Festival Season!

We have officially entered my favorite time of the year...Festival Season!!!!!  There is nothing better to me i9n terms of food and value then an ethnic or church festival.  I will blog about many throughout the summer...but here the first one which is always a great kick off for the Summer.

Greek Fest in Tremont is always one of my favorite ethnic church food festivals.  First the food is authentic, delicious, and fresh.  Second, the food is cheap!  There are two different eating styles for the festival, outside and inside.  The outside tent has Greek "fast food": Gyro's, Greek fries, Souvlaki on a stick, calamari.  The prices are good and according to one dining companion "that was the best Gyro I have ever had".  I chose the indoor dining where you can get a full meal.  Myself and another dining companion both went with the Greek meatball dinner.  The cost of the dinner was $8 and included a salad, bread, 3 large Greek meatballs, and 2 sides.  The choice of sides included rice, lemon garlic potato wedges, orzo pasta, or green beans.  I went with the potato wedges which were in a buttery lemon garlic sauce and the orzo pasta with onions.  Yes I know...carb overload...but it was so tasty and delicious.  The Greek meatballs were amazing.  Greek meatballs are different from other meatballs.  They are made with beef, bread crumbs, eggs, onions, and Greek spices and are shaped like fat short cigars.  The tomato sauce was light and filled with more Greek spices of oregano and garlic.  Instead of getting the regular salad with Greek dressing, I chose to pay the $3 for the feta and olive salad.  I mean it was feta cheese and olives...well worth the $3 and it could have been split it was so big. 

On top of the great food...the drinks were good and cheap.  You could get a domestic draft for $2 or a bottled Greek Beer for $4.  Greek wines were $5 each for a large glass. 

If you are still hungry...there is a multitude of homemade deserts and pastry.  These pastry's are light, buttery, and filled with nuts and honey.  Any Greek desert cookie you ever had before you can buy here. 

So first festival is down...there are many more to come in the future include the following favorites:

June 16th- Slavic Fest in Youngstown (This will be there second year and my first, but I cannot wait to try the homemade Slavic food)
July 11-15- Our Lady of Mount Carmel West.  Here you can have the best Italian Meatballs and cavatelli. 
And recently...I just learned of a Russian Festival in Parma.  Stay tuned and feel free to suggest your favorites to me!

PS...A special shout out to one of the best high school graduation meals I ever had...My cousin Sarah graduated this weekend and had her graduation party at The Embassy in Youngstown.  Most graduations have a form of pasta, chicken, roast beef, potatoes, and sausage...not my cousin.  She had a feast of Mediterranean foods including hummus, shredded Italian beef, antipasto with olives, excellent caprese salad, sandwiches, and picked baby eggplant stuffed with tabouli (I think).  Unique choices for a truly unique and beautiful graduate.