On October 6th, my favorite local street food festival, Taste of Bethesda, returns with a long list of participating restaurants. For those of you unfamiliar with Taste of Bethesda, it's a very large street food festival where the town of Bethesda blocks off about 5 square blocks of the downtown area and the local restaurants put up booths and serve you food. It's not free food of course. You buy tickets, and then you trade those tickets for tastes of food. Each taste will range from 1 to 4 tickets. I've found in the past, that 20 tickets is a good way to start for Amy and I, then we take a rest and get about 20 more! Here's my recommendation for what you should check out.

Passage to India
They usually take the true nature of street food to heart, offering some Pav Baji for the crowds. I hope they do so again this year.

Divino Lounge
Their sausages are to die for. Tapas are perfect for this type of event.

Olazzo
They usually have their homemade meatballs and chicken cardinale, a penne dish with a beautiful vodka sauce, sun dried tomatoes, and chicken over penne .

Ri-Ra Irish Pub
Ri-Ra always has fantastic street food. I remember past years they've had beef and Guinness stew or shepherd's pie.

Plus there are many other restaurants participating. Here is the full list of restaurants participating in Taste of Bethesdah. For more info, go to the official Taste of Bethesda site.

Austin Grill
Bangkok Garden Restaurant
Ben & Jerry’s
BlackFinn
Brasserie Monte Carlo
Bundles of Cookies
Caddies on Cordell
California Tortilla
Chesapeake Chicken & Rockin' Ribs
Chicken Out Rotisserie
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Delhi Dhaba
Divino Lounge & Restaurant
Flanagan’s Harp & Fiddle
Gifford’s Ice Cream & Candy Co.
Guapo’s Restaurant
Haagen-Dazs
Haandi Fine Indian Cuisine
Hard Times Café
Honest Tea
Houston's Restaurant
Jaleo
Just Cakes
Mamma Lucia of Bethesdsa
McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurant
Mia's Pizzas
Morton’s
Nark Kara Thai Restaurant
Olazzo
Papa John's Pizza
Passage to India
Penang Malaysian Cuisine
Persimmon
Quartermaine Coffee Roasters
Ri-Ra Irish Pub
Rock Bottom Restaurant & Brewery
Ruth’s Chris Steak House
Saphire Café
Smoothie King
Spring Mill Bread Co.
Tara Thai Restaurant
Tommy Joe’s
Trader Joe's
Union Jack’s

It's that time of the year again. A time when I go on a diet to prepare for the my favorite street food festival in the DC area. A time when hundreds flock to the streets of Bethesda to sample treats from the local restaurants like crispy samosas, soft papusas, and your typical peanut sauce encrusted chicken satays. A time when campaign volunteers accost you on the street asking you to take one of their campaign stickers. A time when extremely tall, scary clowns roam the crowds searching for little children to feed on (joking).

It's time for Taste of Bethesda. Oct 7 from 11 AM to 4 PM, downtown Bethesda's streets will be blocked off, music will be played in the streets, and food will be eaten. Full details will be posted here.

For the most recent information on Taste of Bethesda 2006, go to my Taste of Bethesda page.

It's baaaaaack. Taste of Bethesda, the best "taste of" festival of the year, will be Oct. 1 from 11 AM to 4 PM. I look forward to this festival every year.  Taste of Bethesda is the best chance to try a ton of different Bethesda restaurants in one day. Tickets are $5 for 4 and can be bought at the festival. Here is the link to the full event info.