Soy And Tofu Festival

This was the biggest waste of time and money. I paid $ 10 per person to have the «opportunity» to buy vegetarian food, buy T-​shirts, be hounded by the Farm Fresh To You salesman, and get a few free sample… literally a FEW. The entire event was housed in one small room. This should have absolutely been a free event considering that you were paying to be able to pay for items.

Although they gave us a toe bag and there were some samples. Playing 15 dollars wasn’t really worth it.

I will be honest, this is one of the reasons why I love SF.
There is always something cool going on and something to do.
When I first heard of the Soy and Tofu Festival, I was excited. Because I love soy and tofu, plus my son has a milk allergy, so this could have products he likes.
I love the whole festival, cool items out and about, couple of food trucks (Japanese food of course) and even the Tofu mascot. LOL

The fourth annual Soy and Tofu festival was held on June 7, 2014 from 11AM-​5PM at the San Francisco Japantown Peace Plaza and spilled over a little bit to Buchanan Mall. Since it’s in Japantown, there’s the paid parking garage or metered street parking (which is fairly difficult to find).
Vendors:
Signature Soy
Jade Chocolates
Totally Oishii
SoyJoy
Megumi Natto
Kikkoman
Hodo Soy Beanery
San Jose Tofu
Sacramento Tofu
Food Trucks:
Chairman
Hapa SF
JapaCurry
Naked Chorizo
Artists:
Beefy & Co.
Woolbuddy
Sumofish
Katey’s Kandles
Modern M
Performing Artists:
Eden Aoba Taiko
Ron Quesada /​Kulintronica
Curt Yagi & the People Standing Behind Me
The Francis Wong Ensemble & Wesley Ueunten
Brian Mitsuhiro Wong
CryWolffs: The Bay Area Urbalinist
Extremely tiny festival with little stuff to see or do. My friend and I saw all the booths and tried the samples in less than an hour. I was a bit disappointed because my friend is vegetarian and I was hoping there would be a lot of foods that would be catered towards that lifestyle so she would have plenty of options of foods to eat (especially since we were going to the Union St Festival right after). Many of the trucks had their typically food and one dish slightly altered to have tofu or something soy-​related instead of the regular protein. Not my idea of a festival. =/

My first time attending this festival, and I really wasn’t too impressed. They did have a few vendors serving tofu and handing out samples. I didn’t mind donating and trying, but I was expecting a lot more. Once I got to the quad area, I observed, and started at the end. I began with:
~ Jade Chocolates. Delicious pieces at $ 2 per truffle, but I was expecting some kind of chocolate tofu or something.
~ Kikkoman soy sauce next to Jade Chocolates. There was a large line that I chose not wait in. I mean, it was Kikkoman, really?
~ Soyjoy handed out tasty fruit bars.
~ Sumofish had some cool t-​shirt designs. $ 22 or 2 for $ 40. I bought a couple.
~ Wool Buddy with some interesting little plush wool toys you can put together. Really interesting and different (see pics). $ 20 kits.
~ Nakayoshi Café served up some spicy turkey tofu over rice, $ 5. Something I could make at home, but still good.
~ Naked Chorizo food truck, another thing I didn’t try. Why? Because they were parked next to:
~ JapaCurry, who was servin’ up the Ramen Burger! Loved it! Their review to follow…
~ and other vendors showing soy products and selling toys.
Overall, I made the best of this festival, but ended up browsing all over the Japan Center itself. Shopping at Daiso Japan, eating takoyaki at Café Hana, browsing the mochi goods at Nippon-​Ya, eating crepes, and buying a couple of plants at Katsura Garden. In other words, I breezed through all the tofu in the quad, I went to every vendor and was done. But no biggie! It was a nice day and I was just glad to be out. Will I attend this event next year, probably not.

Not really what I was expecting. I do understand it is only the 4^th year, but I thought it would be a little better. There are not too many tofu vendors and the dishes they had were average at best. Most of the crowds were at the food trucks, which are not tofu related at all. Sorry, I love tofu and might have had high expectations.

