Today, Sustainable Ballard, in its tenth year of operation, is an all-day (11am-6pm) festival in the Ballard Commons Park extolling the virtues of living sustainably and responsibly in a world ever more consumptive and wasteful. As you can imagine, the booths (canopies, actually) promote everything from energy efficiency, solar power, alternative medicine, local farming, sustainable agriculture, water conservation and alternative forms of transportation. Entertainment is being provided throughout the day. Even Mayor McGinn made an appearance to wish the festival a happy birthday.
And, of course, there are the food booths. And beer, which may be a form of sustainable energy or alternative form of transportation (pardon the cheekiness).
One food cart here was Bing of Fire which specializes in making a northern Chinese breakfast street food, jianbing. Its popularity derives from being intriguingly sweet, salty, spicy, savory and crispy. BOF’s version (☆☆½) is a giant crepe, topped with a raw egg then smeared, chile sauce, savory brown sauce and green onions, then folded over a rectangle of fried crispy cracker (baocui) and a frankfurter. The last item, of course, is a stand-in for a Chinese sausage that is not readily available here. I couldn’t quite separate its ball-park flavor from the otherwise Chinese ones, but for a sausage that might’ve been better grilled, it was a good and different food item. The crèpe was quite large, hard to hold and eat at the same time, which is the reason it was served in a paper sandwich bag.
Bing of Fire food cart is currently at Westlake Park on Mondays and Wednesdays.
zoomeboshi 
Leave a Reply