San Francisco Greek Festival

Bougatsa, at the San Francisco Greek Festival.

In a few words, the SF Greek Festival is quite impressive. Take a look at the crowd assembled around 6pm today.

Great live music and dancing.

But for us, the main event was the fantastic home-made Greek food. Here's the first line: salad followed by tempting hot dishes. Just out of picture to the right: feta, olives and a few other cold appetizers.

Dolmas to die for. Wait, what's wrong with me? I didn't get any...

Moussaka and all kinds of other great hot dishes I didn't opt for. Maybe I should have come with a big group so I could have had a little bite of everything.

Pasticcio & green beans. Definitive version of pasticcio, with the lightest hint of cinnamon in the custard, nice concentration of tomato & lamb flavors in the ground meat; some people call this a "Greek lasagna" and you can see why. 

When I was young I would not like this green bean dish, but dang, I'm glad I've come to an age where wisdom and taste lets me appreciate the finer things in life. Green beans, tomato, olive oil, garlic, oregano and basil. Maybe a pinch of salt. Cooked until the flavors are concentrated. Could be some caramelized onion in there too. We had a dish at last year's Vallejo Greek Fest which substituted green beans for gigante beans, which was just as good.

So, after the two lines with cold dishes and steam table hot dishes, there's the table with gyros and grilled meat dishes. I got the Lamb Plate (the lady who took my order said that by being named "George," that I fit right in), which as you can see comes with pita, Greek salad (probably the best version I've ever had, thanks to tomato & cucumber that was so fresh and ripe), rice (seasoned with dried herbs and butter), and the absolutely perfectly cooked lamb. 

Bougatsa. The king of Greek pastries, in my not so humble opinion.

Phyllo dough brushed with butter & honey, and filled with a light cheese (similar to ricotta) custard, with a slight hint of lemon. Sweet, but not too sweet. Adult level sweetness. I know how hard it is to make pastries like this from scratch, and as someone who made custards and puddings for almost five years as part of my regular pastry gig, I've got to say, these folks are masters of the craft. Much love and respect.

They've got a lot of other great pastries to choose from too, as well as Greek coffee, spirits, and a raffle. 

The San Francisco Greek Festival is happening one more day, Sunday September 18th 2016, Noon-8pm, at 245 Valencia in the Mission District of San Francisco. For more information, check out the following site (& others on the internet). If you can't make it, check them out next year.

http://www.yasas.com/greek-orthodox-details.asp?cid=3