Scenes From San Francisco’s Debut LuckyRice Festival
Roka Akor chefs assembling chiccharones topped with Mendocino uni at LuckyRice.
Last Friday night, the San Francisco Ferry Building was transformed into a celebration of Asian foods and cultures.
It marked the debut of the city’s first LuckyRice Festival, which has already been held in New York, Los Angeles, Los Vegas and Miami.
Twenty of the city’s top restaurants held court, doling out Asian specialties to the sell-out crowd, as mixologists shook up cocktails created just for the occasion.
Take a taste:
The action at the Ferry Building.
Roka Akor’s rice cake with fig jam and El Rey Chocolate.
Chef Alex Ong (right), formerly of Betelnut, manning the Chubby Noodle stand.
Chubby Noodle’s congee with ginger minced pork and salted fish.
It’s thirsty work. Chef James Syhabout (right) of Hawker Fare.
Hawker Fare’s beef tartare with shiso.
Nojo’s flavorful, textural beef tendon and squid salad.
Ahi on crisp dashi rice cakes by E&O Asian Kitchen.
House of Nanking’s vegetarian dumplings.
Dashi tomatoes draped with lardo and bonito — by Hopscotch restaurant.
Ichi Sushi’s house-cured local king salmon.
Brasserie S&P’s scallion corn pancakes.
Pabu’s grilled pork patties with duck confit and fresh herbs.
Ken Tominaga of Pabu making spicy tuna hand rolls.
One of my favorite tastes of the night: the Slanted Door’s creamy, bright avocado panna cotta with banana tapioca and lime meringue.
Francis Ang (right), pastry chef of the Fifth Floor, putting the finishing touches on a black tea cremeux with calamansi ice and menthol espuma…
…before handing it to a happy me.
Darn, I was thinking of going but ended up not. Looks like there were a lot of fun food to try. Hey, but how come no photos of the cocktails?
Nojo’s tendon and squid looked tempting. I have to say the panna cotta is a nice twist.
I thought the quality of the food, cocktails and music were great. But as far as set up goes I was pretty disappointed. For general admission (which wasn’t cheap at $88) it took forever to gain entry only to be in a cattle line until you got upstairs. They also ran out of food about an hour in. I don’t think I would do it again. Fallfest by SF magazine is a better value.
Sherri: It’s true — the ground level food stands were clumped together in a very tight space. Made maneuvering quite difficult to say the least.
Ben: I actually abstained from most of the cocktails since it’s so hard to juggle food plus a camera when you only have two hands. LOL
What a lovely array of fine finger foods! I love it all!
Thanks for sharing this great food festival! 🙂 Waw!
Ooh, what tasty bites!
I am practically kicking myself for not living on the west coast while I am scrolling down the pictures. Thanks for sharing all those gorgeous dishes from the festival. Great post!