you are here: Date Night: Food Festivals
Imagine walking down the street, hand-in-hand with your partner, smelling the delicious aroma of your favorite foods filling the air. Everywhere you look vendors are offering samples of different varieties of tasty treats. If you're feeling particularly indulgent, you can join all-you-can-eat contests or participate in a judging of eager chefs' creations. If this sounds tempting to you, a food festival date night is definitely in order.
The first step to planning this date is of course to find a festival to attend. The best way to do this is through the website foodreference.com. This site has a listing of food festivals throughout the world listed by month, state and country. For a broader approach, try festivals.com, which features a keyword, state and month search of all festivals across the United States. If you can't find something there, peruse your local entertainment section of your paper for possible events.
Things to Consider
- Most festivals involve a lot of walking, so be prepared with the proper footwear and attire.
- Bring cash for parking and entrance fees and any possible goodies you might want to buy while there. Not all merchants take credit cards and smaller venues usually do not have ATM machines.
- If you plan on purchasing goods, bring a bag to make carrying your purchases more convenient.
- Don't overeat too much or try foods that you might have an unpleasant reaction to. Chances are you don't want to spend your entire date in the bathroom.
- Most food festivals also have flower vendors. Keep some cash on hand to buy your date either a single flower or a small bouquet for an extra romantic touch.
- Bring a blanket and scout out an out-of-the way spot you can both share your favorite vendor selections together.
- Bring a camera and take photos of each other or other interesting things you discover.
Alternative Date Ideas
Culinary Tours
When attending a food festival is not possible due to timing or other reasons, a culinary tour is a great alternative. Culinary tours are often based in historical areas of cities and offer a walking tour of the history of cuisine in the area and/or tours of participating restaurants. For a sample listing of these tours across the country, click herea>.
At Home Version
You can easily create a unique date night based around your favorite foods at home. You can make this a two-part date night or you can do the preparation part yourself. If you choose to do the prep time together, start by picking a favorite food and then searching online for recipes that feature your selection as the main ingredient. (You can also take a trip to the bookstore and find a cookbook based around the food as well.) Once you have your recipes picked out, gather all the ingredients and work together to cook your meals. You can share the cooking for all the dishes, or divvy up the tasks by assigning each partner certain recipes. Have fun with it and judge the different dishes you created. This date night can be a lot of fun especially since you can repeat it to try new foods. After you've done this a few times, you'll have a great variety of recipes you both like.
Related Links:
FoodReference.com
A complete listing of food, beverage & agricultural festivals, fairs & shows.
Festivals.com
Searchable list of festivals around the country.
