State of the Cart

The Saturday Ferry Plaza Farmers' Market boasts three of our top ten favorites as well as baked goods from the Downtown Bakery and Creamery, Noe Valley Bakery and Bread Company, and Frog Hollow Farm; sandwiches from Aidells Sausage Company; and Sukhi's Quick-N-Ezee Indian Foods. On Wednesdays, the Heart of the City Market brings A Little Piece of Cake bakery (try the red velvet cupcakes and the sock-it-to-me cake), Waffle Mania, Art of Falafel Catering, All Star Tamales, Cater Time Bakery (with pina colada pastries), and two more that appear on our top ten list.

The uneven record at the Alemany Saturday Farmers' Market and Sunday Antiques and Collectibles Market has been revitalized by newcomers El Huarache Loco, which easily landed on the top ten list, and Estrellita's Snacks, offering Salvadoran pupusas and plantain and yuca chips.

But where are, say, Turkish doner kebabs, practically the official street food of Berlin? Or easily held meat pies from around the world: Russian piroshki, Latin American empanadas, Cornish pasties, British steak-and-kidney pies? Why no Dim Sum Alley, Pan Bagnat Zone, or Crepes Corner?

Beyond a re-examination and possible loosening up of regulations, what San Francisco needs is for more obsessed, determined foodies to take charge, like Sibella Kraus, the founding executive director of the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture. She enlisted Hayes Street Grill owner Patti Unterman to set up a breakfast stand to entice people to the original Ferry Building farmers' market in 1991, long before the building was transformed into a foodie mecca.

Several street-food enthusiasts can be found on the staff of La Cocina Community Kitchen, a three-year-old small-business incubator that actively seeks women cooking and selling food "informally" (i.e., illegally). La Cocina helps them through the daunting process of becoming self-supporting entrepreneurs, including low-cost use of its 4,400-square-foot commercial kitchen. La Cocina's success stories include El Huarache Loco's Veronica Salazar; Isabel's El Buen Comer, serving homestyle Mexican food at the young Noe Valley Farmers' Market on Saturdays at 24th St. and Sanchez; and La Pupuseria Gemelos, from Luiz and Maribel Ochoa, the space being built at the aforementioned Crocker Amazon soccer fields.

Over the Labor Day weekend, a temporary street-food mecca will bloom across from City Hall. Slow on the Go, the street food component of Slow Food Nation '08, has a tentative lineup that includes local favorites Vik's, Primavera, Blue Bottle, Imperial Tea Court, Let's Be Frank, Fatted Calf, Bi-Rite Ice Cream, and Ici ice cream, alongside outlanders such as Benton's Smoky Mountain Country Hams, Edwards Virginia hams, Seattle's famed Salumi Artisan Cured Meats (made by Armandino Batali, Mario's father), and New York's old-school Italian sandwich purveyor Salumeria Biellese. Everything will cost $2 to $8. (For a list of proposed dishes, check our SFoodie blog.) Because this is a special event, all food will be freshly cooked. And visitors and San Franciscans can get a glimpse of what street food could be like here, in the best of all possible worlds.

Read more on SF's street food:

SF Street Food Top Ten

Map to the Carts

Cartology: From the Inside Looking Out

Photos: SF Street Food

SF Foodie: Alice Waters on Street Food

SF Foodie Sidebar: Happy Belly

SF Foodie Sidebar: El Huarache Loco