This weekend we got a chance to check out the all new California’s Great America food festival, Taste of Orleans! Below we will breakdown the basic idea of the event, review the various food items and entertainment, and just give our general thoughts on the event, so please enjoy the following article on Taste of Orleans!
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Taste of Orleans is a new food festival put on by the park, and it appropriately takes place in Orleans Place.
The area is very draped in all sorts of purple, green and gold streamers, flags, and banners. It really does contribute to the theme and gives the area a lot more pizazz.
If you are keen to try the tasty Cajun treats, you must go to one of the stores in the area and purchase a tasting card for $25. On this tasting card you will find six delicious items that are located and various booths and restaurant locations in the area.
We’ll go more or less in order of the tasty card, with the exception of leaving the dessert for last. First off were the creole meatballs. You get three meatballs drenched in delicious Cajun barbecue sauce with a small bit of mustard mixed in. We thought these were tasted great and definitely had a lot of substance to them. Perhaps not exceptional, but the meatballs were a great start.
The Bourbon House Wings were a similar experience. They were good wings with a fun Cajun sauce and definitely came through on giving you enough food to justify the $25 dollar price. Two for two so far.
The Crawfish Etoufee was a definite highlight for us. Very well seasoned and flavorful in a unique yet distinctly seafoody manner while also providing just enough food you didn’t feel unsatisfied when you finished. I was so enchanted with this dish, I may have even looked up some recipes for it when I got home. Fun fact, throughout the park, there are crawfish living in many of the ponds and streams.
The Chicken-Andouille Gumbo and Red Beans & Rice were served at the same booth. The beans with rice were fine, the red beans were a neat little touch. The chicken gumbo on the other hand was excellent. The broth was very flavorful, the meat was high quality, and overall it was just deliciousness. Another highlight for us.
The Beignets are served at the funnel cake joint near the front of the plaza. These were a great way to finish off our tasty tasting excursion with delicious fresh made Beignets that were hot to the touch.
Also available for purchase at a Shrimp Po’boy and Muffleta which we were not included on the tasting card.
Aside from the food, the park also offered Beer and Wine tasting for an additional $25 dollars. We checked it out but unfortunately the cheap wine such as Boggle and Edna just didn’t quite justify the purchase, you could probably get a bottles rather than glasses for the same price at Trader Joe’s.
Regardless, there was a very nice area with tables and a stage in the back for guests to enjoy their drinks.
Throughout the entire area there actually quite a few tables making the eating experience very comfortable.
There was also a booth at which you could get your hand painted or buy various New Orleans themed items such as masks beads and bracelets for those in the shopping mood.
In Orleans Place two larges stages were set up that had various bands and artists performing some awesome atmospheric Cajun and Zydeco music throughout the day. All the musicians were quite talented and engaging, drawing crowds of those wanting to dance and providing ambiance for those passing by.
Lastly, there were about a half dozen chalk artists throughout the area creating all sorts of wonderful pieces ranging from gorgeous tigers to Snoopy playing sax. These guys and gals were seriously talented and the artwork was wonderful to watch being etched on to the midway.
Special shout out to Andy Wallace for creating an incredible piece of a grave covered in candles that really resonated with us. One of the many genuinely impressive pieces done in the area.
Overall, we really enjoyed ourselves at this event. Taste of Orleans was very well done with some delicious food, wonderful music, and amazing art. We really hope to see something like this as an annual occurrence. We had so much fun with the event, we didn’t even ride a single coaster. Taste of Orleans was a great event and we hope to see more food festivals in the future. But what do you think, have you experienced Taste of Orleans? Comment below and let us know!
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Wish I could have gone to this. Cajun food is so good! Thanks for sharing your experience.