Food and Fun at the Farmer's Market

The Doo Wop Group that seemed to follow us around.
Caren Heller and some of the desserts: fruit, root beer float, cake and cheese cake thing.

The celebrated LA landmark, the Farmer's Market, turns 75 this year and to commemorate the occasion, they have planned a number of events involving old timey music. But tonight, they had an eating event, the Taste of the Farmer's Market. For an entrance fee of $20, visitors can go around to participating vendors and sample their wares. Unlimited food! I love fairs!

I was there tonight with Caren Heller who, despite being 9 months pregnant, was a great companion and a whiz with the food map. It is so refreshing to spend time with someone who will whip out the map and mark off the places we want to go and will spend time figuring out how to get to each one. We meandered from place to place, checking the map when we wanted to make sure we hit all the places we could. There were a bunch of vegetarian options which was great. If we ate meat, there would have been no way to get through the whole market without exploding. Maybe that's why the festival is open for four hours...

The clear winner was the piping hot crepe filled with Nutella. But then again, how can anything compete with that??! The close runner up was the freshly made french toast. We sampled freshly made juices (watermelon, pineapple and mint: the mint adds some refreshing balance to the sweetness), Mexican chilaquiles, falafel and tabouleh (both very disappointing), mixed nuts, chocolate milkshakes from Johnny Rockets (so good!!!), mini root beer floats (yum!), fruit salad (definitely the healthiest thing we ate and really delicious), cookies, burritos, English toffee, cake and cheesecake on a stick. The last few I listed I took home which probably saved my life!

I was already super full when we stopped by the vendor that was serving mixed cakes. They had a tantalizing assortment of nice looking pieces of cake. I chose the tiramisu but there was little chance I could actually eat it. So, I asked the sales guy if he could please put it in a bag for me. He replied, 'no, I can put it on your plate' while his friend literally plopped the cake on my plate. I almost laughed out loud as the cake tipped on my plate; it couldn't have been messier. There was no way now I could take it home either...

Turns out after one bite, it wasn't worth saving. Caren's Oreo cake wasn't worthy either. So we ditched our cakes and went to our final stop, the French market for the cheesecake on a stick. It was an interesting looking dessert: a white square with the number '75' in chocolate, a long stick with a raspberry on top. Carrying them around, we got a lot of looks. When I gave mine to Caren and she had two cheesecake lollypops with raspberries on the top, people stared. I guess the very pregnant red-headed woman with suggestive desserts is bound to get looks.

With all of that eating and plotting, we were wiped! Fortunately, I have plans tomorrow morning to try out Yoga Booty Ballet at Swerve, so I'll have an opportunity to work some of that deliciousness off...before I tackle the leftovers.