New Taste Marketplace in San Francisco

San Francisco is going crazy for the pop-up restaurants and shops, food trucks, and plain old neighborhood bake sales. There seems to be a trend of being the first to try something new, and oftentimes for new small businesses, the pop-up sale is their chance to test their products before opening up a full-fledged restaurant or store.

The New Taste Marketplace is at the center of this trend, putting on a monthly market made up of new hand-made products and small businesses hoping to develop a customer base. The monthly marketplace takes place at St. Gregory's Church in Potrero Hill, which is a bit out there but definitely worth the trek.

I checked out this month's marketplace, which took place yesterday from noon to 5 p.m. The marketplace also serves as a fund-raiser for The Food Pantry, so there's a suggested donation as admission.

Once inside, I was impressed by the layout of food vendors set among the colorful religious art of the church. It definitely creates a unique setting for a community marketplace.

Needless to say, there were a lot of food to try, more than I could squeeze in for my lunch. And some of them, while tempting, weren't necessarily great for my high cholesterol. For example, I had to pass on the above duck confit nachos from Michele Manfredi's SFQ, which really did look mouth-watering.

And these adorable chicken pot pies from Butter Love Bakeshop. I mean, come on, the shop has butter in its name. I had to be good. I was in the house of God.

But no problem, because there's something for everyone and I was able to find something good to eat that wasn't a major hit on my cholesterol. I started with this green curry dish ($7) from Nute's Cupcakes. That's right, Nute Chulasuwan is primarily a baker making creative Asian-inspired cupcakes, but she was also selling this curry on the side for fun. It was a nice, light Thai curry and in it were Thai eggplants, which was the first time for me trying them. They're shaped like tomatillos and looked a bit like figs when they were cut in half, so a new discovery for me.

Like I said, Nute's known for her cupcakes, and these were the mini cupcakes she was selling. They looked so pretty, and such interesting flavors. There was a chili-lime, pandan (a kind of leaf in Southeast Asia used to infuse dishes), caramel and chocolate bacon. Each sold for $1, and the pandan was an interesting herbal like cake, while the caramel was my favorite. But I have to say I was not a fan of the bacon, which was bits of bacon in the center of the chocolate cake. It just didn't seem right. (I wished I had tried the chili-lime, but I did order it and ended up with two pandan in my box. Oh well, next time.)

I also tried a bowl of this strawberry risotto with smoked pork shoulder ($4) from Mission Gastroclub. I liked the idea of the seasonal strawberry risotto, but I didn't really get a sweet strawberry flavor in the risotto, but the smoked pork shoulder had an intense (which I liked) smokey flavor.

OK, it seems like I wasn't helping my cholesterol with all the cakes I was eating, but they were all minis! Just like a mini lemon cupcake I got from this vendor, Pleasure My Sweet Tooth. They also had these interesting cake pops, but they're supposedly really sweet so I had to avoid them since I'm not into super sweets. I have to say they had the most pretty table.

Following the idea that everything's better with bacon, here's the popular bacon-wrapped mochi from Lindo Lo of Simply Mochi.

I didn't get the bacon mochi, but instead tried these two freshly made mochi. The one of the left was a strawberry cheesecake mochi, which I loved. It was like eating mochi ice cream. The one on the right was a Peanut Butter and Jam mochi. The peanut butter and jam filling was a bit chunky and the flavor didn't make me think of the popular childhood sandwich. Both mochi had a nice soft, chewy texture that was easy to eat.



The New Taste Marketplace had a nice community feel, like a church bake sale. And it wasn't a massive clusterjam like some other underground markets in the city. There were more vendors than my stomach could try, so I'm hoping to check out future marketplaces.