Street Fairs and Strike Outs

It was a breezy summer Saturday in San Francisco, so I spent it outside most of the day. First I visited the Fillmore Jazz Festival on Fillmore Street. This is one of my favorite street festivals because of the great music as you're strolling the booths and there are fewer beer drinkers compared to festivals like North Beach, which happens later.

The popular stand at the Fillmore has got to be the Purely Decadent booth. And why not? They were passing out free ice cream! But this isn't just regular premium ice cream, this is all-natural dairy-free ice cream. I've actually cut down on my ice cream eating (despite what you've read about my Ici adventures) because of my high cholesterol. I rarely buy a pint of ice cream to eat at home. But I think I might buy this product from a company based in Eugene, Ore.

They had several flavors for people to try: Praline Pecan, Vanilla Swiss Almond, Mocha Almond Fudge. I tried the Pomegranate Chip. The taste was nice (although I thought it had too many chocolate chips) with a slight tart flavor of pomegranate. But the texture was very nice. Of course, it's not super creamy like regular ice cream, but it was somewhere in between frozen yogurt and ice cream, so totally passable if you want to feel like you're eating ice cream. The guy at the booth says Purely Decadent is available at stores like Whole Foods. And how can you not be intrigued by something called Purely Decadent. (Nice job on the branding, folks!) BTW, the Fillmore Jazz Festival continues today if you want to check out some free ice cream and great music.

Then after walking around the festival during the day, I went over to AT&T Park for another Giants game, this time against the Arizona Diamondbacks. It was a night game so I wanted something of substance to last me through the nine innings. So I went and got me the infamous Cha Cha Bowl, my first time.

The Cha Cha Bowl was created to honor Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, recognizing his Caribbean roots. It's barbecued jerk chicken over a bowl of rice and black beans topped with pineapple salsa. It's sold at the Orlando BBQ stand in the area behind the bleachers, but this year Orlando has allowed the Cha Cha Bowl to be sold throughout the ballpark via the Compadres stands. (Sigh, Compadres. They used to be a popular place to go for margaritas when I lived in Hawaii.)

Anywho, the Cha Cha Bowl sells for $9.50 and it definitely is filling. You get a big bowl of rice and beans with lots of grilled chicken chunks. I felt, though, that the chicken wasn't as jerky (meaning spicy) as I thought it should be. It simply tasted like grilled chicken. And yesterday they weren't topping with pineapple salsa but with this shredded squash concoction that added interesting color with a vinegar base, but not very tropical. (I guess they were out of pineapples.) Still, the overall bowl was fresh and satisfying, and the $9.50 price is pretty comparable to what you'd pay for other items around the stadium. It was a long game, made bearable by the beautiful weather, chatting with friends Allison and Jason, and rewarded with a Giants 4-1 win! Go Giants!

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