The Great American Food and Music Festival at Shoreline Amphitheater

Sausages from South Market and Barbecue in Elgin, TX
Guys will do anything for a beer. In a desperate attempt to avoid the hour-long wait, we bribed the grillers with a cold pint in exchange for a few juicy links of BBQ sausage. After one bite, I would have gleefully waited two hours – they were that good, even sans bun or condiments.

Bacon from Zingerman’s Deli in Ann Arbor, MI
We stood in line for an hour to sample America’s best bacon and order a BLT. You can imagine our disappointment when the crumbly bread was heavily smothered in mayo and light on the actual bacon. A more accurate name for the dish is simply mayo sandwich.Yuck.

San Francisco Burger Competition
The main event included a burger showdown with SF’s top patty joints. Burgermeister, Pearls, Burger Bistro and Mo’s took the stage and were judged in part by Food Network’s Anne Burrell and Bobby Flay. I lost track of the goings on after Bobby Flay handed me his half-eaten bistro burger and called me a rocker chic (really, am I?). Pearl’s took top place with this Hawaiian-inspired burger:

Second place went to Bistro Burger, with their mushroom and brie burger:

And because I cannot get enough of Bobby Flay, here’s another shot of him getting ready to tackle the Burgermeister entry:

Anne Burrell proved to be the toughest critic, taking points away from Bistro Burger for adding too many condiments to their plate. But, having the second best burger in San Francisco is nothing to scuff at.

Food and Wine Pairing Event
Our VIP tickets included all-access to the wine tents, where uninformed staff poured almost full glasses of vino from West Coast wine-makers. This double edged sword led to lots of drinking, but with little knowledge of what filled our cups. Most of the pourers were not allowed to try the wine and couldn’t adequately describe it, past stating the obvious of red or white.

The unimpressive food and wine pairing event included tasty nibbles from some of the participating restaurants, but paired with wines that, for the most part, were too sweet for my palate.

Bobby Flay’s Cooking Demo
Here he is again, the star of the night, cooking up some shrimp tamales at the main demo stage. Cathy from Gastronomy Blog, lucky lady that she is, was pulled onstage and helped him put the finishing touches on the dish.

Bobby’s next creation was pork with a bourbon-ancho sauce, and after he splashed the bourbon in the pan, Alejandro yelled,” Take a shot!” And he did.

Buffalo Wings from Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY
Although the suicidal were not nearly deserving of the name, the wings were exactly what you wish of all Buffalo wings: Crunchy outside, juicy inside and dripping with pucker-inducing spicy sauce.

Katz’s Deli in New York CIty, NY
We ended the night on a high note, with a Pastrami sandwich from the famous New York deli. I do not remember Katz’s having pastrami sandwiches this good. Now I’m regretting skipping them when I lived in New York because of it’s tourist tra
p reputation.

But I ate Bobby Flay’s burger, so I’m happy.