October 12, 2010

Roaming the East Village

Mr. Drunken Chef and I spent Sunday morning in Des Moines' East Village. The World Food Festival was this weekend, and though I had to work both days, we knew we had to make a stop.



We were some of the first people there, and we were greeted with tent after tent of delicious food:


First stop was the El Salvador stand for a pupusa -- because nothing is better for an empty stomach than mouth-burning salsa, slaw and cheese. Sadly, we ate it too quickly to take a picture. All I can say is this: Eat a damn pupusa! It was the best thing we had all day.

Other treats included crab rangoons (because my husband can never say no to one or three), a Hawaiian fried banana (meh), and some fried okra:






Review? Not as good as I was hoping. These little buddies were a little bland and a lot greasy. I had to add some hot sauce (I know -- the best morning for The Drunken Chef's tummy) to get any flavor at all. I'd try fried okra again, but not from this food stand.

There were also some chef demonstrations going on, and I was excited to see Chef Ryan Binney of Sweet Binney's bakery. We toured his place for school, and I was very impressed with his operation. (And that's saying something, considering baking is my least. favorite. ever.)


Afterward, we wandered a few blocks down for the weekly East Village Craft Bazaar. We found some treasures, kids!

The Mister likes to make his own cards for special occasions, but he's running out of material. So we picked these up for a couple bucks each:


Amazing! And we found these sweet record bowls. We got a Johnny Cash and a Peter Frampton. Score!



A good way to start the day, when you have to work eight hours on a Sunday. Hope you had a great weekend!

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