Festival Weekend

Did you miss all of the festivals this weekend? I have to admit, I passed over the AdMo one. I went last year. I had a good time, but mostly because of the shopping in the stores that are always there. The festival itself was only so so. Some cool stuff (but pricey), a lot of random stuff, and so many people you could barely move (but you could certainly sweat to death).

This year Erin and I hit up the Penn Quarter festival instead, and what a good choice that was! It's an arts festival which notably includes the culinary arts. A ton of well known and well respected restaurants in the area set up stands where you can try a signature dish for $1-$3. Then there was a wine tasting (with probably 30-40 wines - score!) for only $7. So here's a run down of all the different foods we got to try:

Ceiba: A pork taco and 2 pork & shrimp spring rolls. Quite tasty. Erin was actually obsessed with her taco. It was good, but I was glad I convinced her to try more stuff instead of just getting another taco.

Rasika: Chole batura which is a chick pea mixture with puffed bread. (I only know this because thankfully they put up a translation.) They made the bread right there, and it was so light and fresh. The chick peas were yummy too, but the puffy bread really made the dish.

701: Braised pork spring rolls with some fresh specialty slaw. Solid, but not particularly mind blowing.



Cafe Atlantico: Their tuna ceviche which I've had before, and it is amaaaaaaaaazing. This was no disappointment. If you haven't had it, go. Now. Eat. Then tell me how right I was.

Aria: Tiramisu and a tomato/artichoke/mozzarella/prosciutto skewer. I got the impression from Erin that the tiramisu was good, but I don't think it could have compared to my skewer. It was really tasty. Everything was well proportioned. (As in it wasn't all tomato and a tiny bit of everything else.) And there was some sort of light, creamy sauce on top that mixed really well with all the flavors. I've never been motivated to try Aria, but I might go now just based on this skewer.


Coco Sala: A lavender chocolate and a milk chocolate/peanut butter/banana pudding thing. (They didn't call it a pudding thing, but I can't remember their schmancy name.) Rave reviews on both accounts. I muuust get to Coco Sala on my next pay check.

Oya: Banana bread pudding. What can I say about this? You cannot go wrong with bread pudding. Einstein proved it is a mathematically impossibility.

Ella's Pizza: We've been there before. It's not too shabby. This was more the same.

If all that is not enough to tempt you to visit next year, there were also awesome crafts (See adorable acorn pirate man below. Have you ever seen a cuter stuffed animal version of an inanimate object?!) great music (Cute boys singing a cappella!) and again a $7 wine tasting. $7! All the wine you can taste! Even if you hate cute things and delicious food, there's no way you can hate on the $7 wine tasting. Do yourself a favor and mark this on the calendar for next year.