I'll be visiting 80 countries this weekend. It is my favorite festival of the year in St. Louis. Ahhhh...the food!
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment

Wow, you may be able to check off more items on that 100 foodie blog you have. That sounds like a wonderful festival... 80 countries represented and no airport lines.

At the end of the first day of my 80 country tour.
Today we:
Watched a Bollywood performance;
Watched a Russian folk dance performance; Watched a Mexican fiesta dance;
Got video of all three of those, but don't know how to put them in my blog.

Enjoyed the traditional food & drink from:
Bosnia, Eritrea, Argentina, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Cuba, Iran, Thiland, Peru, Pakistan, & Scotland.

Watched German pinch pot pottery being made;
Participated in an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony;
Had my five grandchildren's names written on wall hangings -- in Manderin.

It all starts again tomorrow with:
An Eritrean basketwork demonstration;
A Mexican Dia de los Muertes sugar skull making demonstration;
Macedonian ornamental needlework demonstration

The planned dance demonstrations are:
Polynesian, Bolivian, Spanish, Liberian, Romanian, Korean, & Egyptian

The folk music stage will feature: Jewish, Congolese, Bosnian, Benin, and "Old Time Missouri Anglo"

There are dozens of countries' food booths we still have to visit.

And, I'm going to visit the Henna Hands booth for one of these:

quote:

Today we:
Watched a Bollywood performance;

Deborah, Sounds like you had your share of cultural exposure and more this weekend. Do you like Bollywood dances? A friend gave Bride and Prejudice movie and I watched that a couple of times and found it very entertaining (with a message).

Take a picture of you Henna painted hands when you get it and I will wait for that on your blog.

Today I went to a Miracle Fruit and Wine Tasting. A central coast winemaker brought some of this Miracle Fruit and her wines for us to experience and enjoy. The miracle fruit is this small red berry that manages to change tastes of food from sour to sweet. The plant is native of West Africa and is now grown in Florida. It was a very interesting experience. There are now "Miracle Fruit Tasting Parties" in San Francisco area.

(Now, I am hoping that the attached picture will actually show up. )

Eden, I've been hearing about the Miracle Fruit. Do you know which country in W Africa and what name they call it? I'd love to visit their booth today and find out what they can tell me about it.

In your picture they look like gigantic cranberries.

How do they taste all by themselves?

The scientific name of the plant is Richadella Dulcifica but no name is given of the particular West African country in any of the articles I've read.

The picture makes the berries look big but they are actually about half the size of a cranberry.

Well, I didn't get the Henna. The line was crazy long and the wait when I got there was THREE hours. Drat.

The most fun I had was the Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony. And true to my fickle travel nature, I'm now 'in love' with Ethiopia and want to go there.

Here is my lovely hostess pouring my cup of Ethiopian coffee. I promised her I was going to post on my blog about her before anything else at the festival. She promised she was going to make her son show her the blog entry.

Deborah this sounds like so much fun. I wish this was happening in my home town.
Eden: I love Bollywood films...all the music, dancing and colorful costumes and of course along with that the Indian cuisine.
Barb Cabot

Deborah, How lucky of you that you got her permission to feature her in your blog. She is a beautiful woman!

Barb, I am with you. I wish something like this were happening in my adopted hometown. Or even at my school site or school district as we are a very diverse community.

But I am afraid that if I open my mouth and suggest something, I will end up chairing the affair. So, sitting on my hands this time... LOL

And I love Bollywood too!

Barb and Eden,

Even though we are smack dab in the middle of conservative Midwest USA, St. Louis serves as a new home to refugees and immigrants from at least 80 countries.

The International Institute of St. Louis began 90 years ago. Every 10 years or so seems to bring an influx from a different part of the world.

The first one I remember was Southeast Asians, particularly Laotians, who came here after life in refugee camps. Ten years ago we welcomed a huge influx of Bosnian war refugees. (With over 60,000, St. Louis has the largest Bosnian immigrant population in the US)

And more recently we are seeing new Americans coming in larger numbers from places like Bahrain, Nepal, Georgia, & Butan.

I remember the first Festival of Nations about 8 years ago. There were about 10 information tables, a few activities, and no food booths. Last year's festival drew more than 80,000 people. I'm eager to see the attendance results for this year.

One of the things I love about St. Louis is our openness to immigrants. We are a city of ethnic neighborhoods, but those neighborhoods aren't closed enclaves. They are vibrant communities that interact with each other and with the "native" St. Louisans. The natives are the ones whose families arrived with the waves of European settlers. Mostly German, French, Polish, Irish, & Italian.

Oh, I do ramble on, don't I?