Sabbatical Flashback 4: Baltimore Festivals: Pridefest

When I originally started this blog in 2006, my goal was to explore area ethnic and cultural festivals. It ballooned into something much, much bigger. But I did spend the first summer of the blog's existence going to festivals and writing about my experiences. One of my favorite festivals is Baltimore Pridefest (that includes the Saturday Block Party, whose mayhem has grown on me). I enjoy it because it is a chance to get together with my fellow gays and lesbians, as well as area bisexuals, transgendered and straight Baltimoreans, and celebrate our community. That also includes LGBT artists, drag performers, activists and musicians, including the below-mentioned Men's Chorus, of which I am now a member.

It is not, however, for the food.

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Baltimore Festivals: Pridefest

(originally posted Sunday, June 17, 2007)

I headed over to Droodle Park today for Baltimore's gay pride festival (avoided yesterday's block party like the plague - I don't care if they're gay or straight - a thousand people in the same small space sharing twelve trash cans make a mess). By "gay pride," of course I mean gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trisexuals (?), Homo sapiens, carcino... oops, got stuck in that song from Rent again.

GLBT pride festivals are known for many things, some more stereotypical than others: dykes on bikes (their name, not mine), guys in leather, drag queens, drag kings, shirtless men of all ages (both fit and not), middle-aged lesbian couples with their dogs in tow, couples walking hand in hand where they are not otherwise able without getting beaten. Pride festivals are less known for many things which, actually, are quite prominent at these events: many same-sex couples with children, lots of gay Christian and Jewish groups (I even saw a table for GLBT Buddhists), information about adoption, HIV prevention, GLBT community centers, super-cheesy promotions (Win a vacation today! Free single from the new Hairspray movie), a few straight couples there for a variety of reasons, and vendors selling what one friend and former colleague back in San Bernardino, CA, liked to call "rainbow-colored crap" - and why not? Gay people (though not the ones I knew in California) have money to spend on that stuff, right?

So true, you cannot get away from the ubiquitous rainbow-colored crap at these events.

And there are two things I have never seen at previous Baltimore Pridefests. One, the inevitable protesters (much more common in Cali), and two, edible food.

I found neither today.

As to the edible food: last year I did see a booth manned - womaned? womynd? - by staff at the Yabba Pot, Baltimore's only vegan soul food place (once on St. Paul, now in Pigtown - head's up, Fairfax!). As y'all have figured out, I am no vegan. But I will eat vegan food if I think it'll taste good. I got some jollof rice there once with some Nigerian spinach and vegan macaroni and "cheese." This last item was one that the master chef talked about on WYPR's Mark Steiner show a few years ago. She said she found a recipe that mimicked the consistency and flavors of good mac and cheese, but was completely vegan. Sadly, it was just as fattening as regular mac and cheese, she noted.

The Yabba Pot was not there this year. But lots of crappy festival food was. Stomach grumbling, I tried to find something halfway edible, preferably something that would capture the spirit of a gay pride festival. In retrospect, average, lackluster food captures the spirit of gay pride festival food to a tee, even if not the festival itself.

Amid the dizzying array of straight-owned (not that there's anything wrong with that) concession stands - Thai, Chinese, crabcakes, hot dogs, funnel cakes, cheese steaks - I found a familiar site, Constantine's Greek Kitchen. These guys, if I recall, were also at Honfest last weekend and at the St. Anthony Festival in Little Italy (a logical place to sell souvlaki and dolmas, no?). It seemed like a sign; I chose them for lunch. I almost got the dolmas (a small helping for $4), or the souvlaki for $8. But the fascinating "crab melt pita" (again, $8) caught my attention, so I tried that. And it's painfully simple, but potentially decadent: a pita, topped with melted shredded three cheeses mixed with crab meat - no, not the lump stuff. Again, potentially decadent. This was kind of unexciting. But I didn't have high expectations, and it was a nice , uniquely Baltimorean change for festival food.

I was mostly done, taking in more marriage equality booths and, again, rainbow-colored crap, until I meandered back to the food section. Lo and behold, my eyes alighted on "Rita's Deep Fried Twinkies." I initially gagged and walked off, but then it dawned on me: I will never order one of these things again. Why not be the good, brave scientist and try one of these fried Twinkies I've heard so much about? So, five minutes and $2 later (plus $1 for a bottled water), I had the hot, steaming fried Twinkie, drizzled in chocolate and powdered sugar, in my hands. I had to sit under a tree and try this. The Twinkie started falling off its stick, but when I bit into it, this thing was surprisingly tasty. Much more so than a regular Twinkie. It did fall apart, so I had to spear the individual pieces, now resembling the remnants of a tempura ice cream sans the ice cream, and eat them that way.

