{"id":1385,"date":"2011-11-01T15:19:06","date_gmt":"2011-11-01T19:19:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/?p=1385"},"modified":"2011-11-05T10:51:36","modified_gmt":"2011-11-05T14:51:36","slug":"veggiefests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/2011\/11\/01\/veggiefests\/","title":{"rendered":"Veggie Fests and Autumn Bests"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend, I tagged along with my roommate to Boston\u2019s annual Vegetarian Food Festival<\/a>.\u00a0 She\u2019s a vegetarian and I am not.\u00a0 But I was lured in by the promise of hundreds of free samples of exotic health-foods: granola bars cut up into little squares, crumbs of 85% dark chocolate, sprouts, quinoa, some magical \u2018unsaturated\u2019 tree oil from Venezuela, hummus samplers, and some not-potable chocolate protein shakes.\u00a0 All these delicacies (and more!) were displayed upon tables in their healthy glory, curated by very healthy-looking individuals.\u00a0 Among the attendees of the Veggie Fest, I encountered the usual surplus of beards, suspenders and shoes made of natural fibers, as well as a surprising hat made of tree-bark, and some buttons that said \u201cGive Peas a Chance.\u201d\u00a0 Because I was dressed in really pedestrian attire, I bought this sweet T-shirt:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>I felt okay buying this shirt, because whether I wear it ironically or in earnest, it\u2019s sending pretty much the same message out on da streets.<\/p>\n

At one point during the Fest, I noticed some chapatis <\/em>at a faraway food stand.\u00a0 Chapatis<\/a> are flat, greasy discs of bread that resemble tortillas, except they come from East Africa.\u00a0 I\u2019m always craving some greasy Tanzanian carbohydrates, so I made a bee-line for the table.\u00a0 As I got closer, the banner behind the stall came into view: Taste of Kilimanjaro.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe it \u2013 Tanzanian cuisine for sale at a Boston veggie fair!\u00a0 Any true array of Tanzanian fare would include a large component of kuku choma<\/em><\/a> \u00a0(scrawny pieces of charcoal-grilled chicken, cut into vaguely identifiable pieces and dipped in thick salt).\u00a0 But since it was a Veggie Festival, I loaded up on beans and chapatis, and enjoyed a true Tanzanian lunch.\u00a0 I even got to chat with the chefs in Kiswahili. \u00a0Since they\u2019d been living in Boston for fifteen years, their pure, grammatical Kiswahili was inflected with American sound and cadence.<\/p>\n

Later that day, I Skyped with my parents, who live in Kenya.\u00a0 They informed me that the city of Nairobi was hosting its annual Barbecue Fest<\/a> that very same day.\u00a0 Apparently, all the city\u2019s leading meat companies and \u201cgrilling houses\u201d were showcasing their best meats downtown, offering taste-samples for a price. \u00a0That\u2019s the kind of irony I love — the polarized food-fairs of my two distant homes, vending totally distinct flavors (both cultural and gustatory).<\/p>\n

On Saturday, we had a mini snowstorm, and I was worried that winter had arrived prematurely, but it looks like autumn will be here for a few more weeks. \u00a0The trees around campus are all quickly losing leaves, and I like how they revolve slowly and come to rest on the ground like a warmer and more colorful strain of snow —\u00a0my<\/em> kind of snow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This weekend, I tagged along with my roommate to Boston\u2019s annual Vegetarian Food Festival.\u00a0 She\u2019s a vegetarian and I am not.\u00a0 But I was lured in by the promise of hundreds of free samples of exotic health-foods: granola bars cut up into little squares, crumbs of 85% dark chocolate, sprouts, quinoa, some magical \u2018unsaturated\u2019 tree […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4468,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[429,412,10475,6599,36,3252,3955,37418,37415],"class_list":["post-1385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-africa","tag-boston","tag-clothes","tag-cooking","tag-food","tag-kenya","tag-snow","tag-tanzania","tag-vegetarian"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4468"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1385"}],"version-history":[{"count":58,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1456,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1385\/revisions\/1456"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/collegeadmissionsstudentblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}