August 2009

This weekend, Jack London Square on Oakland’s waterfront will be abuzz with street food vendors and Bay Area food lovers. If there’s a way to get your favorite food on wheels, chances are it will be at the Eat Real Festival. In addition to the requisite taco trucks, prepare yourself for mobile you-name-it: chowder, soul food, falafel, pizza, Korean BBQ, American BBQ, pie, crème brûléé, and Gobs. (What are they? The only way to find out is to go. Well, and the internet, but what’s the fun in that?)

The goal of the festival is to showcase locally made food that is affordable, healthy, and sustainably sourced, while bringing together eaters with the people making the food. And, of course, it will be delicious! The festival is free and the “Street Eats” are all $5 or less.

Once you’ve had a bite to eat, there will be lots more to see and do. Visit the farmer’s market for fresh produce. Stop by the Eat Real Street Stage to hear from local musicians, writers, and food activists. Learn from Bay Area chefs as they do cooking demonstrations. Watch a butchery contest on Saturday at 7 pm as two teams compete to see who can butcher a quarter steer fastest. Or stick around until 8 pm on Friday and Saturday nights, then unroll a blanket on the lawn for an outdoor food film festival.

For those willing to go further afield, there is a tour of GhostTown Farm on Saturday, which includes workshops on raising goats and on the best way to kill and butcher a chicken. On Sunday, a tour of Blue Bottle Coffee’s new Oakland roastery leaves from the Eat Real Information booth at 10 am.

Whether this is your first semester at Berkeley or your ninth, the Eat Real Festival promises to be an inexpensive and tasty way to become (re)acquainted with the vibrant food culture in the Bay Area.

Editor’s Note: Most graduate and professional students are on a tight budget. But that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy all that the Bay Area has to offer. Today the Berkeley Graduate Blog introduces a new feature where we will periodically highlight fun and interesting activities that cost $10 or less. If you’d like to share an inexpensive outing, please contact us.

An aquarium, a tropical rainforest, and a planetarium, topped off with a green roof. Normally taking in the sights at the new California Academy of Sciences will cost you from $20 to $25, but on Thursday nights the doors stay open late and admission is just $10 from 6 pm to 10 pm. 

During Thursdays’ NightLife, a night out mixes with museum going. At one end of the building a DJ spins records, people dressed for an evening out pack the place, and beverages are available for purchase, so you can stroll through the exhibits drink in hand. 

The California Academy of Sciences offers an eclectic mix of exhibits and science in action. Staff members wheel carts of specimens through the crowds while others work behind glass panels, classifying and illustrating for all to see. A floor below visitors mingle in front of the kelp forest or get acquainted with sea stars and sea urchins in the hands-on discovery tidepool. The planetarium and four-story rainforest accommodate only limited numbers, so arrive and get in line early if these are on your to-do list. 

Not the time for quiet contemplation, NightLife is a fun way to see San Francisco’s greenest museum, the recently reopened California Academy of Sciences, for more than half off. (These evenings have been such a hit other museums are following suit. This Chronicle article has a list of other institutions’ nighttime programming.)

What: NightLife at the California Academy of Sciences

Who: Anyone 21 and over

When: Thursdays from 6 pm to 10 pm

Where:  55 Music Concourse Drive, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco

How much: $10 per person. (Prices are going up to $12 in September.)