This is a monster of a pictorial post. I loved making photographs of our Sunday afternoon and capturing our time there and all the wonderful food we saw and ate. And I hope I make you hungry.
On Sunday afternoon, Scott, Skylar and I went to the Taste of Adams Avenue
Needless to say, elastic pants are a good thing. We ate so.much.food and probably only punched our cards at 10 restaurants, maybe even less.
Some of the portions were like mini-meals, not just “samples”.
Let’s break the day down by ethnic cuisine.
Thai: a spicy vegetable curry, rice, and a fried wonton
Skylar loved the wonton! Fried dough, cmon. Good stuff.
Vietnamese: Spicy chicken, black bean & basil tofu, mixed brown rice, and a fried sesame ball
And I taught Skylar how to hold food for the camera.
Hold it still, don’t create shadows on the food, open palm, don’t shake.
Her little 4 year old hand did great, right?
The sesame ball was awesome.
Sweet dough, that’s been fried, and filled with some kind of sweet-ish paste. <– How could that not be wonderful.
Italian: Margherita pizza with basil
Perhaps my favorite images of the day are these three pizza images.
Shooting directly on top of wood with natural lighting in the restaurant. Loved it.
I wanted to make pictures of pizza all day!
And perhaps Skylar’s favorite food of the day.
She wanted to eat pieces of pizza all day.
Mexican: Beef tacos with spicy sauce, onions, and lime juice.
Mediterranean: Hummus, a yogurt-ish sauce, naan/pita bread, chicken, and veggies
Skylar’s in heaven with pita bread, naan, hummus.
Ice Cream is its own category. So much ice cream!
And there were more places we didn’t even make it to that were serving ice cream!
Ice Cream #1: A Mexican ice cream shop. Pick two flavors.
Raspberry + Cookies & Cream. This was not a “sample”. This was a full-on bowl of ice cream!
We hated it. Kidding.
Ice Cream #2: Viva Pops. Some vegan flavors.
It was a key lime sorbet-like treat.
Scott, who I would not desribe as a key lime guy at all, said this was the best thing he ate all day.
Better than pizza, tacos, or anything else. That’s high praise.
And Skylar loved hers, too. I cannot eat ice cream and I don’t even like anything ice cream related. It gives me a horrible stomachache so I didn’t try the Viva Pops.
I want to have Vanilla Banana Avocado “Ice Cream” instead! I know I’m safe with what I make in my own kitchen!
Ice Cream #3: Softserve with vegan options
Ice Cream #4: if you count these ice cream-ish Starbucks drinks
I like that picture.
Skylar liked the actual drink better than I did.
Start ’em young on Starbucks, right?
We had a great day of family fun!
Lovely weather: 75F, sunny, no humidity, no bugs, no big crowds, no parking hassles.
And we enjoyed eating our way up and down Adams Avenue.
Skylar’s favorite(s) of the day: pizza and ice cream
My favorite of the day: the sesame ball
Scott’s favorite of the day: the key lime Viva Pop on a stick
We can’t wait to do it again!
Thanks to Marisa at McFarlane Promotions for our tickets.
And I ran into Amanda, who won my Taste of Adams Avenue Giveaway, but neither of us remembered to take photos! We were clearly in a food coma.
From my last post, Pretty Salt, it sounds like many of you have tried pink Himalayan salt.
And there are some serious salt lovers, too. Not me, I’ll stick with sweets over salts.
Questions:
1. Have you ever been to a Tasting Festival?
I love these types of events, because for $20 to $30 bucks (sometimes less, sometimes more), you can get more food than you could ever eat.
You get a diverse selection of food from whatever an Italian restaurant chooses to serve to whatever the Mexican restaurant dishes up. Can you see what incredible diversity in food there is in just a couple city block span here? Another reason why I love San Diego.
I have done tons of events like this in the past and they are always so much fun.
The last one I went to was the Greek Festival a couple weeks ago.
And I have also done plenty of pub crawls in my former life. Same concept, but with alcohol. You can “sample” and “taste” drinks from many establishments. And the stories are always epic from pub crawls.
2. Is there diversity in the food in your area or neighborhood?
I grew up in rural Minnesota. There wasn’t much diversity in the meat, potatoes, and tuna casseroles that were found in the corn fields my “neighborhood”. Boy, how times have changed and I am happy that Skylar loves trying all types of foods!
She’s 4 and she was a bottomless pit and loved sampling it all!
