Photos: Tatiana Arbogast
Thank the gods for ceviche. Without the chill of cured, fresh fishies and the bright pinch of citrus, the TACO team might have short-circuited this past Saturday, the Pasadena heat staging another brutal attack on the hungry, hungry hippos attending the fourth annual L.A. Street Food Fest at the Rose Bowl. Despite the humid Hellosphere choking this annual bashment, the day-long festival marked yet another great get-together amid a season of awesome culinary celebrations of L.A.'s strong state-of-the-street and international bloodlines. Over 100 faithful food vendors, trucks, and restaurateurs churned out a staggering selection of regionally-diverse, definitively delicious creations, including Chinese dumplings, Neapolitan pizza forged on the tail of a fire truck, Indian butter chicken, vegan jackfruit tacos and tempeh tacos, Japanese musubi, Singaporean chili crab gumbo and New Orleans jambalaya, German currywurst, falafel sliders, pho, pupusas, duck curry meatballs, and pastrami hot dogs just to skim the surface. Impossible to try it all, the most prevalent themes appeared to be our old pal pork, found among gut-busters as smoked pig candy from Bigmista's BBQ, pig skin salad from Bell's Corazon y Miel, Flor de Yucatan's famous cochinita pibil, shaved Spanish ham, pork empanadas, and get this, sausages that played music when you beat them with tongs. And of course, the aforementioned and true savior of the day, cartloads of killer ceviche, cooling people down in the Taste of Mexico-curated section that was the day's highlight. But enough of our gabbing. Whaddya say? Let's perv out on some food porn!
Ceviche and aguachiles (above) from Bell's Casita Mexicana.
Our favorite stop of the day was Mariscos El Mazateno in the event's Taste of Mexico section, including this peppery shrimp ceviche and octopus you see below.
Tacos Placeros, with eggs, jalapeno, milanesa, and potato from Oaxaca's Rodolfo Castellano.
Pig skin with frijoles de olla from Bell's Corazon y Miel.
These morsels from the Ceviche Project had the longest lines.
