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There were lines, there were too many fried things, and yes, there were some tasty bites at the Food Craft Institute’s seventh annual
Eat Real Festival in Oakland this weekend. Here are six of our favorites.
1.
DUM Indian Soul Food’s dahi puri. Offering some of the most complex flavors of the festival, DUM’s dahi puri brought a refreshing savory dish to the food truck yard. Semolina and flour puffs were filled with sprouts, potato, tamarind chutney, cilantro chutney, fried vermicelli, and covered in cool, tangy yogurt. A single bite was sweet, spicy, and sour.
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2.
Noble Brewer’s Nevermore Chocolate Porter. This Oakland-based online craft beer club is partnering with home brewers to scale up their recipes and mail subscribers quarterly releases. Brewer Greg Tucker’s porter is made with 100 percent cacao powder from Ghirardelli, topped with cacao nibs, and includes a chocolate malt in the grain roster. It smells like a chocolate milkshake and tastes just as good.
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3.
WTF’s Fancy Farmer. The amount of melted cheese-coated snacks at the festival was enough to make a lactose intolerant run for the hills, but a stop at WTF may have been worth the risk. The grilled cheese sandwich was dominated by crispy pork confit, with a fresh crisp from the pickled onions, and balanced by the garlic aioli, apricot marmalade, and a thin blanket of swiss cheese. Catch WTF at the Stonestown farmers’ market.
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4.
Crooked City Cider. Crisp, dry, and Oakland-pressed, the festival’s new cider saloon clearly had a winner. Crooked City’s summer speakeasy was served by the maker herself, Dana Bushouse, who started the company last year. Follow them on Facebook for cider-themed pop-ups.
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5.
Mamacita’s Café’s cardamom doughnut kebabs. We wish we could give everyone recognition for standing over a fryer or grill, but Mamacita’s came victoriously through that miserable heat waving their cardamom glazed doughnut kebabs like trophies. It was the perfect snack for a food festival: the donuts are just larger than a typical donut hole and come three per order, making sharing necessary and easy. Mamacita’s is a woman-owned pop-up providing jobs and training for female-identified youth in Oakland, and has a downtown Oakland café on the way.
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6.
Rocko’s Ice Cream Tacos. For a food festival based in Oakland, the tacos (save for Cholita Linda) were severely lacking. But a compact chewy waffle packed with vanilla ice cream, dipped in dark chocolate, and topped with pretzels? We won’t complain about that.
Lastly, an honorary mention goes to
Fat Face. It’s only because we listed the Davis-based popsicle maker last year as one of our favorites that it’s not number one on the list again. Just to confirm their continued quality, we tried the blueberry jasmine, hibiscus mint, strawberry coconut, root beer float, and mango sticky rice.
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