It was sinful and decadent. And I will never eat this again.

I left Pridefest, having (to my surprise) run into a high school friend (little did either of us know). With the Baltimore Gay Men's Chorus singing in the background, I made the umpteen-mile trek back to my car, Hairspray movie paraphernalia and rainbow-colored crap in tow.

Other photos:

The Baltimore Gay Men's Chorus, steering clear of cloying showtunes and sounding quite good.

It's pretty rainbow-colored crap, but it's rainbow-colored crap nonetheless.

Cookbooks I Found at the Bawlmer Book Festival

I haven’t had any time to write about the delicious food I had or the many books I bought at the Baltimore Book Festival. I went mainly to see Tim Gunn, he of Project Runway and Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style. Doofus boy only realized as he got in the looooooong line to see him that I needed a copy of his new book! And they were out of them at his table. So I just went into a nearby booth and snapped a photo (a little tacky, but oh well). After that I went book huntin', and then sought out some sustenance, finding it at adjacent wine and soul food booths (fried fish, greens and sweet potatoes? Hush my mouth, that's good!)

Between giving up on Il Gunn and similarly giving up on a walk to the top of Mt. Vernon’s Washington Monument, I bought myself some cookbooks, among several other books. Also that day: a 2005 Frommer’s travel guide to Atlanta (20 cents) in case I can scrounge up the moolah, the book Dry by Augusten Burroughs (same price), and a fake travel guide to the mystical country of Phaic Tan (get it?) for $4.

Among my neat new cookbooks:

The New York Cabbie Cookbook by Mary Ellen Winston and Holly Garrison (Philadelphia: 2003, Running Press). Cost to me: $3

What a good way to cram an international, multicultural array of recipes into one cookbook: ask New York cabbies for their favorite recipes from their homelands (including the United States). Over 120 recipes from Greek avgolemono to Egyptian fried porgy to Senegalese egg and beef stew with veggies.

Food Editors’ Hometown Favorites Cookbook edited by Barbara Gibbs Ostmann and Jane Baker ( USA: 1984, Dial Publishing Co.). Cost to me: $3

Just like the cabbie book does for international recipes, so this book does for regional US cuisine. And like that book, it is organized not by locale but by type of dish – meat, veggie, soup, dessert, etc. Collected from newspapers and food reviewers all over America.

The Onion Book: Bounty of Culture, Cultivation and Cuisine by Carolyn Dille and Susan Belsinger (Loveland, CO: 1996, Interweave Press). Cost to me: 20¢

Tons of onion recipes, both showcasing them as the main ingredient and as a key background player in another dish. Not much more to it than that. NB: this copy is signed by Susan Belsinger! In ink!

All New Sophie Leavitt’s Penny Pincher’s Cookbook by Sophie Leavitt (Hanover, PA: 1978, published by the author). Cost to me: 20¢

Tons of recipes, laid out not with ingredients followed by procedures, but all mixed together. Presumably, it is written specifically to save y’all (and me) money!

One more y’all should get: Adam Roberts’ The Amateur Gourmet book. Not quite a cookbook, more like a book-length version of his blog. Funny. I bought this at Books-A-Million, not the Book Fair.

Other photos:

The Elegance gave me wine - and left a not-so-subtle hint about a tip (I wasn't going to leave one because I wasn't too thrilled about their service, but the reaction to my stiffing them on the tip was so funny that I gave in). The "FRIED FISH - FRIED SHRIMP" folks gave me, well, fried fish. And greens and sweet t'paters. Mmmm.

Books for everybody!

This was the beginning of the line for Tim Gunn. And these people remembered to bring books!

Baltimore Book Festival

I didn't even realize this one was coming up. Perhaps because, oh, I have too many books already and, well, I'm trying to find places for them in the new pad and, sheesh, I have so much work to do and so little money to spend!!!

Still...

Maybe I can find a good cookbook, or even better, meet fashion guru and Project Runway regular Tim Gunn at 2 PM on Sunday in the authors' tent!

Festivals of Baltimore: Korean Festival

I've missed too many festivals over the last few months - Ukranian, Nigerian, Jewish (I didn't even know about that one until too late), HampdenFest. I was determined to make it to the Korean Festival, being held today only in front of City Hall.