I missed it last year so went this year around like 4ish or so. I’m not sure if it was because it was 4ish or what but it wasn’t what I thought it was going to be at all. There was not that many vendors and rather small compared to what I thought it would be. They did have some cute graphics and the booths were similar to what the cherry blossom festival had.

TINY BARELY EXISTING FESTIVAL
(2 stars)
Don’t compare this to the Cherry Blossom Festival. Doesn’t compare. Held at the plaza, it’s very small with a handful of vendors.
Brought my bf at the time whom I was just starting to get him to eat healthy. I had taken him to many food festivals and food functions and was hoping for a healthy one to make him look at tofu in a different way. Didn’t help, soy drinks and the 3 vendors serving typical tofu dishes that weren’t very impressive in flavor. Luckily some food trucks were parked near (Ex: koju truck) by and we ordered regular food (non-​tofu items).
Will I be back? No
Until the next review

The festival was pretty lame, or at least definitely not what I expected. Not too many vendors and the info booths were not too interesting. I liked the dessert competition, though. The creators surprised me with how much they could make with just soy products. Cruncha mame too also surprised me with how much I enjoyed it. Everything else? Pretty meh. It’s too badthat this festival wasn’t bigger.

I went to the 3^rd Annual Soy & Tofu Festival at SF Japantown. I’ve been to other SF J-​Town festivals & this was Not my favorite.
I took the 38 bus from Market Street which was fine. Walked around & noticed none of the streets were closed off, that’s a bad sign. They had a few booths where the giant pagoda is for Hodo Soy Tofu — I buy their stuff at Costco, big deal. A soy sauce brand was there, edamame & the snack version was there for a tiny sample. That was it for the soy & tofu part of it. They did have some entertainment, but I didn’t stay long for it — did see the taiko drummers — the young girl looked so bored!
Went across the street to see the Tiny Tofu Town the banner said, not much there. A bouncy house for the kids & you have to pay for, some tables with kids doing I don’t know what.
Chairman Truck was there selling their food. HapaCurry food truck was there too later.
Went to Benkyodo for mochi & manju — favorite thing to do there.
Went into Mira Supermarket for Yasukochi’s Sweet Stop to get a slice of Koffee Crunch Cake — Sold out! Lady said to call early so she can save me a slice next time!
Left after that.

6÷1÷2013, Saturday, was the 3^rd annual event, emceed by George Kiriyama and Jana Katsuyama– was an entertaining and fun filled event for the entire family!
A fundraiser for the Nichi Bei Foundation
, it brings together all cultures (seriously, every culture seems to have a tofu alternative these days) for a day of good food and entertainment!
We dropped in and had a chance to finally try the Japacurry truck ($ 4 curry ‘pan”) and had lunch in the mall, played at the «tiny tofu town» across the plaza on the buchanan plaza.
Starts at 11am, so we got there early (11:30 parking in the garage since that garage gets full) and walked around the booths. «Tiny Tofu Town» was a hit! (I can only imagine the crowds and craziness today at the Union Street festival!) My kiddo had his run of the entire bouncy house to himself, lots of creative crafts and games sponsored by the JCYC (great work, everyone!) Tickets are $ 5 for 6 and 2 get you time in the bouncy, and 1 ticket per game. So much fun!!!
Only regret is that it’s only a one day event, not a weekend event. But a good time to be had by all!
Thank you to the organizers for a wonderful weekend event. Only in SF :)

Soy and tofu are healthy and delicious. This festival has a lot of vendors and products to enjoy. Entertainment, too. Come out and have a great time.

Now where can you find a place that has lots of tofu products, free tofu tasting, music, and tofun (tofu-​based games)?! The Soy and Tofu Festival has that and more! Right in the heart of Japantown, it’s a perfect event for the family!

I can eat an entire bag of edamame in one sitting. That’s why I LOVE the Soy & Tofu Fest in Japantown! It’s so much fun! There’s tons of great food trucks, music, and tofu-​related treats. If only they had an edamame eating contest… I would dominate.