May 17, 2010

A Fair to remember | pasta

Street theater. Never could figure out exactly what it was about.
I never can resist a street fair — the colors, the crafts, the food. Even as I tell myself I've seen it all a million times, there I am traipsing around, enjoying samples, trying out weird posture improving contraptions, fingering the silver earrings. We went to the U District Street Fair on Sunday. Billing itself as the longest running street fair in the nation, it has more than 300 craft and food booths, and 50,000 visitors. You'd think there would have been plenty of exotic food choices for hungry vegans (with cameras), this being Seattle and all, but it was slim pickings for the herbivores. I did spot a vegan burger but it was $8 so I passed. I found a Mighty-O doughnut sample, and some samples of Dave's Killer bread, both of which were delicious, and I purchased a fruit and juice slushie, but mostly I just took photos and wore myself out.

An obvious example of bliss consciousness.
I would have tried these swinging chairs myself; I usually do at street fairs. But they were all full of blissed-out people slowly swinging in a trance-like state, either unable or unwilling to re-enter their real lives.

The Slimpickins band plays 20's and 30's Country Blues, Rags, Klezmer, Old Jazz, and Ballads. According to their fb page, the bass player plays on his homemade gas tank bass. He has a piece of tape stuck to it that says, "aluminum" so I guess he gets asked that question a lot.

A capoeira demo with a very small practitioner.

What would a street fair be without exotic clothing. In person, this booth had an ephemeral glow about it, and I couldn't resist taking pictures. I later noticed in the photo there's someone in the "changing room" trying on a gown. See the sneakers peeking below the curtain?


The body painter goes about her business in a most colorful booth.


Next to the animal rights booth was a cat adoption organization.

No street fair excursion would be complete without at least one tie-dyed item purchase. I hope Miss E. likes these socks!

On our walk back through the university campus to our car, I saw a blooming dogwood. The blooms were not very extravagantly colored, and barely stood out among the leaves, but I couldn't help photographing them.

-----------------------------------------------------------


We've been a sorry couple of cooks lately, barely managing to cook a meal here and there, but here's one that stood out. My husband used a recipe from Nona's Italian Kitchen (Bryanna Clark Grogin) as a guide to make sauce for pasta, which he was craving. The sauce was amazingly delicious — bright and piquant — filled with vegetables and flavor, and one of the best I've ever tasted. I failed to get the name of the recipe but if you're interested, check back later and I'll update this when I get the info. We used Whole Foods 365 brand organic whole wheat pasta and, as always, this economical noodle was tender yet toothsome.

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for the pics of the street fair; I used to love it when I was at the UW...many years ago now. I haven't been to the fair since then. Gorgeous photo of the dogwood.

    The pasta sounds great. I really like the 365 brand pastas too.

    ReplyDelete
  2. The pasta does look good and I would have enjoyed the fair. I love browsing around stalls and people watching :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've never been to a street fair, but it looks pretty awesome. I love pasta when I don't feel like cooking. Super low maintenance.

    ReplyDelete
  4. You peeping Tom! Hee hee! At least the curtains weren't see-through! :D

    I love that gorgeous picture of the blooming dogwood, what a great shot!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Rose,
    We went to the fair because we were nostalgic for a street fair we used to go to in Wisconsin. The U District fair was much larger, but it lacked the amazing music stages of the Willy St. Fair, like the great world music stage. (And thanks for the photo compliment!)

    Jac,
    There was no shortage of people watching at the U District Fair!

    Monique,
    Never been to a street fair? I think you only need to go to one and you'll know everything there is to know about them all. :)

    River,
    Hey, I can't be a peeping Tom if I didn't know I was peeping! I was too mesmerized by the sheer, shimmering colors to notice there was anyone there. :) And thanks for the photo mention!

    ReplyDelete
  6. 300 booths! That's a big street fair, looks like you had fun. Pasta is such a great standby, I've been eating spaghetti a lot lately myself. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. That looks like so much fun, I love street fairs. As much fun to watch the people as the art, animals and food :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Chow vegan,
    The fair was much bigger than I thought it would be but like I mentioned earlier, it was missing the great music stages (world music in particular) of a smaller event we used to attend in Wis. And the vegan food choices!

    Janet,
    People watching and picture taking were high priorities.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I LOVE street fairs! Seriously, one of my favorite things, best way to spend a day. Looks like you had a blast and saw some interesting characters!

    I also love pasta, that dish looks so hearty and delicious. YUM!

    ReplyDelete
  10. The pasta looks great! I rarely make my own sauce but this is a good reminder not to be so lazy :-s

    ReplyDelete
  11. Tasha,
    There were definitely interesting characters at the fair! I wish I were less shy about using my camera.

    Jill,
    Thanks. Pasta can be one of those go-to meals for when you just don't feel like cooking. But with a great sauce recipe, it can turn into something really special. Both options are good. :)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting Andrea's easy vegan cooking. I love, and read, all of your comments! Please share your thoughts.

There are a few Amazon links in the posts. Thanks in advance if you click on one.

Note: ALL THE IMAGES FROM THIS BLOG WERE ACCIDENTALLY DELETED ON 1-21-12. I'M RESTORING THEM, POST BY POST, BUT IT WILL TAKE A LONG TIME. Recipe pages you visit may be missing photos, but all the text in intact. If you find a post without images, let me know so I can fix it. Thanks!