On Friday night I met some friends in Clinton Square for my first ever Taste of Syracuse!

The event showcases local restaurants and the Central New York community via a two day free event that features numerous food vendors and offers free live, local music.  The weather was great, and the entire square (and then some) were packed with people.  I even ran into a few former co-workers!

While the company and scenery were great, I have to say that the food was pretty disappointing.  The beverages, however, were awesome!

We started off with a fresh-squeezed lemonade, which was delicious.

After that yummy experience, we set off to peruse the food offerings.  There were so many to choose from, but ultimately I decided on pierogies from Eva’s and Thai Basil Tofu with Rice from the Little Thai House (at least I think that’s what it’s called).  I don’t have a picture of the Pierogies since I had to eat them while walking through the gigantic crowd, but they were dry and fairly bland tasting.  I won’t let this experience deter me from visiting Eva’s though, my friend Gregg says that the actual restaurant is excellent, and Philip loved his kielbasa from there.

The Thai Basil Tofu from Little Thai House was pretty bad.  The texture of the tofu was fine, but the sauce was just kinda… there.  And slimy.  The vegetables were completely flavorless too.  I was totally disappointed, but the things that keep best in those catering trays for several hours aren’t usually the healthy vegetarian options.  Bummer.

Furthering my finding that the best part of the TOS are the liquids… Behold! Wine Slushies!

We waited in line for quite a while to buy these puppies, and I was getting a little impatient (ME? Never…) so I went to people watch and Philip came back with 2 for each of us, so we wouldn’t have to get back in the line if (and by “if” I mean “when”) we wanted another.  Let’s just say they were delicious and were gone pretty quickly because they tasted like juice!

We came home early because it was just so crowded and we were exhausted.

This morning we decided to engage in some more community involvement!  We headed to the local Farmers Market!  It was (gasp) my first time going to this farmers market, and I have no excuse for that.  I just haven’t gotten around to it before, but that’s about to change.  It was super good, a decent selection of vegetables, a fair amount of fruit, artisan breads, and some specialty cheese shops.  I picked up two red bell peppers, two lemons, four tomatoes, a big container of tiny strawberries (my fav!), and two different kinds of specialty flavored pastas for somewhere around 15 bucks!  I got red pepper fettuccini and spinach garlic fettuccini.  I have big plans for them for dinner tonight!

We took a long walk around Barry Park to poke around at a yard sale (I’m looking for a bookshelf) so continued supporting local food by stopping at the Syracuse Real Food Co-Op.  We planned on just picking up some locally made Stretch Bread and fresh mozzarella, but when I saw that kombucha was on sale, I had to get one.  Kombucha is usually in the $4 a piece range, so it isn’t something I usually buy that often, but at $2.79 we each got one.  He got the Citus and I got my favorite, Grape.

Philip has never made me a meal.  To be fair, I’m pretty sure I haven’t really given him the opportunity, because I love to cook so much.  But today that changed!  He made lunch, and it was perfect.  He poured olive oil on a plate, added a little balsamic vinegar, then topped it with sliced tomatoes, more balsamic, fresh chopped basil, and sliced fresh mozzarella.  Served with slices of the fresh bread, this was the perfect lunch!

This weekend is off to a great start!  We’re going to see Up! tonight, I can’t wait!