This is a monster of a pictorial post. I loved making photographs of our Sunday afternoon and capturing our time there and all the wonderful food we saw and ate. And I hope I make you hungry.
On Sunday afternoon, Scott, Skylar and I went to the Taste of Adams Avenue
Needless to say, elastic pants are a good thing. We ate so.much.food and probably only punched our cards at 10 restaurants, maybe even less.
Some of the portions were like mini-meals, not just “samples”.
Let’s break the day down by ethnic cuisine.
Thai: a spicy vegetable curry, rice, and a fried wonton
Skylar loved the wonton! Fried dough, cmon. Good stuff.
Vietnamese: Spicy chicken, black bean & basil tofu, mixed brown rice, and a fried sesame ball
And I taught Skylar how to hold food for the camera.
Hold it still, don’t create shadows on the food, open palm, don’t shake.
Her little 4 year old hand did great, right?
The sesame ball was awesome.
Sweet dough, that’s been fried, and filled with some kind of sweet-ish paste. <– How could that not be wonderful.
Italian: Margherita pizza with basil
Perhaps my favorite images of the day are these three pizza images.
Shooting directly on top of wood with natural lighting in the restaurant. Loved it.
I wanted to make pictures of pizza all day!
And perhaps Skylar’s favorite food of the day.
She wanted to eat pieces of pizza all day.
Mexican: Beef tacos with spicy sauce, onions, and lime juice.
Mediterranean: Hummus, a yogurt-ish sauce, naan/pita bread, chicken, and veggies
Skylar’s in heaven with pita bread, naan, hummus.
Ice Cream is its own category. So much ice cream!
And there were more places we didn’t even make it to that were serving ice cream!
Ice Cream #1: A Mexican ice cream shop. Pick two flavors.
Raspberry + Cookies & Cream. This was not a “sample”. This was a full-on bowl of ice cream!
We hated it. Kidding.
Ice Cream #2: Viva Pops. Some vegan flavors.
It was a key lime sorbet-like treat.
Scott, who I would not desribe as a key lime guy at all, said this was the best thing he ate all day.
Better than pizza, tacos, or anything else. That’s high praise.
And Skylar loved hers, too. I cannot eat ice cream and I don’t even like anything ice cream related. It gives me a horrible stomachache so I didn’t try the Viva Pops.
I want to have Vanilla Banana Avocado “Ice Cream” instead! I know I’m safe with what I make in my own kitchen!
Ice Cream #3: Softserve with vegan options
Ice Cream #4: if you count these ice cream-ish Starbucks drinks
I like that picture.
Skylar liked the actual drink better than I did.
Start ’em young on Starbucks, right?
We had a great day of family fun!
Lovely weather: 75F, sunny, no humidity, no bugs, no big crowds, no parking hassles.
And we enjoyed eating our way up and down Adams Avenue.
Skylar’s favorite(s) of the day: pizza and ice cream
My favorite of the day: the sesame ball
Scott’s favorite of the day: the key lime Viva Pop on a stick
We can’t wait to do it again!
Thanks to Marisa at McFarlane Promotions for our tickets.
And I ran into Amanda, who won my Taste of Adams Avenue Giveaway, but neither of us remembered to take photos! We were clearly in a food coma.
From my last post, Pretty Salt, it sounds like many of you have tried pink Himalayan salt.
And there are some serious salt lovers, too. Not me, I’ll stick with sweets over salts.
Questions:
1. Have you ever been to a Tasting Festival?
I love these types of events, because for $20 to $30 bucks (sometimes less, sometimes more), you can get more food than you could ever eat.
You get a diverse selection of food from whatever an Italian restaurant chooses to serve to whatever the Mexican restaurant dishes up. Can you see what incredible diversity in food there is in just a couple city block span here? Another reason why I love San Diego.
I have done tons of events like this in the past and they are always so much fun.
The last one I went to was the Greek Festival a couple weeks ago.
And I have also done plenty of pub crawls in my former life. Same concept, but with alcohol. You can “sample” and “taste” drinks from many establishments. And the stories are always epic from pub crawls.
2. Is there diversity in the food in your area or neighborhood?
I grew up in rural Minnesota. There wasn’t much diversity in the meat, potatoes, and tuna casseroles that were found in the corn fields my “neighborhood”. Boy, how times have changed and I am happy that Skylar loves trying all types of foods!
She’s 4 and she was a bottomless pit and loved sampling it all!
3. Best thing you ate or did over the weekend?
If you’re just catching up on posts from over the weekend, here are mine since Friday:
- Pretty Salt
- Dark Rum Caramel Sauce (and FoodGawker and Tasteologie liked my pics which was my #2 highlight of the weekend behind the festival. Photography and improving my own skills means everything to me lately!)
- Cookie Monster
- New Camera Bag
- What I’m:
- KISS + Winner
- Juicy
Have a great week!
