Taste of Hilo

You'd think with Christmas break, I'd finally have the time to catch up on my blogging. Well after: finding out that apparently people READ the blog + a blizzard + a need to kill time while I wait for Chris to drive up from PA = Catching up with the blog.

So...let me take you back....waaaaay back :) We begin our journey back in time in October. October was a lot of fun. I missed my mother's and sister's birthday - as usual (I can't let people down...must keep up my excellent track record of forgetting birthdays and sending cards late). October also saw fall break, but that's another entry.

I'm going to ease back into blogging with something easy: October 24th's Taste of Hilo. I have always wanted to do a "Taste of..." - not sure why since I eat like a bird and will surely be a waste of money. Taste of Hilo sounded like something me and my pea-sized stomach would handle.

I bought the tickets at a restaurant where I was confused for being a high school student. The well-meaning cashier's line of questions went like this:
1. You moved here to go to Keaau High? ("No, my boyfriend teaches there and I teach at Mt. View")
2. Oh! You are married? ("No, but I am patiently awaiting a ring." With an emphasis on patiently)
3. Oh! You have kids? ("No." All the while thinking it's so strange that it would follow that if I am unmarried, I must have illegitimate children)

That Sunday Chris and I merrily set off. Chris asked if I had directions and I assured him that I had an idea of where it was. For whatever reason, this did not reassure Chris. In truth, I really didn't know where it was at all, but kind of figured that if I drove around I'd find it. Well...

Ta-Dah!
I managed to drive us right to the location. I mean, COME ON...it's Hilo. For a small place like Hilo, this was an event indeed. It was sold out!

SOLD OUT!

We got this nifty tray that had a little insert for your wine glass. We got to keep the glasses, which were inscribed with the date and logo for the event. As we wandered around and tried food we unfortunately came to the conclusion rather early on that we were not exactly in a culinary hot spot :( The food was ok at best and my favorite thing was made by high school students for a career prep program (Marinated chicken on a little medallion of rice, furikake, scallions, etc). We had blueberry lager which I liked and boar sausage which I did not. There was lots of food that tasted and looked blah. I guess all those cooking shows are having some effect.

I did get excited about this bakery shop that had some cool cakes:

I probably could only do the top one with some effort, the other two are above what I can do at this point...but one of these days I'll get there!

Chris accidentally cut the line for sturgeon - which was the feature of the Taste of Hilo. He wasn't so impressed with the taste, but chatted up the purveyor for a bit. It was totally ugly for a feature:

STURGEON ON DISPLAY

STURGEONS HAVE SNOUTS

Apparently they take awhile to mature (5-10 years). That's all that I remember :)

We didn't stay long and after mutually agreeing that it wasn't so great of an experience, we skipped out. I was happy because Ben Franklin (my favorite crafts store) was across the street and Chris agreed to let me go shopping afterwards.

Life in the countryside...