3. Best thing you ate or did over the weekend?
If you’re just catching up on posts from over the weekend, here are mine since Friday:
- Pretty Salt
- Dark Rum Caramel Sauce (and FoodGawker and Tasteologie liked my pics which was my #2 highlight of the weekend behind the festival. Photography and improving my own skills means everything to me lately!)
- Cookie Monster
- New Camera Bag
- What I’m:
- KISS + Winner
- Juicy
Have a great week!
I love food festivals! In my former hometown, every year there was a city-wide food festival that was based on countries (German, Scottish, Philippines, etc). My favorites was German and Scottish, for sure. They were also the most entertaining!
Oh my word, that food looks amazing! All of it! I love, love, love thai food. It’s defo my fave cuisine. In Bristol we’re lucky when it comes to all different ethnic cuisines. But the best thai restaurant I’ve been too is back in Wales. Bristol’s lacking a good mexican place too.
Happy Monday! x
I’ve never been to a tasting festival but wow, this looks amazing! You took some really awesome photos too! :)
I have been to the Portland VegFest and tried so many vegan and vegetarian goodies, but thankfully it was free. I haven’t ever been to anything you had to pay for, but it looks like it would be really fun! Especially if ice cream is involved, I can’t live without the stuff ;)
All of that food looks delicious! I would have to say the pizza would be my favorite meal there…I can’t get enough!!
Beautiful pictures! You are a great photographer!
thanks :)
Yeah, the pizza-pics are great, but the pic of Skylar holding the sesame ball is THE BEST! Sooo great to take her somewhere like that. I am like you, but even more so, I think: I prefer the food that has been safely prepared in my own home (speaking of which, I just paused to get some muffins out of the oven, yumyumyum). Eating out gives me the willies – because I know what I’m risking. But I would have loved for “my” kids to try something like that. Wow.
Awww, you look so healthy and happy – seriously, the pic of you put a smile on my face. Scott may be married to a food blogger, but he’s no mean photographer himself. He must have been inspired by the view ;-)
Heavily cropped photos in order to get us all in the frames and lighting adjustments made :)
Thanks for the lovely compliments :)
What an awesome family outing! You guys all look so happy in these pictures, which makes me happy!
It was a great day…thanks for noticing :)
I’ve always wondered whether or not jin deui (Chinese sesame balls) are vegan – they bring back delicious childhood memories! I do remember buying them in Singapore a few months back, and the lady selling them said they were veg friendly.
What a fun food fest!
We don’t have things like this where I live :( I mean probably in downtown Houston but I live in like the suburbs lol so we don’t have anything like that. It seems really cool though and a great way to spend the day with family! maybe I’ll look into it and see if we have any coming up downtown :) Good date day for me and the boy ha!
Wow. Everything looks so amazingly tasty! I wish we had things like that here! Thanks for getting my tummy rumblin’ I’ve been waiting all morning! Time for some pancakes…
Taste of Chicago is currently happening here in Chicago. I don’t know if I’ll make it this year, but they always have some good eats! There is a LOT of diversity in the food around here. I don’t know of any foods you CAN’T find in Chicago – guess that’s a perk of living in a big city. Best thing I ate this weekend was a vegan scone from Bleeding Heart Bakery.
omg I love the taste of chicago. it’s about 20x bigger than this event i was at, easily. the parking and crowds and grease are a bit much :) but there IS so much diversity. when i used to live in chicago (all over the city, lincoln park, gold coast, wrigleyville, etc) i used to go every year!
I. Am. Super. Jealous!. Sounds so fun! Such delicious food with family! Skylar is too precious! SHe has the sweetest smile :)
you should have gone!! or entered my giveaway for free tickets! next year, you have to go :)
I’ve never been to a festival like that but it sounds AMAZING! Looks like you feasted on some amazing treats, too! The best thing I did all weekend? Spend some quality time with my mother – took her to get a massage and facial and spent Sunday afternoon watching a movie with her. I love family time! :)
ALL those foods look SO interesting and fun!!
What a fun day of food!!
The pictures of the pizza are easily my favorite of the bunch. Natural lighting can go a very long way with pictures. Also, sometimes a good old paper napkin can do a better job at capturing the moment and mood than a perfectly ironed cloth napkin. In those pictures it’s all about the quick grab and go slice of pizza, which is told through the slightly greasy napkin beneath it. Love it!!!
thanks for the compliments and glad you like to ‘study’ and think about pics as much as i do :)
Ah, these kinds of events are what dreams are made of! I would choose a $20-40 ticket to a “tasting event” over $20-40 worth of a restaurant meal almost any day of the week (unless I was truly craving something). It’s like the ultimate sampler platter, only you get to stroll around while trying things!!
In my opinion, that can’t be beat.