Taste of Addison

We did something totally different from our usual Meal Of Food this week and went to the annual Taste of Addison festival. Taste of Addison features over 60 restaurants selling samples of their food, live music, and general festivities. Also, several booths sold 16oz beers (mostly Dos XX which was the event sponsor) for only $3.00. Pretty good for an event like this one!

Thanks to MoFF, I had actually already tried food from many of the participating restaurants. In the spirit of Meal of Food Friday, Ryan and I tried something new and started out by sharing snacks from Taste of Cuba. We shared the Cuban sandwich, fried potato ball, and a beef empanada. The sandwich was really good. The other two items were just okay. It's a little hard to judge the restaurant when you are getting food in the festival setting, but the empanada really didn't do it for me. Maybe just because I've had much better - if you like empanadas, you have to check out Casa Vieja. The potato ball was mashed potatoes with seasoned meat inside. It would have been better it if had been really hot - it was a little cold, which really took it down a notch.

Cuban sandwich - it was easily the highlight of the meal

The empanada was fine - just didn't measure up to Casa Vieja

How can you NOT order something called a fried potato ball?

Our second course was a slice of pizza from Johnny's Pizza House. My pizza was good, but it was also a little cold. I can see this being much better at the actual restaurant. The Johnny's booth had the additional advantage of offering a nice selection of beers. Ryan tried the St. Arnold's Lawnmower, and we both liked it so much that we bought some on Saturday for another event.

pizza was a good choice for a festival - no fork needed!

For desert, we got chocolate chip cookies and a brownie from Tiff's Treats, an amazing cookie delivery service that was founded in Austin, TX by a couple of UT students. Naturally, we had to support our fellow Longhorns!

We had a really fun night, enjoying food, music, and friends.  I highly recommend checking out Taste of Addison next spring. Here are some tips if you do:

1. Buy reduced price admission tickets at Albertson's
2. Do not pay for parking - free parking is available near the Addison Circle Fair Grounds
3. Bring cash - there are ATMs, but you might as well come prepared
4. Share food with friends so that you can try more things - that's the point!