Tufty Outings: CrittFest 2016, Mountain View Center for Performing Arts 25th Anniversary

[tuftears]

I have actually gotten out into the Big Bloo Room twice this week! Amazing.



One was this Thursday, the 'CrittFest' music festival thingy that features live performances and snacks. Here's an outdoors view of all the Googlers gathered with food and drink to appreciate the band on stage.

I previously mentioned CrittFest last year. It seemed somewhat bigger this time. Sadly, probably the last CrittFest for me assuming the planned team move to the Sunnyvale campus goes through.



Pictured are miniature chicken corn dogs, miniature fried chicken nuggets, and bite-sized pretzel nuggets. Also at the fair were corn-on-the-cob, tequila-soaked watermelon slices, beer (and lots of it, "Lagunitas" if that rings a bell for any drinkers), homemade-style tamales, and jambalaya. Fortunately I didn't have any of this -- seems like a number of co-workers got food poisoning from their jambalaya.



Taco food truck on the right, tater tots food truck on the left. I wasn't motivated to get in line for either of these.

Then there was the 25th anniversary of the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. Wasn't as big as I figured it would be, but hey, it's good to get out, right?



First sign I had that I was in the right place was seeing two food trucks parked kitty-corner to the festivities. This one was named 'Chicken And Chill' and featured mainly wings and fried chicken dishes. Probably a good choice for parents with kids who are at that 'I want nothing but chicken nuggets!' stage.



The other food truck was a Japanese yakitori sort of food truck. I had lunch here:



They drew a happy face on the sweet potato croquette! There was a small amount of salmon in the rice ball, which I hadn't had before. A small shredded salad in the corner, and of course, a chicken and a beef "yaki" skewer. The food was pretty decent.

There wasn't actually a lot of other food around! There was a free popcorn vendor on the other side but the festivities never even made it all the way to the main park area. Instead, there was this outdoors stage:



And I ate lunch comfortably while they had a performance going on:



There were two other stages, both inside the center. Let's have a look at it.



Inside was the lobby, selling merch, and then I checked out the two stages. The second stage didn't have anything going on-- they were between performances-- but there were a troupe of kids at the main stage:



Not a bad outing but it didn't really keep my attention; once I had been fed and had browsed around a bit, I headed back.



I noticed this shop on the way back. "A Chinese food market?" I wondered. Nope! It's actually something more esoteric: a Chinese medicine store! You can see all those drawers, anonymously full of strange medicines. There were plastic boxes full of what were purported to be slices of actual ginseng in the front counter. Not the sort of thing I expected to find in downtown Mountain View!

Comments

[centauress.livejournal.com]

Really? There used to be several of these stores in Mountain View, two Chinese bakeries, and a Chinese grocery store, and several tea stores, of which I think two remain? They were going downhill ten years ago and the gentrification has slowly replaced them. One of the best ramen shops I know is down there, but Sammi's favorite closed but I think my favorite is still there. The strip was nearly all Chinese restaurants fifteen years ago.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

There's that Chinese market (medicine store) and there's an Easy Foods Chinese convenience store; there's a tea store (I think) and the Hong Kong Chinese Bakery.

Which ramen shop are you thinking of when you say 'best'?

[rowyn]

So much outdoorsiness! Don't wear yourself out. :D

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

This from the woman who walked how many miles when her bike sprung a tire? :) *pets comfortingly*

[rowyn]

Only three! n_n

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

"Only", she says, while exhibiting thighs like an Olympic-class athlete. :)

[jordangreywolf.livejournal.com]

That looks like fun! :D Also, it looks like the food truck fare there is a little more adventurous than the sort of things I (until a while ago) kept seeing around here.

[tuftears.livejournal.com]

Well, the Chicken 'n Chill truck is probably standard fare, but yeah, the yakitori truck might be a little Japanese. :)