Latin Summer Fest 2008
A couple of years ago, when I got my first job in Vancouver, I had a colleague from Colombia. I worked with her for a couple of years and every year, she invited me to the Latin Summer Fest – mainly because she was a part of it. I never made it once… I quit that company in 2006 and she left not long after (moving somewhere else). So, I am disappointed I never watch her in the Fest itself. Anyway, that was the past, this is the present. This year, I finally decided to go…
I arrived around 11:30 a.m. so it was still a bit empty (as listed in the first image, it runs from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.). Not sure if I should be surprised; people in Panama is not know for punctuality but that’s Panama, not Latin America in general. Still, I was hoping there should be more people by then.
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Bienvenidos a Casa – Welcome Home
What attracts me the most of festivals is food – this is specially true for regional cuisine. Since you can only eat that much, I usually walk around a lot of times before I settle up for something. However, that does not mean I will not indulge myself if there is more than one dish I would like to try!
Barbequed corn cobs
Ingredients for tacos and burritos, along with some other known fried sides, like mexi-fries, yam fries and fried purple plantain.
Pupusas being prepared – more about pupusas below
Pupusas cooked on a griddle
Pickled vegetables.
I think Brazilian/Portuguese grilled chicken was being cooked
Somebody will have to tell me what does Greek food has to do with Latin America…
Menu of some of the stands.
This one is Chilean, with empanadas (think a savoury pocket pie) and mil hojas (Mille-feuille pastry).
In the end I settled for…
Tacos… OK, I know, there are many taquerias in the Lower Mainland (the only one I like is Doña Cata – 5076 Victoria Drive) so why should I settle for tacos? Well, I wanted to try a *real* taco. However, in the end I was disappointed. The dish above was for $10, I think I should have gone for the grilled chicken instead. Please note, though Doña Cata is authentic enough. If you want to try really good tacos for cheap (and I do mean CHEAP), go there.
Pupusas, a mostly Salvadorian dish. The best way to describe it would be maize flour dough with some fillings (pork, beans, cheese, among others), flatten and cooked on a griddle. It is served with a pickled-like coleslaw and some sauce. The coleslaw was to watery for me, as it made the pupusa slightly mushy. That’s me… I am aware of a place, El Rinconcito Salvadoreño – 2062 Commercial Drive, whose speciality is just that so I guess I will have to visit it one of these days…
I was starting to get full by then but there was one dish I had to have: Yuca frita con chicarrones. In plain English, fried cassava with pork rind. The reddish “thing” on top is, again, a coleslaw. Why I had to have this? Well, it is one of those dishes I miss from Panama. Not difficult to prepare, just time consuming. To prepare good fried cassava, you must boil it, let it cool and then fry it. Too much work…
After all the food, I stopped to watch the stage.
Overall, it was a fun visit. Some of the food could have been better (tacos) but was worth my time. I will definitely try to go again next year.
Oh, a bonus picture: This is the new Trout Lake Community Centre ice rink, currently under construction for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.
