Nationwide food fare reveals favorites closer to home
I met Iron Chef Bobby Flay over the weekend.
Well, sort of.
I went to the Great American Food and Music Festival at
Shoreline Amphitheater June 13. And my family and I just happened
to be waiting in line to pick up our chili cheese dogs from the
Pink’s Hot Dog booth when Bobby Flay came up to the backstage
access gate near the booth. He struggled to open the gate, which
needed to be lifted up and turned, and then came out right in front
of my mom and cheered for the world famous hot dog vendor. I have
the really cheesy cell phone photo to prove it.
Nationwide food fare reveals favorites closer to home
I met Iron Chef Bobby Flay over the weekend.
Well, sort of.
I went to the Great American Food and Music Festival at Shoreline Amphitheater June 13. And my family and I just happened to be waiting in line to pick up our chili cheese dogs from the Pink’s Hot Dog booth when Bobby Flay came up to the backstage access gate near the booth. He struggled to open the gate, which needed to be lifted up and turned, and then came out right in front of my mom and cheered for the world famous hot dog vendor. I have the really cheesy cell phone photo to prove it.
Pink’s Hot Dogs and Bobby Flay (the star of Throwdown with Bobby Flay and Grill It) were just two of the things that initially drew me to the Great American Food and Music Fest. The lineup included stars of Food Network shows as well as food items touted as the best of the best in America. The vendors included Katz’s Deli from New York with pastrami sandwiches; Pink’s hotdogs from Hollywood; Junior’s classic cheesecake from New York; Tony Luke’s Philly cheesesteaks from Philadelphia; and plenty more. With a family fun pack for four, the tickets were $21.50 each and the first plate of food came free. I’d planned out all the things I wanted to taste, the things I wanted to skip – like the salmon cream cheese bagel – and I was ready to go.
When we got there, we realized there were tons of other people who must have wanted a chance to try all those good eats – and get a glimpse of Bobby Flay and other Food Network chefs. The line to get in to the general admission gate curved up the hill from the Shoreline entrance at least a mile. The festival started at noon, but it was nearly 1 p.m. before we got into the gate. Each person got a wristband with an electronic sensor to use for all food purchases. The high-tech band can be linked to a credit card and then scanned at all the booths. Unfortunately for us – and almost everyone else at the festival – Shoreline’s server went down. That meant the wristbands didn’t work and it took the staff more than an hour and half to come up with a backup plan – basically, using cash at all the booths. At this point, the lines for most of the booths were hours long.
It was 3 p.m. before we got our first plate of food. We started to hear rumors that Tony Luke’s booth ran out of steak for their sandwiches and Zingerman’s, of Ann Arbor, MI, ran out of bacon for the BLTs. While my parents watched a band and saved seats for Bobby Flay’s cooking demonstration of milkshakes, burgers and onion rings, I scouted out the line for desserts. At first, I accidentally found myself in the line for Bugermeister, a burger joint from San Francisco. I finally found the right line for Junior’s cheesecake, Graeter’s ice cream and chocolate bouchons – a fancy brownie-bite-type sweet. The line looked short and I figured I’d make it back to the pavilion in time for the demo. More than 45 minutes later, I had my plate of cheesecake and sweets, but had missed the intro to Bobby’s demo.
We watched Bobby Flay cook up cheeseburgers – and use the word chipotle about 15 times – and then it was off to wait in one more line. My dad headed for the Katz’s deli booth while my mom and I got in line for Texas barbecue. Soon enough my dad found us in line – Katz’s was out of pastrami and didn’t expect to start serving for more than an hour and a half. We decided to take our barbecue plates to go and headed home.
Unfortunately, with the long lines and vendors running out of food, we weren’t able to try more. And we didn’t even get to see Guy Fieri, Aida Mollenkamp or Anne Burrell from the Food Network, or any of the Bay Area chefs who also offered demonstrations. The event was meant to be a celebration of food, but the long lines and the frustrations over the pay system breaking down, made more than a few people lose their appetites from the grumblings we heard around us.
One of the things I realized at the end of the day is that although the vendors flown in from around America might be the best of the best according to a food critic from New York, we have plenty of good places right here in San Benito. Mansmith’s, which serves up brisket at the farmers market on Wednesday, is way more moist and seasoned than the slices we were served from Texas. And Elegant Touch has cheesecake to rival the one from New York. When it comes to burgers, I can think of half a dozen San Benito restaurants that serve up great fare. Maybe it’s time we get Bobby Flay to challenge some of our local eateries to a Throwdown.
