Flashback: Maryland State Fair, in haiku (originally posted 9/2/07)

Sticking with this haiku theme, here's a post that is now five years old.  It was one of my early favorites, a trip to the State Fair.  The current one is starting up again today.  More details here.

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Maryland State Fair, in haiku (originally posted September 2, 2007)


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.

Tidbits: Early June Edition

A few items that have been waiting:

* While I wrote the other week about my food truck experience in LA, I never got around to my experience the week before in DC with their food trucks (I did send out Twitter posts about them though). I was specifically seeking the fabled Red Hook Lobster Truck (Twitter: @lobstertruckdc), parked that Wednesday at L'Enfant Plaza metro along with several other food trucks. It sells - what else - lobster rolls. Okay, it also has shrimp rolls, but they're known for the lobster. $15 for a lobster roll but this is absolutely worth it. They have two kinds: the Maine-style lobster roll, which is mayo-based, and the Connecticut-style roll, which is butter-based. I went with the Connecticut-style, and it was just wonderful. I could not stop little pieces of lobster from falling out of the roll, so I just ate those with my fingers - forgetting the obligatory fork, of course. They also have whoopie pies and New England lines of craft soft drinks.

Of course, I had to try the others, but how to do so with only $5 left? Get some small bites! The Fojol Bros (of Merlindia) (Twitter: @fojolbros) serve Indian plates, usually $7 or $8. Don't have that? Get one of their $2 "dingo bites" - sort of like a shot of one dish with rice. I got their silky butter chicken. After a free sample of jerk chicken from Goode's Mobile Kitchen (Twitter: @mobilekitchen), I got a massive side order of chickpeas for only $2 at the Tasty Kabob truck (Twitter: @tastykabob). I'm not kidding about the "massive" part either. This was easily as big as two lobster rolls, and as filling as two dozen of those dingo bites. If you have just two bucks, go to the Tasty Kabob truck, and you will get filled up.

* Heads up: both Baltimore and Washingtonian Magazines have similar themes this month: where to get the cool groceries, find the best butchers, peruse the nicest cheeses and sample the hoppiest beers. Read them for yourself to find out where to get the foods and shopping experiences you've been craving in the Baltimore-Washington area.

* Watching a soccer game at Sláinte Pub soon? Like, maybe, during the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2011 matches this month? (USA 2 - 0 Canada, yippee!) But you want to save some of that food money for beer or dessert? Why not sample the Sloppy Jim? For $10 (on special - it might be more at its regular price), you get a Sloppy Joe-style sandwich on an onion brioche bun, with cheese. And the Sloppy Jim isn't ground beef - it's bison sausage. Mmmm.

* Did you catch the Midday with Dan Rodricks show last week, with the big fried chicken smackdown between Gertrude's John Shields and the Baltimore City Paper's Henry Hong? No??? Check it out on the WYPR website here.

ADDENDUM: Speaking of food on the radio: today's Kojo Nnamdi Show featured a large segment on military food. Watch below as Kojo samples a delicious MRE:

* The last of my bacon-pancetta wot that I made for last year's Great Grapes bacon cook-off (info about this year's Great Grapes festival is here) has been sitting in my freezer - in a freezer ziploc bag - for almost exactly a year. Now? Still good.

Co?! Nr Festiwal Polskich!?

It's true: The Sun reports that after 40 years there just isn't enough money to fund it this year. Now where'm I get my pierogi fix on? Seriously though, it's a sad sign of how the economy is hitting local governments, as the city, strapped for cash, raised fees for the organizers of this and all other festivals in the "Showcase of Nations" series. FestAfrica also opted out.

But even though all is lost for 2011, there may be a Festival next year - at the Fairgrounds. Hopefully it can come back to Patterson Park and the Pulaski Monument at some point in the future, accordion in tow.

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.

✿ ✿ ✿ ✿ ✿

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.

Festivals of Baltimore: Festafrica

I'm glad I was in town this year for Festafrica, Baltimore's yearly celebration of African cultures and the African immigrant community. I'm usually out of town - at least I was the past two years. This year it moved to Patterson Park, and parking was so scarce I had to park on the exact opposite side of the park from the festival. Not that I mind the walk.

Admission for Festafrica was $5, and since I deliberately left my ATM card and all but $20 in cash at home, I had $15 to get me through the festival. Enough, I reasoned, to sample a few foods and maybe buy a souvenir.

Oh, how silly I was to think that!

Compared to other area festivals, Festafrica is relatively modest - though about as big as most festivals held in Patterson Park. And that is despite the two competing stages of music on either side of the festival. Many vendors sold beautiful African and African-American art, including a handful of Kenyan-American "Barack Obama for President" paintings. As for the food booths, these were a bit lower key than most food booths at Baltimore's ethnic festivals. While a handful had official signs advertising their wares, most just had a piece of paper taped to the front of the wooden kiosk with the name of the vendor scribbled on it in marker. Doesn't mean the food isn't still good, of course.

