Rochester Jazz Festival - Are You Hungry?

 Miss J and I took in the Rochester Jazz Festival the other night. We had tickets to Steve Martin's show -- a show that sold out in about 10 minutes! Lucky for me,  Miss J has a cool head and a steady clicking finger and she was able to score us quite good tickets.

So before the show, we strolled around and scoped out the food choices. We have equally coveted tickets to Nora Jones tonight, and due to the competitive parking situation, decided that it would be best to come at dinner time, eat at the festival, and then go to the 8pm show. Here's what we found:

Poutine, thanks to Wikipedia

French fries covered with cheese and hot peppers in a paper dog bowl?

We observed a lot of folks carrying what looked to be dog dishes, filled with something that gave me gas just to think about it: french fries, hot peppers and cheese that had an extremely unnatural color. Is this some Rochesterian version of poutine? Poutine, for the uninitiated is a Canadian "delicacy" made of french fires, brown gravy and cheese curds. I think it's a ghastly idea, but lots and lots of other people think differently.

Lots of choices

Most of the choices were what you would expect if you have experienced Rochester festival food. There was italian sausage, with the obligatory peppers and onions. There were both red and white hots. Fried dough, our answer to funnel cake, was present. I did see crab cakes, and I might be brave enough to go for those. Although I usually disappointed when I try for something "high falutin'" rather than just sticking with the tried and true.

Dinner avec a chair

Some people chose to eat at "Betty's" in the Eastman Theater where the concert was held. I think the have those giant cookies, and box wine for sale in there. But you do get a chair, and that's something.

Curb-stone setters

For the rest of us, the curb would do. It's not about the actual food, afterall. It's about  being part of the crowd, celebrating fantastic music, and celebrating SUMMER! The solstice has passed and now we are on our way to that other season -- I won't even say the word -- but for everyone in Rochester, the clock is tick-tick-ticking. And we must make hay (or hots!) while the sun shines!