Restaurateur Row Gets a Taste of O.C. Crowds : Festival: More than 30,000 attend the first two days of the event in Irvine, which features dozens of eateries and many musical acts. The benefit winds down tonight with fireworks.

The two girls in pink and peach summer dresses swung their handbags and walked briskly past the many booths, debating pluses and minuses of the foods offered at Saturday’s A Taste of Orange County.

“I swear that looks like a spider,” said Gina Lynch, 13, of Irvine, giggling and pointing to a picture of a fried soft-shell crab above the stall of Tommy Tang’s restaurant. “I’m willing to try new food, but I’m not that brave.”

She and her cousin, Megan Lynch, 11, of Chicago, finally decided on a safe favorite from the Coco’s Bakery & Restaurant booth: fresh strawberry cream tarts.

The girls were among nearly 20,000 people Saturday at the fourth annual food fair. To tempt and entertain the crowd, the event featured 35 restaurants from Orange County, one guest restaurant from West Hollywood, Tommy Tang’s, and 65 musical acts.

There were gyros from Greece, giant prawns from Thailand, sushi from Japan, pizza from Italy--you name it, it was there. Wine, beer, margaritas and Kahlua drinks also were sold.

The event, at the Irvine Spectrum on Irvine Center Drive near Alton Parkway, started Friday evening and ends tonight at 10 p.m., with fireworks at 9. The gates open today at noon. Proceeds benefit charities for children.

Friday evening’s crowd of 11,000 was more than last year’s Friday night attendance of 9,000, said Bob Herman, an organizer.

At the Vietnamese food booth, workers said they did not even have time to eat or rest Friday and were preparing Saturday for a repeat.

“We bought chicken for three days and sold it all” Friday, said Oanh Ress, 45, a member of the Social Assistance Program for Vietnam, a nonprofit organization that was raising funds at the fair.

To decorate the back wall of the club’s stall, she had painted a scene of a temple overlooking a lily pond from central Vietnam. Other booths’ decor ranged from extensive flower arrangements to colorful curtains, from cardboard palace facades to wooden statues.

But the most-photographed booth was of Mrs. Knott’s Restaurant. Workers there had transformed the front of the stall to look like a mini Western town, complete with a saloon and general store flanking the food counter.

People can pose on top of some wooden crates and hay bales or poke their heads through an opening of a “wanted” sign for a horse thief.

Gina and Megan said they were only staying at the fair in the afternoon, or “until our money runs out.”

“I like to see all the different foods and listen to the music,” Megan said.