You can buy a kale salad for $12 at this year’s Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. (Luke Ramseth/Staff)
All of the usual festival food staples are here this weekend at Coachella: Burgers, fish tacos, pizza and gyros.
There are also kale salads, pastas and spiced chick pea dishes from Los Angeles-based restaurant Crossroads Kitchen.
Crossroads is just one of a slew of high-end pop-up restaurants added this year to The Terrace food section of the festival. Most of the new additions hail from the greater Los Angeles area, though Stripped Back is based in London and Salt & Straw Ice Cream calls Portland home. All of the new additions focus on using local and sustainable ingredients.
I was feeling brave, and went with the kale yesterday afternoon. It came on a little cardboard plate, included pine nuts, currants, a strong lemon basil vinaigrette — and it cost $12. At Crossroads, this was the cheapest thing on the menu.
It was tasty, though the powerful lemon vinaigrette became a tad overwhelming after awhile — a likely side effect of needing a dressing strong enough to drown out that bitter kale flavor.
My recommendation: Give the fancier pop-up tents like Crossroads a go, but don’t ditch the greasy festival staples altogether. The $8 lamb gyro I had last night was mighty tasty — and it was just a tad more filling than that little kale salad.
What should I should try today? Tweet at me, @lramseth, or shoot me an email, lramseth@pe.com.