Becca wrote:
> Dave Smith wrote:
>
>> There is an annual Food Fair in the city next to us that used to be
>> quite enjoyable. When it first started it was a lot of fun. A number
>> of local restaurants and wineries would set up booths and over samples
>> of their dishes for a reasonable amount. Basically, you got about a
>> half serving of appetizers for about half what they charge in their
>> restaurants. It was a good way for them to spotlight their businesses.
>>
>> Then the festival organizers introduced the "bite bucks", tokens that
>> you had to use to buy things instead of cash, and prices soared. While
>> it used to be quite cheap to sample their wares it is now quite
>> expenive. You can't get half of a Thai spring roll for 50 cents. Now
>> it is $3 for one. No more samples of wine for $1, they are now $4 or
>> more. Meanwhile, the better restaurants have pulled out and it is
>> now mostly the usual concessions that you see everywhere else.
>
> Sounds like fun, it is too bad that the better restaurants pulled out.

It used to be fun. It was a good way for local restaurants to get some
exposure and let people taste their food. There were a couple of
restaurants that impressed me enough that I went to them for meals. Then
there were those which I knew about and seeing them in action turned me
off them, like one that had a shrimp dish on their menu but I saw that
they were just adding frozen cooked shrimp at the last minute instead of
using raw shrimp.

It seems to have gone the way of a lot of other exhibitions that have
devolved from good marketing exercises to quick money grabs. The CNE in
Toronto used to be a lot of fun. When I was a kid the Pure Food Building
exhibitors used to hand out all sorts of free samples, or sold them very
cheap. Some of them handed out coupons for free drinks,milk shakes etc.
but the last time I was there the free samples were gone and they were
more into selling snacks at inflated prices.


> Every year, Epcot has a Food & Wine Festival. Each marketplace has
> samples of food, beer and wine you can purchase. We have gone twice and
> we enjoyed it. The weather is nice, there are no crowds and it is fun
> to sample foods from different areas around the world. Some friends who
> went with us tried the different beers and they had a good time.
>
> http://www.wdwinfo.com/wdwinfo/guides/epcot/events/
>

Thirteen years and it is still a good deal. Good for them.