Taste of Colorado

I’ve lived in Colorado my whole life, and I had yet to experience the Taste of Colorado. So I got to check it out this past weekend with my mom and two family friends, and it was pretty much worth the trip downtown.
They had some of the Denver streets blocked off for the festival, and there were rows and rows of different vendors selling food and drinks and all kinds of cool crafts and clothing. And people. By God there were so many people.



This picture was taken one rare moment when I wasn’t surrounded by people from every angle and could actually take full steps. But it was a beautiful day and the people-watching was prime.

And if you’ve ever been to downtown Denver, you know exactly the kind of prime people-watching I’m talking about. There’s people of every variety imaginable with every type of odd hairstyle or dress or talent being showcased.



This guy looked like a copper cowboy statue until people walked up and gave him money. That was the only time he would move or change position. When I walked by, it actually took me a couple seconds to realize that it was a real person, not a real statue.

My mission at the Taste of Colorado was to try some interesting food. I had high expectations for the types of cool things the booths might have. Unfortunately, I was informed that this was one of the worst years for the festival, having been downsized since last year and lacking as much variety. They had the basics; pizza, fries, etc., etc., but they did have some more ethnic-type foods, such as gyros and some Mexican dishes. I was determined to find something that I couldn’t necessarily find anywhere else; I didn’t come to the Taste of Colorado to end up eating CiCi’s pizza, who did have a booth set up there. I did walk past a booth with fried alligator on the menu, but I just wasn’t feeling that brave. I ended up eating some vegetable pakora from a booth set up by a restaurant called India’s, and I definitely want to eat at that restaurant at some point after trying it. I was admittedly a little disappointed by the food selection, but it was good nonetheless.

The highlight of my day was when we walked past the Colorado Lottery tent. We got sucked into spending $10 on scratch tickets so that we could spin a prize wheel and win more scratch tickets. Or at least, that’s how it started.



How it ended was us four sitting on the curb for a half hour, scratching more tickets and using the winnings to buy more scratch tickets and spinning the prize wheel again and again. We finally had to cut ourselves off and cut our losses. We did win some of the money back, but it ended up going towards more scratch tickets. We were addicted.

Overall, it was nice to just head downtown for the day and watch all the crazy people and performances. The vendors had some interesting crafts, one booth inspiring me to make my own tank top (blog post on that later) and one booth offering samples of sexually-named chocolate honey mixtures. Nothing like trying a little “Original Sin” while your mom samples “Chocolate Slut” right next to you.

I highly recommend checking out the festival if you haven’t already. I’ll definitely go back next year and see what kind of crazy stuff they have. Still have high expectations for the food though….it is called the Taste of Colorado for a reason.