I think the festival, sponsored by the Korean Society of Maryland, was better laid out this year than a few years ago when I last went - or was it last year? It was somewhere off Calvert the last time I went. This new location is better. What was being offered, however, was sparse: there were the many, many church-run booths serving delicious Korean food, many shoving samples at passersby (and oh were there so many passersby). Nothing akin to the "green-" and "rainbow-colored crap" I found at the Irish Festival and PrideFest respectively. Instead it was all public information booths: the Montgomery County and Anne Arundel County Police Departments, Verizon (?), AARP, Korea Times of Washington, the (South) Korean Consulate, those sorts of booths. And there were performances - an elderly woman singing karaoke, a Korean church choir singing songs in Korean and English (their rendition of the Star Spangled Banner had everybody on their feet - but the anthem usually has that effect on us, now, doesn't it?), Korean War memorial performances (again, tied to the Star Spangled Banner), children (most but not all of whom were Korean) running around ready to perform various Korean martial arts. Three of them almost knocked me and about twelve other people over, not all at the same time!

Of course, I went for the food, and I certainly had my pick (amazingly, Constantine's didn't show). As I usually do at these events, I wanted to look first. But one man and woman attacked me with tasty little Korean pancake samples on toothpicks and little plastic swords. I had to buy some. The woman wasn't sure if I would like them so she tried to get me to taste more. I deferred and just bought a little container for $3 with two kinds of Korean pancakes, with egg and half of them with seafood and veggies, and something written in Korean with the phrase "God is Love" (in English) underneath.

After that I sought out something big. I found the perfect thing right across from the pancakes - but only after circumnavigating the entire festival. From one of the many, many Korean Catholic and Protestant churches I got a large combo plate of bulgogi, fried rice and kimchee. It cost all of $8, and it came with a soda. I could only finish half of it, and saved the rest for my sister (who in a few months may be going to visit her husband, stationed in South Korea with the Army).

I was about to get some dessert when Idiot Boy realized that he left his keys hanging out of his trunk in the parking garage across the street. D'oh! Thankfully it was closer than I had remembered. The keys, the car and its contents were all there intact. Phew. I retrieved my keys and headed back for one more thing.

I wanted dessert but, as I have found out, Korea is not big on desserts (go to a Korean restaurant and look at the dessert menu - there isn't much on it). So I went for something else savory. What I saw was a fish cake soup (eomuk-guk, though their name for it was different, something like kkanchi udong). It featured ladled out fish cakes of all sorts, particularly the large, flat floppy square ones, in a salty, fishy broth. It was $5, and they gave me a very large helping. The fishy flavor was a little surprising, but I've had fish cakes before and I was fine with them. I didn't finish it, but at least I could say I ate it. And if I really had to I would've eaten it. Everything else I just couldn't get enough of.

I will post photos soon. But I'm posting this now so that if you see it you can still get there before it's torn down tonight. After all, today's the only day this is running.

Other photos:

She's just karaoke-crazy!


The US National Anthem, to commemorate Korean War vets


This just tips the iceberg of all the kimbop, kimchee, bulgogi and Korean pancakes you can stuff in your 입.

Festivals of Baltimore: Baltimore Irish Festival

As you may know, there are two Irish festivals in the area: the smallish, more intimate Baltimore Irish Festival in Canton, and the massive Maryland Irish Festival* at the State Fairgrounds in Timonium. The one that just happened was the one in Canton. Last year it replaced the Maryland Irish Festival, which moved - something about it being cheaper in Timonium, or maybe they had a falling-out with then-mayor O'Malley, or something (I don't see O'Malley's March performing at the bigger one, that's all I'm saying - yes, folks, our guv has his own Celtic garage band).

I spent a very short time at the Festival. Didn't get much to eat either. It took about 15 minutes to look around. The usual culprits were there: Maggie Moore's, Tír na nÓg, James Joyce, the nameless booth selling corned beef and cabbage, and a newer place I hadn't heard of called Ryan's Daughter*. I grabbed a Guinness (naturally) and looked at some of the other booths, some from afar, others up close: the "Reunite Ireland" folks, the Little Sisters of the Poor, the Irish Shrine and Railroad Worker's Museum, vendors selling photos, crappy T-shirts and other green-colored crap.

Despite my lack of enthusiasm with Tír na nÓg in the past, theirs was the best food offering for what I wanted to spend - yes, I went cheap this weekend, at least at this festival. Their Irish bangers and mash in whiskey sauce cost me a mere $5. The bangers were soft, the mash was smooth with chunks of cabbage and onion, and the whiskey sauce was tangy and sweet, but not in an orange chicken sort of way. I liked it. But my sister, who declined to go, asked me to bring something back for her. So I ate half the bangers and mash and brought the rest to her. $2.50 for a meal - not bad.

* Why do some Irish pubs have to embed music and video in their pages? It only slows it down and makes it tougher to look at when you're at work.

