American Indian festival on the Mall

[sourdoughbreath]

Have you been? Did you eat there? If so, how was it and how long did you have to wait in line. Last time I attempted to eat something at the Folklife Festival we waited 50 minutes in 90+ heat and just as we were ALMOST under the tent in the shade we were told they'd run out of food. Wondering right now if we should wait and go AFTER lunch? Can you change my mind?

[Sthitch]

Have you checked their sanitation records. I am sure being held in a tent the food is not going to be kept at optimum temperature.

[sourdoughbreath]

I don't know where the "Three Sisters Restaurant" is from (do you? I'd LOVE to check) and am more familiar with VA regs, but as part of my job I hire outdoor food vendors and restaurants for festivals and at least in VA I can assure you that health inspector is out there with his/her temperature probe in hand making sure all regs are followed. In VA they would be subject to a daily inspection, not sure about DC.

[chris f]

My office is across the street from the Mall and have gone over a couple of times. I really enjoyed the various demos. There are 4 large food tents set up like the ones at folklife. I stopped by around lunch and one tent was empty and the other had long lines, turns out they were offering different foods. Looks like the other tents are duplicates just on the other side of the festival. It was over priced, for example $7 for one taco and a couple of small sides and does not include drink. I would head up to Teasim for better a deal and food. I am not sure where "Three Sisters" is from, but I wonder if it is a Smithsonian creation. I have included a link to the festival website.

On a side note the marketplace is PACKED!! Small tents with lots of people in the heat. Make sure you have advance tickets to get in the museum. The outside of the building is great. It fairly close to the original design, use to work on same floor as orginal design team and saw the model.

Link: http://www.nmai.si.edu/opening/festival/

[sourdoughbreath]

Hey, thanks, this tells me what I was suspecting to begin with. Think I will stick with performances only. I know one of the Aloha Boys, so am looking forward to that one. I don't know if the folklife people or the new museum here is running the festival, I'm sure they at least got some advice from the folklife people. I have a friend who owns a nice Mexican restaurant here in the area, perhaps shouldn't say which one, but he said that folklife approached him and wanted really big bucks to participate in their last festival. He felt that he would have to charge astronomical prices and cut corners on quality to provide what he considers good food and service. He turned them down and I saw later Anita's ended up taking that bite last year. I don't know them and don't know how they made out. This makes me think that they didn't create this restaurant because they need people who are used to cooking for the masses, you know, not just your local Indian Association or what have you, to do this right. I think that when those other tents are closed they've run out of food. Cooking for this many people is more than most restaurants are used to doing. The entertainment line up looks great though so I think I'll head down there right after lunch!

[bunny]

Let's see if I can address some of these questions... The Three Sisters name may be a made up name because there were four varieties provided by different vendors: New England/Woodland, Southwestern, Dakota and Peruvian. I waited for 45 minutes on opening day for the Dakota food but the line barely moved so I gave up. The next day, I ate Southwestern (no line) - had an "indian taco" (chili, lettuce, tomatos on fry bread). It was decent. Not great but you know festival food. The third day, I went for the NE/Woodland food (again, no line), specifically the venison stew. My friend had the fried fish which she said was good. I ended up having to call my husband to pick me up because I swear I got a bit of food poisoning from the stew. There was no way I'd be able to ride the Metro after that. Plus, it looked terrible and was not very good at all. I didn't even finish it (which is a good thing). What a disappointment.

I know/have worked with one of the main organizers (it was done by NMAI and the Folklife Festival organizers - same Institution, after all) of the events and know they did search for different food vendors - I was trying to help them locate a good Hawaiian one but there isn't a local one that can do Native Hawaiian food for that many people.

The performances were wonderful! In all, I'd say that I'm inclined to stay away from any festival food after this, though. I wish I'd tried the sassafrass iced tea, though (the beverage stands were Navajo).

[Ilaine]

The name "Three Sisters" was definitely made up for the festival, according to the website. The "three sisters " are corn, squash and beans.

Today we tried the fried fish with rice and squash (zucchini), the fried pork with sweet potato fries and parched corn, the venison stew over rice with zucchini side, the chicken-potato stew over rice, the fish soup, the corn soup, two kinds of fry bread, chicha, and iced sassafras tea.

Iced sassafras tea also had wintergreen in it, and either honey or sugar, it was refreshing.

Chicha tasted like berries or fruit, also sugar or honey, even more refreshing, I thought.

Fry bread sort of like big beignets.

Of the foods, I liked the fried fish and the fish soup the best. The corn in the corn soup looked like hominy. I saw people eating two different kinds of corn on the cob, one looked like what you see in grocery stores, one looked like hominy to me. So that must be some kind of Indian corn.

But the nicest thing of all (to me) was the parched corn, it tasted better than popcorn, sort of like natural Doritos. Very corny flavor but not as hard on the teeth as corn nuts.

The quality was on a par with food you get at the Smithsonian Folk Life Festivals, pretty good, not fantastic, not bad, and at least there were tables and chairs to sit and eat.

We had a good time.