U.S. Cellular's World Food Festival 2010

Yesterday evening we took a break from fall yard work and went to U.S. Cellular's World Food Fesival 2010, sponsored by Nationwide!

Isn't our capital pretty?

You might notice a recurring theme in 75% of my posts. Food. We like to eat. I don't know if we qualify as 'Foodies' but we have to come pretty close. Would also like to take this moment to thank my mom for forcing us to eat our vegetables as kids and try new things. I highly doubt we'd otherwise have such an open-minded palate!

The festival was free to get in (hooray!). There were approximately 32 booths with several dishes to choose from. I'm sad to say we only hit seven before running out of the predetermined cash budget of 23.00. Truly, we could have made it stretch more as all of the tents offered a 1.00 'taste' option. But we just couldn't resist getting a few pricier dishes.

What did we eat?
Pinoy Food- Pork Siopao(steamed bun with meat) and Lumpia(Filipino style eggroll)

Cafe Fuzion- 1.00 taste Purple Passion Rice(black wild rice steamed and blended in coconut milk and sugar) and Crab Rangoons

Pupusas- El Salvador- Salvadorian Quesadilla(was like a corn bread muffin) and Pork and Cheese Pupusas(pork and cheese mixed into the bread, fried with lettuce and sauce on top)

Indian Delights- Mango Paradise(pureed mango on top of yogurt in a dessert cup)

Turkish American Society-  Borek(a baked pastry made with phyllo and filled with feta cheese and vegetables)

Brasil- Pastel de carne(pastry fried with meat) and 1.00 taste Pao de Queijo(cheese bread)x2

Chocolaterie Stam- gelato(chocolate, watermelon and blood orange flavors)

I took pictures. Of the signs. Like this:

And realized later, I should have taken pictures of the FOOD! But I was distracted by all the smells and far too busy eating to stop and take more pictures. My main concern was taking pictures of the signs so as to be able to look up recipes for the things we ate. There are a few items we will be trying at home and a few new restaurants we'll be trying around town!

The best thing I ate? Can't do it. Can't choose. I loved the Pork and Cheese Pupusas with some green hot sauce on top, the Pao de Queij(which my husband longs for often after having lived in Sao Paulo for 2 years) and the gelato. The gelato was the real stuff. Like, they imported the machine from Italy, real stuff. And I've been looking! For 7 long years I've been looking! No store variety of gelato I've had that claims true Italian taste has come remotely close. So this was probably the most exciting discovery for me. You can bet all the pennies in your piggy bank Chocolaterie Stam is going to get to know me very, very well.

And because he is cute and slept for 2 hours through the whole thing:

The sleeping Boob Man