Here's one of those famous USA Today factoid snapshots, on favorite food pairs, with spaghetti and meatballs winning (use the left and right arrows to find the right one). Unfortunately, coffee and donuts, the breakfast of the gods, did not make the list.
I know I said earlier I probably wouldn't make any Three Rivers Festival events, but I wasn't counting Junk Food Alley The Food Court, an annual bout of self-torture I can't seem to give up. I went down yesterday and had a ribeye sandwich and a root beer float (speaking of great pairs). At least I was True To My State and had the Indiana ribeye, preventing my precious Hoosier dollars from being sucked up by some festival fly-by-nighter headquartered in a trailer park somewhere in Arkansas.
The food court makes me homesick for Kentucky, since it features the same cuisine I grew up with: fried everything. (A couple of asides: 1. I've told my sister she has to give up her Appalachian-American ID card, since she cannot fry anything. I visited her in Indianapolis recently and had to fry potatoes for her, for pity's sake. 2. If men are supposed to have great analytic minds and women are allegedly science-challenged, why is it that women do baking and other sophisticated forms of cooking involving chemical reactions and complex formulas, and men, when they say, "I'll cook tonight," mean that they will throw something in a frying pan, perhaps remembering to turn it over once in a while and praying they will remember to take it out of the pan before it burns to a crisp?)
Also in that earlier post, I suggested it might be time to rethink the whole Three Rivers Festival. Here's one idea: Stop charging such high fees for a food booth that only the festival-circuit specialists can afford one, recouping their costs by selling their food at bankrupt-a-family-of-four prices. Make fees low enough that Fort Wayne restaurants can afford to set up shop at the festival, and in fact, encourage the local eateries to participate. Make Taste of Fort Wayne a centerpiece of the festival. Coneys. Powers hamburgers. Rib Room ribs and Acme Bar breaded tenderloins. Lambro's garlic toast. Casa's salad. We have so many great restaurants here. What a shame that one of the effects of the festival is to give them probably the worst week of business all year.
And, if we do that, let's not leave out this Fort Wayne classic, the preservation of which News-Sentinel food writer Carol Tannehill noted this week. My parents lived just a couple of blocks from the original South Anthony site, and I spent many happy sessions there. It was one of the last places in Fort Wayne with car hops who brought the food right to your car.
Hey, there's an idea, a drive-thru Three Rivers Festival. They have everything lined up in a row on Main Street, and we just cruise by and buy stuff, never having to leave our cars. Except, of course, to run into the coneys place for four to go.
With chips.
