The first Great Park Artisan Food & Arts Festival, hopefully not the last! This was fun and…read moreinformative and hopefully becomes a regular yearly event. The weather was cooperative and was a beautiful sun-shiney Ca day. We brought pup with us so we really didn't get to see any of the "arts" section, but hopefully others enjoyed that. The staff at OC Great Park were friendly and helpful and Chief was welcomed everywhere.
Upon arriving you are greeted, given a program with schedule of events and where they are at, and a goodie bag that had some food samples (peanut butter, fruit strip, pretzel crisps, body cream and an entire 4 pack of Sambazon acai berry energy drink). Inside the Hangar, there were numerous demonstrations from various chefs, seating was provided and there were tables with chairs to sit at and eat items from all the various vendors, food trucks and restaurants that were on hand. We got a 1/4 broasted chicken with garlic roasted potatoes for $6 and relaxed and ate in the coolness of the Hangar, which Chief appreciated. Not sure of the name of the place, but that chicken and the potatoes was not only delicious, but incredibly cheap for the quality and how much you got. The chicken was so tender and flavorful. While we were eating and relaxing, we caught the tail end of a salad making demonstration and it was interesting.
Outside the Hangar there were food trucks to the right and vendors and restaurants to the left. At the end of the big grassy area the Artisan Stage had various demonstrations and we saw the chocolate making and the cheese making. Interesting, but I think I'll leave that to the professionals. :) Samples were passed around, I don't believe they were prepared for the crowds, as there was definitely not enough. Hubby and I both got to try raw chocolate before it is made/processed, including the cocoa bean, that was a first. We didn't get to try the cheese and we missed the bread making demonstration.
Outside the Hangar and to the left of Artisan Stage was the Farm and Food Lab Stage and they actually had a tent blocking out the heat of the sun, great idea! That was very crowded and had numerous demonstrations of jams/jellies from your garden, bee keeping, cooking from he garden, chickens and eggs in the morning and a presentation of Aquaponics, future of farming.
For the food trucks, at least 5-6 of them and we finally got to try The Lime Truck, awesomeness!
The restaurants: Duke's Huntington Beach, 118 Degrees, *Xanh Bistro, Haven Gastropub, Taco Asylum and Clay Oven, and others. Duke's was smart (in my opinion) and was walking around passing out samples! Take note other restaurants, people love free stuff! Because we got to try a free sample, we ended up buying 2 dessert items on our way out to take home for later.
My husband also bought freshly filled vanilla custard cream puffs from Mochilato dessert boutique, and they had 10% off cards for future use and were working in conjunction with Koba tofu grill and korean bbq, who also had 10% off coupons for future visits. Looking forward to going there.
All in all a fun-filled, sun-filled, food-filled great day! Chief loved the food, loved the walking, loved the shade and really loved all the attention he got, especially from some young girls who wouldn't leave him alone.
