Smithsonian Folklife Festival

For two weekends at the beginning of every summer the Smithsonian Institution puts on the Folklife Festival on the National Mall.

The big attraction for me at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival is always the food, which represents the cultures being featured in the exhibits and the performances of the festival. This years festival features Mexico, Asian Pacific Americans, and exhibits under the umbrella "The Smithsonian Inside Out." This year there were four vendors offering foods from the following cultures: Indian, southeast asian, and Mexican. There was also a barbecue tent, surrounded by the Smithsonian Inside Out exhibits.

The food options were mostly platters of an entree and side dishes. Since we'd already eaten lunch, and it was still too early for dinner, I opted for something light, and ordered Elote from the Mexican vendor, Casa Oaxaca. Elote turns out to be roasted corn on the cob, slathered with mayonnaise, and sprinkled with cayenne. It tastes better than it sounds.

The boy opted for french fries from one of the permanent kiosks on the Mall (the boy often opts for french fries).

The Folklife festival features dance, music, story telling, cooking, and folk art. We listened to a trio from Mexico sing folk music. We sat in on stories by two doctors, one American-raised ethnically Chinese, and the other an immigrant from India, who compared eastern and western medicine. We watched Indian dancing, and skipped the demonstration on spam sushi. We also watched four men Mexico spin upside down from a pole. We never got down to the Smithsonian Inside Out exhibit.

This year, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival runs through July 5.
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