Valley Greek Festival

I spent the afternoon today at the Valley Greek Festival. If you've missed hearing about this, don't despair--you still have Sunday and Monday to get there. Free admission, food & drink vendors, craft vendors, lots of music and dancing all make for great fun. Parking was $5 down the road a bit.

Even the food servers were doing a lot of dancing....

Being vegetarian, I opted for an ala carte order of Spanakopita--spinach, feta eggs, and Romano cheeses baked in a crispy filo dough. It was wonderfully salty from the cheese and much more healthy than the desserts that I couldn't resist. The price of $7.50 seemed a bit high for a church affair, but I think this entree went to benefit the church, rather than an individual vendor.

The desserts were plentiful and much more reasonable, at two dollars each. I sampled the Pistachio Baklava and Chocolate Baklava below. It's a difficult choice, but I think the Pistachio was my favorite.

My third sampling, the Melomacarona, had the texture of a teacake and was flavored with orange and some sort of liquor (though I couldn't taste the alcohol). It was light and tasty, but I'd really come for the honey-soaked baklava.

There were a few arts and crafts booth, which wavered from jewelry of any kind to Greek Orthodox religious artifacts and Matryoshka dolls. But the highlight of the day was the entertainment, from the continuous live Greek music to watching my friend's son perform traditional Greek dances. Here's a few pictures from their performance. I was especially entranced by the kids' ethnic costumes.

What's your favorite ethnic festival in your area? Please leave me a comment on the blog so I can try them out too!