Popular Food Festivals from Around the World

Bug Eating Festival

Bug Eating festival of America might make your stomach crunch in disgust but this public gathering is flooded with enthusiasts who would take a bite of anything that crawls on the surface of the earth – from crickets, wasps, grasshoppers to roaches and ants. Organized every year on the 6^th of June at the Zilker Park, Austin, the festival is fairly one of the most contemporary ones, currently running in its first decade.

Taste of Chicago

If you want to savour the best of what this American city can offer, there’s nothing like visiting Chicago’s Grant Park in the second week of July. It is that time of the year when the entire city gets out in the sun in the name of good food. Listed as one of the biggest food festivals in the world, it has been around since close to 4 decades now. Studded with food stalls from restaurants and bakeries across the city, the festival caters to food lovers and enthusiasts from all over the globe for five consecutive days and also features some musical performances.

The Great British Cheese Festival

Started in the year 1994, in Oxfordshire, the festival is held on the last weekend of September in Wales every year. The event calls for cheese makers to display their best efforts which culminate into a blind cheese tasting event by food experts. The best three cheeses of the season are awarded with Gold, Silver and Bronze medals. The festival also sees other events and cheese selling stalls.

Maine Lobster Festival

Maine Lobster Festival takes place in Rockland, Maine during last week of July with a staggering 20,000 pounds of lobsters ready to be cooked and eaten. If you plan to be in the area anytime during the festival, do visit the event and lookout for the famous crate race – where the participants are supposed to run across the makeshift crates floating in water.

The Snail Eating Festival

The small Spanish city of Lleida celebrates their undying love for cooked snails in the form of a mega festival that is held every year in the last week of May for three consecutive days. The event is believed to date back to 1980s and is going stronger every year with people from many other European countries also participating. You would not believe the amount of snails that are cooked and consumed during the festival – a whopping 12 tons of snails with close to 200,000 people taking part in the grand festival!

The American Love for Garlic

Every year, in the month of July, Gilroy, California, US braces up for a mega garlic cook-a-thon – two tons of garlic up for cooking! The Gilroy Garlic Festival is held to celebrate the abundance of garlic and its addition to many scrumptious delicacies. Some serious cooking with garlic such as garlic cook-offs, ice creams and what not! The festival is in existence since 1979.

La Tomatina Festival

This Spanish festival celebrates the humble red tomato with the biggest food fight on the planet. Held in the town of Buñol, this insane party starts with a rush to climb a ham-topped greasy pole. Once the ham is grabbed, several truckloads of tomatoes drive into the city and the crowd goes wild throwing them at each other and creating a massive mess of marinara.

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Old And Forgotten Armenian Dishes

Top Left:  Mombar (մումպար) dolma is a forgotten Armenian dish in which lamb intestine is stuffed with rice and meat. One of the hardest dishes to prepare, Aratta Restaurant in Yerevan does a fine job. We had the pleasure of tasting an assortment of mombar made with beef, lamb, chicken, and fish served with pepper paste, plum sauce, and blackberry sauce.

Top Right: Armavir – This dish is a speciality from the city of Armavir, located in the western part of Armenia. Veal served with yogurt garlic sauce, grilled onions and tomatoes. The garlic sauce was just perfect.

Bottom Left: Yeghegnadzori Khorovadz – pork chops, stuffed (of course) with a variety of greens, served with grilled vegetables and blackberry sauce.

Bottom Right: Halva – a traditional and dense sweet confection..

Here’s the recipe of Halva:

Flour Halva

• 1 cup sugar
• ½ cup water
• 1 ½ tablespoons honey
• ¼ tablespoon freshly squeezed and strained lemon juice
• 1/8 teaspoon rose water or vanilla
• ½ cup butter, preferably Clarified butter
• 21/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• Toasted almond or walnut halves

In a small saucepan combine the sugar, water, honey, and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly to dissolve the sugar. Add the rose water. Remove from the heat and cool to lukewarm.

In a heavy skillet melt the butter. Add the flour and cook over low heat about 20 minutes or until very lightly browned, stirring constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the syrup until throughly blended.

Pour onto a serving plate and press into a thick rectangle. Cut into 11/2 inch squares and top each with a toasted nut half.

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