Filipino Street Food Links + Video

Filipino food has quite a rich street food scene as you can read from the links below.

Street Food in the Philippines
My Sarisari Store
Filipino Street Food on Wikipedia
Street Food Photo Gallery
69 Street Foods Known in the Philippines

In fact, a a lot of the photos in the My SariSari Store website listed above can be seen at this video that I found on YouTube. Enjoy! :)

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The Vendy Awards Come to LA!

After five years in New York, the Vendy Awards have come to Los Angeles and what exactly are the Vendy Awards? The Vendys are a yearly street food cook-off that, since 2005, has determined the best street chef in NYC. It has become one of the greatest food events in New York. In fact, Chef Mario Batali called the Vendys “the Oscars of food for the real New York" and now LA will be handing out their own Food Oscars on Saturday, May 15, 2010.

Since April 15, Angelenos have been nominating their favorite street food vendors, from food trucks to taco tables and finally, the votes have come in and the finalists are:

India Jones Chow Truck
Hot Dog Kings
Bigmista's Barbecue
Nina's Food
Grilled Cheese Truck
Tacos el Galuzo

Click here to read more info about the finalists!

On the day of the Vendy Awards, these finalists will be duking it out to claim the top prize and will be judged by the chefs from Animal, Good Food's Evan Kleiman and respected bloggers Bill Esparza and Javier Cabral. For $50, not only will you see the winners crowned, you'll have access to an all-you-can-eat feast and an open beer and wine bar in MacArthur Park. That $50 is tax deductible and will go towards raising money for the movement to protect vendors’ rights. Click here to see the organizations that will be benefitting from your generosity.

Good eats and helping the community? How can you go wrong with that? Don't delay! These tickets will sell out fast and you wouldn't want to miss out this historic occasion - the first year that the Vendy Awards came to Los Angeles!

2010 LA Vendy Awards
Saturday, May 15, 2010, from 4pm to 7pm
MacArthur Park
S. Park View Street between W. 7th and Wilshire Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90057

Tickets can be purchased through Brown Paper Tickets!

Street Food: Oaxacan Quesadillas and Churros

Do you know what's one of the best things about having foodie friends? Simply, as one person there's no way you could possibly know about all the great eats in the city, but if you have many friends who share your culinary passions, you're always bound to hear about some new dining experience that's just too fantastic to pass up. Well, my friend Robert, heard about and eventually checked out a street cart where a woman makes Oaxacan quesadillas using blue corn tortillas and usually towards the later afternoon, a churro truck will also park within a hop away from this cart. Oaxacan quesadillas and churros? How can one pass that up? I certainly didn't and Robert led the way.

So last Sunday, off we went. When we arrived, our group of 5 crowded around the cart and after talking to the lady, we found out that we had an option of 6 different fillings: chicarrones, squash blossoms, chicken, frijoles, chorizo and potato and huitlacoche. We decided to order one of each, except for the frijoles and just share them. She was even nice enough to cut the quesadillas in 4 to 5 sections for easier eating.

The whole process was simple. First, she would get a ball of blue corn masa that was in a plastic bag next to her.

Then she'd pat it between her hands and than start patting it flat on the stove's surface. I can't even imagine how hot that surface was, but it didn't seem to phase her.

Afterwards, she'd add a handful of mozarella cheese and the filling of your choice and let it lay flat for a while before folding it in half. Sometimes it was ready to go and other times, she'd let it still cook for a little while before putting on a paper plate and handing it to you.

Once you got your quesadilla, she had some additional ingredients that you could either top your quesadilla with or put inside of it. There was a mixture of nopales, red onions and cilantro in one container. You could also add a sprinkle of cotija cheese or a spoonful of a really hot salsa or a milder green salsa.

As mentioned, our group sampled 5 of the various fillings. First, we had the chicken quesadilla, but before I talk about that, I do have to say that I really liked the blue corn tortillas. It had a nice medium-thick texture and there was a nuttiness to the masa that I also really enjoyed. What was nice about the chicken was that it wasn't dry and it had a nice flavor to the marinade.

Our second quesadilla had a huitlacoche filling, sometimes referred to as corn smut or Mexican truffles depending on who you talk to, but basically it's a fungus. Huitlacoche is actually quite delicate, but can add a smoky, earthy and pungency to dishes like tamales, stews and in this case, quesadillas. I actually thought the huitlacoche in this case had a mild smokiness to it and I liked how the corn gave it a hit of sweetness.

Third on the rotation was the chorizo and potato quesadilla. This was actually my least favorite of the 5. The filling was mushy. I would have preferred actual chorizo sausages that were cut and grilled and than put in the quesadilla. That would been a big improvement.

Our fourth quesadilla was a vegetarian option that consisted of squash blossoms, corn and onions. If this was the only option available, I wouldn't have missed the meat at all.

Finally, my favorite was the chicarron quesadilla. Come on, it's fried pork. What's not to love?


By this time, all our sharing amounted to about one quesadilla and a quarter for each of us. This type of family-style sharing worked perfectly because we all got to sample a little bit of each filling and when it was time for us to order a full size one, we already knew what we liked. By the way, we did each filling individually because we wanted to taste them on their own, but you can choose more than one ingredient for your quesadilla. I went for the squash blossom and chicarrones combination, which was absolutely delicious.

What a great find! The quesadillas ran $3.00 each and she had also different drinks ranging from $1 to $2. The way you pay is pretty much on the honor system. Once you're done eating and ready to leave, that's when you pay her. What's nice is that whenever she collects money, she always puts on gloves and that's definitely smart on her part. Now this is street food worth driving for.

Sometimes parked down the street from the quesadilla lady, you'll find Salina's Churro Truck. Apparently, it used to be a pushcart so to move up to a truck speaks well for their churros.

Inside the truck, they have a funnel which pushed out the dough and immediately went into a deep fryer. Once they're fried up, the churros were coated with sugar and put into a brown bag ready to be consumed at will.

8 for $3.00 is a heck of a bargain. I found them to be a little doughy for my taste. I would have preferred that they were fried a little bit longer, but I appreciated their golden crispiness.

Overall, it was a wonderful eating day. Delicious quesadillas, golden and crispy churros and all for under $10? Not only is this affordable dining, it's also a fun culinary experience and one of the things that really makes LA a great eating town.

To see pics, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/la_addict/sets/72157617005224501/

Note: When I checked out both the street cart and the churro truck, it was a Sunday. When I got there at 12:30 PM, the quesadilla street cart was already there. I actually left around 2:30 pm, but when I came back at around 5:00, she was already gone. I'm not sure as to how long she stayed or which other days she's at her spot. Apparently, the churro truck arrives between 3 and 4 pm. Both are situated on Echo Park Boulevard just around the corner from Sunset Boulevard.