Food Fest

Every year in February Canberra hosts the National Multicultural Festival, and the highlight of the festival is the food fair. In fact, in my opinion the food fair may be the highlight of the entire year in Canberra (a fact that likely reveals way too much about me). This much-anticipated event took place this weekend.

Consequently, I spent nearly three hours there yesterday eating lunch. Most of that time wasn’t spent in eating, however, but in negotiating my way past the 140 (!) ethnic food stalls which had been set up along City Walk and also across London Circuit in the courtyard of the Legislative Assembly. I of course had to inspect every single offering before making a selection, threading my way through the teeming throngs to do so. For someone who finds it hard to make a selection from even a limited menu, it’s tough to have to choose amongst Tibetan, Ghanaian, Argentine, and Danish, to name just a few of the 140 offerings.

To make matters worse, I knew I only had one shot at eating yesterday. Usually, I’d get both lunch and dinner at the food fair, but yesterday I had a wedding to attend in the afternoon with a reception taking up the entire evening, so lunch was it for me. In addition, I knew the reception was going to be a ‘multicultural feast’ in its own right (Samoan and Aussie), so I couldn’t even have a big lunch.

I ended up getting a ‘completo’—a Chilean hot dog smothered with guacamole, sauerkraut, mayonnaise, crushed green chillies, diced tomatoes, hot mustard, and red onions. I’d hoped this would provide enough of a flavour explosion without filling me up too much (like a platter of various Nepalese vegetarian curries would have done) to enjoy the food at the reception. It turned out to be a very good choice. I enjoyed every messy bite.

And I was glad I wasn’t too full for the reception since it was truly amazing. The rugby club catered a feast in itself: roast chicken quarters, roast lamb, oven-roasted potatoes and pumpkin, gravy, steamed veg, crusty bread rolls with butter, pasta salad, potato salad, cole slaw, and a fresh green-bean and tomato salad with balsamic vinaigrette. In addition to this, the Samoan families provided their own additions to the buffet: two whole fire-roasted pigs, roast taro, corned beef, fried chicken, Samoan chop suey, raw fish in coconut cream, a crab and prawn salad, curried chicken wings, and some kind of pink potato salad. On top of all of this, at the end of the night, we cut and ate the wedding cake.

Needless to say, I think I may have eaten a bit too much. But it sure was good. And, if today had not been the Sabbath, I think I would have been back at the food festival this afternoon.