I LOVE "Taste of...." festivals! Regardless of which city name follows the "of", these "Taste of...." festivals give locals and visitors a chance to discover a city in a way that touring museums and other local tourist attractions can't begin to match. What can be more attractive than food, after all? When you taste the food of an area, you are sampling the various cultures and unique local ingredients that combine together in a way that is simply magical!
A couple friends and I decided to take our lunch break last week and explore the festival. It was overcast and threatened to rain down any minute, but there was much to explore and savor. We began by sampling some Indian cuisine. I found it somewhat disappointing--I have friends from India and their food absolutely has a kick to it---what I sampled at the festival had been "tamed down" to provide a wider mass apeal. Pity. We sampled falafel from two different vendors, and all agreed that King David's was much more favorful than the fare we sampled from a Greek vendor. My friend Darla is a competitive BBQ'er, so a stop by the smoker was a definate must-go-to destination. We passed on the garbage plate (if you're not from Rochester, it's hard to explain, other than it is a local "delicacy") and the frozen margharita (we did have to go back to work, after all) and opted for some fresh fruit dipped in chocolate for a treat.
By the time we headed back to the office, rain clouds had opened up and we got drenched! We returned to work looking more like participants in a wet tee shirt contest than a group of friends who had just enjoyed a walking buffet lunch....but with such good eats, did anyone really care what we looked like when we got back?
No comments:
Post a Comment