The Upstate Life

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

TUL's Take: Taste of Bethesda

Since the annual food festival takes place literally two blocks from TUL's residence, ironically, this was the first year I was actually able to attend (we moved in a week after the '04 fest, went to UMD Homecoming in '05). The crappy weather actually made our experience a little more enjoyable since it most likely limited the amount of people who attended, and let me tell you, when it comes to crowds and food, we are not a fan. The Upstate Life purchased about $20 worth of tickets for the day and this proved to be a sufficient amount. It was an excellent value since most items were no more than 3 tickets, yet Trader Joe's of all people came out on top by offering a garlic chicken sausage on a whole wheat bun with kettle-cooked chips for the low price of one ticket which was by far the best deal of the day. The chicken curry plate by Passage to India was excellent and was practically a meal in itself while the pizza by newcomer Mia's Pizza was bleh and reminded us of Digiorno (we were even further perturbed since we completely forgot that Mamma Lucia's had a booth that day, and you know we would've been on top of that shit). The Guinness beef stew by Ri-Ra was our favorite item of the festival as it helped warm us up during the cold and drizzly afternoon, but the gelato by Aromi d'Italia came in for a close second even though we were self-inducing ourselves a nice case of pneumonia. As the Taste of Bethesda was nearing its end around 4, vendors started cutting their ticket prices down a ticket or two but we were already in the warm confines of Rock Bottom watching the Maryland game. We were legitimately torn between staying inside and watching college football on a network no one carries or venturing back outside and getting steak sandwiches from Ruth's Chris for one ticket each. Ultimately, we chose the former over the latter, but the only thing that was stopping us was the fact that we were already out of tickets. We were so close to panhandling it wasn't even funny.

Posted by Brett at 2:33 PM |