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Food Festival, Tel Aviv, Israel, tasted on  May 31, 2004 — I love a good food festival. I love the stalls. I love to sample everything. I love all the different options. Or generally I like the idea of it. The reality of course is that often the food is either junk food (which I can enjoy if its good junk food --- mmm fried dough) or its restaurants trying to do something good in a food fair setting, which is almost impossible except within a set of limited constraints that most of them don't respect. I conveniently forgot all this as I was in Israel on business when I was told that there was an annual food festival happening outside Tel Aviv. My reaction? Let's go!

And sure enough, despite my dreams of how the Israeli restaurants would fair better as the local high quality produce and middle eastern influences make Israeli food so very good so very often. But in fact, though there were a couple of standouts, most of it was just like the U.S. And in fact, it was often a little too much like the U.S. In fact, I saw some of the most bizarre corporate marketing I've ever seen in my life. I even shot some video for your enjoyment. How this sold their product, I have no idea. There were still some yummy kebabs to be had (not to mention a surprising amount of shellfish they are right on the Mediterranean I suppose). And if your expectations are set properly, it's not a bad way to spend a couple of hours. But I still dream of better... the food festival composed entirely of vendors who are great at making street food. Middle Eastern street food vendors. This would be perfect I think.