A Taste of Bloomington
I am trying to expand my horizons! Last week I bought a cantaloupe, I have never cut up one so it was cool to try it. This week I bought a papaya but it was much more expensive. This weekend was the Taste of Bloomington, an annual festival for showcasing the city's restaurants. Unfortunately it does not eliminate chains so Bruster's and Cheeseburger in Paradise, Qdoba were there, but there were dozens of other local places. Basically you pay $6 to get in and then every food item is $3 or less. I had wanted to go last year but I didn't know anyone I could go with, no one was here that I knew. This year everyone was gone again but Carissa, from school, came down to stay the night. She is a vegetarian and she loves food too so I was super happy she could come hang out and go with me. She drove down on Saturday and after a bit we left for the festival. We parked a ways away on the street instead of paying to park in the parking garage. We got there about 4pm and it was super steamy. There were no clouds and it was humid. Luckily I had brought a water bottle. But the shade was really crowded from everyone trying to get out of the sun. The first thing we did was sit down to look at the "menu", the list and map of all the places including what they had to sell. Then the server race started with local servers. We tried to watch but it was so hot in the sun, we found a spot in the shade from city hall on a ledge with grass. First we each got something, Carissa got fried rice from Siam House and I got a pepperoni/cheese stuffed breadstick from Kilroy's with a spicy jalapeno nacho cheese sauce. Then we decided to get food from Samira, one of the restaurants I had wanted to go to with my parents. It has Afghani food. We each got a veggie sambosa, kind of like puff pastry with filling, and split a baklava. Three places had baklava for sale! After that we had another round, this time I got a gyro from King Gyros, some kind of shredded meat with tomatoes and yogurt sauce in flatbread. Carissa got veggie pad thai from Basil Leaf, a vietnamese place. Then we took a break and did a lot of talking and relaxing on the grass. There were a ton of people there. Since Carissa didn't have a water bottle we went to the city water booth and if you try to answer a trivia question they gave you a free empty plastic water bottle that you could fill up at one of the fountains, we had to do this several times. After our break we decided to get a light snack of chips with guacamole and watermelon salsa from One World, a restaurant/caterer really into sustainability and the environment. The chips were tortilla, sweet potato, and even plantain. We started going to the library to take a break from the heat. Being seriously sweaty is gross! Unfortunately the library had closed so we stopped at Fountain Square Mall, a little collection of shops and offices in a bunch of connected old business buildings on the courthouse square. It was air conditioned and had real bathrooms. We stopped at the fountain and talked for a long time about books. After that we stopped by Bloomingfoods, a local grocery coop that has tons of environmentally friendly stuff and alternative food stuff. Eventually we headed back for the festival, it was a lot more crowded now. We tried to get in the exit because our hands were stamped but the guy wouldn't let us in. So we cut in line at the entrance and went by the cashiers. No one even would have noticed if we hadn't stopped to show them our hands, no one was paying attention because it was so crowded. We got spinach artichoke dip from the Crazy Horse bar but it was kind of thin. Then we decided to get dessert. All the ice cream lines (Chocolate Moose and Bruster's) were super long by this point so we went to Scotty's, a brewery and restaurant that has a location at school too. They had a chocolate peanut butter pie. While I was in line I decided to get their waffle fries because they are so good, they were almost as good as in the actual restaurant. The peanut butter pies were chocolate cups with peanut butter filling inside and whipped cream. Mine melted while I was eating the fries. By this point we were both full, I wish I could've tried more stuff though! We washed our hands at this cool hand washing station. Oh and we even got on video! A local internet company interviewed us and asked us how we liked the festival, it was cute. They said they would put it online!
After we were done we walked to IU and went around there a little bit. We walked far! We found a wedding reception. Then we headed back towards the car and walked down the fourth street ethnic strip with Thai, Indian, Italian, Turkish, Tibetan, Cajun, Moroccan, and Vietnamese places.
We went home and I immediately got in the shower because I was so gross. Carissa and I watched some of Fun with Dick & Jane on TV before going to bed. This morning we had cereal and then tried to go to the library but it wasn't open yet, so we went to Sahara Mart, the other alternative grocery store. Carissa really wanted some cheese but it was all really pricey so we went to the regular grocery store and got brie and bagel chips and ate that for lunch along with strawberries. We talked a lot about her wedding and school. After we got home we looked at wedding pictures and stuff before she had to leave. After she left she inspired me to run so I ran a mile around the park under than ten minutes. I was super hot after that so I took another shower and then watched a movie. Tonight I am making a pizza!
After we were done we walked to IU and went around there a little bit. We walked far! We found a wedding reception. Then we headed back towards the car and walked down the fourth street ethnic strip with Thai, Indian, Italian, Turkish, Tibetan, Cajun, Moroccan, and Vietnamese places.
We went home and I immediately got in the shower because I was so gross. Carissa and I watched some of Fun with Dick & Jane on TV before going to bed. This morning we had cereal and then tried to go to the library but it wasn't open yet, so we went to Sahara Mart, the other alternative grocery store. Carissa really wanted some cheese but it was all really pricey so we went to the regular grocery store and got brie and bagel chips and ate that for lunch along with strawberries. We talked a lot about her wedding and school. After we got home we looked at wedding pictures and stuff before she had to leave. After she left she inspired me to run so I ran a mile around the park under than ten minutes. I was super hot after that so I took another shower and then watched a movie. Tonight I am making a pizza!