Posted jointly by Jessica and Elizabeth (BuffaloEats): The second annual Taste of Diversity celebration, held at the corner of Lafayette and Grant streets on Buffalois West Side, was more successful than any of us could have hoped. Walking up Elmwood yesterday afternoon, we didnit know what to expect o how many people there would be, how many vendors, whether the vegetarians would be able to try anything but the bread …
What we found was nothing less than a perfect Buffalo day. The weather was sunny and gorgeous, yet not too hot o about 65 degrees o and people congregated all over the street, eating, talking, listening to music and browsing the vendors who set up on the sidewalk.
But, as suggested by the title of the event, the focus was undoubtedly the food. For $1 a ticket, you could try a decently sized portion of over a dozen types of foods donated by local establishments or cooked in neighborhood kitchens by volunteers. Cuisines represented included Liberian, Italian, Polish, Puerto Rican, Somali, Dominican, Congolese, Palestinian, Jamaican, Burmese, Irish, Japanese, Ethiopian and even Buffalonian (beef on weck, sold at a table adorned with American flags). And probably others weire leaving out as well.
Jessica: I tried Somali, Palestinian and Burmese food, plus tasted a little bit of BuffaloEatsi Japanese desserts. The Somali food included a bean and lentil medley, which I ate with yellow Arabian rice, a dish originating in the Palestinian territories. I also a tried triangular fried bread sort of food that serves as a Somali dessert.
Despite how delicious all of those items were, the best was definitely the Burmese fish soup. I eat mainly vegetarian, but Iim so glad I cheated just a little bit for this one! Called Mont-Hin-Lenar, the soup had three different components. The man running the booth put vermicelli noodles in the bottom of the bowl, then crumbled a sort of disc of corn fried dough over top of it, then poured on the fish soup. The texture and taste of the soup reminded me of different Thai curries Iive had over the years, and it was every bit as good.
As I told everyone who would listen to me, iThis Burmese guy needs to get a restaurant!i One of those people was West Side activist Harvey Garrett, who said heid like to get a few of the cooks set up with the Massachusetts Avenue Project, so maybe that Burmese restaurant will become a reality someday.
Buffaloeats: I sampled Dominican and Somali food for lunch, and topped it off with desserts from Burma and Japan. Buffalois Bantu Community Organization explained that Ugali — essentially corn meal mush — serves as the base for much Somali food, taking the place of rice or pasta. I chose a spinach-and-beans mixture (Mboga) over the Ugali, which was fantastic. Next I tried beans and rice and stewed chicken from the Dominican table. The chicken was phenomenal — perfectly spiced with basil, cilantro, red wine, and caramelized sugar — and easily flaked off the bone. The accompanying rice was lightly fried and served with lentils.
For dessert, I split a portion of Pashu, a Burmese concoction of sticky rice, brown sugar, and coconut milk. I finished off the culinary experience with an Azuki bean cake, a Japanese sweet. I was a little skeptical of sweetened beans, but I am completely hooked. The cake looked like a cross between a corn muffin and a lemon-poppy-seed muffin with a sweet bean paste center. The cakes were made by Junko Kanamura, the proprietor of EastMeetsWest Goodies, whose bean cakes and other Asian treats (such as my personal favorite, Green Tea Angel Cake) can be found at tru-teas! on Elmwood and at the Lexington Co-op.
The event was scheduled to conclude at 4 p.m., but many of the food vendors were sold out by the time we left around 3, a testament to the overwhelming and unexpected turnout. Last yearis event was dwarfed by the people coming out for a taste of Buffalois West Side and beyond, and we can only expect that next yearis celebration will be even better.
Photos (click on images): queenseyes