A kind stranger named Jake took this picture of us during the Wilco set. His wife (lower left) kind of dogged his photography skills beforehand, but I think it turned out quite well.
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Shannon says… |
Jason says… |
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| The kale, feta and parmesan mac and cheese from Dan’s Gourmet was incredibly flavorful, and it gave me the energy to walk back to the campsite late at night. |
Best thing I ate all weekend |
The Amish donut. Duh. But, yeah, that mac and cheese was sick. |
| The David Lynch coffee that I got for free at the screening of his meditation documentary was really good: very nutty tasting with dried fruit at the end. Perfect cup for a misty Tennessee morning. |
Best coffee to be found |
We switched from regular coffee to the iced version. I suppose this sullies the purity of the comparison, but it was something like 90 degrees. So I will just have to accept the sullying. Nashville’s Frothy Monkey sold us black iced coffee that was delicious: dark, thick-tasting, and spicy on a level usually reserved for coffees with a sharp bite, which this coffee did not have. Excellent festival coffee for those people who are into coffee like other people are into homebrewed beer. |
| The dancing of the man in the Taco Supply booth was so earnest and passionate that I ordered a veggie taco even though I wasn’t hungry. |
Most endearing food vendor |
The ladies out in Tent City blasting “Misty Mountain Hop.” I didn’t eat their food, don’t even recall what they were selling, but by Saturday it was about time I heard some cranked Zeppelin. |
| I loved those hefeweizens in the summer heat, especially the banana-y one from Yazoo and the orange-y Razor Wit from Highland. |
Tastiest beer on tap |
Terrapin Maggie’s Peach Farmhouse Ale out of Athens. Super peachy without being sweet, super smooth without being light, super refreshing, even for this IPA man. |
| Man, that giant burrito was a mess. At the last minute, the vendor threw a falafel in there just for kicks. |
Thing I wish I hadn’t eaten |
Nothing, really. I’m not pandering. I just wasn’t going to eat crap, and I didn’t have to. |
| I was pretty sure that the dry-looking vegan tamale I got was going to be disappointing, but it was actually spicy and tasty. |
Nicest culinary surprise |
The Channa Masala/Dal bowl at Swagruha Indian. It was five bucks, a great deal, and though they can do that because so much of the bowl is rice, I found the spice in both dishes was complicated and novel, and I eat a lot of Indian. |
| So diverse! I love that there are people standing in the middle of a Tennessee field eating banh mi! (I did hear some pretty interesting pronunciations of the word “gyro,” though.*) |
Thing I like best about the Bonnaroo food scene |
There are more good things to eat than bad. That might sound like faint praise, but we all know big events like this generally come stocked with garbage: crap corn dogs and soft pretzels baked four months prior across state lines and pre-cut freezer fries dropped in a basket into a deep fryer. Bonnaroo has those options for sure, but I think at a notable majority of vendors offer high-end chow. You could eat every meal for two weeks at the place and never repeat a dish or get short-changed on taste. |
Check the blog in the days to come for more tales of the festival and Tennessee food!
* I learned the correct pronunciation of this word when my sixth grade classmate Jimmy Theodorou gave a presentation about his father in our language arts class called, “Constantine Theodorou: Gyro Hero.
How lovely is this?
Yee-roe!