those are $1.75. I'd definitely recommend getting a taiyaki if you see people behind the window making fresh ones because they are excellent when piping hot and pretty blah when warm or cold and soggy.
I watched the SF Taiko Dojo members practice for a while before meeting up my friend L. We wandered around Kintetsu Mall killing time before the booths opened. We stopped off at Nippon Ya, a modern-looking store filled with beautifully wrapped Japanese gifts. I really wish they had samples since sometimes the prettiest packaged food doesn't contain yummy tasting food. The prices seem reasonable for thank-you gifts ($7-20). I picked up a little yellow cartoony good luck (for wealth) fish since I thought it was just too adorable ($6.25).
L and I headed out to the food fair to find that the clouds had momentarily scattered and we had blue skies and sun! Sun!!! I made a beeline to the the takoyaki stand for some hot octopus + flour balls off the grill. After being nearly trampled by a gaggle of squawking teenagers, my evil stare scattered some lollygaggers (or so I'd like to think) and I made my way to the front. I promptly asked for an order of 6 takoyaki balls for $2.50.
These flour balls, made from octopus, flour, pickled ginger, and other stuff, don't actually taste like octopus. The first time I had these, I had expected an octopus-paste ball, similar to Chinese fish balls. Nope. Instead, these are somewhat airy and hollow batter balls in which the primary flavoring is from the okonomiyaki sauce slathered on top. The okonomiyaki sauce is a sweet sauce reminiscent to me of a thin hoisin/oyster sauce hybrid. The Worcestershire sauce in okonomiyaki sauce would explain the seafood-y aspect of the sauce. Personally, I thought think the sauce is a bit overwhelming, but since the balls don't taste like much, I guess that'd be okay. I'm really just fascinated with the texture of these balls.
We made a circuit around all of the food stands to scope out what was being offered. The usual suspects are around but I was happy to see my alma mater repped though they were serving garlic fries. Er, okay, no fries for mah belly today. We looped all the way back to the imagawayaki stand. Outside the booth, a man cajoled folks into visiting their stand. I, for one, need to convincing for these babies. :) These guys are my favorite snack at the Cherry Blossom Festival (2 for $3). I bought two, one each for me and L.
I'm not really sure of the differences between an imagawayaki and an obanyaki. Best of LA's blog has a nice description of these guys. Like the taiyaki, I love them hot out of the pan. The Konko Church of SF seems to run this booth year after year and they churn out some mighty tasty piping-hot imagawayaki. I love watching the people in the booths cook batter in 3-4" diameter pans, spoon more azuki bean filling on the top of one cake, then flip a second cake on top of the filling, crusty side up. The result: two fluffy and tender thick pancakes/waffles hugging a sweet bean filling. This was so hot, that after my first chomp, both the imagawayaki and my mouth were spouting out steam. :D Yum yum yum! The two of us also picked up some basic sushi from the very nice ladies at a stand (forgot where they are from) for $5.
Just a simple mix of inari-zushi (deep fried tofu pockets), California roll, and futomaki. I had spied the ladies making these fresh in the back and figured, what the hey. Gee, I seem to visit the same vendors again and again! We brought these goodies back to Peace Plaza to watch the announcement of the Cherry Blossom Queen and her court and the taiko drumming. I ate a piece of CA roll (pretty okay) and one of the inari-zushis and was full. Dang, all those sweet red bean paste desserts took up so much space in my tummy. :P I took the rest of these home, as well as some squid and freshly grilled salmon from Nijiya market.
I also managed to stuff a Teriburger in mah belly ($4). I couldn't resist the smell of burgers on a grill and I've always wondered why this stand was so popular. Ah, a hot, charcoal grilled beef patty with Teriyaki sauce, onions, slices of tomato, and lettuce makes this a familiar treat with a small twist. *burp* Excuse me!
Dang, that was the end of the tummy stuffing for today...too much rice! Haha...there's always next weekend. ;)
Braving the weather and determined to eat myself silly, I made my way down to Cherry Blossom Festival in Japantown this rainy morning. The wet weather drove me indoors into the Kintetsu Mall. I arrived around 9:45am - well before the food booths on Webster St. started up (11am) but May's Coffee Shop was feeding plenty of hungry customers at this relatively early hour. This small restaurant is stuffed inside the Kintetsu Mall, directly across from the Sanrio store. They serve what appears to be basic American food mixed with some Japanese and Hawaiian specials. The biggest draw to this shop for me would be the taiyaki, or red bean paste filled cakes shaped like a sea bream (tai). I have had both crispy and flabby cakes at this shop but I had good timing this time as a girl behind the counter was making fresh taiyaki. I promptly ordered 1 red bean filled taiyaki ($1.25) and 1 onigiri with umeboshi ($1). I hadn't had breakfast but didn't want to stuff myself before heading to support the non-profit groups at the food fair. ;)
The photo above is the aftermath of my first chomp. :) The crispy exterior yielded to a fluffy interior stuffed with a piping hot azuki bean paste. The taiyaki maker was extremely generous with the filling (woo hoo!) as each bite contained a good amount of bean paste, from "head" to "tail." May's Coffee Shop also have taiyaki with a chocolate or chocolate-banana filling as well, but I think those are $1.75. I'd definitely recommend getting a taiyaki if you see people behind the window making fresh ones because they are excellent when piping hot and pretty blah when warm or cold and soggy.
