Red Bank International Food Festival

When the words “Flavour” and “Festival” are put together, you just know it’s going to be a great time. Yesterday, my friends and I attended a spectacular event called the Red Bank International Flavour Festival! Situated in a large parking lot, loads of booths carted everything from shaved ice to Peruvian food. Brightly colored tents, bands on each end of the parking lot, a guy walking around in a chicken costume (Why? Couldn’t tell ya), and countless intermingling smells of delicious food of all kinds– It was the definition of sensory overload. So many things were happening. So. Many. Things. We were overwhelmed. So first we took a stroll around the whole lot in order to formulate a game plan. We picked out the booths that we definitely wanted to go to and then decided on our strategy– rotate on the payment and get one thing from as many stations as possible so that we could share everything.

With our method of action in place, we dove right in, beginning out our evening of stuffing our faces with the tent for my favorite Thai restaurant, Siam Garden. We ordered the Chicken Satay, and it was the absolute best way to start off this food adventure. The skewers of chicken were dripping in a Thai curry peanut sauce, and the bright warm flavors of the sauce paired with the perfectly grilled strips of chicken. I knew coming to this Flavour Festival was going to be a good idea!

Next… things took a turn for the worse. We headed over to the giant fried food station boasting signs that shouted, “FRIED MAC N CHEESE”, “ZEPPOLE”, , “FRIED SHRIMP”, “FRENCH FRIES”, and more. We found ourselves in a bit of a dilemma. We could not decide whether we wanted to get Coconut Shrimp or Fried Calamari. After some hasty deliberation, we decided that the Calamari was an easier way to go since it was easier to share. It was the wrong choice. This Calamari was greasy, not crisp enough, and pitifully bland. The lackluster marinara sauce was its only saving grace. It needed salt. It needed pepper. It needed lemon. It needed something. It was such a disappointment. So many regrets. In my friend, Hannah’s words “I’m so salty about this… unlike that calamari!”.

Luckily though, (spoiler alert) the rest of the food for the day was awesome. Including the next item. My first ever deep fried oreo experience. The oreo melted into decadent cake inside the warm funnel cake-like dough and they were topped with snowy powdered sugar. What a beautiful creation. Fried Oreos should be in my mouth at all times.

Next, it was off to the Cheese Cave’s booth. The Cheese Cave is one of the most wonderful places ever. As the name suggests, it is a cheese store, and not just any old cheese store! They sell some incredibly delicious gourmet, artisan cheeses as well as some amazing sandwiches! From the booth, we shared the Seven Cheese Mac n Cheese… That’s right– Seven. Seven glorious cheeses and a breadcrumb topping melded to create a cheese experience like no other. I definitely zoned out a little while I was eating it because all I could think about was cheese, cheese, and more cheese, and it was so so good. So. Good.

Finally, we concluded our day at the Flavour Fest with crepes at Whipped’s booth. We shared two crepes– an Apple Pie Crepe and a S’mores Crepe! The Apple Pie Crepe was not what one would expect from an Apple Pie Crepe. It was not just a crepe filled with apple pie filling, but a crepe filled with actual crushed up apple pie– crust and all! And the S’mores Crepe was filled with oozing marshmallowey, chocolatey goodness. We devoured these crepes like pigs as shown in pictures below.