I did the rounds around the Pulaski Monument, mind-boggled at the prices for food, which typically ran around $10 to $12 per plate. Buying just one thing meant I could try nothing else, so I had to hunt for cheap things where I could. But with little exception, most everything I could eat was about $10, so I went ahead and made my first selection. This was a choice between the following:

• a $12 plate of plantain, fish or goat ($10 with chicken) and my choice of plain or jollof rice at the booth of Olangela's Authentic African Kitchen (Is this the same Olangela's?); or
• the three suya plate for $10, courtesy of the Suya Stop.

A nice couple tried to help me figure out what to choose, but to no avail, since one got the suya and the other got the chicken and jollof rice platter. And, of course, each was duly impressed with his or her meal. I finally went on impulse and went with the suya, a Nigerian shish kebab of beef, chicken or some other meat, covered in a spicy peanut rub. The gentleman at the kiosk gave me a plate of three hot, steaming suyas with some chopped-up raw onion.


As far as kebabs go, I really like the suya. The meat is nice and thin, and not at all gristly or even very fatty. Plus, the flavors of the peanut rub - some of just sloughed off onto the plate - were sweet and spicy (picante) at the same time. I would eat this again.


If I don't make it myself, at least I can get it at Olangela's in Waverly, or Peju's in Woodlawn (The latter was recommended to me by one foodie at the Great Tastes exhibition at the beginning of the year, but since I am incompetent with all directions, I have yet to find it).

Since I still had $5 burning a hole in my pocket I went in search of something cheaper. Between a man selling fresh roasted corn, and a yoga and meditation booth (?), I found the Divine Kitchen's booth, selling a cornucopia of Nigerian and West African dishes. Among the standard dishes such as jollof rice ($10), fried fish ($10), grilled chicken (dang, is everything $10) was something I could afford: the moi moi (steamed black eyed pea cake) for $2.50. A Nigerian dish usually wrapped in banana leaves, mine came in a little empanada-shaped aluminum foil pouch. Handy if you can't find banana leaves.


It had a nice, savory, beany flavor, with the consistency of a light but thick bread pudding (if anything can be light and thick at the same time). After having the suya (and eating before I came, so really I was quite full), I knew I wouldn't finish this, so I carried it waaaaaaaaay back to my car. Maybe it'll be breakfast tomorrow.

Other photos:

The concourse facing the African arts. The main stage is out of the range of this photo, to our right. Note the Pulaski Monument on the left side of the photo to orient yourself.

The stage toward the back - the main stage - featured several groups. Here is the Kenyan group Jabali Afrika.

Even as I contemplated the Suya Spot, I was swooning over Olangela's myriad offerings.

When I left, I had to go completely around the festival. On the way, I heard some drumming and was able to get one last photo.

It must be festival season...

I tried to stop by the Charles Theatre yesterday evening to buy tickets to a movie for this evening for the Maryland Film Festival. Silly me, thinking there might actually be parking within walking distance. I thought I might try to drive through Mount Vernon until I saw all the booths lining the streets, and just gave up. I didn't even realize that there were so many things happening this weekend alone. Good luck driving around in the city today:

• The 10th Annual Maryland Film Festival, through Sunday at the Charles, UB and MICA.
• Flowermart 2008!!! Until 8pm yesterday and today. Unless you're Doctor Who, better scratch yesterday off your plans and just try to check it out today.
• The Baltimore Visionary Arts Museum's Kinetic Sculpture Race is going on in Patterson Park today.
• I can't even get around Towson today, because of the Towsontown Spring Festival, going on until Sunday.

Also in town is that big-tech Walking with Dinosaurs show at the Baltimore (sorry: First Mariner Bank) Arena until Sunday, The Color Purple at the Hippodrome for the next few weeks (prompting Oprah to come back to WJZ via satellite for a brief interview with her buddy Richard Sher*), and too much more for me to mention.

One last thing to note by the way. If you are hungry at the Flower Mart or even the Film Fest, you can get some delicious home cooked Greek food at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation from 5 to 8 tonight for just $10 ($6 for children). I mention it not because I am a parishioner (this Catholic boy hasn't been inside an Orthodox church since the Greek Festival last year). I mention it because it's open to the public. So hey, give some money to the church and get some delicious food in the process!

As for those tickets, I'll try again tonight.

*If you're reading from outside the Baltimore viewing area, I'm not kidding about this. I was watching Oprah as a child on my grandmother's TV screen here in Baltimore when she was just one half of People Are Talking with Richard Sher.

UPDATE - Here, have a look: Oprah and Richard with their psychic friend James Randi, on People Are Talking, sometime in 1980.

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?