Underwhelmed

Since I'm working the weekend, I might as well update through the weekend.

At the risk of being chastised for negativity, I have to say I was disappointed with the ethnic festival food festival this year.

I have fond memories of, back when it was still called the ethnic festival, getting beef satay, pierogies, Jamaican jerk chicken, jambalaya, tamales and Wiener schnitzel. A trip through the clip files reminded me of Carribbean chicken and pineapple along with some sort of Dominican stew that was basically curried chicken in a peanut sauce.

I didn't find any of that this year.

That's not to say there wasn't a good selection. Between empanadas, samosas, crepes, barbecue and whatever those Pakistani things are called, I ate well over the last two days. My complaint is, those are all booths that are already at Friday Night Live and/or the farmers market. Most of the booths I noted this weekend that I don't see the rest of the summer were standard, uninteresting burgers-and-dogs type fare.

Maybe I should just be glad that the week-in/week-out offerings have gotten so much better -- I remember when I was hard-pressed to find anything I felt like eating at Friday Night Live -- but I miss the days when the Ethnic Festival brought in food I'd otherwise have to leave Rutland to find.

 

Comments

[Sherylcatmom]

We were ziplining in Jeffersonville in lieu of Ethnic Fest, and wow!

I read your coffee tawk. My husband and I are among those sipping coffee unpolluted (black) and (at least in my case) appreciating it far more than any wine. For us, It’s an addiction, a culinary event, and a ritual.

Spouse roasts our coffee from fair-trade organic green beans, which he carefully selects. When preparing coffee in the morning, he measures the water temperature as it heats and stops it at optimal pre-boiling temp, which I think is around 200F. Then he grinds the beans in a burr grinder, never the mini-grinders with the spinning blade, which just shatters the beans. He adds the coffee and water to a glass French press carafe, times one minute, agitates the carafe a bit, times three more minutes, then plunges and pours.

It’s not coffee – it’s nectar of the gods.