We drove into downtown Ithaca to eat lunch at the famous Moosewood Restaurant but it was closed. So we crossed the street to The Commons and ooooh, we happened upon an Apple Festival! The Commons is the main gathering place in Ithaca, lined with eclectic shops, bookstores and restaurants.
Tents filled the sidewalks today, and we slowly made our way tasting all the new items: apple cider donuts, pumpkin pie toasted pecans, homemade apple cider (cold+hot=perfect for kids) and the best caramel apple in the entire world.
A note about caramel apples:
Why are they always made with Granny Smith apples? It’s my least favorite apple – too tart for my teeth. As a kid we used those wrapper things in the produce department. (Remember they’re like caramel fruit roll-ups where it's perfectly acceptable to omit the apple all together?) Anyway, at most festivals I drool over the caramel apples, yet skip them in the end.
We-he-he-ell, at this fair, and perhaps it’s the norm out here, we get to choose our apple from numerous baskets. Then they put it in this medieval contraption that slices the apple perfectly and drops it into your cup. Then over the apple slices they pour hot, melted caramel (sitting in a crock right in front of you), top it with whipped cream, nuts and a cherry. I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture, but seriously, with 5 of us sharing one apple, it failed to last long enough for a picture! What an impeccably decadent confection!
Peanut and Grandma went wandering through shops while Doodle and Little Man played "Chipmunk, Mountain Goat, Native American" at the playground. Peanut returned glowing, with a teeny-tiny Herkimer diamond ($1), and a wee piece of Calcite that the storekeeper gave her because she couldn’t afford the $15 wee piece of amber.
After filling ourselves on apple delights, and becoming even more educated on how to grow worms for compost, we headed to dinner. Sometimes it just has to happen that way. And what a finale at the Moosewood. Grandma discovered that vegetarian cuisine has a lot more to offer than mushy tofu.
Now that is my kind of Carmel Apple!! Yum!
ReplyDeleteHey, if you are crossing the bridge from Manhattan to NJ, Narendra's cousin, Aysha has a jewelry store in Inglewood and she would give your guys a demo on how to make jewelry. Her workshop is behind the retail shop. her web site it
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ayeshastudio.com/
If you go, please say hello for us.
oooh, I want some caramel apples, can we do this when you get home? ;)
ReplyDelete