Yes, it’s that time of the year again…all of the various festivals are starting, it’s a fun and delicious time of the year. Thai, Cambodian, and Lao New Year fall on the same dates every year. I think we may have missed the Cambodian New Year Festival this year, I hope not, but I haven’t heard or read anything about it. "Sao" had mentioned that the 19th Annual Laotian New Year Festival is taking place, and when I asked him about it, he was kind enough to email me the information. The festival is taking place at Martin Luther King Recreation Center on Skyline Drive.
Because of last night’s storm, we initially had some doubts about attending, but today was such a nice day that we decided to check it out. We arrived at MLK Rec Center at about 1pm, and found this little festival in full swing.
I don’t know if it was the really wet weather we had, or if it was the norm, but there were only 2 food booths.
This first booth had a nice selection of grilled items.
Of course we had to have some papaya salad($3), and that grilled sausage($2) was calling to me.
This papaya salad was ordered at medium spicy, but was still quite hot. The gal making the salad was also very generous with the fish sauce, making the salad quite pungent. The sausage? Who doesn’t like grilled sausage?
This booth had a sizable line, mostly for drinks and such.
The Missus grabbed a papaya salad($3) from here as well.
This was ordered "medium" as well, but was also very spicy. This version was a bit sweeter.
If you’re interested, the Lao Festival runs through tomorrow.
19th Annual Laotian New Year Celebration
April 21-22
11:00 AM – 6:00 PM
Martin Luther King Recreation Center
6401 Skyline Drive
San Diego, CA 921114
Admission $2