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May 17th 2008: Immigrants Day Festival (Redwood City)


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Click on images below to enlarge:
Setting
The festival's stage was directly outside the beautiful San Mateo County History Museum, formerly a courthouse. This is a panorama of the building itself and much of the stage in front of it.
Another perspective of the museum.
The old, somewhat ornate courtroom, used this day for as a place for people to eat indoors. What a nice setting.
The stained glass in the courtroom's ceiling.
The festival's stage was directly outside the beautiful San Mateo County History Museum, formerly a courthouse. This is a panorama of the building itself and much of the stage in front of it.
Another perspective of the museum.
The old, somewhat ornate courtroom, used this day for as a place for people to eat indoors. What a nice setting.
The stained glass in the courtroom's ceiling.
Performances
A high-resolution picture of the Aztec dancers, "Casa de la Cultura Quetzalcoatl," who were performing when I arrived.
A video of "Casa de la Cultura Quetzalcoatl" in action. Please play it with sound.
Ditto. This part of the dance is much more energetic than the last part. Sorry the image goes funny for about eight seconds in the middle. (I'm going to buy a new camera.)
More of the same dancers. Once again, sorry about the image funkiness for part of the movie.
A high-resolution picture of the Aztec dancers, "Casa de la Cultura Quetzalcoatl," who were performing when I arrived.
A video of "Casa de la Cultura Quetzalcoatl" in action. Please play it with sound.
Ditto. This part of the dance is much more energetic than the last part.
Sorry the image goes funny for about eight seconds in the middle. (I'm going to buy a new camera.)
More of the same dancers.
Once again, sorry about the image funkiness for part of the movie.
"Trio Amore," a group performing Italian music, recorded mainly because I wanted a record of each performance I saw at the festival.
A low-resolution movie of "Trio Amore," recorded mainly to get the flavor of their music.
The sultry moves of "Ramana Vieira," a Portuguese singer.
No Picture Associated With These Comments
"Trio Amore," a group performing Italian music, recorded mainly because I wanted a record of each performance I saw at the festival.
A low-resolution movie of "Trio Amore," recorded mainly to get the flavor of their music.
The sultry moves of "Ramana Vieira," a Portuguese singer.
Although I watched the traditional Irish dances performed by the Murphy dance group, because they were all performed by kids who already looked nervous enough, I decided not to record a movie.
"Hiyas Philippine Folk Dance Company" performed traditional, rural Filipino dances.
"Hiyas Philippine Folk Dance Company" performed traditional, rural Filipino dances.
Food
The festival's food menu. I spent a few minutes reading it, trying to decide which items I'd get when I went upstairs. It turns out my contemplation was unnecessary--one five dollar tasting card allowed trying almost everything on the list! It was enough food for multiple meals.
My first batch of food.From the Italian table, I got (see left): focaccia - dry cured meats - basically standard sandwich meats a block of soft, tangy cheese sausage with polenta - very good. The sausage and polenta paired well, and also matched the nicely spiced tomato sauce and vegetables. a coconut cookie (the top cookie in the picture) - tasty and chewy a good sugary cookie (perhaps lemon-poppy) From the Portuguese table, I got (see right): linguica (Portuguese sausage) - tasty and spicy a moon-shaped battered thing with a gooey custardy inside a soft, fried cheese turnover
From the Chinese station: bbq pork bun - good quality, especially the bun, which was lighter than usual. If only the bun weren't greasy to the touch, I'd call the dish perfect. egg roll - nicely greasy on the inside fortune cookie
No Picture Associated With These Comments
The festival's food menu. I spent a few minutes reading it, trying to decide which items I'd get when I went upstairs. It turns out my contemplation was unnecessary--one five dollar tasting card allowed trying almost everything on the list! It was enough food for multiple meals.
My first batch of food.
From the Italian table, I got (see left):
  • focaccia - dry
  • cured meats - basically standard sandwich meats
  • a block of soft, tangy cheese
  • sausage with polenta - very good. The sausage and polenta paired well, and also matched the nicely spiced tomato sauce and vegetables.
  • a coconut cookie (the top cookie in the picture) - tasty and chewy
  • a good sugary cookie (perhaps lemon-poppy)
From the Portuguese table, I got (see right):
  • linguica (Portuguese sausage) - tasty and spicy
  • a moon-shaped battered thing with a gooey custardy inside
  • a soft, fried cheese turnover
From the Chinese station:
  • bbq pork bun - good quality, especially the bun, which was lighter than usual. If only the bun weren't greasy to the touch, I'd call the dish perfect.
  • egg roll - nicely greasy on the inside
  • fortune cookie
I remember taking a picture of the food I got from the Mexican table--I know I did because I wrote in my notes that the flauta was the lighter-colored cigar-shaped fried thing and the taquito was the darker one--, yet I don't seem to have the picture anymore. Hmmm...
  • flauta - served at room temperature. crunchy. The filling was unexciting.
  • taquito - has an appealing fried flavor, but sadly is also no longer hot.
  • sope (a small fried corn tortilla topped with stuff) - good, mainly due to the bbq pork.
  • Mexican rice - tasty. slightly sweet in a way I liked. Why can't I make good quality Mexican rice at home?
  • tomatillo salsa - good.
Incidentally, as near as I can tell, the most commonly recognized difference between a flauta and taquito is that a taquito is made from a corn tortilla and a flauta is made from a flour tortilla. Many regions make different distinctions.
From the Irish table (counter-clockwise from left): corned beef - happily warm, but only okay because it's a bit tough and dried-out roasted carrots - good boiled potatoes - standard soda bread - good. It's interesting and slightly fizzy, causing subtle bubbles in my sinuses. Also, a tad crumbly, it's more like cake than bread in that regard. a sugar cookie - needs to be paired with/dipped in tea or milk.
From the Japanese table, two futomaki rolls. (They also had cucumber rolls and California rolls, but I didn't want either of those.)
From the Philippine table, some cool and crisp lumpia (the filipino version of egg rolls).
No Picture Associated With These Comments
From the Irish table (counter-clockwise from left):
  • corned beef - happily warm, but only okay because it's a bit tough and dried-out
  • roasted carrots - good
  • boiled potatoes - standard
  • soda bread - good. It's interesting and slightly fizzy, causing subtle bubbles in my sinuses. Also, a tad crumbly, it's more like cake than bread in that regard.
  • a sugar cookie - needs to be paired with/dipped in tea or milk.
From the Japanese table, two futomaki rolls. (They also had cucumber rolls and California rolls, but I didn't want either of those.)
From the Philippine table, some cool and crisp lumpia (the filipino version of egg rolls).
As you've no doubt noticed, my five dollars got me a lot of food!
Fodder for Panorama of San Mateo County History Museum