New York has certainly turned me into quite the little foodie! What can I say though, I enjoy GOOD food! Lucky for me, I’ve had more of my fair share of food festivals to go to recently. Let me start by introducing you to The Great Googa Mooga Festival.
This year was the first event as such for the city and was put on by the same presenters of the food traditions, Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival and the Golden Gate Park’s Outside Lands Festival. The general admission tickets were free, but geting your hands on a pair was no easy feat! The event “sold out” of tickets within minutes of being available online.
The festival took place on some uncharted territory for me, Prospect Park in Brooklyn. The park is outside of Park Slope which is an absolutely adorable part of Brooklyn that is a hot-spot for families. While I’d been to Park Slope one other time I had never actually made it to the park so I was excited for a new adventure. I was pleasantly surprised too! I had no idea how big Prospect Park was! I’m going to go ahead and coin it the “Central Park” of Brooklyn just to compare sizes. On our walk to the festival we even passed a lake and a water fall. We were definitely questioning if we were still in NYC and I must say it was a nice change of pace. After a 10 minute or so walk through the park we made it to the festival entrance. We ended up getting there about an hour after it started and I sure am glad. It was already packed!
After scoping out the booths for 20 minutes or so, I knew exactly where I was going to try some grub. Crif Dogs. I had heard about the place from a couple of friends and have been dying to try their hotdogs ever since and now was my chance! The dog of choice for the festival was their Chihahua, a bacon wrapped hot dog covered with avocado and sour cream. Definitely not a combination I would have ever thought of, but boy was it a unique spin on an American classic!
After we got our first round of food we spread out our blankets and relaxed on the lawn to soak up some rays and listen to the live music. It ended up being a pretty hot day though so we had to keep moving! Moving, moving, moving, movinnggggggg! Moving to the Soul Rolls booth. What’s a Soul Roll you ask? I really couldn’t tell you. No one really could that was in line to order one, but we knew that rapper turned chef, Coolio, was behind the madness and we were willing to give it a shot. The rolls were similar to egg rolls, but were instead stuffed with a mix of beef and vegetables and served with peach or mango BBQ sauce. Again, not entirely sure what was in them, but I can tell you they were good!
By around 4 p.m. the crowds had doubled and the heat was taking a toll on my poor skin so I wrapped up the event and headed back into the city! Besides, I needed to get a little rest before round 2 of food festivals the next day! Oh yes, round 2!
Round 2 of my food festival weekend actually just included one sole mission. Getting a blooming onion. You see, one of the great things about NYC in the summer is there is a street fair every weekend in a different part of the city. I can’t get enough street fairs! There is one street fair that stands out amongst the rest though and that is the 9th Avenue International Food Festival! Why does this one stand out? Two words. Blooming onions. I discovered them last year and have pretty much been counting down until this year’s festival since.
BINGO! Found them! It was funny too because the guy making them was the same guy from last year! He sure knows what he’s doing. And after eating this heavenly goodness I realized it was time to throw in the eating weekend towel!