Wow, this sounds like a wonderful day. So many yummy foods! I have never been to a taste-festival, but it looks awesome- I would love to go! :)
stunning photos, Averie!
I LOVE these kind of tasting events – we used to have a big one here, but I haven’t been in a couple years, I should see if it’s still around…
I also love those sesame balls – that’s red bean paste and it’s SO good!! I have to get a fresh one every time I go to my favorite Asian market…
thank you hon :)
and yes, i figured out it was red bean paste…i was spacing out on the name, but yep, that’s what it was.
It was aaaall so tasty! I also loved the Viva Pop…the strawberry basil one was especially delish. It could have been the extreme heat that made me so grateful for a Popsicle though. Glad you guys had fun, sorry we missed you!
total bummer we didnt bump into each other!
OMG! That looks like a totally amazing day! Hope you and Skylar enjoyed. :)
Hey Averie,I just wanted to say ‘hi’ to not be the anonymous blog-stalker :-) (Haven’t got one myself yet). I followed your blog a few months ago -you still had your old website, had just gotten your amazing tattoo I think, and I kinda thought you were living in Arizona, but either I missed major news or I am mixing things up, which is highly likely ;-) …so it’s been a while- and for some silly reason forgot about checking back (I think I usually ended up with a gazillion windows open after reading your blog, which caused my computer to freak out and slooow down, I think that may have been why)…but WOW what have I been missing!!!??? I loved your blog before, but now it just looks beyond amazing! I’ve only been reading through some posts for 20 mins and already have 10 different windows with a selection of scrumptious looking recipes open. And your photography… AMAZING! I am sure I missed some equipment and skill upgrade somewhere along the lines ;-) I will not miss another post…just subscribed to your blog ;-) Now I’ve got to go…I have some catching up to do :-)
Best wishes from the UK! Nat xxx
live in CA, love photography, changed my site over 8 mos ago and welcome back
Ohhhh my gosh that looks like foodie HEAVEN!! I am so glad you and Sky had a good time!!
“And I hope I make you hungry.”
Um…Averie…you ALWAYS make me straight up DROOL when I come by here!
I am cracking up at Scott trying to get you and Skylar in one frame. Michael is the WORST at taking pics for me!
Looks like you had an amazing time! Now that we have the baby I am always looking for fun places like that to go with the stroller. Michael cracks up every week I am like..lets find a festival or something to walk around at. I haven’t. Manayunk Arts fest was last weekend, but we both have no tolerance for traffic :(
Have a great Monday, gorgeous!
Ahhh, I love stuff like this Averie! there are definitely events like this in New York (as well as in Ann Arbor, my hometown), but I haven’t been to any in a while. NYC has GREAT ethnic food options, as well as really good more “traditional” food. I grew up near Ann Arbor in a small town where there was, let’s see, pizza, hot dogs, dairy queen, and not much else. BUT we did have an incredible Fall Festival every year with tons of food made from local farms — roasted pigs, potatoes, sauerkraut, etc. That was always really fun, and I kind of miss it.
Hope your week is off to a good start!
Wow, that looked amazing! I’m a pig; I would have wanted my full share of samples no matter how stuffed I was, and would have gone home with a stomach ache.
Because I live in wine country (Sonoma County, CA) all of the taste fairs around here include wine and cost ridiculous amounts of money. (Over a hundred bucks.) Yuppie central.
wine festivals are right up my alley! I have paid a pretty penny to attend them, but soooo fun!
Wow, lots of pics! So many great pics, especially the Thai food and pizza – yum! And you two look great, what a day!
1. Yes, the last one was the FoodBuzz Tasting Pavilion.
2. Yes, lot
3. Had a great dinner out with hubby.
I DIDN’T SEE THE VEGAN SOFT SERVE! AHHH!! Must find vegan soft serve (that’s fruit sweetened!!!). Those sesame balls + the strawberry basil popsicle I had definitely created dance parties in my mouth!
P.s. you and skylar totally have the same smile :-)
I know…and we have the same eyes. Genetics are so powerful!
The softserve place is on the south side of Adams. I can’t even give you a cross street b/c we walked up and down, so many times, lost my bearings a bit. Near Felton I think?
What an incredibly fun day! Skylar looked liek she was having a blast!
Looks like such a fun day and what a great experience… especially for Skylar too! That pizza especially looks amazing!
I grew up in rural Wisconsin which sounds a lot like your Minnesota description, but since I’ve moved to Madison it’s definitely a different cultural experience. There’s such diversity here and I love it!
Wow, what a fun and food-filled day! I would loveee to do something like this. My neighborhood definitely doesn’t have this much variety when it comes to restaurants though. Especially in the vegan department.
I love those sesame balls too! So delish!
We don’t tend to do tasting stuff because we are Midwest Vegans!
There is a fairly wide variety of food here though…….And blueberries & strawberries rocked my weekend but didn’t make up for all the quinoa I ate!