Suddenly! Out of the bleakness of a regular, moody, uneventful day, I learned that there was an Italian Food Festival happening not there! Not there! But right there! Right there down the street! So close in all its imagined pasta-filled, pasta-sauced slathered goodness.

Did I mention I love food festivals?

One thing that I’ve been discovering more of lately is Los Angeles’ ethnic oasises-es. I began out in the Pacific Rim by attending New Year festivities in Little Tokyo awhile back. (The food? Delectable yakisoba and munchable, lovable onigiri.)

There was the two small venue rock concerts that were dominated by Armenians. (Yes. They do live among us.)

I fell into adventures with Eastern Europeans at an Eastern European film festival held by the Goethe Instistute of Los Angeles. (African wine with bite-sized petit four-type cookies.)

And now, there were Italians.

The sad news I have to report is that the Italian Food Festival was not so Italian or gourmet as I might have wished. In a pocket-sized corner of a megasized mall, the festival had fenced itself off from outside contact unless foreigners wished to pay its visa fee of $10. Only then could they cross the border.

Once inside, the booths, a mere handful, charged $5 or more for what would generally be considered $5 or less for food. I tried to jump into some kind of Mediterranean spirit. I wandered among the booths, singing a song of little fortune and great curiousity so that vendors, quite amused vendors, peddled out a few free samplings.

I also bought a meatball sandwich, which was my first. The audience thinks: Girl has eaten raw horse but never a meatball sandwich?! The horreur!

I apologize; the audience thinks: The orrore!

But there is a bright, silver lining to this non-red-white-and-green tinted event. Among the booths, I found myself talking with a kettlecorn entrepreneur. Life in the cubicle did not suit him so he had been on the lookout for a calling that was not only more interesting but doable. He found kettlecorn.

I had to explain to him that though I loved the stuff (especially that which he put into my hand), I did not exactly know what made kettlecorn kettlecorn.

Readers! I give you the answer!

1) As its name suggests, kettlecorn is popped in a kettle. It looks something like this: <img src=”http://www.kettlepopper.com/img/Kettle_Corn.jpg”>

2) It’s made with a special variety of corn known as “magic mushroom corn.” (I kid you not!) That’s why it’s so much fluffier than other kinds of popcorn.

3) The entrepreneur couldn’t explain why kettlecorn tasted better, but he attributes it to the kettle and the magic mushroom. He also sifts through all the popped kernels to rid customers of the unpopped ones so that they only pop the popped popcorn into their mouths. :-)

And yes, I enjoyed learning all this a lot.

(Poetic, artistic, blissful thing! There were children dancing like they weren’t being watched on the dance floor. They spun, tangoed, did arabesques, ring-around-the-rosies and more while laughing a lot. Don’t you sometimes think it would be more satisfying to dance like a child than eat on the sidelines like an adult)

(Sad, lamentable news! The egg is gone from the dead lavendar pot! My metaphor is ruined! Fortunately, I have the resources to rebuild it, so here goes: With the egg vanished, change must come. I shall uproot the plant and plant something new, much like this blog will come to replace what was planted here in the past.

Ok, a bit clunky, but I’m off! Happy Friday!)

–SD