I watched the SF Taiko Dojo members practice for a while before meeting up my friend L. We wandered around Kintetsu Mall killing time before the booths opened. We stopped off at Nippon Ya, a modern-looking store filled with beautifully wrapped Japanese gifts. I really wish they had samples since sometimes the prettiest packaged food doesn't contain yummy tasting food. The prices seem reasonable for thank-you gifts ($7-20). I picked up a little yellow cartoony good luck (for wealth) fish since I thought it was just too adorable ($6.25).
L and I headed out to the food fair to find that the clouds had momentarily scattered and we had blue skies and sun! Sun!!! I made a beeline to the the takoyaki stand for some hot octopus + flour balls off the grill. After being nearly trampled by a gaggle of squawking teenagers, my evil stare scattered some lollygaggers (or so I'd like to think) and I made my way to the front. I promptly asked for an order of 6 takoyaki balls for $2.50.
These flour balls, made from octopus, flour, pickled ginger, and other stuff, don't actually taste like octopus. The first time I had these, I had expected an octopus-paste ball, similar to Chinese fish balls. Nope. Instead, these are somewhat airy and hollow batter balls in which the primary flavoring is from the okonomiyaki sauce slathered on top. The okonomiyaki sauce is a sweet sauce reminiscent to me of a thin hoisin/oyster sauce hybrid. The Worcestershire sauce in okonomiyaki sauce would explain the seafood-y aspect of the sauce. Personally, I thought think the sauce is a bit overwhelming, but since the balls don't taste like much, I guess that'd be okay. I'm really just fascinated with the texture of these balls.
We made a circuit around all of the food stands to scope out what was being offered. The usual suspects are around but I was happy to see my alma mater repped though they were serving garlic fries. Er, okay, no fries for mah belly today. We looped all the way back to the imagawayaki stand. Outside the booth, a man cajoled folks into visiting their stand. I, for one, need to convincing for these babies. :) These guys are my favorite snack at the Cherry Blossom Festival (2 for $3). I bought two, one each for me and L.
*CHOMP*
I'm not really sure of the differences between an imagawayaki and an obanyaki. Best of LA's blog has a nice description of these guys. Like the taiyaki, I love them hot out of the pan. The Konko Church of SF seems to run this booth year after year and they churn out some mighty tasty piping-hot imagawayaki. I love watching the people in the booths cook batter in 3-4" diameter pans, spoon more azuki bean filling on the top of one cake, then flip a second cake on top of the filling, crusty side up. The result: two fluffy and tender thick pancakes/waffles hugging a sweet bean filling. This was so hot, that after my first chomp, both the imagawayaki and my mouth were spouting out steam. :D Yum yum yum! The two of us also picked up some basic sushi from the very nice ladies at a stand (forgot where they are from) for $5.
Just a simple mix of inari-zushi (deep fried tofu pockets), California roll, and futomaki. I had spied the ladies making these fresh in the back and figured, what the hey. Gee, I seem to visit the same vendors again and again! We brought these goodies back to Peace Plaza to watch the announcement of the Cherry Blossom Queen and her court and the taiko drumming. I ate a piece of CA roll (pretty okay) and one of the inari-zushis and was full. Dang, all those sweet red bean paste desserts took up so much space in my tummy. :P I took the rest of these home, as well as some squid and freshly grilled salmon from Nijiya market.
I also managed to stuff a Teriburger in mah belly ($4). I couldn't resist the smell of burgers on a grill and I've always wondered why this stand was so popular. Ah, a hot, charcoal grilled beef patty with Teriyaki sauce, onions, slices of tomato, and lettuce makes this a familiar treat with a small twist. *burp* Excuse me!
Dang, that was the end of the tummy stuffing for today...too much rice! Haha...there's always next weekend. ;)
posted by Manda at
4/16/2006 04:39:00 PM
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