This Halloween weekend, Outside Lands was back in a big way. I’ve been fortunate enough to attend all but one Outside Lands over the past decade, so I was more than delighted to hit the (sometimes overwhelming) crowds after the festival was put on hiatus last year. The musician lineup was vibrant and varied, including the dynamic and powerful Brittany Howard and Lizzo, albeit missing a major legend as in years past (e.g. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, and The Who).
But I’m here to talk food and drink.
This was the festival — put on by Another Planet Entertainment and Superfly — that pioneered culinary and drink excellence in the nation (and world) since it started in 2008, a then-unheard-of feat.
Their unique GastroMagic stage combines chefs and musicians for live demos with music; this year with the likes of LA chef Roy Choi and Rico Nasty, chef Elizabeth Falkner with The Strokes’ Albert Hammond Jr., and my favorite combo: James Beard Award-winning, 2015 Top Chef contestant Kwame Onwuachi with one of my favorite rappers since girlhood, Chali 2na of the great Jurassic 5 (also crazy about his solo albums and work with groups like The Funk Hunters).
Outside Lands is the kind of festival where you can feast on playful bites from Michelin-starred restaurants like Sorrel, longtime favorites like Suppenkuche or hot new restaurants like Abacá. Then there are Wine Lands, Beer Lands, Cheese Lands, Cocktail Magic, and new this year: a toadstool and couch-lined Bubble Tea Party boba tea and treats grove in the woods.
With 85 restaurants, over 40 wineries and 30 breweries pouring and cooking, Outside Lands is as much for food-and-drink lovers as it is for festival-goers.
Edible highlights are many but here are my top seven on the ground this weekend during the welcome return of the one-and-only Outside Lands:
1. ROOH’s Dahi Puri
Chef Sujan Sarkar’s helms one of my top modern Indian food restaurants, ROOH San Francisco (also his different and likewise special ROOH Palo Alto). While the ROOH team was dishing out cauliflower koliwada and masala-fried chicken to the crowds, their dahi puri chaat stole the show. A gourmet snack of four mini-puri shells filled with mashed potatoes, chickpeas, avocado, yogurt, it was a proper restaurant starter, elegant and flavor-packed, turned into a delectable festival bite.
2. Oui Oui! Macaron’s Basque Cheesecakes
Oui Oui! may be known for their French-style macarons, which were also sold here. But it’s their Basque cheesecakes that stood out, sold by the slice, fluffier and creamier than many Basque cheesecakes, blessedly not too sweet. Standout flavors? Salted egg yolk and pumpkin cheesecake with Oreo crumble.
3. Abacá’s Sisig Fried Rice
The aforementioned Abacá has been one of my top new restaurants of the year so far (reviewed at TBI here). So it’s no surprise their pork lumpia and carioca rice donuts lit it up with chef Francis Ang’s modern Filipino goodness. The most comforting? Their sisig fried rice, lush with pork parts and whole egg.
4. Media Noche’s Media Noche Sandwich
Media Noche is an ideal newcomer to Outside Lands, doing modern Cuban food right. Namely their Media Noche sandwich, is the Miami-version of a classic Cubano sando, packed with roasted mojo pork shoulder, smoked ham, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard, but on brioche-style bread with their coconut-cilantro slaw.
5. Smish Smash Smashburgers
The East Bay was represented more than ever before this year at OL, from Latina-owned Alicia’s Tamales Los Mayas and Chef Smelly’s Creole, to Sobre Mesa and Nyum Bai. Smish Smash is an Alameda-based business, East Bay pop-up known for their smash burgers. The line remained long throughout the festival for these melt-in-your-mouth babies. Though their creamy S2 sauce lacked zing, the tenderness of the meat and generous smattering of pickles on a soft bun made it a gratifying festival burger.
6. Shawarmaji’s Chicken Shawarma Wrap
Having visited Shawarmaji’s “real deal” 2020 order-at-the-counter shop, I know they cook up a mean chicken and lamb shawarma. As in their Oakland space, their shawarma wrap could use (a lot) more of their toum vegan garlic sauce (and for me, chili hot sauce). But their meat is tender and flavor-packed, slow-roasted, and marinated in yogurt.
7. Borsch Mobile’s Piroshki and Pelmeni
The first Russian/Ukrainian food truck in the Bay Area, female-run Borsch Mobile turns out Russian pelmeni dumplings, borsch soup, and flaky piroshki buns (loved the flaky tenderness of their veggie piroshki buns but could have used more filling and more onions in the mostly potato-filled buns; but the potato was soft, slightly sour and comforting with a whisper of onions and mushrooms). I paired it with a glass of raisin-esque, fermented kvas (fermented rye bread drink; this particular brand made in SF by RDM Express).
DRINK HIGHLIGHTS
At Wine Lands, amid all California wines, highlights included RD Winery (Napa Valley’s first Vietnamese-owned winery), Tansy (a collab between A16’s sommelier Shelley Lindgren and Ryme Cellars’ Megan Glaab) and Napa’s delightful Ashes & Diamonds. Beer Lands’ highlights, curated once again by Dave McLean, included SF’s Local Brewing Let’s Get Tropical vibrant blonde ale, Almanac’s beers, and Strainge Beast’s new kombuchas (although I couldn’t help wishing for some sour beers in the lineup). I didn’t get to try more than one drink from Cocktail Magic: Frank & Vlad’s straightforward, light, and easy mezcal-Green Chartreuse-celery-peach bitters cocktail.
Also, a notable mention: Veganmob’s food truck at Twin Peaks was sublime. Granted, you’d be hard-pressed to justify spending over $27 on a burger anywhere outside a music festival — but rest assured it was worth every penny.
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