Today I went to the Taste of Syracuse festival for lunch. This is a festival where a lot of restaurants and some community organizations have food. Most booths just have a few things, like they will have a smaller fair version of some typical food from their restaurant. Many places also have a tiny sample portion for one dollar. Mostly people will eat small amounts of food from several different places, kind of like eating at a tapas or small plates restaurant.
This is the scene as seen from the Chase Building, at lunchtime on Friday.
At first it is overwhelming because there's so many things to try. I was in the mood for Asian food so I went to the New May Lai booth which is in the area near the main stage. I had the Cold Rolls (3.50) which were ok. They are spring rolls with a dipping sauce. They tasted fine but were not wrapped tight enough so were hard to eat. They kind of fell apart. Luckily I had also gotten the Tofu Curry Noodles (3.50) which was excellent - pad Thai style rice noodles with big chunks of tofu and vegetables. The curry was mild and sweet and not overpowering. I recommend this one!
My husband got some red beans and rice from Ruby's Soul Food. He liked it but it was a bit too much food Then he got kielbasa from Eva's European Sweets, which he said was tender and succulent, despite not being the hugest fan of ki
elbasa. That was just a small dollar size sample which included a small slice of bread, several slices of kielbasa and sauteed onions and peppers.One of the problems with taste of Syracuse is there's not that many places to sit. We did find a bench to sit on to eat at first but it's kind of hard to eat without a table. Then a space cleared at a nearby picnic table so we grabbed it. For the last leg of our meal we went in an enclosed eating space with tables.
This year, you need to have a special wrist band to get alcohol, and for most drinks you need to purchase drink tickets. The small wineries sell drinks for cash too. Of course you can still go to bars downtown if you wish - there's Wild Will's and Kitty Hoynes nearby.
There are a lot of non-food vendors and businesses, including phone and insurance companies, the New York State Lottery, jewelry, clothing and several radio stations.You can get a map and a complete list of vendors and information at the official Taste of Syracuse site
The festival starts at lunchtime on Friday and continues on until it ends Saturday night. There's no festival on Sunday.
2 comments:
i had the patatas bravas from zambroso (?), empanadas from las delicias, spring rolls from mai lan, coleslaw from doug's fish fry, and a lobster roll from charlie's. everything was pretty good. i especially liked mai lan's spring rolls, but agree, they fell apart in your hands. the lobster roll was ok. it's hard to find these outside of new england so i knew i was taking a gamble getting one in 'cuse. it was just cut up lobster meat with a small amount of mayo on a plain hot dog bun. sort of a let-down. i was kind of expecting something a bit more (chopped celery, a lettuce leaf, a grilled bun or something).
i didn't stay for too long, but the event was a lot of fun. the crowd wasn't too bad, but when people stood in line it blocked people from walking, so i think they should spread out the vendor boundaries a little bit (maybe stretch the festival down w fayette and w washington streets instead of having everything so cramped). i think it would open up the space a little bit, get people walking, offer more places to sit, etc...
all and all it was a fun time.
I agree I'd like to see it stretched out more, and with more places to sit and better line management.
We went back briefly Friday night and I wanted to get a wine slushie just to try one, but I couldn't figure out where the end of the line was and it was kind of a free for all. I don't mind waiting patiently but I want to know that I'm in the line and that people won't be cutting in front of me.
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