Other photos:

Hmmm. I seem to have forgotten something but I can't place what it is...


Green-colored crap. Why does every other festival devolve into this?

Uhm, you might want to get to Canton, like, today...

I just double-checked the Irish Festival website to see when they were open tomorrow. They're not. They're open today, not tomorrow. So, if you want to see this, it's now or never!

A Taste of Bethesda / Baltimore Festivals This Weekend

A Taste of Bethesda, a sort of mini-Food Week down in Bethesda on the 6th of October (thanks to DC Foodies for the info). You buy tickets to taste samples from lots of different Bethesda-area restaurants. I think I must investigate this.

A little closer to home, look what's happening this weekend:

* the Ren Fest in Crownsville
* Baltimore's Irish Festival
* Reggae & Brew Festival at the MD Zoo
* Hampdenfest - Saturday only

There are surely a few more. But I only have so many hours in my day. I hope I can get to even one of these!

Maryland State Fair, in haiku

I went and stuffed myself at the Maryland State Fair today. I haven't been in years, and really not much has changed. Still, it was very different for me, because I always experienced different things when I was younger. That and nobody went with me this time, so I could roam around completely unencumbered.

I saw lots and lots of things, and ate lots and lots of things. So much so that I feel compelled to compress it all down, as with Artscape, into haiku form once again.

Light Rail is easy!
Hopped on at Falls Road Station,
There in 5 to 10.

Plus, it lets you off
RIGHT THERE, at the back entrance -
6 bucks to get in.

One senior didn't like that she couldn't get in as cheap as the kids.

Lots and lots of cows
Lots and lots and lots of cows
At the Cow Palace.

I did mention the cows, didn't I?

After that I hit
Maryland's Food Pavilion
All food grown right here!

I started with crabs:
Two small soft shells on a bun.
Tastes better fried, though.

I tried them with horseradish as well as mayo. Was a little overpowering. For $8, I wish it had been better.

Next I went for lamb:
Barbecued for six-fifty -
Tangy, tasty, good.

I had never seen lamb barbecue until today. It won't be the last time.

I got hit by games:
Simpsons, Dora, Family Guy.
Not tempted at all.

How many of me are there? ¡Cuéntame! Let's count me! Uno, dos, tres, cuatro...

You should see those crafts
All in the 4-H Building.
Innovative stuff...

Someone also made a cake out of pink towels. I forget what the judges thought about it.

Those kids do a lot
Of 4-H dioramas
Some clever, some, well...

Come on, you gotta admit this is cute.

I saw lots of crafts
Like quilts, clothes, flow'r arrangements
Crocheted dollhouse - what!?

That's what I said - a crocheted house. With crocheted furniture.

Much food on display,
Lots of prize-winning ribbons
For the state's best food!

I stared at produce,
Jars of pickles, chutneys, jams.
Oh, my mouth watered!

This isn't the half of it.

Then came the baked goods.
I drooled over all those cakes!
Some done by the kids.

Mmmm. Cake.

There were fancy ones,
Chocolate, red velvet, yellow,
Fondant everywhere!

This one had, like, fifty-seven ribbons

Hungry for some cake,
I left, seeking sustenance.
Got corn dog instead.

Greasy, crunchy, sickening, delightful. Ah yes, the North American corn dog ($3).

Finally found some cake,
In the exhibition hall:
Edelweiss Bak'ry.

By this time I was on a serious fat and sugar high, ready to crash any second.

No, I didn't hit
Any of the rides this time.
Not too big on rides.

"If you ever start feeling like you have the goofiest, craziest, most dysfunctional family in the world, all you have to do is go to a state fair. Because five minutes at the fair, you'll be going, 'you know, we're alright. We are dang near royalty.' "
- Jeff Foxworthy

Saw lots of fried things:
Oreos, Twinkies and fudge (!?)
PB Sandwiches (!!!)

Yes, that says "Deep Fried Fudge"

Thus ended my day.
Stuffed, heading back to my car,
With the smell of hay.

Now that's a lotta hay

To see the rest of the photos, click here.

How come I just found out about this?

Baltimore's Jewish Festival is starting up again after a three year hiatus. How come I only just heard about it today? Fortunately, it runs until Monday at Pimlico. Even more so, it's open to goyim, too!

Heads Up, Pigtowners

Look out for this, Fairfax! The Sixth Annual Pigtown Festival is happening on the 700 - 900 blocks of Warshnin Blvd on Saturday, September 8. Don't ya just love this graphic?

Get out and see the Baltimore Powwow!

