- Kanuri proverb, Nigeria
Today I headed over to the Iveagh Gardens where Irish Aid was hosting a huge celebration for Africa Day. I must say, I was extremely impressed by the event and even more so by the turnout! I went right when the festival started at noon, I was one of the first people there, but two hours later there were hardly any picnic spots!
The day was for celebrating but also for raising awareness. Irish Aid does an amazing amount of great work in Africa for such a small country. Now I see why, they have the support of the whole community!
After listening to a gospel choir for a bit I noticed on the schedule that there was going to be a cooking demonstration. Being the food lover that I am, I hightailed it over to the tent and salivated for an hour.
Setting up for the demonstration. Before the actual cooking, a speaker from Irish Aid discussed the nutrition supplements they have developed to help keep kids healthy in different parts of Africa.
I wanted to devour this guy's dish. He's a chef from the Silk Road Cafe housed in my favorite museum, The Chester Beatty library. He made this delicious looking okra and tomato sauce with lamb. Here he's talking about the benefits of okra, no convincing needed here!
Ok, I was quite taken by this kid. Anyone who has a published cookbook by the age of 23 is worthy of some attention! His name is Donal Skehan and his blog, The Good Mood Food Blog is just fantastic: http://www.thegoodmoodfoodblog.com/. I've been marking recipes on it all afternoon. Here he made a spicy garlic chicken dish with polenta (I think).
This woman was all about dried meat. It kind of looks like tongue to me, but I'm not 100% sure. She made a salad and then dried meat muffins. It made me think of the amazing ham and cheese scones at Alice's Tea Cup in NYC!
The "Bazaar" portion of the festival.
A traditional tent, not exactly sure where from. Right after I took this picture like five people rolled out from under it.
"Bang the Drum" tent.
This was really cool, they paired up traditional Irish musicians with traditional African musicians. I've actually seen this accordion player at some trad sessions, so it was interesting to hear a completely new sound paired with his music. Good stuff.
I had a sample of some type of rice, but I steered clear of this drink. I was convinced when she was mixing lime juice with this sugary syrup, but then vodka got involved. At noon on a Sunday I wasn't ready for a shot.
Ok here's some pictures of me and my friends! I just realized some of them haven't made appearances.
Me, Clint and Sarah. Clint went back to Tennessee on Thursday. Sarah is the Canadian girl who lived with me at the beginning of the semester.
Norah can be really stubborn.
Me and Katy, she's from Pittsburgh!
Christina who's from Missouri, Damien who's from France but goes to school in Brussels, and of course Paige who left yesterday.
Me and one of our Irish friends Aoife. She's hilarious, hopefully we'll hang out again before I come back to the states!
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