Sunday, September 30, 2012

Viva La Vista!

I ventured out into downtown Columbia to take part in one of the most popular events, Viva La Vista. This is an all-day food extravaganza where restaurants feature several small dishes and treats and for just a few tokens, you can try a ton of great options! I spent $13 in tokens and it was very much worth it.




Savory:
Corned Beef Mini Reubens from Jason's Deli: these were amazing (hence, I ate too fast to photography)! I am always looking for a good, solid reuben sandwich and the beef on this wasn't dry or fatty. The caraway seed bread was a perfect compliment to the beef, sauerkraut, cheese, and sauce.

Garlic Parmesan Fries with Spicy Aioli Sauce from Gervais & Wine. I am a sucker for a good fry (hell, even a mediocre fry) and these were were good but nothing special. The garlic parmesan dusting on top was nice, if not a bit salty, but the sauce really made the fries special overall. I also grabbed a spicy Belnheim  ginger ale (option of spicy or really spicy) that truly lived up to its name. It was the epitome of what ginger should be and was perfectly refreshing.


Sweet:
I knew I wanted to wait until I was leaving to grab a few sweet options, possibly the Tutti Frutti frozen yogurt. However, as I was wandering around to see what would be the best bang for my bucks (tokens), I saw words "french macroons" and made a mental note. I had missed this treat since being in Portland! Upon approaching the table of Lady Antoinette's Pastries, Cakes, and Eats (coming to Columbia in a few weeks), I saw the biggest macroons I had ever seen! They were the size of baseballs and only three tokens. So worth it! The raspberry macroon itself wasn' too sweet and the vanilla creme was also quite subtle which made everything work together perfectly. There was also a small drizzle of raspberry sauce on the side which was nice. To give you an idea of how big this thing was, it was a five-biter. Oh yeah. I am still drooling over this picture...


I had one measly token left as I made my way back to the car so I perused the menu and saw there were mini cupcakes from Cupcake offered. I snagged a Salted Caramel Chocolate and then proceeded to sit down and devour my sweets. Upon looking at the mini cupcake, I worried the chocolate cake would be a vessel for the toppings but instead it was rich, moist (oy, hate that word) and just chocolatey enough. Perfect two-bite treat.


Besides the food there was amazing music! I caught a little bit of indie rock band,  The Fishing Journal, and was pleasantly surprised to really, really love the band Death of Paris. There first song was great and although I needed to keep walking (humidity kills!) I looked them up on Facebook and might end up catching their show in a few weeks.



Overall, great event. I am bummed that I didn't also hit up the Italian Festival that was happening a few blocks over but I was technically already operating outside of my budget for the weekend. I am glad the weather held out today AND I found a local pastry place to get macroons!

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