Posted in: Exploring Ohio, Food

Taste of Cincinnati

This past weekend was Taste of Cincinnati. What was once a small one day event that started in 1979, has now turned into a large weekend-long celebration.

There are food booths, food trucks, and live music of all different types scattered around the area. The food costs between $4-$8 per item. There were different beer and alcohol booths, along with soda and water booths.

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We were lucky and found parking pretty close for only $5. (Each lot seemed to have their own pricing.) We stopped at a couple different food booths. My first stop was Pompillios, where I tried a chocolate and peanut butter cannoli. I love a good cannoli, and this one did not disappoint. The shell was crispy, the peanut butter filling was delicious. The only real chocolate taste came from a syrup drizzle, which was okay. I’m not sure it added a lot other than stickiness. I would totally eat one of those again.

I wanted to try a mac and cheese topped with goetta, but the line was so long, that I skipped it.

Next, I tried a beef on weck. I had tried this on our trip while in New York. It had been delicious, and I potentially had too high of expectations. The food truck at the Taste had an okay beef on weck. The bun was plain, nothing like the delicious salt and caraway seed topped bun at Adrian’s in New York. (Click here for Adrian’s post.) They seem to sell a lot more wings than sandwiches, so maybe I chose the wrong thing. (Although I am not really a wing girl.)

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My final food of the night was an arapa from Empanadas Aqui. It was delicious and so was the cilantro aoili that came with it. I would have eaten more!

This year had beautiful weather and we were able to see a friend’s band play during the event. They sounded amazing!

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The Taste of Cincinnati is a great way to find new places to eat near the city. We saw lots of new (at least to us) restaurants and food trucks. It is busy, so I would suggest going when they first open or towards the end of the night when it might be less crowded. We seemed to have gone during a peek time, but it was when the band we went to see was playing.

TIP: If you find a map, grab one! They were out most places we went.

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