World A'fair

This past weekend John and I met some friends downtown at the Convention Center for the World A'Fair. It's a HUGE international festival where countries represent themselves at booths with food and wares to sell. There are dance and musical performances and lots of other things to see. I have wanted to go every year we've lived here and finally made it. Mostly, we were headed there to eat. Well, we also watched some dancing too. We saw the Greeks dance, which was basically them grape-vining around in a circle. We saw the Indian dancers which my friend teaches. They were really good! Cute little girls in colorful costumes dancing to a happy song. But my favorite was the Scottish group. There's not much else I like more than a good Scottish step dance. I could watch that for hours. Do you think it's too late for me to learn how to do this? The calves on those kids! So much jumping! Kilts! After them, we left when the southern Slavs took the stage. Their music and dance were super depressing. After the first song, the narrator talked about how the music told the story of a girl searching for her lost love but would never find her. Pass! Onto the food......

We wanted to sample cuisine from around the world so we weren't planning on getting a full meal anywhere, just nibbles from everywhere. Here is the caloric embarrassment we consumed. Keep in mind that John and I split everything. That makes it better.....right?

• Philippines - Banana Roll: this is basically mushed banana in an egg roll. We started off sweet unintentionally


• Columbia - Arepas: This is cheese melted inside cornmeal cakes and fried on a griddle. Yes, please!


• Hungary - Cabbage Roll: I only had one bite of this to appease John. I don't like cabbage. Not even in roll form


• Ethiopia - Lemonade: I have a sneaking suspicion that Ethiopia cannot take credit for the invention on lemonade but I was super thirsty by now. Let me tell you something, here in the states, Ethiopians move S-L-O-W. They will also hand you your cup of lemonade and then re-fill a cup shoved in their hands by some thug who will stand way too close to you before they take your money. They will then give you all ones in change for your $20. At a snail's pace. Also, their lemonade has zero flavor.


• Korea - Bul Go Gi: This is kind of like teriyaki beef. It was tasty!


• Vietnam - Fried Rice and a Shishkabob: Fried rice in Vietnam is the same as everywhere else. I couldn't tell you what kind of meat was on that kabob but it was good. Also in Vietnam, I inadvertently cut a line of about 15 people to get this food. I honestly had no idea what I had done until I was walking away. Then, I felt really dumb and should have apologized to everyone behind me...but didn't.


• Southern Slavs (all lumped together over there) - Kifle and Rum Ball: We were looking for something sweet. This was cheap and didn't disappoint.


• Scotland - Shortbread: Like the dancing, this was the highlight of my day. Is there anything better than a cookie full of butter? I don't think so.


• Holland - Appelflappen: This is an apple slice fried and then doused in powdered sugar. De-lish! Also it's super fun to say.

I'm not sure how much we spent on all this. Nothing was more than a couple bucks. It was $5.00 to get in with the Kroger discount tickets. So, all in all, a fun day!

What are your plans for the upcoming holiday weekend? We're having a stay-cation! There will be shopping and eating and drinking. Hopefully you can find something equally as fun to do!

P.S. I just discovered that Blogger has spell check, after 2 1/2 years. I am a great speller but I know I've had typos in the past. My apologies.