I tasted

The image above is actually from last year's Taste of Chicago, but it's a booth we hit again this year. Taste of Chicago, like many food festivals, isn't really the greatest place for vegetarians and vegans, but last year they added Soul Veg to the line up. It was a relief to find them there again. While the pic above shows 2 items we didn't get this year (the veggie gyros which they did have again, and the cauliflower, which was not on the menu) we did have the BBQ twist again. It's obviously quite messy, but good. Also featured both this year and last was a nice sweet potato pie, and new to the menu were some yummy spicy tamales. We tagged along with my parents last weekend, and since they are not vegetarians they got a little more of the experience of all the options there. I did get to snack on some taro root fries from Tamarind, a restaurant in our neighborhood, and they were very good. The festival is going on through the weekend, though based on our experience around this time last year and even though we are walking distance, the crowds are prohibitive around the fourth. So I think we had our fill.

Hope everyone has a happy and safe fourth. Not sure what we'll be doing yet, plans as, usual are kind of loose. There's talk of getting up to Evanston with my parents. Last year we attempted to get close to the main Chicago fireworks, got caught in the largest mess of people I've ever been in and decided just to go home and check out what the view from our new apartment would be. It turned out it was only slivers of fireworks, but it made for a pleasant evening anyway. This year I'm just pleased that for the first time in 5 years the 4th can be a family affair again!