More Music! More Food!

It's not like the Pistahan Festival doesn't have a lot going on. Au contraire — it's a grand, sprawling, sensory overload of an outdoor Filipino culture celebration, complete with the San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival embedded in it. An art pavilion displays fine art in conjunction with local galleries, a heritage area shows folk artifacts from private collections, and attendees can learn traditional dance moves or watch as any of several local companies perform. Kids get a crafty spot all to themselves, which includes storytelling. But it's the food we can't stop thinking about, particularly the two eating contests. The longanisa- and balut-eating competitions seem like opposite ends of the competitive eating spectrum: The former, a spicy pork sausage, sounds delicious, while the latter involves something halfway between an egg and a chicken, and we don't want any. Then there's the adobo cook-off, lumpia, lechon, and of course, extra complicated halo-halo.
Aug. 8-9, 11 a.m., 2009