2012 World Food Festival, Des Moines

Once again, I ate my way through the World Food Festival in Des Moines last weekend.  I was blown away by the variety of food offered by the vendors this year.  I would say that the World Food Festival is now favorite food-related event -- even better than the Iowa State Fair. And that's saying a lot!

Last year, my favorite booth was the Ethiopian Association's.  So that was my first stop this year.  I ordered the mild chicken wot with vegetables and rice.  As my husband says, anything with curry has got to be good.  I loved all the spices in this -- fresh pepper, rosemary, curry.  I wolfed down this whole dish!

The $1 sample at the Iowa Machine Shed booth was the chocolate bacon chipotle cookie. Look how gorgeous this cookie is!  And it's coated in chocolate!  This was easily my favorite treat at the World Food Festival this year.

I told myself I was only going to get one dessert, but I couldn't resist this "special edition" cupcakes from my favorite bakery, the Ames Cupcake Emporium.  These are Iowa cupcakes, made with bacon and cornflakes.  That's a little candy pig on the top!

I stood in line for 10 minutes for the one item I was really looking forward to trying, the Hello Gourdgeous pizza from Gusto Pizza Co.  It's a pizza topped with butternut squash, red onions and sage.  I've been wanting to make a squash pizza at home, so I was excited to try this out.

Sorry for this photo of the half-eaten pizza, but I wanted to show you the pumpkin-puree "sauce" that topped the pizza. So creative!

So fellow Iowans, did any of you visit the World Food Festival this year?  What was your favorite dish?  There was so much to try, it was hard to choose what to indulge in.

World Food Festival

Des Moines hosted the annual World Food Prize ceremony in early October.  The kick-off event for the celebration was the World Food Festival, which featured food vendors serving up specialty dishes from all around the world.  I'd heard good things about the World Food Festival, so I didn't want to miss it again this year.

I was greeted by dancers and rows of food vendors lining the streets of the East Village.

 Each vendor offered $1 samples.  I tried as many of those samples as I could.  Some of the foods I didn't like, but most were wonderful.  One of my favorite booths was Indian Delights.  I ordered the $1 sample, which was a curry-spiced potato, and the Mango lassi, which looked so pretty in the dish.

I stood in line forever to try a bacon-wrapped grilled banana.  To be honest, it wasn't that great -- not terrible, but not all that good either. But at least I can say I tried one!

My favorite discovery of the day was the cabbage-stuffed pierogi.  It was a revelation!  Soft and doughy like a fresh donut, but with a touch of peppery cabbage filling.  It was worth driving to Des Moines just for this pierogi!

Of course, I also couldn't help but get a $1 sample of the bacon ice cream.  Again, it was just OK, nothing outstanding.  Actually, I could barely taste the bacon, it was chopped so fine.

Pretty soon, I was getting full, and I didn't feel like standing in any more lines.  On a whim, I decided to try the homemade toasted marshmallows.  They were wonderful.  One marshmallow was coconut flavored, the other caramel.  They were nice a gooey on the inside.  I could have eaten several more of these lovelies.

Before I left, I ordered the chili-spiced cantaloupe with lime juice, just for fun.  Oh, goodness.  I loved this!  The hot chili powder really complimented the sweet cantaloupe.  I've got to try this at home.

I already can't wait to attend the World Food Festival again next year, just so I can get my hands on another periogi!