At the risk of sounding curmudgeonly, I’m not a fan of these community events: the Taste of Edmonds, and it’s older cousin, the Bite of Seattle. Perhaps it’s a case of “back in the day” sentimentality, or just that grumpy “get off my lawn you damn kids”, but these events just grate on me. I’m charged an admission fee to wander through booths and buy one dinner (I suppose I could buy several dinners, but I’m really trying to make less of me in the world).
What I’ve seen the past few times I’ve gone are loads of booths, where you buy full meals. That’s not a “Taste”. The value of an event like these is to sample the wares of many (all?) the vendors. In the recesses of my memory, there’s notes about buying a punch-card that entitled you to one sample from each vendor. Perhaps another sign of aging, but if it’s not my memory, it should be.
To be more specific to the Edmonds event, I have another issue: most of the vendors I remember seeing don’t have restaurants in Edmonds. They seem to be, predominantly the same vendors who attend the Edmonds Arts Festival, amongst other area events. Blah!
Add into that the closing of my beloved Farmer’s Market for a day, the masses of traffic that descend into the Bowl, and that the Edmonds Boys and Girls club is displaced for several days, and my aggravation meter pegs high. Maybe that’s the larger issue. Maybe. Still, I’ll be sitting this one out, and back in the area after the madness has passed. But before the streets are swept, I expect.
[…] just two days ago I was complaining (whining?) about the Taste of Edmonds. And, then, today, well, there I was, walking the stalls. I did find a few food vendors […]