Yes, I realize that's an awful picture. I forgot my camera and had to resort to my cell phone. Boooo.
Buppy, the kids and I headed down to Naptown (Annapolis) yesterday afternoon for their annual barBAYq festival. Any festival known for it's food seems like a good idea to this gal! So . . . it was alright. It's a huge festival and is only $5 per adult at the entrance. Kids 10 and under are free, and they have tons of bouncy things the kids can play on for free - winner!
The food was alright. I mean the BBQ, like that pictured above, was pretty good stuff. But I had 2 issues with things in general:
1.) Of all the food vendors in attendance, only 5 or so were actually selling BBQ to the public. It was a competition, and there were quite a few competitors cooking. Sadly, the majority were there to simply compete, not sell to the public. A BBQ festival where one can only sample from such a small number of vendors was disappointing.
2.) Sampling. I really wish they'd offered 2 bite samples for $2, or something along those lines. I wanted to nibble on all sorts of BBQ, not be full after a sandwich because I couldn't purchase anything smaller. C'est va lie.
We spent several hours there and got some nice sun; it was a beautiful day to spend outside. When the kids weren't bouncing around, I sat on a hill, watched them run around and listened to several of the 32 bands that played throughout the day.
Overall, it was good time. I just needed more BBQ to sample and smaller, bite sized portions of it. Hopefully everyone else had a great weekend, too!
Thanks for your kind words! We had more than 100 volunteers donating their time at this CHARITABLE EVENT!
ReplyDeleteBy the way, the VIP Ticket was your opportunity to do EXACTLY what you reference... People's Choice contests on both Friday and Saturday gave you an opportunity to taste small samples from the 41 professional cook teams. This ticket was a bargain at $25 which included free soft drinks, admission, 2 beers and as many 2 oz. samples as you could eat. See you next year - got to get in on the People's Choice!!
Now, keep in mind, it is impossible for all 41 teams to both compete and continually serve the public over the 24 hours they are smoking their food - so the windows to get in on these People's Choice contests are only open for about 90 minutes or so - but hey, this is your golden opportunity.
Thanks, Don Chomas Naptown barBAYq Exec Q tive Chef
Thanks so much for the heads up! Had I known that, I would have definitely paid the $25 for the tasting. There's always next year! I completely understand why they can't all serve the public & compete at the same time. Can't wait to get a VIP ticket next time!
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