F.A.Q. About Tasting Encinitas

Q: Tasting Encinitas, California?

A: Please, please, pu-leeze, someone slap some sense into me and stop me from going to this shite.

What’s that?

The Taste of Encinitas. Okay, officially it was the 17th Annual Taste of MainStreet International Food Festival in downtown Encinitas. Man, what a mouthful.

The best thing that can be said for it is that it was an embarrassment. That being said, there were some fairly tasty things being served up. Like the Lobster Shrimp Bisque at Meritage.

*Crickets*

A tumbleweed rolls by.

That’s about it.

Come on now, what else was good?

Well Starbucks gave a little sample of latte something or other plus a chocolate chunk cookie.

Yum.

Oh, Chuao Chocolatier offered up some tasty treats. So did a couple of other restaurants. And going on the same night was a classic car show, so that made things a little more interesting plus they had 4 or 5 bands set up at various locations so that added a street fair feel to it all.

A tumbleweed?

The short run down, and please do know that this isn't everything: Something called the Sakura Bana Sushi Bar served up a teriyaki chicken with a piece of sushi, the Potato Shack served up a nice sized bowl of potatoes with onions and green peppers, covered in cheese, D Street Bar & Grill served up mini plates of hot wings (2 per plate with the celery sticks and ranch dressing) and were thoughtful enough to provide a wetnap. El Callejon had a greenish chicken goo – that was pretty good.

There were two wine bars on the tour – neither served wine. That’s a little odd. One had an olive sample (and that place is now dead to me) and the other served up a little appetizer of skirt steak on a little slice of bread. That was really good. And then there were a half dozen so-so Italian places that could only think up some sort of sauce with penne pasta. Mostly those got tossed in the trash.

The whole thing probably jumped the shark for me when I discovered 7-11 was on the list. Wow. Now I’ve seen it all. They had delicious slurpees or slushie or whatever the hell they are called. Before this, the closest I’ve been to a slurpee has been the Quik-E-Mart on the Simpsons. Seriously.

You saw a shark?

No, but to add to the horror of it all, we got our tickets and a lanyard so we could hang it around our necks. Kind of a good idea if we wanted to look like jackasses. Actually, it was a pretty good idea – map on one side with the restaurants on the other that would be marked off at each stop.

Okay, so it wasn’t as horrible as I jokingly wrote at the beginning of this post. But it was probably the least favorite of this sort of event I’ve been to. So, if I might borrow a bit from Stephen Colbert, bring out the big board, attention all “Tastes Of”, you are on notice!

Isn’t there a Taste of Downtown coming up?

Heads up! Forget everything I just said, this one I am really interested in!!! The Taste of Downtown San Diego is coming up on Sept. 13th. The website shows a total of no less than 53 participating restaurants. I outright defy anyone to make all of them!

What about Taste of Slow Food?

Forget about that last one. This is the ONE. It’s a whole different beast than those other events. This might interest someone even though I like my food as fast as possible. $65 if you aren't a member.