Taste of Melrose: Arancini, Sfingi, Twinkie
“The gastrointestinal festival’s bestival.”
Bare Naked Ladies
We got to the Maria SS Lauretana Festival around 6:00 PM last night; things were just setting up and food prospects looked surprisingly bleak, so we headed north to the Taste of Melrose. Wow. Had my first fresh arancini, an Italian street food I have previously purchased from the deli counter at Caputo’s and places like that; there’s no comparison with the fresh “out-of-the-fryer” version: crisp on the outside, melted on the inside, with plump peas floating in a cheesey grotto of moist rice. It was fabulous.
The Wife, always attracted to nuns, was swept away by two habited sisters cooking up sfingi:
We got some of the little balls, and The Wife swooned over the eggy friedness of them.
Tickled by the sight of a place offering fried Twinkies, I had to have one. It was lightly breaded, fried for 90 seconds, dusted with powdered sugar and drizzled with chocolate syrup. I will never again eat Twinkies any other way. (Note: click to enlarge and see micro-goombah with glowing Nuck in mouth).
Under a Tiramisu sign, I met Joe Rosa, the son of the original Slicker Sam (Salvatore Rosa), who regaled me with tales of Sinatra in the 40’s (yes, he was a customer, as legend had it) and Melrose in the 60’s. A very good guy; I would have kept talking to him, but people kept coming by who were in the family, so I bowed out with a promise to return.
The Taste of Melrose goes through the Labor Day Weekend, opening before noon and closing sometime between 9:00 and 10:00 (times seem vague in the festival world of the western suburbs). My heart is at the Lauretana festival, but gut goes with Taste of Melrose. The picture below is just one bank of four or more similar banks, packed with food that was heavily weighted toward the Italianate (as opposed to Hispanic), which may no longer be reflective of the neighborhood.
Hammond
Last edited by
David Hammond on September 3rd, 2005, 3:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
"Don't you ever underestimate the power of a female." Bootsy Collins