West Berkeley Food Festival, June 24, 2007

University Avenue's Indian shops.



This year the West Berkeley Food Festival was much more organized than the last one. They even printed a map in the back of the poster that helped you find shops, restaurants or activities along a few blocks from 9th Street, University to San Pablo Avenue. Festival staff workers in t-shirts boldly marked "STAFF" stood on street corners, passing out posters and answering questions.



There is an eucalyptus tree on University Avenue. Every time I passed by I always looked at it and said: "I have to take a picture of this magnificent tree!" I finally did, it is the tallest, most beautiful in our neighborhood.







University Avenue has lots of Indian stores and restaurants. I like all the colors of things and the smell of many different spices and cooking.



San Pablo Avenue intersects University and within a few blocks of this street is full of shops and restaurants -- from Pakistani, Afghan, Jamaican, Indian, to Mexican. The sight and the smell of the foods make you feel that you were in a foreign city.





Someone just grabbed the clearance sign in a hurry, I guessed.



Beautiful display of the spices and seeds in front of an Indian store on University Ave..



Fascinating!!!


These are just plastic wreaths, not real flowers. The bright orange caught my attention.





Here we are -- Anh-Vu, Hong-Bao and I sampled some Middle Eastern foods that are filled with spices that we Vietnamese rarely use in our cooking. I can't even name all of the spices that they used.



This musician played interesting music wearing his long, curved fingernail-like instruments to strike the strings.









The Native American children's dance.



A Jamaican restaurant on San Pablo Avenue. We haven't tried it yet.



Putting on the last touch before the opening.









Indian ladies with exotic look, costumes and dance.



Corner of University and San Pablo Avenue.



A Hispanic beauty salon.



A Brazilian martial art and dance group.



I like this colorful and decorative chair. A wonderful colors and shapes combination.



Hey! Does the kid want any balloons!



Bao sampled a cup of Tropical Fruit ice cream from India. It was pretty good.



Mural painting of the entrance to the YMCA by a local art group. The Food festival was a good idea to introduce foods from other cultures and to bring people together. The end of June is great too because the weather is much warmer and children are on summer vacation so there would be more people out to enjoy it.