(Many of the fairs, festivals, and other wonderful food events that usually fill my calendar each spring have been postponed or cancelled. This post is based on a past year's festival.)
Though he's usually not a fan of rice pudding, the fellow next to me confessed, he'd bought three cups to take home.
At many festivals organized by churches, mosques, temples, and the like, the grill and rotisserie are the province of the men, but it's the women of the congregation who prepare the most enticing items. Consider, for example, the array of sweets at the annual St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church food festival and bazaar, held each autumn in Washington Heights. On this springtime afternoon, however, after roping me in with a sample of the halva (shown below), the bake-table ladies confided that the pudding was not their doing — today's superlative batch was prepared by the chef for the archdiocese. Evidently, he believes that every grain of rice deserves its due.
Also shown: the house band.
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church Festival
On the street outside Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 302 West 91st St. (at West End Ave.), Manhattan
www.Facebook.com/AnnunciationNYC
(A date for a 2020 festival has not been publicly announced)
