Double down on corn

Saturday was a corntacular outing (yeah I know, corny joke).

First was the 1st East Los Angeles Tamale Festival (despite bizarre tamale family logo) this rocked! In what I am hoping will become an annual tradition, there were dozens of tamale vendors, a tamale eating contest, and an attempt at the worlds largest tamale by Tamale Man.

The festival was very well attended, and by a huge cross section of Los Angeles. Apparently tamales cross all race, culture, and socioeconomic lines.

As I ate my way down the midway, I got through: a beef, a pork, a southwest chicken (pictured here with corn, black beans and chili sauce), and finally a sweet (pineapple and raisin). Gut bomb! But really really good gut bomb.

Needing to "walk it off" we crossed the street a paid a visit to the not a corn field project. Perfect weather, cool, breezy, just great to be outside. While visually stunning, the best parts are the smell and sound, the rustling of the stalks is like standing in the surf. Wave after gentle wave move across the green sea. And while you can smell the corn, the smell is more than that throw in soil and fresh cut grass and.. Well you get the idea.

To my vast Iowa readership, you know what I mean, and probably think I'm a city boy tool. And well... you're right.

Finally, it was a quick walk around the corner to Chinatown shopping, where being too stuffed with tamales for diner, we settled on fried bananas for desert.