On Saturday night (10/18) Doug and I went to a food festival hosted by local high schools. His neighbors took us in their car. When we arrived, there was already a ton of people. The building itself appeared to be a gigantic domed shaped pavilion. Kids were running around in every which way setting up tables.
We stood around for a bit until the event officially started at 7:15. The event was set like the following: each table represented a different country. The students of said country presented samples of foods from this region. Not every country was represented, obviously. But every continent was. There was some very bizarre countries that I never even heard of, at the same time. Some students even dressed up! We started out on the outer circle of tables moving around and then migrating towards the inner displays. I really like that everything was free!!! Everything is better when it’s free.
It was quite a chaotic event simply because there were what seemed like thousands of people! Unfortunately I did not get a chance to sample all of the foods, unless I had wanted to wrestle people for the last of the samples, which I really wasn’t feeling. The food I did get to try was pretty interesting; some good, some bad, and some ugly.
What I thought was interesting was that the U.S.A. table was really popular. They were serving cupcakes and “pigs in a blanket”. I laughed because the pigs in a blanket obviously weren’t authentic, but it was a valiant effort! hehe Oddly enough, the Argentina table was also packed with people! I mean, you guys are IN Argentina, wouldn’t you have had enough “dulce de leche” and bread?…I guess you go with what you know in a place with strange foods hahaha Another thing that I noticed was that people were blown away by the idea of hummus? Apparently no one knew it was made from garbanza beans. And here I was assuming everyone knew what hummus was…silly me, right!
I tried so many things and can’t remember a single name of any dish…One dish I can describe was rice cooked in milk with spices and raisins from Bali. It was yummy, but the spices were a little funky. I would have gone with only cinnamon. I also tried waffles with “maple syrup” from the Canada table. That was interesting, meaning the waffles were very thing and soggy, perhaps from the syrup? But it did taste good! Another thing I really enjoyed was a crepe like snack from the Russia table. It had raspberry jam, whipped cream, and fresh strawberries and blueberries inside!
By the end of the night I felt like someone had to roll me out of that dome, I was so filled with samplings for food from here and there. I also must admit that went back for second samplings to the tables that I liked most…I am really glad Doug invited me to go with him and his neighbors! It was interesting to see this kind of event.
And here we have some memorable moments of the evening!
France Table
Doug and I got to meet President Obama!!! I was a cheerleader and a Doug a baseball player…Typical America, right?
Unknown country…with bruschetta type food sample? It tasted alright. Definitely an acquired taste.
Botswana: coincidently I gave a presentation of this country Sophomore of high school
La primera vez no es la última vez 