Ok, so for yet another Festival we didn’t make it to *all* the food booths…but since there were four of us we tried a lot of different things.

Favorites:
Laura: Lamb slider (New Zealand), Chilaquiles (Mexico)
Lee: Chorizo Quesadilla and Chilaquiles (Mexico), Kielbasa with Potato Pierogi (Poland)
Sherry: Wild Mushroom Soup (Poland), Boston Crab Cake (Sam Adams), Pot Stickers (China)
Jim: Beer, Leek and Goat Cheese Quiche (France), beer, Seafood Gumbo (Louisiana) (and did he mention the beer?)

What we tried:

Cheddar Cheese Soup – This is one of Lee’s favorites every year, and Sherry enjoyed it, too. A little too rich for me, and a small serving for the price ($3.25).
Maple Glazed Salmon with Roasted Corn and Arugula – Another offering that Lee has every year. I find the smell of the salmon cooking as you walk by to be unpleasant. The roasted corn and arugula salad served with it was good.
Boston Crab Cake with corn and barley salad – Lee and Sherry enjoyed these – lots of crab and not so much cake (which is why I *don’t* like them!).
New England Lobster Roll – Expensive at $7, but it’s pretty good-sized. Sherry and Jim enjoyed it.
Cajun Crawfish Etoufee – Jim said this was quite good, and a bit spicy. (He got and ate this while Sherry and I were watching Serveur Amusant, so I didn’t get a picture.)
Seafood Gumbo (shrimp, crab and catfish stew) – ditto.
Praline Bread Pudding with Bourbon Caramel Sauce – Lee loves bread pudding, and he enjoyed this. (Ditto on the no picture explanation.)
Grilled Beef with Chimichurri sauce – Lee also enjoyed this last year. I can’t eat the beef, but the potatoes that come with it are good.
Spicy Beef Empanada – I think Lee had these two different times.
Chilaquiles (baked tortillas with chicken and cheese) – A perennial favorite! Very tasty (I like the mildly spicy green sauce) and a generous serving for $4.00. We all enjoyed this one.
Quesadilla con Chorizo (spicy sausage and cheese tortilla) – Lee enjoyed this one, too.
Quiche au Fromage de Chevre et poireaux (goat cheese and leek quiche) – I liked this one – it had the nice goat cheese tang. I couldn’t taste the leeks, though.
Creme Brulee Chocolat au Lait (milk chocolate creme brulee) – Chocolate? WHAT chocolate??? I couldn’t taste any – this was very disappointing.
Apple Strudel – You’d think for $2.75 they could give you something a little bigger.
Spanakopita – Sherry and I tried these – she liked it, but it was a little too “spinachy” for me. Too much spana, not enough kopita. 😉 (And no picture because it was the first thing Sherry and I had that first evening, and we were starving!)
Boxty with bacon chips and Kerrygold garlic and fresh herb butter – Basically a potato pancake with onions cooked in butter. LOTS of butter. I think this has no redeeming qualities whatsoever – but it was really good.
Irish Cheese Selection (Reserve Irish Cheddar, Dubliner and Ivernia Cheese) with Apple Chutney and Brown Bread – These were excellent – I couldn’t tell you which cheese was which, but Sherry seemed to know – she and Jim especially enjoyed the Dubliner. I thought they were all good!
Cream Puff with Mascarpone and Gianduja Chocolate – Sherry tried this and said it was very good – so good that I don’t think she even offered to share… 🙂
Chilled Tomato and Garlic Soup – Pretty much like the description. Not bad, but there are other things I enjoyed a lot more.
Creamy Wild Mushroom Soup – Sherry tried this and said it was good, even though it doesn’t look very appetizing!
Kielbasa with Potato Pierogies with caramelized onions and sour creme – I think we all tried and enjoyed these – we had them at least twice. I ate the pierogi and onions and gave the kielbasa to Lee.
Pastelon de Amarillo (beef and yellow plantain casserole) – Jim and Lee enjoyed this, and at $2.75 for a very generous serving it was a bargain!
Cheese: Asiago Pressato, Italy, Manchego, Spain – Not as good as the Irish cheeses, but still tasty.
Durban Spiced Chicken on a Skewer with coconut milk-infused root vegetables – They were a little skimpy on the chicken, but it came with a nice serving of the root vegetables. I didn’t taste any coconut milk, though.
Samosa with Tamarind Sauce (spicy pea and potato pastry) – A little bit of a kick, but very tasty!
Shrimp in a red curry sauce over rice – Jim and Sherry tried this – good, but nothing they raved about.
Mango Mousse – Lee ate most of this one…mostly what I remember about it is that it was very sweet.
Spicy Tuna Roll – Sherry enjoyed this.
Chicken Sha Cha – It seemed like a larger serving than I remembered in past years, and was flavorful and not dry.
Pork Pot Stickers – Sherry especially liked these.
Bay Scallops with baby greens and cranberry vinaigrette – This was not quite what Lee and Sherry were expecting from the description – it was a salad with pieces of scallops. The salad part was good, and it’s always nice to see something green for a change!
Lamb Slider in a brioche roll – One of my favorites every year. They were fairly generous with the lamb this time.
Pepperberry Prawns on the barbie with sweet potato hash – Lee and I enjoyed this – the prawns had a nice flavor and the hash was good, but there wasn’t very much of it.

Overall Impressions:

It was nice to see the food booths spruced up and painted a little bit differently this year, to go with the Cities in Wonderland theme. (And if you click on that link you’ll hear our friend Paul do his “Tables in Wonderland” line. 🙂 )

I thought the prices were fairly unchanged from last year, and there were definitely several items that provided large servings at a low price. (Of course there were also a few I felt were overpriced.)

The food quality seemed quite good to me – in previous years we’ve gotten chicken and other items that were dry from sitting around too long, but we didn’t have that issue this year.

I was disappointed in the dessert offerings – there was nothing that wowed me. Most of the desserts I didn’t even try because they weren’t appealing. And the milk chocolate creme brulee was especially disappointing.

That’s about it – we’re already looking forward to eating our way around the world next year!

(Note to self: For future reference do NOT write about food before lunchtime…I’m starving!!!)