Taste of Petaluma, a gastronomical journey, returns Saturday

Taste of Petaluma offers culinary tour of local eats, Aug. 22|

Get your stretchy pants ready. Taste of Petaluma returns for its 10th anniversary food fest on Aug. 22.

The culinary tour Petaluma offers participants the chance to stroll at their own pace through downtown restaurants, galleries and shops while sampling a diverse selection of bites, brews and sips.

The town never looks better on that day,” said Laura Sunday, Taste of Petaluma organizer. “You’ve got people walking through town with a Taste of Petaluma tote bag in one hand, and a shopping bag in the other with the stuff they bought along the way.”

Taste of Petaluma, which is a fundraiser for Cinnabar Theater, is a showcase for the south county’s food and drink. It also creates foot traffic into galleries and shops. The event has grown from a few dozen participating food and drink purveyors in its early years to 90 participating restaurants, caterers, wineries and breweries at 47 locations on its 10th anniversary.

Aside from sampling food, beer and wine, what has made the event popular with attendees is the opportunity it provides for people to try a restaurant they haven’t been to before.

“I have all these favorite restaurants that I learned about through Taste of Petaluma,” said Elly Lichenstein, artistic director of Cinnabar Theater. “My biggest discovery (at Taste of Petaluma) was Three Twins Ice Cream. I’m addicted to it now.”

The event drew 1,200 people last year, and Sunday expects to sell out at 1,500 attendees this year.

This year’s Taste of Petaluma menu features something for just about every palate. From street tacos, pulled pork sliders and Vietnamese bento boxes to New York steak bites, Brazilian black bean cassoulet and Chianti-braised short ribs. There’s also plenty of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options. The Secret Kitchen (hosted by Serren’s Closet at 213 Western Ave.) plans to offer a vegetable Thai spring roll with peanut sauce. Peacecock Vegan Hemp Bakery (hosted by Ethical Clothing at 122 Kentucky St. will have vegan, gluten-free brownie bites. Everest Indian Restaurant plans to serve vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free curry with vegetables in an apricot sauce. Other menu items for specific diets include quinoa and chickpea chili with jalapeno cornbread (Native Kitchen & Kombucha Bar (110 Petaluma Blvd. North; and vegetable kabobs with Turkish hummus, tabbouleh and dolmas (Dancing Palate Catering hosted by Bocha Bazaar at 304 Petaluma Blvd. North).

One of the many new participants in Taste of Petaluma include Bistro 100 (140 Second St. in Theatre Square), which opened earlier this year. Owner/chef Garrett Adair will be serving a a wild mushroom truffle bruschetta cream canapés made with ground up maitake and crimini mushrooms, dry jack cheese and a light drizzle of mornay, black truffle and herb aioli. The appetizer is topped with fried miataki and served on grilled sourdough.

The canapés are earthy and salty, with a gentle hint of pungent truffle and the pleasantly surprising crunch of the fried miataki.

“They’re really good with a glass of wine,” said Adair, who started cooking at the age of 15. He went on to buss tables, wash lettuce and make bacon-lettuce-tomato sandwiches in a small restaurant in Forestville. He continued to work a variety of different places before going out on his own and opening Bistro 100.

“I learned to cook out of survival,” he said of his early years. “My mom couldn’t cook at all. It was quesadillas and white flour tortillas with Velveeta growing up. From an early age, though, I was always able to go into the pantry and turn whatever was in there into something.”

The newly opened Sauced BBQ & Spirits (151 Petaluma Blvd. South in Theatre Square) is also joining Taste of Petaluma this year. The Livermore-based eatery is owned by cousins Barrett Gomes and Brenden Scanlan. Both of them grew up with a passion for barbecue, but it was Scanlan having grown up in Georgia that ignited the idea to open a restaurant focused on low-and-slow cooking. This method of cooking, which is true barbecue, means that the meat at Sauced is smoked for 14 to 16 hours, and sometimes up to 18 hours.

For Taste of Petaluma, Sauced will be serving pulled pork sliders. Before smoking, the pork is sprinkled with a bit of Sacued’s house rub, which contains garlic, ginger, paprika, salt and pepper. The result is tender, flavorful threads of pork on a soft, white bun.

Also newly opened is the Sonoma Spice Queen (407 C St.), a small, but well-stocked spice shop just steps from Petaluma Boulevard. Owner Wind McAlister produces and sells a variety of organic herbs, spices and spice blends central to Moroccan, Indian, Italian and other cuisines.

“I love to cook and I just found I had a hard time finding culturally authentic spices,” said McAlister. “I also found that 90 percent of the spices’ ingredients started with salt and sugar. We don’t put salt or sugar in our spices, except for the rubs, of course.”

For Taste of Petaluma, McAlister, who loves to cook, will be serving Java and spice pulled beef sliders with pickled slaw; Moroccan mujadara, an exotic lentil and rice dish with lemon and saffron and a side of yogurt and tahini sauce; and a cucumber salad with zatar, which is a Middle Eastern spice blend containing ground sumac, sesame seed, oregano, majoram and ground lemon powder. The lentil and rice dish can be served vegetarian or vegan style. To help visitors cool off, McAlister will also have iced, spiced coffee.

In addition to the culinary feast, Taste of Petaluma features wine tasting at the Petaluma Museum, children’s activities in Theatre Square and 18 musical acts performing at 11 different locations around town.

Taste of Petaluma takes place from 11:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. throughout downtown Petaluma and in the River Plaza shopping center. Tickets are $40 and includes 10 tasting tickets and a map/menu to all participating locations. Additional tickets may be purchased for $4 each. Tickets can be purchased in advance online or on the day of the event and picked in Helen Putnam Plaza after 10:30 a.m. Aug. 22.

For more information and to view the locations and menu, visit tasteofpetaluma.org.

(Contact Yovanna Bieberich at yovanna.bieberich@arguscourier.com. On Twitter at Yovanna_Ar gus)

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