Taste of Adams Avenue

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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

Taste of Adams Avenue Schedule

Neighborhood restaurants serve sample-sized portions of something from their menu and festival go’ers walk up and down the street, sampling, tasting, and getting their cards punched at the 30 restaurants or so that were participating.

Street lined with cars and palm trees with people walking

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

Thai foodThai foodWontons in heating dishLittle container with wonton in itYoung girl eating wontonSkylar loved the wonton!  Fried dough, cmon.  Good stuff.

Vietnamese: Spicy chicken, black bean & basil tofu, mixed brown rice, and a fried sesame ball

Tao Vietnamese foodVietnamese foodVietnamese food

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?

fried sesame ballThe 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

pizzaPerhaps 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!

pizza

And perhaps Skylar’s favorite food of the day.

skylar

She wanted to eat pieces of pizza all day.

skylar

Mexican: Beef tacos with spicy sauce, onions, and lime juice.

Beef tacos with spicy sauce, onions, and lime juice.

Mediterranean: Hummus, a yogurt-ish sauce, naan/pita bread, chicken, and veggies

Hummus, a yogurt-ish sauce, naan/pita bread, chicken, and veggiesskylarSkylar’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.  

ice cream shop

Raspberry + Cookies & Cream.  This was not a “sample”. This was a full-on bowl of ice cream!

Raspberry + Cookies & Cream

We hated it.  Kidding.

Raspberry + Cookies & Cream

Ice Cream #2: Viva Pops.  Some vegan flavors.

viva popsskylarIt 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.

skylarAnd 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!

Vanilla Banana Avocado "Ice Cream"

Ice Cream #3: Softserve with vegan options

softservesoftserve

Ice Cream #4: if you count these ice cream-ish Starbucks drinks

Starbucks drinksI like that picture.

Skylar liked the actual drink better than I did.

skylar skylar Start ’em young on Starbucks, right?

We had a great day of family fun!

Skylar and daddy

Lovely weather: 75F, sunny, no humidity, no bugs, no big crowds, no parking hassles.

Adams Avenue

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

Averie and skylarWe 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.

Pretty SaltAnd 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.

Greek Festival

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!

skylar

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:

Have a great week!

About the Author

Welcome to AverieCooks! Here you’ll find fast and easy recipes that taste amazing and are geared for real life. Nothing fussy or complicated, just awesome tasting dishes everyone loves!

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Comments

  1. I go to tasting festivals a few times a year, and I love the small portions!! I like to try one of everything :-) That wonton looks DELISH!

  2. YUM! That pizza looks delish!
    Love that photo of you and Skylar! Looks like you had a wonderful family outing :D

  3. love this post!
    did you try the vegan soft serve? we have a place not too far from here, yoz yogurt, that serves the same stuff! it’s pretty good, but i was bummed to find out it’s made from oils and corn syrup, i figured it was soy milk! regardless, i frequent there with my family when i visit…can’t say no to soft serve!

  4. Oh, gosh – you’re making me drool over here! haha. That pizza is just leaping off of my screen. Great shots, as always ;)
    I’ve never been to a tasting festival. I don’t think I’ve ever heard of the opportunity…of course, that could be because we have hardly ANY food diversity around here. It’s a shame, but of course…not surprising. People that try to open up something good or different always end up going out of business. The economy and population just doesn’t support it here. I’d kill for an authentic Indian restaurant because it’s a cuisine that fascinates me, yet I rarely make for myself…whereas everywhere else I can walk in and think to myself “ugh, I can do this at home…better…and cheaper.”

  5. wow everything looked delissshh!!! those sesame balls are awesome…the inside stuff is made of red mung bean paste and the outside part is made of mochi flour…yummy.

  6. Love the all the pics! And sooo much food, it looked (and probably tasted) like an amazing time :) You’ve also totally made me crave those sesame balls (it’s red bean paste inside!).

    (I know this is a shameless plug, but I’m hosting a Vega ‘n stuff giveaway if you or your readers are interested! feel free to check it out!)

  7. Umm, hello – YES. This is incredible. Seriously, throw me on a street with multiple food vendors (especially Asian) and I’ll think I’ve died and gone to heaven :)

    By the way – I LOVE the 2nd pic of the beef tacos!!

    1. you do? I almost didnt post it b/c I thought it was a little out of focus (but then again, tons of others are too…lol)

      this was the first day me and my new cam went out shooting together :) loved it. Not sure if you can tell any quality diffs. Then again, I was shooting street food, on the fly, 1st time using it!

  8. Wow, this sounds like a wonderful day. So many yummy foods! I have never been to a taste-festival, but it looks awesome- I would love to go! :)

  9. stunning photos, Averie!

    I LOVE these kind of tasting events – we used to have a big one here, but I haven’t been in a couple years, I should see if it’s still around…

    I also love those sesame balls – that’s red bean paste and it’s SO good!! I have to get a fresh one every time I go to my favorite Asian market…

    1. thank you hon :)

      and yes, i figured out it was red bean paste…i was spacing out on the name, but yep, that’s what it was.

  10. It was aaaall so tasty! I also loved the Viva Pop…the strawberry basil one was especially delish. It could have been the extreme heat that made me so grateful for a Popsicle though. Glad you guys had fun, sorry we missed you!

  11. Hey Averie,I just wanted to say ‘hi’ to not be the anonymous blog-stalker :-) (Haven’t got one myself yet). I followed your blog a few months ago -you still had your old website, had just gotten your amazing tattoo I think, and I kinda thought you were living in Arizona, but either I missed major news or I am mixing things up, which is highly likely ;-) …so it’s been a while- and for some silly reason forgot about checking back (I think I usually ended up with a gazillion windows open after reading your blog, which caused my computer to freak out and slooow down, I think that may have been why)…but WOW what have I been missing!!!??? I loved your blog before, but now it just looks beyond amazing! I’ve only been reading through some posts for 20 mins and already have 10 different windows with a selection of scrumptious looking recipes open. And your photography… AMAZING! I am sure I missed some equipment and skill upgrade somewhere along the lines ;-) I will not miss another post…just subscribed to your blog ;-) Now I’ve got to go…I have some catching up to do :-)
    Best wishes from the UK! Nat xxx

    1. live in CA, love photography, changed my site over 8 mos ago and welcome back

  12. Ohhhh my gosh that looks like foodie HEAVEN!! I am so glad you and Sky had a good time!!

  13. “And I hope I make you hungry.”

    Um…Averie…you ALWAYS make me straight up DROOL when I come by here!

    I am cracking up at Scott trying to get you and Skylar in one frame. Michael is the WORST at taking pics for me!

    Looks like you had an amazing time! Now that we have the baby I am always looking for fun places like that to go with the stroller. Michael cracks up every week I am like..lets find a festival or something to walk around at. I haven’t. Manayunk Arts fest was last weekend, but we both have no tolerance for traffic :(

    Have a great Monday, gorgeous!