Arts and Wine Festival, June 3-4

The annual Foster City Arts and Wine Festival has grown from a few wine-tasting and art booths to a carnival of rides, music acts, and exhibits. The youth talent show drew a crowd of onlookers and, this time, the winner wasn’t some pretty girl who could carry a tune but a young (male) dancer who’s truly gifted with kinesthetic intelligence.

Kids (and a few parents) crawled over the fire trucks and military vehicles while representatives from those esteemed institutions patiently explained the function of every lever, button, and doodad. We walked past the tents of real-estate brokers, financial-services advisors, and other local businesses and headed for the food.

The youngster eyed a shrimp sandwich from a San Mateo caterer. I paid the $6 but said that the $4 garlic fries would have to come from his wallet. He declined. The local firefighters were hawking “firehouse chili” at the next booth. The young fireman ladled the contents of a large steel pot into a generous paper bowl. He guaranteed his wares; I could have my money back if I didn’t like it. The chili was rich with ground sirloin, flavorful with no beans. A keeper.

Our final destination was the church ice cream booth, where the kids helped dispense ice cream sandwiches and fruit bars to overheated passers-by. (We would have needed a special license to serve unpackaged ice cream, i.e., cones using a scoop, so we decided to avoid that hassle this year.)

The inventory was nearly sold out when I returned, though I suspect there had been some “shrinkage” during the intervening hours. Well, the ice cream had started to melt, we would have had to throw out the residual inventory anyway, and it was nice of the teens to give up their Sunday afternoon.

The Foster City Arts and Wine Festival, where art nor wine no longer predominate but the plebeian sensibilities of middle America (okay, no firearms, but this is a blue state). © 2006 Stephen Yuen
"And, ah, there’s just like the faintest soupcon of, like, uh, asparagus and there’s a—just a flutter of, like, a—nutty Edam cheese." Paul Giamatti perfectly captures the attitude of the wine snob in the 2004 movie Sideways.