The third annual ASEANA Autumn Festival will celebrate Asian street food, 4-9 p.m., Saturday, Oct. 25, 2014. The biannual festival – held each fall and spring at the Asian Gardens located at the corner of Milam Street and Common Street in downtown Shreveport – is one the best opportunities to eat genuinely exciting, often home-cooked Asian cuisine in Shreveport-Bossier. This year, the organizers of the festival sent me a list of all of the foods that will be available for purchase at the festival. Here’s the list:
1. Philippines: pancit noodles, Chicken adobo, pork barbecue, a whole roasted pig, fried rice, goat kaldereta, lumpia spring roll, menudo, Beef KareKare on peanut sauce, siopao buns, dinuguan, chicken inasal, atchara papaya relish, pancit pangasinenses style, tocino puto, pritong mani, langka, buko tarts
2. Chinese: chopsuey, noodles, spring roll, mandarin, Sweet and sour chicken, Sweet and sour fish, siomai
3. Indian: Curry Chicken, gulam jamon dessert, chicken masala
4. Malaysian: Beef Satay with peanut sauce, balbacua (hearty Tripe soup),
5. Cambodian: Cambodia spring roll, Coconut with Sticky rice dessert,
6. Vietnamese: Pho Vietnamese Noodles
7. Japanese :Yakitori Chicken
and many more!
That “Philippines” section looks pretty darned promising. If you’re like me, and you love this kind of opportunity to eat foods that aren’t always readily available in restaurants, you’re going to want to eat your way through the ASEANA Autumn Festival. I do it almost every year, so here are a few tips:
-Bring cash. Small denomination cash is even better, as lots of these booths are staffed by young volunteers.
-Arrive early. Especially if you have your heart set on certain food items, I’d recommend arriving as close to the opening of the festival as possible. I’ve arrived an hour after opening in past years and found some booths to be sold out.
-Take a look at all of the booths before you decide on what to eat. This may seem obvious, but some of the booths are tucked away near Shreveport Municipal Auditorium, and some of my favorite foods at past festivals were purchased from those out-of-the-way booths.
Folks planning to attend the ASEANA Autumn Festival may also be interested in knowing that a program of Indian dances and music is scheduled for 6:30 p.m., while a Diwali fireworks show is planned for 7:30 p.m. Admission to the festival is free, but food and drink must be purchased.
