Got My MoFo Workin'

I love Sacramento. I've always loved it. It's home. I've been lucky to travel around the country and around the world and I am always happy when I see our skyline (as it is) approaching by plane, train, or automobile after time away. Unlike many people I knew growing up, I never felt the need to leave and live away because this was a boring cowtown. I actually love Sacramento, because it is a boring cowtown...and I mean that in the most loving of ways. The problem with a lot of people is that they compare it to other places in California that it really ought not be compared to. We aren't and never will be San Francisco or Los Angeles. Our story is a different one. We have more in common with a city like Austin or Portland- cool medium size cities that have embraced their quirks and never looked back. Kind of like the hot, hipster girl in the librarian glasses with the cute sweater. She's not the idealized blonde bimbo that has been thrust upon us by the media as the measure of sexy (that would be L.A. by the way). Rather, she is the girl who, while not conventionally "hot" is way hotter because there's just something about her...you know, those coy glances, that underlying confidence in and embrace of her uniqueness. You can actually have a conversation with her, because she has some brains, because her beauty is more than just skin deep...

(ok...enough with the analogy...I think we all get what I'm talking about)

Sacramento has grown a lot over the past 10 years. A lot of people have really stepped up and made an effort to really make this place a more culturally fulfilling place. In many ways, the city is coming into its own. This is because people are really embracing the idea of making this place a really cool medium sized city and embracing things that some of these cities have also embraced. One of these things embraced by cool cities like Portland and Austin are the concept of food trucks and food carts.

Now these aren't the dreaded "roach coaches" many envision when they think of mobile food operations. The trucks that schlep mediocre lunch fare from construction site to construction site. They are much more than that. In places like the aforementioned cities, these food carts have become places of culinary expression, where young chefs ply their trade as they follow their passions, often choosing to offer limited menus based on what they love to cook not big menus they have to cook.

These small businesses add to the food scene and the nightlife, often providing tiny islands of sobering-up-food in a sea of drunk; staying open and serving food way later than any restaurant would ever think to...at least in Sacramento. These mini-culinary operations add to the cultural richness of a city.

Unfortunately, the powers that be in Sacramento have given this concept the cold shoulder. The City of Sacramento (not to be confused with the County of Sacramento, which has relatively permissive ordinances when it comes to mobile food vendors), has been slow to embrace this new form of food expression. Rather than take a stand and enable these innovative entrepreneurs to bring new food choices to our fair city, our city leaders have opted to have committee hearings about possible ordinances...which in political terms is a polite way to ignore a subject or put off any meaningful decision.

In an effort to jump start this too-slow process, the people over at Sacramento MoFo are doing their part to make Sacramento a cooler medium sized city. They are putting on a festival to showcase mobile food vendors and demonstrate to our city leaders and the public at large that we are really missing out on a cool thing.

PLEASE SUPPORT THIS VENTURE!!!

If you happen to live in Sacramento, or be around Sacramento on Saturday, April 30, 2011, please be a part of this really cool happening.

Here are the details:
Date: Saturday, April 30, 2011
Place: Fremont Park (the city block made bounded by P & Q St. and 15th & 16th St. Downtown)
Time: Noon-6pm

Go visit their website:
http://www.sactomofo.com

and go "like" their Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/SactoMoFo

Support this worth undertaking and show your support for the food scene in Sacramento. I'll be there and hope to see you all there too!

Shameless Self Promotion...

When I was growing up, I remember reading Rolling Stone magazine, thinking how cool it would be to be a music writer or a music critic. Well, I became a musician instead, but never let go of the dream to be a published music critic. Well, thanks to Tim Foster, the editor at Midtown Monthly magazine, I can now say I am a published music writer.

Their March issue is the magazine's annual food issue. I was asked by Tim to write their Musical Chairs column, which is where a local musician is asked to write about five musical things that they would like the world to know about. Because I satisfy the food requirement as writer of this blog and the musician requirement, because, well...I'm a musician, it seemed I was a good fit to write this month's installment. I gladly accepted the assignment.

Here's the link to the article:

Midtown Monthly- March 2011 Musical Chairs

Go and check it out.

Don't forget to support Midtown Monthly and their advertisers. They are good people!

Again...thanks to Tim and the rest of the MidMo Crew!