Diwali Festival 2008 Wrapup

Sunday was the Diwali festival.

From 1pm til after 7pm, the streets were filled with about 2 thousand people at a time. They had mostly food and jewelry/clothing with a big stage at the back end. Everyone was having a great time. I wonder how many people weren’t from the area. Did people fly here to witness the fest?

The food was great. Lots of dishes I don’t normally see at the buffet tables.

What did I eat?
I had those chicken curry rollups you see above. Samosa in a bowl of chat (chick peas) with that sweet brown sauce – it tasted great, but I wish there was one more samosa in there… the samosa makes the chick peas much more interesting. biryani plus saag paneer. also an unaccompanied samosa with the brown, white and green sauces. I missed those fried naans, but oh well.

That was just during the day…

Here was a secret I found out – 7pm, all the places have to pack up – the cops were getting on their case. So, all of the sudden, the prices started dropping on the food! “2 Dollars!!” For two dollars I got a box full of whatever one place had left, which ended up being biryani rice, chicken masala, and some chick peas. Then I went over and got a curry chicken wrap for 2 dollars (down from 3). THEN, I saw this huge pile of biryani from the ShangriLa tent. I stalked the tent, waited, and when I heard them mulling what to do with all this food, I said “Five dollars.” She agreed and I got a box full of gosht (goat) biryani… although she only gave me one piece, I think she was getting mad. Then after me, everyone was getting reduced prices.

I came back hours later. From 2000 to about 50 people on the block at a time. No cars. Men with sticks trailed by garbage pails dispersed to the street. What a mess. What a party!

Links:
Flickr set from MW
Facebook set from EMA
set 2 from EMA
set 3 from EMA