Nothing says Asian-American heritage like an Elvis purse
Daley Plaza hosts an endless stream of low-budget festivals, mostly for the amusement of the lunchtime crowd. This week, it's the Asian-American Heritage Festival, which sounds like it should be a blast but in fact is... well, not. I was heading for the El and thinking about how nice a drink would be, when I saw promising white tents and a colorful banner. It took all of 3 minutes to browse the festival wares, which included some very pretty jade carvings, a disturbing carving of two mating elephants, a motorcycle made of bent and twisted wood and wicker, and a display of cheap purses and hair clips. The three food booths all had the same array of pad thai, tempura, egg rolls, and crab rangoon. I got a plate of pad thai (with cilantro, which was puzzling but tasty) and tempura and a Dew, and sat on the plaza to ponder whether anyone in Thailand ever actually eats broccoli or carrots. I also may have glared at a mommy who was encouraging her passel of children to run through flocks of pigeons. Just what I need when I'm eating is airborne pigeon schmutz.


- posted by Diane @ 4:08 PM