I am seriously hunkered down this weekend, and sadly I won't be able to get out at all. Missing what is shaping up to be a really cool cocktail party that Rachel at Coconut & Lime is throwing (all those cocktails I will miss - sorry again, Rachel!). And I will miss a festival I've really been looking forward to since, well, the last one, the Baltimore American Indian Center's Annual Powwow at Patterson Park. Powwowers from as far as North Carolina and Pennsylvania will be in town for this great event. Note, there are a few powwows in the area, mostly at college campuses (and the National Powwow happened by the National Museum of the American Indian in DC, while I was in California). There will be one at College Park on Friday, November 2. But for now I'll just have to read about it.

So get out to the powwow this weekend, get some fry bread, some Indian tacos, or a crab pita (Constantine's will probably be there - just a hunch) and watch some powwow dance competition.

Festivals of Baltimore: Nigerian Festival

Just a reminder to get out this weekend and check out this year's Nigerian Festival, sponsored by the Nigerian Youth Association of Maryland. They've been holding the festival since 2001. I've only known about it these past two years, and I have been out of town both times!

So as I sit here, doing my own thing in sunny, sweltering Southern California, I am (this time) living vicariously through y'all. Go have some jollof rice and other great Nigerian food in Patterson Park this weekend. I hear it's free!

Festivals in Rain or Sunshine: International and German Festivals

Today was a good day to get rained on in and around Baltimore. Which sucks if you're a festival goer. There were two this weekend, and I left one when it started raining. I left just before it downpoured. But I got to the second, which was mostly indoors. By that time it didn't matter - the rain had stopped. D'oh!

I'm tired, and I really don't feel like writing that much. So, gifted with the gab as I am, I will nevertheless try to keep my descriptions brief.

International Festival

It was pretty cloudy when I got to Poly Western, where Baltimore's International Festival was held. Right next to the school were lots of rides. Next to those were various information booths - several empty - and kiosks of baskets and African art. Next to those were various food booths, arranged in a U around a central stage. Across the fence from that were a bunch of soccer games composed of teams representing their various countries of origin (last year I saw teams representing Sénégal, Trinidad, El Salvador and South Korea). This year the games didn't stop because of the rain; they stopped because of the lightning.

But before the lightning, I did manage to stop at the South Carolina BBQ and Catering booth (they were also at Artscape), with lots of good Southern, African American and South Carolinian food. I got a yummy pork BBQ sandwich for $6. A few feet away I got a small but filling cup of mango lassi from the Kumari booth. I finished the lassi before it rained. I finished the BBQ in my car, soaking wet.

German Festival

By the time I got to the State Fairgrounds, it had stopped raining. I parked (luckily, so close) and paid the $5. Soccer continued to pervade today's festivals, as a major co-sponsor of this event was the Baltimore Kickers, Baltimore's German-American soccer team (though by no means do you have to be German to join; you do, however, have to try out first). They ran about half of the food and information booths; of the other half, most of them were run by the Edelweiss Club, Baltimore's German-American glee club.

Lots of lovely German products on sale, as well as stuff from as far as Austria, Lithuania and Poland. But I went for the food. And to buy food was to support the Baltimore Kickers and the Edelweiss Club - worthy causes, I would say. I started off with an apple strudel from the Original Strudel Factory (half for $3.75). Next I gave $6.75 to the Kickers for a wonderful plate of knockwurst, saurekraut and potato salad ($6.75). I couldn't finish it; my belly was already full from the BBQ and the strudel. But I forged on for some beer at another booth (I forget who manned it). I had my choice of two lovely beers, Paulaner (a pilsner), and the darker Hacker-Pschorr. I got the HP ($4), which had a nice peppery taste. I left with one more dessert, three topkuss pastries (or "foam kisses," $2) from a local German bakery. It's ridiculously creamy inside. Yum.

Okay, not as short as I had hoped, but shorter than I thought it'd be!

(Oh, and for the record: Constantine's was at the German Festival. Five and counting!)

Other photos:

This is the same South Carolina BBQ & Catering company from the International Festival. They're really from SC but live in Bawlmer. This is them at Artscape.




Strudel - lots and lots of strudel!



The Baltimore Kickers are very involved in this festival, as are the Edelweiss Club and the German Society of Maryland. It was almost as if, like, five of these booths were around.



I didn't get to try anything from the Edelweiss Bakery & Cafe on Harford Road. So I'm at least giving a shout-out to 'em here.



Same with Aunt Iffy's Kitchen at the International Festival (here they are at the Caribbean Festival). I went to the International Festival last year, and had a good goat curry from them. Or was it the jollof rice?



And a traditionally-dressed German-American couple walk off into the sunset, er, light.