It's that time of the year again! Yes, it's the Balboa Park Ethnic Food Fair! This is one of my favorite events to attend. Bert and I went even before TC was born. It's more fun with her now because she has the opportunity to try all kinds of foods. We're big believers in trying something at least one and going out of our culinary comfort zone. Otherwise, what is the fucking point, right? Anyhow, here's an older posts from 2007 and 2006 (sans photos) here and here.
Since I was going through treatment last year, I wasn't really supposed to go out in crowds due to my suppressed immune system. I had just lost all of my hair and would get tired easily. Furthermore, what sucked big time was that I wasn't supposed to risk eating out a lot either because the doctor didn't want me to catch anything from unwashed fruits or vegetables or whatever. So, last year, we had to sit this one out...This year, we were back...with a vengeance! Plus, we brought TC's friend and her Robsessed mom... We planned to meet another family there as well. We made sure to get there super early, like around 10:30'ish am.
Of course, I made a beeline for the House of Puerto Rico for these...
Pastelillos - these are huge empanadas with a nice, flaky crust and they are filled with beefy goodness!
My friend bought the girls Churros from the House of Mexico. A lot of food items were priced higher than normal since this was a fund raiser for the different Ethnic Houses at Balboa Park. Let's put it this way, churros at Costco are way cheaper than this version, but the girls enjoyed their little snack...
While we were perusing the booths, Bert held down our picnic site with the other family. Our plan was to switch off, but it later became tedious and stressful for me, because the compulsive streak in me wanted to make sure pix of the food and booths were taken. I felt lost without my camera. We never did get anything from House of Hungary that day. We had tried their sausage sandwiches in the past and the lines were always super long. They were quite popular that day as well.
I remember going here a couple of years ago and buying a couple of evil eye bracelets for me and TC...
In fact, someone was selling bracelets again. I bought two for the girls. They had big blue eveil eye beads interspersede with spacer beads with links for charm dangles. They loved it. I should have bought one for myself. At $5 a bracelet, I thought that was reasonable especially since I didn't know when I'd be seeing those again and also because I don't make bracelets (just earrings).
I bought some Borek at the House of Turkey. These were pretty damn small. I rememeber the big frisbie sized borek I got in Astoria, NYC last year. It was as big as a plate! But I still liked these, even though they were bite sized. Borek is a type of pie made with flaky phyllo dough and filled with either meat, cheese (usually feta) and/or spinach. These were the spinach and cheese borek. Every time I said 'borek', it would elicit a giggle. Sounds like Borat, maybe?
Bert went off to the House of Scotland where these kindly kilted gentlement served him the combo plate...
These were the sides for the Scottish combo plate. The green stuff were cucumbers and the pink stuff were strawberries. The last item on the end was barley.
Here's Bert's combo plate...Peas (which looked liked they came out of a can), mashed potatoes with gravy, meat pie, cut up apples and barley. I had a tiny bit of the meat pie and it was pretty bland. Not so good. The peas were kind of gross too. It reminded me of elementary school cafeteria food. Bert liked his plate but agreed with me on the peas.
Next to the House of Scotland was the House of China selling dim sum. Usually we skip booths like China, the U.S.A., the Philippines, and Mexico whenever we go to this event. We figure we can get that type of food anytime...
A couple of years ago, I think we tried House of India...I got all excited because I didn't see anyone in line...
Turns out that they weren't ready yet. Damn it.
This book is always good for home made desserts. Plus, they were seeling their dessert plates for $2.50 instead of $3.00 a plate like some of the other European houses.
The swirly pastry is poppyseed. The dark colored one had rum in it. The last pastry was buttery and had a cherry preserves on top...My favorite was the poppyseed - it had a tiny bit of crunch to it with the tiny ground up poppyseeds. Just don't test my pee - it might have opiates in it. Ha ha.
I had my eye on this booth:
Especially on the Kefta Combo plate:
Workers putting my plate together:
Various pastries at the House of Lebanon...Most were baklava type things.
I complimented them on their juice containers. The lady told me that she got them from Costco! Those look really cool and elegant.
The kefta which was baked meat (beef, I hope) with potatoes, tomatoes, and a rich creamy sauce...
It was served with 2 pita wedges, rice, and hummus. TC really liked this and ended up eating most of the rice and aboug 1/3 of the meat. I was happy that she was willing to try it and even enjoyed it. That goes to show you that if you give kids the opportunity to try new things, they can develop more sophisticated palates instead of that fried shit that fast food joints try to pawn off as "kid" food.
