Remember how freaky it seemed the first time you heard about the garlic ice cream served up every year at the Gilroy Garlic Festival? (It starts today, by the way.) Not sure about you, but we've moved on to a fascination with the truly weird crap cooked up at American food fests. From spring to fall, festivals around the nation seem engaged in a competitive gross-out (impaled on sticks and deep-fried) to see who can outdo each other. Here are five we find nauseatingly fascinating (check festival Web sites for exact dates).
1. West Virginia Roadkill Cook-Off| bobkatzbar.com |
| spamjamhawaii.com |
4. Waikiki Spam Jam
April
Kalakaua Avenue, Honolulu, Hi.
Sorry, canned-meat lovers, you missed this year's fest: a kind of sprawling block party devoted to everybody's favorite processed protein. There's Spam-themed swag, performances, even dishes from restaurants adapting the stuff to dishes way beyond Spam musubi. Spamakopita anyone?
September
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, Raleigh, N.C.
It's not every museum that can bring you into such intimate contact with its exhibits -- like, as intimate as your esophagus. One of many national entophile celebrations of the six- (and other) legged critters, this one features Café Insecta, a smorgasbord of bug treats cooked up by local restaurants: grasshopper and collard fritters, cicadas alla romana (bug-studded pizzas), and cream of asparagus and katydid soup. Katy so did not.
