International Food Fair

This past Saturday was a big day for me.  It was my first time being an official judge of a food competition.  The Texas barbecue restaurant in town hosted a Chili Festival and I was selected as a finals judge.  As Saturday approached I was getting geared up for the festival when along came an alteration to my plan.  I found out that Saturday was the Parent's Association's International Food Festival at the school.  This meant that we had to go to the IFF from 10-11:30 and then cab to Pudong for the Chili Festival.  It meant that I would get to live the ultimate foodie dream of two food festivals in one day.  Some foodies go their whole life without that opportunity.

The IFF was one of the best things associated with the school that Bri and I have witnessed.  There were over 30 countries represented, each with a table, their flag and parents serving something representative of their native cuisine.  It was really cool to look around the soccer field and see all of the flags representing students from the school. Our principal said his 1st grader was able to identify about 20 flags and for many of those he was able to give a name of a teacher or student from that country.  There were other multi-cultural displays like dancing and music on the stage as well as little carnival games for kids.  It was a very neat atmosphere.

The food we ate was also fantastic.  We were told ahead of time that many people buy more than they can eat and take it home for leftovers so Bri and I came prepared with tupperware.  The american table had Thanksgiving wraps with turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing that were really good.  They also had apple pie although it wasn't as good Mom's!  There was korean beef and kimchi, Japanese skewers, Thai green curry, Borscht from Russia, crepes from all over Europe, schnitzel from Germany, sausage and onion sandwiches, lasagna, ravioli, macaroons, potato pancakes and I'm not doing it justice as there was A LOT more.  The mexican food stole the show for Bri and I as we haven't been able to find anything that stands up to our standards of mexican food in Shanghai.  The International Food Festival was an awesome experience and we're already looking forward to going again next year. 

The festival was just heating up while we were there.  Too bad we had to leave before the falafel showed up :(

For those of you wondering I was able to successfully complete the Food Festival Day.  The Chili Festival was also a lot of fun and a good experience that I look forward to attending again next year but it wasn't near as memorable and tasty as the schools International Food Festival.  I hope next year it is a different day so I can eat at the IFF, take a nap and eat some more.

Matt