Close up of the borek:
We saw a couple of our friends working the Philippines booth (they aren't in this picture):
I'm glad they finally changed the name to just "The Philippines" because it used to be House of the "Philippine Islands" for the longest ass time. The Philippine Islands moniker is a colonial term given to the Philippines during the Commonwealth Period (1934-1946). One of my Pinay colleagues (she's older and left the Philippines after the 1986 coup) gets really rankled when people refer to the Philippines as "PI" (as in Philippine Islands). Not only that, PI is also a slang term for a pretty bad Filipino curse word: "putang ina mo", literally translated as "your mother is a prostitute/whore").Quick history lesson - The Philippines was a colony of Spain from 1565 up until the turn of the century. After over three centuries of Spanish rule, the Philippines changed colonial masters. Spain sold the islands for $12 million under the Treaty of Paris and transferred their island possession to the United States. The country was called The Philippine Islands up until 1946, after the end of WWII and after the Philippines was given its freedom by the US. The country now is officially called the Republic of the Philippines (or RP), but most people just call it the Philippines. Okay, let me get off my soap box now.
My other friend bought lumpia for her son:
The other friend bought the combo plate from the Philippines booth. You have your staples: rice, chicken adobo, lumpia and pancit (bihon, in this case).
From the House of Panama, Bert bought two sausages on a stick. I don't remember what these were called, but man, they were hot!!!! They had some serious pepper action going on in there. I took a bite and saw pepper seeds in the cross section! The sausage had a good snap when you bit into it also! This was one of the best things I tasted that day!
From the House of Columbia, some sort of fried dough. Bert was the one who got this, so I don't know the name of this exactly. Either way, it cooled our mouths down between bites of that red hot sausage on a stick! We offered some to our friends. The women were a bit reluctant. One of the husbands was pretty game and tried a few bites of the sausage.
Cross section of fried dough thing:
This was from House of Peru - it's also a version of fried dough, but it was drenched in Honey. That's my bag in the background. The brand is Tokidoki, season - Winter 2008, style Graziosa messenger bag, name of print - Celebrazione...It's one of my favorites and I always get compliments on it wherever I go. Kids seem to love it too. My fave characters include Donutella and the Disco ball head guy.
Mmmm...Peruvian doughnut!
This is my boombox bag with working speakers (half off last December when Karmaloop.com was slashing prices). Cool, ain't it? TC was borrowing it that day. You can plug in any mp3 player in there and it will play the music through the speakers, which aren't that strong. It's not BOSE quality okay, but it will do if you want to hear music. I had it on full blast but the music was drowned out by the noise of the crowd that day. There were lots of people in the park having a great time and enjoying the diverse food offerings.
Here's House of Peru again...we saw their doughnuts earlier...
But now, you will see the Anticuchos, or Beef Heart on a Stick! And it's served with creamy potatoes! Bert and I debated on getting this. Everytime he checked the booth, they kept telling him it wasn't ready. One of the moms ended up getting it for him while she was out with our kids. There it is...
Since the heart is a pretty tough muscle, I expected this to be pretty tough. It tasted irony too. Very chewy. I could only manage a few bites but Bert and the other dad's (mostly Bert though) ate this. It was seasoned well, I have to say.
From the House of Finland - vanilla ice cream with strawberries.
From the House of Germany, the Death by Chocolate cake. It also had orange zest on top. This was pretty dense and chocolatey, but I 've had better. I was pretty full by the time this made the rounds...
Our friend's Choripan (Chorizo sausage in bread or 'pan') from the House of Argentina. The green stuff you see is Chimichurri, the sauce Argentinians use with everything, especially grilled meats! Chimichurri is made from made from finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, vegetable oil, white or red vinegar and red pepper flakes. It's so good!
This guy had grill duty:
At some point, Bert and I took a quick walk to the Prado to get a gift card for a co-worker...That building you see will lead you to the Prado. There is a horse statue on the far left and the building in the very back is the Museum of Art.
The California Tower:
Sensory overload? I know, it was a long post! This event was a success in my book and we are making sure to return again next year! I still think House of the Philippines should sell Balut and Diniguan! My favorites this year - as always, the pastelillos from Puerto Rico, the sausage on a stick from Panama and the Kefta from Lebanon! The Latin American countries get a big "Win" from me for their flavorful food and interesting offerings (beef heart on a stick!)!!!
