The Holiday Folk Fair International is an event for all ages!  The event always has a theme and this year the theme is to celebrate the weavings of culture.  Cultures all over the world are brought together in this wonderful event for us to explore the customs and traditions of the world’s diverse culture.  Food stands are set up so that you can walk around to see and hopefully try samples of traditional dishes from various countries.    As you sit to eat you can watch events of the Ballet Folklo’rico Huehuecoyotl dancers or even the Filipino youth dance.  They even have a music pavilion for you to relax and watch. I was able to listen to Trío Los Jinetes a Mexican mariachi and romantic band that play for weddings, Quince Años and baptisms. You can even walk around to see what kind of handicraft artifacts may be found world-wide.  They even offer various craft demonstrations where you can see wood carving demonstrations, lace making and much more.  The one thing that you should not forget to do is stop by heritage lane and get your “passport” stamped as you walk through the different walks of life and learn a little about each.    

This event has been a family tradition for me.  We used to go every year as I grew up until about 6 years ago and have decided to begin going again to enrich our children with the cultural diversities that we were given.  It always amazes me to see many people of different backgrounds coming together and learn about one another.  I questioned whether or not my niece would try the variety of food since the only food that she will eat is chicken nuggets or macaroni and cheese.  This is not even an exaggeration.  For the first time I was able to see her enjoy other food.  We ate chicken fried rice form the Chinese booth, Honey puffs and Gyros from the Greek booth and if we hadn’t had enough from our own heritage we sampled Churros and tamales from the Mexican booth. 

However for the class I began to wonder about what other Latin American foods they had to sample and needless to say I found a Filipino booth where they served adobo with rice, Pansit, Mami, Siopao, Leche flan, Cassava, Turon and Nagaraya Nuts and Salabat.  I tried the Adobo with rice and it was very tasteful.  I began to question what Adobo meant so I went on line to find this Filipino cuisine and learned that Adobo refers to a common and very popular cooking process indigenous to the Philippeans.  It involves stewing with vinegar, which they then referred to as “adobo”.  This word is actually Spanish and it means seasoning or marinade.  Usually a pork or chicken, maybe even both, is slowly cooked in soy sauce, crushed garlic, vinegar, bay leaf and black peppercorns.  It is then pan fried or cooked in an oven to get the crisped edges.  If this sounds delicious to you come and check it out next near for the 2010 Holiday Folk Fair International.  You could even be like me and walk out with a Mexican flute that only costs $1.