Gourmet hot dog cart, coming soon to Petaluma?

There’s a new local hot dog cart on the horizon, and it’s got me excited. Sure, some like to gripe that a “foodie” shouldn’t enjoy a “junk food” such as hot dogs, but I’m no food snob. We can’t all afford to eat at fancy restaurants. I consider myself a true foodie, enjoying all the different options that our food industry offers, from Michelin-starred cuisine to random road-side taco stands.

Along those lines, I have a hard time passing up on hot dog stands, in part because I enjoy the occasional hot dog, but also because I want to find out what type of dogs they are using and if they have any interesting sides or toppings.

Petaluma’s newest prospective hot dog cart popped up on social media in the planning stages, when owner/founder Don Lewis reached out to hot dog aficionados through the indiegogo.com to crowdsource funding. His campaign can be found under the name Starlight Hot Dogs, where he is looking to raise $10K to make his dream a reality and bring a great new hot dog option to Petaluma.

Currently, the campaign is up to $5,750 and has been going along strong since it launched about 3 weeks ago. Personally, we signed up for a couple of the perks, so we’ll be first in line to try these new dog creations. However, for full disclosure to those who are not familiar with crowd-sourcing, no guarantees are given, so if a project does not get off the ground, depending on the host site, there may not be any refund. For us, it’s worth the risk.

Throughout the campaign, Don has enticed other hot dog lovers by revealing new recipes as the donations crossed certain milestones. Don says that he spent a good portion of early March trying out a lot of hot dog toppings. He also admitted that shortly thereafter, he opted for a bit of a diet just to even things out.

The first “sneak peak” came at the $3K mark, when Don revealed the “Kaiju Dog,” his spin on a Korean hot dog. The all-beef dog will be covered in diced kimchi, spicy gochujang kewpie mayo and topped with furikake springles. I honestly don’t know what those last two things are, but enjoy Korean food immensely, so I’m really looking forward to this one.

The “After-School Special” includes an all-beef dog topped with American cheese, yellow mustard, dill pickles and smashed potato chips, plus a Capri Sun. A true taste of childhood.

And for the veggie/vegans in the crowd, Don will offer a vegan “dog” substitute for his all-beef dogs. As Don gets closer to his launch we’ll get more details.

Carnival treats

This week is the second and last week of the Sonoma-Marin Drive-Thru Menu at the fairgrounds. As mentioned last week, the menu includes just about every one of your family’s favorites from fairs of years past. However, this weekend, Friday, May 14 through Sunday, May 16, the festivities at the fairgrounds will be particularly special because there will be an actual carnival in front of the parking lot. This is the first time we’ve have had a carnival since prior to the pandemic. The food itself is separate, located inside the fairgrounds, and is ordered from and delivered to your car. Visit Sonoma-Marin Drive-Thru Menu on Facebook for the full menu and more details regarding hours of operation.

Outdoor market

Spring Hill Gardens returns with another artisan open air market on Sunday, May 16, from 10:30 a.m. through 3:30 p.m. at 384 Spring Hill Road. Along with live music by local bands, there will also be plenty of local vendors offering everything from clothing to jewelry and body care products and plants and pottery. There will also be plenty of sweet treats, fresh pasta, local honey and possibly empanadas, according to Shinaide V-diaz, the organizer and owner of Spoonful of Sugar, a specialty sweets maker here in Petaluma. Sunday is set to be beautiful day in the mid-70s with some clouds, so sounds perfect for attending a mid-day outdoor market. And if there is any chance of empanadas, we’ll be hard pressed to lunch anywhere else.

Peculiar pizza pie

Zimi opened recently at the Block – Petaluma, offering wood-fired pizzas, for now, with the promise of other wood-fired offerings in the near future. (We can’t wait for a wood-fired lamb chop.) We hadn’t yet gotten a chance to visit when we saw a couple of posts pop up on social media with a pizza that appeared to have pickles on it. Being a big fan of pickles, I’ve always wondered how one might go about getting pickles to fit properly into the toppings of a pizza.

Zimi decided to go for it with their Cubano pizza. We are big fans of the Cubano (also called a “Cuban sandwich”), which is usually made up of roasted pork, glazed ham, Swiss cheese, yellow mustard and pickles. To be honest, when I first saw the photo, I thought it was too simple to work, but it worked. It worked so well that slices were missing before we even got home and between the two of us, we had nothing left over.

After that first taste of Zimi’s wood-fired pizza creations, we will definitely be back to try more. Especially the Minotaur: “This beauty is made up of, Thai peanut sauce, mozzarella, house smoked chicken, pickled shiitake mushrooms, finished with cilantro, green onions and lime.” They had me at “Thai peanut sauce.” (Zimi’s is run by the same folks who have Dino’s Greek Food Truck, which is also a permanent food fixture at the Block – Petaluma.)

Music and wine

While on the topic of Thai food, Adobe Road Wines’ next live music guest popped into my head. I have heard from many folks wondering where they can find live music around Petaluma, and one answer is Adobe Road Wines at 6 Petaluma Blvd. S. During the pandemic Adobe Road created a really nice outdoor patio area, while waiting to build their winery and tasting room just a couple of blocks away at C and 1st streets, along the river.

Thursday, May 13, from 4:30 to 7 p.m., Adobe will host Parnell & White Blues Explosion, with Sean Parnell on vocals and harmonica. Any time I see Sean’s name in print, it makes me smile because I never would have discovered Thai River’s Chiang Mai noodles without his recommendation.

Called Khao Soy in Thailand, this curry-based noodle/soup dish is full of incredible flavors while also offering up unique textures of two different noodles — one soft and one crispy — on top of the soup. Sean tasted Chiang Mai noodles in Thailand (where they are called Khao Soy) and was looking for a good option locally. He discovered Louise’s Chiang Mai noodles at Thai River. After hearing him rave, I had to try it and still ranks as one of my favorite dishes of all time.

But back to Adobe Road’s live music Thursday, coming up on June 3 is Dan Durkin of Petty Theft, who is not only a heck of a musician in his own right, but whose cover band has my all-time favorite cover band name – Petty Theft (they perform Tom Petty covers). Although the Thursday night concert series is offered with no cover charge, reservations are strongly recommended because Adobe Road fills up quickly. Check the “Events” tab at adoberoadwines.com for more information.

Fancy Food Show winners

The Specialty Food Association is a trade association that hosts the Fancy Food Show, which culminate in the announcement of the “sofi Award” winners. Over 1,500 artisan products competed in 49 categories this year, and several local cheese makers were named cream of the crop. In the “cheese (cow milk)” category, soft cheeses rose to the top with Cowgirl Creamery’s Organic Clabbered Cottage Cheese taking gold and Bellwether Farms’ Whole Milk Basket Ricotta taking silver. Of special note, Cowgirl Creamery uses organic milk from Tomales Bay neighbor Bivalve Dairy to make this particular cheese. Bivalve is our favorite young cheesemaker, obviously due in large part to the milk, so it’s no surprise to see Cowgirl’s cottage cheese taking top honors. In the “Other Dairy” category, Bellwether Farms took silver for Bellwether Farms Creme Fraiche; and in the “Yogurt & Kefir” category, Laura Chenel’s Chevre took gold and silver for the St. Benoit Creamery Organic French Vanilla Yogurt and St. Benoit Creamery Organic Plain Yogurt. Congrats to our local makers for such a good showing!